For the Portuguese writer Raul Brandão (1867-1930), born in Oporto, near the mouth of river Douro, a descendant of fishermen, the sea was a passion and an inspiration.

A few weeks ago, when seeing a glorious winter sunset on the Boa Nova Beach in the Great Oporto Area, I recalled Raul Brandão's brief description of a sunset in his work "Os Pescadores" (The Fisherman): "This afternoon the sun sets on a bar and appears deformed, between large patches of coppery clouds. It disappears and finally resurfaces like a great balloon of fire in a raging ocean, until it enters into a great thick cloud with interstices of fire and explodes, illuminating the space and the water with lead colours."

The sky's yellow and blue tones, and the algae (Porphyra) covering the rocks in the foreground's purple colour matched perfectly. The sea was not rough like in the sunset described by Raul Brandão, but the waves were high enough to impress everyone on the beach.

The moment was captured with my old Hasselblad H4D using the lens's smallest diaphragm aperture to get maximum depth of field and a relatively slow shutter speed (1/13) to capture some of the ocean's movement. Post-processing was minimal.