I spent most of January 2015 in Nazare, Portugal to photograph the large XXL wave phenomena which is apparent in the winter months.
The results (even when the sea was calm) were pretty good and it is a location I hope to return to in the future.
I’ve posted some of the images here, though there are many other select images from these shoots which are outstanding, especially of the XXL waves that came in mid to late January (though without surfers, they are nevertheless very dramatic images). Please contact me if you would like to use any in your projects (all the images are Rights Managed).
Large waves at Nazare Lighthouse Portugal – Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchiveXL wave at Nazare Lighthouse Portugal 2015 – Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — An XL wave crashes in to the shore on the Praia do Norte in Nazare, Portugal. Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — 04 Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchivePORTUGAL Nazare — Jan 2015 — Since professional surfers began breaking records in 2011, the Farol da Nazare (Nazare lighthouse) situated on the Forte de Sao Miguel Arcanjo (St Michael Archangel Fort) near Sitio has become a tourist attraction in it’s own right — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo Archive
SCOTLAND Pittenweem — 13 Feb 2014 — A fishing trawler returns to the harbour at Pittenweem in Fife Scotland UK shortly after a deal was announced for mackerel quotas with the Norwegians, EU and Faroese fishermen. A deal with the Icelandic fishermen has yet to be reached — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo Archive
Having recently relocated back to Scotland, I am now based in Perth (pretty much in the centre of Scotland) and will naturally be beefing up my archive on Scotland – which was already considerable from travels in 2010-2011, though was mostly lost when my laptop and external hard drive were stolen in Seville in 2012.
SCOTLAND Cairngorms National Park — Trekkers climb up the trail to the peak of Cairn Gorm in Cairngorms National Park in Forest of Glenmore Scotland UK — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo Archive
With the new database for Atlas Photo Archive now established, I have been busy uploading a lot of new and old images to make them available to picture researchers, editors and graphic designers.
SCOTLAND Trossachs National Park — Beinn Ime with pine forests in the foreground on the shores of Loch Lomond in Strathclyde Scotland — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo Archive
As I am now also editing the travel magazine/guidebook ScotlandTravelGuide.info (STG for short), I will be shooting a broad range of stock images ranging from adventure sports to well-known landmarks and landscapes.
NEPAL Everest Region — Mount Nup La swathed in clouds in the Everest region of Nepal — Picture by Jonathan Mitchell/Atlas Photo ArchiveTo some extent you can say it is a great honour for a photojournalist to work up in the high Himalayas of Nepal. In my case it was greater, as I got to spend over a year up there. During the various treks, I took a lot of great photographs, so many in fact, I am still editing them years later and recently have been loading them onto my new high res stock image archive database, where they rarely sell at the moment (buried perhaps!). Hence, I have decided to feature some of them here on the blog for people to enjoy and hopefully a few clients to see.
I recently got news from Alamy that my collection is being deleted. For no logical reason I can discern…Hence the images will no longer be available to license on that system in January 2014. You can now license increasing numbers of the digital collection on the new searchable stock image archive database.
This image was shot in the autumn as I trekked out of Namche Bazaar and shows the wonderful landscape surrounding Nup La, the first large peak as you ascend up the Mount Everest Tenzing-Hillary trail (or Everest Base Camp Trail as many term it).
Sagarmatha National Park has some of the most amazing landscapes I have ever seen and once above the treeline at 4,000 metres it does feel a bit like being on another planet. Photographing at this altitude is not easy and when I took this image I was carrying a 28kg rucksack.
I have many other great landscapes from the Everest region and if you are looking for any for your creative projects, then please contact me via email on lightroomphotos [at] icloud.com or jonstmchl [at] gmail.com
I can also now offer mono images as platinum limited edition art prints. Please email for prices.
Jonathan William Mitchell Writer / Photojournalist Blog 