The Little Engine That Could. Lisbon, Portugal. May 2018.
Elevador da Bica, otherwise known as Ascensor da Bica, is one of my favorite locations in Lisbon. The Iberian coast is hillier than people expect and Lisbon exemplifies this; it's a vertically layered city.
This particular train runs up a short steep street in Barrio Alto and the tricky part to capturing the trolley car, is that it only runs once every 15 minutes. You can easily spend an hour waiting for the right frame while avoiding unwanted photobombs. It is a short track train and the ride only lasts a few minutes so timing is everything. Bica is a popular destination for visitors (especially Wes Anderson fans) and I went about three or four times during my last visit to try and get as many variations as possible, rain and shine.
For this shot, I went on a Sunday morning for the first run of the train up/down the incline. I stood in this vantage point for awhile so folks passing by knew I was waiting for this shot. Unfortunately, as a sola traveler, you cannot control who walks down into the frame at the precise moment you want to snap. That happened many times before, but thankfully not this time. Right after I took this shot, a group of fellow photogs chasing the train down the incline, came barreling around the corner. I can't hate, we all want the perfect shot of this engine that could. It's damn cute.
