About me

Fernando Jorge Simoes Fidalgo

That’s me in October 2010

INTRODUCTION

My name is Fernando Fidalgo and I was born in the City of Tomar in Portugal in 1954. When I was two, my parents took me to Angola (Africa) where I lived for almost 20 years, with an interim of about two years (1962/1963) in Tomar where I attended year 3 and 4 (3ª e 4ª classes) at an old primary school right in front of Varzea Grande.

Afterwards I went back to Angola but one day in 1975, with 21 years old, I returned to Portugal and settled down in my home town. I lived in Tomar until 1989 with a stint in South Africa for almost three years. Then, for personal and professional reasons, in 1989 I decided to emigrate to Australia where I have been living since then.

In the meantime I have traveled to Portugal several times in the last 23 years and I have always stayed in Tomar in my parent’s house. Though I don’t live there this city has always been very special to me.

When I arrived in Australia more than 20 years ago I lived in Melbourne in Victoria for six months, but then moved to Perth in Western Australia and never left. In 1991, my wife and I naturalized Australian which means that we now have dual nationality (Australian and Portuguese). Five years later (1996) my son was born in Perth, Australia and this time it was him who naturalized Portuguese and now also holds dual citizenship.

FORMAL EDUCATION

In Perth, Australia, I completed tertiary courses in Art and Design, majoring in painting (1994) at the Claremont School of Art and a Certificate of Information Technology at TAFE (1996). At the end of 2005, I completed a course at TAFE on “How to build a computer from scratch”. I have recently (2012) completed a photography course at the Photography Institute in Australia.

BACKGROUND

My artistic background is painting (oils and acrylics) but I am currently more involved with Photography and Digital Art. I also build web sites and teach computers. In regard to photography I was mainly self-taught but now I have also completed official studies in photography.

PHOTOGRAPHY

I started taking digital photos years ago, but only recently I became more involved in this exciting hobby. My type of work is mainly outdoors photography and involves a bit of image enhancement, usually to improve the details and colour of the best shots. For that I use a Nikon D60, Paint Shop Pro, graphic plugins and filters.

EXHIBITIONS

I have held a few exhibitions (oils, acrylics and drawings) in countries like Angola when I was very young and before 1975, Portugal in 1989 and Australia in 1994. In the next couple of years I hope to hold my first photography exhibition in Tomar, Portugal.

WHY THIS SITE

This is a long time dream. I have been planning to create a site about the City of Tomar for years, but for one reason or another I wasn’t able to do it until I visited my home town in 2010. I have to say that the time I spent in Tomar in September and October 2010, was very fulfilling and was one of the best times of my life. I shot thousands of photos of the city I was born and love, and the natural thing to do with the photos was to build a site about Tomar.

CONTACT ME

If you want to get in touch with me, either leave a reply on the space below these photos or click HERE

 

I was born in this house at Rua Marquês de Pombal, Tomar

I was born in this house with the white balcony, located at Rua Marquês de Pombal in Tomar, Portugal

 

 

Old Bridge in Tomar

This is an old bridge in the City of Tomar in Portugal. Tomar is an historical city and where I was born. The Castle and the Convent of Tomar are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage.

 

13 Responses to “About me”

  1. S. Aniceto says:

    Hello Fernando, i was born in Portugal in a little village between Torres Vedras and Alenquer very near the ‘Serra de MonteJunto’. I immigrated to Canada when i was five and where i for the first time i met my father who went there when i was 6 months old. I am now 50 years old and still hold the country of Portugal very dear in my heart. I have two grown children and i am divorced. I live alone with my two dogs in the City of Niagara Falls. I have returned to Portugal many times and have seen your beautiful city of Tomar. Everywhere you go, there is a feeling of history and i would also describe it as a coziness of sorts to be enveloped by the streets and buildings that give you a connection to our past. I am a Tool and Die maker by trade(machinist, metal worker, manufacturing, ferramenteiro). I no longer work in that field due to economic circumstances, but have other skills such as working as a professional cook, home renovations, truck driver, sailor(sailboats), motorcyclist. I felt a close connection to these photos you posted and appreciate you sharing them.

    Cheers,
    All the best, Santos

  2. Caro Sr. Fernando,
    descobri o seu endereço virtual através do Jornal de Tomar…
    e vim cá conhecê-lo e gostei de ver as lindas imagens dessa linda cidade…

    muito obrigada

    Maria Filomena

  3. Casimiro Serra says:

    Hello Fidalgo…
    Encontrei hoje esta tua página sobre Tomar.
    Muito bom. Extraordinário. Continua. Vou ser visita regular.
    Um abraço.
    Casimiro

  4. Olá Maria Filomena,

    Muito obrigado por ter gostado das imagens do meu site. Agradeço-lhe também o seu comentário à entrevista no Jornal Cidade de Tomar, a qual ainda não tive oportunidade de ler, por me encontrar longe da cidade. Visite-nos sempre que quiser. Estou ao seu dispor.

