The Allure of Venice

While I still have not discarded the regret of not capturing my pre-trip imagined images that I would have taken (and, did not), I’ve come to the realization that that goal was quite difficult to achieve. Let me explain. The Italy trip that I had taken proceeded from northern Italy (Lake Como) to southern Italy (Sorrento) with intermediate stops in Verona, Venice, Ferrara, Florence, Siena, Montepulciano, Assisi, and Rome. All of this occurred within 14 days. On hindsight, this is a lot of geography packed into a short time period. Couple this with the fact that this was not a dedicated photo shoot(s), but a tour of over 30+ people with other interests other than photography.

What the above tells me is that this recent trip was essentially a scouting vacation which exposed and allowed me to be able to zero in on future trip(s) to more adequately capture the spirit of Italian Wonder.

One of those future trip(s) definitely would be Venice, with Florence, Assisi, and Rome not far behind. Also, let’s not forget Positano, as well as, Puglia. All of this is a great segway to the fact that Italy runs deep and true in its beauty and soul.

Venice, though, is the most visibly obvious example of Italian uniqueness and beauty. There is a draw and enchanting allure that defies expression. For myself, I want to explore and discover that vacuous spirit which seems to linger and then vanishes. I want to capture its uniqueness and passing presence.

The currently posted shot of Venice was taken with a Canon 5DS, using a EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens @ 47mm, f/8.0 1/5″, -0.67 exposure compensation, 100 ISO, post processed with Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop CC using a Gradient Map, DxO Nik Color Efex Pro 2018.

Patriots: The Enduring Legacy

It’s been an unusual occurrence, or should I say, it’s been an unusual series of occurrences to witness the continuing success of the New England Patriots over the last two decades. Not only have they succeeded in winning their Division, but also the American Football Championship multiple times (which amounts to being in the Super Bowl every other year for the last 18 years), as well as winning the Super Bowl five times.

They are at it again this year, despite all odds with reports of aging players, discord within the team, and rising levels of skilled players on other teams.

I’ve always found following the Patriots to be a self-rewarding adventure simply because, I believe, they are reality-based and sincere, meaning they do not engage in the hype of today’s media advertising, but are concerned with the basics of football, i.e., understanding and preparing for the other teams strengths and weakness, and then having players who will work to establish teamwork.

All of the above is simply a prelude to this: I often attend the Patriots Summer Training Camp. It’s a wonderful opportunity to engage the players because they are so close to the fans on the practice field and because one gets to experience the raw force of talent and skill (i.e., anyone can succeed at this time, an un-drafted rookie or a third round draft player, or whatever).

This last year has been a most trying year for Patriots fans, since at many points during the season, it had appeared the team was in decline and not with the potential force of other years. However, they have managed to reach the Super Bowl once again. Quite Unbelievably!

The posted photo is from Training Camp in the Summer of 2018, with Bill Belichick, Ernie Adams (Director of Football Research), Dante Scarnecchia (Offensive Line Coach),  Tom Brady, and Josh McDaniels (Offensive Coordinator). The shot was taken with a Canon 5Ds, EF70-200mm f/4L IS USM @ 160mm, f/10, 1/250″, ISO 320, post processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop CC, using a Gradient Map, and Nik Color Efex Pro/

Restoring Equilibrium

The spirit of creativity had left me lingering after my immersion into the Italy culture and countryside. This, by the way, was not due to Italy itself, but to the lack of trying to capture my experiences visually. I felt that I had not accomplished what I wanted. I have been trying to overcome the aftermath of this failure to feel fulfillment in the Italian adventure in my prints, and I believe I may be on my way to shaking this ghost.

Many time during the Italy vacation I used my iPhone SE simply because it was near at hand and less cumbersome than my SLR camera. I must say that compositionally and spirit-wise the iPhone SE captured the moment better than the SLR.

The currently post photo of a night street scene in Rome is an example of capturing the Italian moment, as it were. The shot was taken with an Apple iPhone SE, post processed with DxO Optics Pro 11, Adobe camera Raw, Photoshop CC, a Gradient Map and a PS filter Diffusion Glow.

Pieces & Piecing It Together

It’s been over three months from my epic tour of Italy where I took over 2700 photos. That tour or at least the photographic part of it has been haunting me through that whole time frame. Despite my pre-trip preparations and setting up shooting strategies, I must say that they proved not to be that effective. Was it the strategy, my implementation of that strategy, or other forces that made the shooting aspect less than optimal in its results is hard to say.

I’ve gained some perspective over the three months of processing and thinking about the photos I had taken, and while initially I was quite despondent regarding my results, I have come to see that, in reality, I probably could not have done any better considering the circumstances of trying to shoot “professionally” in a less than optimal environment.

What I am trying to say is that I have had the task over the last few months of shifting through the hundreds of photos I’d taken, and evaluating them more microscopically, as it were. What I discovered is that many times my approach and composition of shots were great, but the ever constant out of focus or blur was present. I anticipated the possibility of these types of circumstances (where I might be rushed in places with new and different lighting situations) and try to compensate for this. My so-called anticipated solution to solve this potential problem was to shoot in manual mode, setting a high shutter speed with an aperture that I could quickly adjust for low light vs high light, and then simply put the ISO on automatic. For some reason(s) this often failed me. I probably would have more keepers if I had used the strategy of using Automatic Mode.

The above being said, I managed to have some success, but not with out working in post-processing to get it. Thus, the above title to this post, Pieces & Piecing It Together. The bright side to this current phase of less than optimal in-camera shots was that I was forced to beef up on my post processing skills. Personally, I much rather get it right in the camera, first.

The current photo to this post is that of wallpaper at the Villa Carlotta on Lake Como, Italy. The Villa was a most wonderful place with artisan craftsmanship throughout. The wallpaper had embroidery type details to cover the seams. There were several types of these embroideries in various room. For this photo I compiled three of them to maximize the effect they produced from viewing them in situ. The photos was taken with a Canon 5DS, EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 65mm, f/5.6, 1/100″, -0.33 Exposure Compensation, ISO 6400, post processed with DxO PhotoLab, Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop CC, and Color Efex Pro.

Reloading & Revitalizing

Since my last post several months ago a lot of water has figuratively flowed beneath my bridge, with a fifteen day tour of Italy (Lake Como down to Sorrento), Thanksgiving and Christmas with all their attendant activities.

Photographically, I was quite busy processing the 2700 or so photos that I took in Italy. I thought I was prepared for the rigors of a group tour, since I preplanned and scouted (via internet) areas I would be visiting. The strategy was to take many more photos than I normally take, since this strategy would somewhat circumvent the fact that I would not be shooting under ideal conditions (e.g. little time to shoot, ill placed locations not under my control, etc.). What I was not prepared for were the massive crowds in all of the places I visited, even though this was during the off-season (viz., shoulder season). Also, a significant amount of time was taken up in traveling by bus, which cut down on shooting opportunities. One could also say that the crowds themselves were tiring, trying to navigate or avoid them.

I had high hope that I would have more photo opportunities than I did on the Italy sojourn, and I was disappointed the sparse amount of keepers. For some reason many shots were blurry or the settings were wrong, something I still am trying to figure out.

So, it has been a time of soul searching, trying to reload and regain the spirit of successful shooting.

The currently posted shot is obviously of Venice in mid afternoon. While crowded with boats, it was far easier to find scenes without mobs of people. It was shot with a Canon 5DS, with a EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM @ 105mm, f/4.0, 1/2000″, -0.67 exposure compensation, and 200 ISO, post processed using DXO PhotoLab, Adobe Camera Raw, with Photoshop CC, a gradient map, and Color Efex Pro.