It takes sunlight 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel from the Sun to Earth at the speed of light.

All the way through the vacuum of space. And the Sun is only our nearest star.

Others whose tiny white dot we see at night are so distant that their light had to travel years to reach us and become visible at night.

Amazingly, people say some of those are actually dead. Their light took so many years to reach us that, by the time it did, the star had died in the meantime. As the meme goes, when you look at stars you are looking at the past.

In the past months I developed an interest in hiking. I go early in the morning when the Sun is climbing up the horizon. It feels so peaceful.

Up in the mountains I find myself shooting against the Sun compulsively, with very small apertures and limited exposure. I like the sunstar effect, I like the light rays across the frame, I like the overall appearance and emptiness.

Last week I took a 2 hour drive to Serra da Estrela. Up there in the summit at 2000 meters altitude, I found myself doing exactly the same, now with snow and frozen lakes surrounding me. The Sun and myself, still looking for each other.

It’s been almost 20 years since I last spent winter time in Portugal. I was not used to the combination of low temperature, a clear blue sky and strong sunshine.

The Sun at this time of the year sits so low in the sky that you can feel its presence every time of the day, everywhere.

It’s truly inspirational.

My Christmas break coming to an end now, I started checking the weather in Macau and I’m concerned I won’t get the same over there.

When I left 2 weeks ago everything was fine. Every morning I could wake up early and go for a hike. However, over the past week weather changed dramatically. A grey cloudy sky and rain became abundant. Not the most welcoming scenario.

This period of the year is certainly disconcerting. One can expect months without a glimpse of the sky or sunshine. It is longer than it should be, and certainly feels longer than it really is.

There is no eternal sunshine… So perhaps it’s time to shoot in black & white and see everything accordingly.

For a melancholic visual.