    Fernando Fidalgo

  5. Olá Casimiro,

    Agradeço-te a visita ao meu site e estou contente por teres gostado. Escreve sempre que quiseres. Um abraço

    Fernando Fidalgo

  6. Brian says:

    Hello Fernando,
    I am not surprised you have felt the need to return to your native town from time to time. It is a town full of agreeable atmosphere the river, the little island Mouchão, all the historic buildings. I had been longing to return to it ever since a brief glimpse in 2002.
    This year a conference held mainly in the Polytechnic on the past heritage of Tomar gave me a chance to return together with friends from the US. Only a couple of unforgettable days.
    Your photos are superb and give anyone who has not had the opportunity to visit Tomar an idea of what they might be missing.
    Thanks for all the background information, it has helped me annotate some of my own images taken there this year, November 2012.

    Um abraço
    Brian

    • Hello Brian,

      Thanks for your message. It’s true that I feel the need to return to Tomar form time to time, even though I don’t do it as often as I would like to, due to the distance between Australia and Portugal. It takes about 24 hours to get to Tomar from Perth. I visited your Flickr account and enjoyed your photos, especially the ones from Tomar. I can see that you are from London but live in Portugal .

      Um abraço

      Fernando

  7. Pedro Silva says:

    Boa noite, desde Tomar.

    Enquanto tomarense é uma honra e uma alegria verificar como um concidadão mantém viva essa ligação com a nossa bela cidade. Muitos parabéns!

    Um abraço,
    Pedro Silva

  8. Prezado Amigo Pedro Silva,

    Muito obrigado pelas suas amáveis palavras. O afastamento por vezes contribui para uma maior aproximação. Quando eu vivia em Tomar, não me apercebia tanto das belezas da cidade, devido à constante familiaridade com o que me rodeava, mas agora que estou afastado de Tomar há mais de 23 anos, aprecio a nossa cidade como nunca. Muito obrigado pelo seu email e escreva sempre que quiser. Estou ao seu dispor.

    Um abraço

    Fernando Fidalgo
    http://city-of-tomar.com/

  9. miranda vree says:

    Dear Fernando,

    Such beautiful pictures of Tomar! I adore this town as well and go there as often as I can.
    I shared your website on my facebookpage, just to show everyone how worthwhile Tomar is.
    Thanks for making the Tomar atmosfere available online 😉

    Many kind regards
    Miranda Vree

  10. miranda vree says:

    Dear Fernando,

    Such beautiful pictures of Tomar!
    I shared your website on my facebookpage, just to show everyone how worthwhile Tomar is.
    Thanks for making the Tomar atmosphere available online 😉

    Many kind regards
    Miranda Vree

  11. Manuel Traquina says:

    Tomarense por adopcao, mas indefectivel, nao podia senao gostar do seu site, ainda mais porque sendo pintor naturalista amador, tenho pintado Tomar exaustivamente.
    Voltarei a visita-lo com prazer.

  12. Richard G. says:

    Senhor Fernando:
    Muito obrigado pelo seu site de Tomar! É claro que você investiu muito trabalho e cuidado em sua produção. Então você deve saber que o seu valor vai muito além do significado importante que tem para você pessoalmente.
    Minha filha mais velha começou recentemente um serviço missionário em Portugal, e sua primeira morada está em Tomar. Foi uma grande bênção que eu encontrei o seu site e, assim, fiquei familiarizado com o ambiente dela, de maneira bem mais profunda do que é comunicado por Wikipedia e Google Maps. Minha filha gosta de arte, história, e culturas. Então não e surpresa que ela gosta muito de Tomar. E as pessoas são tão gentil. Ela esta aprendendo a lingua, e sente-se muito bem recebido.
    Um dia, esperamos viajar para Portugal com toda a nossa família. Sem dúvida, vamos incluir Tomar em nosso itinerário.
    Um abraço,
    Richard G.
    Texas, Estados Unidos
    (Please forgive my flawed Portuguese. It is a second language for me, having lived two years in Brazil many years ago. While my language would have been much more precise in English, I wanted to write you in Portuguese. I try to use my rusty Portuguese every chance I get – as I do not want to completely lose my abilities in this language that I came to love.)

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