Flying Into the Sunset

A crescent moon rises during sunset at the Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho Monument at Lisbon, Portugal.

On a recent holiday to Spain and Portugal last year, my tour group arrived at the Belém Tower park at sunset after a city tour. I caught sight of the Sacadura Cabral and Gago Coutinho Monument and a crescent moon which has just risen.

I decided to capture the plane of the monument seemingly flying into the nice sunset, with the moon just above. You can also just about see the silhouette of the Belém Tower on the right, just behind the trees. The shadows were lifted slightly to bring up some details to the monument. I did have to resist the urge to digitally remove that photographer with a tripod on the right of the photo though.

The monument was built in memory of Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral, both aviators, who were the first to fly across the Atlantic Ocean by air. The flight left Lisbon on 24 Mar 1922 and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 6 June 1922.

You can read more about the flight and the near disaster that both of them faced here.

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