At the Doorstep

As I mentioned last week, when we were in the Cinque Terre I was just drawn to doors with peeling paint. Here is another one from Riomaggiore, I love the green paint, against the grey of the door and the chips of it on the red brick of the doorstep. It must be the light, the texture, or as one person commented on that post, "I would like to chunk them off and mash them in my palm with my thumb." I realized that I feel the same, there is an interactive nature to these photos, a desire in me to participate in the removal of paint from the surface, to pick off flakes and crumble them to nothingness.

Now, I could not have said any of that at the time I took the photo. All I knew at the time was that I was drawn to these spots, compelled to take a photo or two. After the fact, I see that this desire to take pictures of peeling paint is coming from somewhere other than my rational brain. The theme this month for the Creative Every Day challenge has been intuition, and it's really caused me to sit back and look at how I use and follow my intuition in different areas of my life. I realize that when I take photos of a subject like this, it's my intuition talking. I can't explain it rationally in the moment, but I act on the feeling then and there. And, usually, it results in images that I like, and that have something to show to me later.

Even if the message is just that I have an obsessive urge to crush paint flakes.

It Takes Hard Work

Evening comes in to Riomaggiore, in the Cinque Terre of Italy. I love the colors and light in this photo. Not full dark, the "blue hour" as I've recently learned.

Since night photography has become a recent interest, I've had to practice. It's hard to get a really good night shot. You take so many, playing with exposures and ISO and lenses and compositions... but it pays off when you get that one beautiful one.

It's easy to dream about doing something, but the actual doing is always a lot harder. It takes hard work to improve, to get really good, to make a vision real. The beauty of it is, if it's something you LOVE to do, it doesn't feel like work.

Yesterday I spend the day learning things about XML and CSS code. A beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon in Italy and I was on the computer most of it. Why? Because I have a vision of what I want this blog to look like, where I want it to go, and I'm willing to put some work into getting there. I used to hate being on the computer when I wasn't working at my corporate job, because I associated the computer with things I didn't really have a passion for. Computer = work = not fun. The truth of it is, the computer is just a tool for whatever the job is. And now that what I'm doing on the computer is aligned to my passion, it's totally different.

This is an amazing realization for me, that's been slowly creeping up. My time here in Italy so far has been spent exploring my creativity and dreaming of possibilities. Now it's time to continue the dream into reality. I look forward to sharing with you some of these things as I work on them, like the blog update, along with my view of the world through photography.

Thanks for participating in my journey! I love hearing from you in comments and emails and facebook posts. It's such a fun thing, to be able to share my passion with the world in this way.

Sunny Saturday

It's a beautiful, sunny Saturday here in Italy so I thought I would pick a photo with some bright sun and color. This is from a Saturday a few weeks ago, in Burano (of course!). The first two times we were in Burano it was overcast so I had been hoping to get there when there was some sun. When we left for Venice on Saturday morning it was grey and drizzly. We even were rained on as we exited the train station. But after lunch, the sun came out and we headed directly to Burano. Do not pass Piazza San Marco, do not stop in Murano. And I was rewarded with sun on the beautiful colors! Often when traveling, you only have one opportunity, one visit to get the images. It is nice we have the chance to go back someplace once in a while!

Exploring with a Camera: Shadow Portraits

Today I thought I would post of fun exploration idea that I've played around with a few times. Finding a great "shadow portrait" opportunity like this one requires a few things:
1. Sunshine or a direct light source that throws shadows. OK, obvious. :)
2. A wide open enough surface that the shadows are recognizable.
3. Noticing the shadow.
4. Deciding on composition: Angle to capture the shadow to get the "portrait" of your subject, how much of the background to use to "frame" your portrait, etc.

You can do this with any object, it doesn't have to be people. The thing I like about these shadow portraits of our family is that they are all three of us together (since I don't turn my camera over to strangers, it's hard to get a family photo all together) and that they are also of the place we are at. It puts us, in that place, in a unique way.

The first photo was in Riomaggiore, in the Cinque Terre last weekend. The photo below... well, it should be obvious.
Play around this weekend and take some shadow portraits if you have time. Or just notice the shadows around you, that is interesting in itself!

Peeling Paint (and Yes, a Balcony for Us)

What is my fascination with peeling paint? Is it the texture, the light, the randomness of it all? Whatever it is, it called my name this weekend while visiting Cinque Terre. I have several pictures of peeling paint, mostly on doors. This wonderfully textured door is to our little private terrace for our apartment in Riomaggiore this weekend.

The interesting part of the terrace is that it wasn't on the same floor as our apartment. We had to walk up a floor to get to it. It wasn't locked but the gentleman renting us the apartment was very clear this was our private terrace. We found this immensely enjoyable because last fall, when my Mom and cousin Heather visited Cinque Terre, they told us a story of trying to go onto a terrace in their building, similar to this one, and being told, emphatically, "No balcony for you!" by the person renting them the room. They had just watched a man and his son go out on the balcony and nothing was said, so they didn't understand why they couldn't. Must have been a similar situation, but the story provided much humor for the rest of their visit. And, months later, for ours to Cinque Terre as well. We enjoyed the retelling of the story as we sat out on our balcony and looked over Riomaggiore.

The Colors of the Coast

Why is it, that coastal towns seem to revel in color? Pinks and yellows and greens for buildings, and here some red and blue near the harbor of Riomaggiore, the Cinque Terre town we stayed in. So much color. It's as if the coastal towns are more sure of themselves, less serious than inland cities. No drab greys and browns for them. They celebrate their sparkling summer sun with bright colors, showing tourists their fun side, knowing that the time will pass and the winter storms will come again. But, even when the people leave and the waves crash against the shore, the colors of summer still remain.

On the Ligurian Coast

Along the coast of the Ligurian Sea lies a stretch of land that time has intentionally forgotten: Le Cinque Terre, or the Five Lands, is a national park of Italy with these five fabulous little towns along the coast that have been preserved. This one, Manarola, was our favorite. Hard to believe that we were there just hours ago, enjoying the sun and the sea, eating torte di verdura and focaccia, and climbing up and down the steep hills. My blog has been missing for a couple of days, because I was off taking more wonderful pictures of places like this. Ah, inspiration on the Ligurian Coast.

The World at Night

It's a different place, the world at night. Sometimes quieter, sometimes rowdier, definitely different. I've never been a night person before, but lately I cannot get enough of night photography. On our last trip to Venice I had the opportunity to get a few night shots like this one, and it wasn't nearly enough. I'm craving more! We are going back again soon, so I can wander around late into the night to capture this very different mood of Venice. I love it.

What Time Reveals

Slowly, every so slowly, over the centuries of use the marble of this entryway of St. Peter's Basilica has worn down. Time reveals the differences in the inset stone of the marble floor, and the strengths and weaknesses of our own selves. You have to get at the right angle to see it though, to notice the difference, otherwise you might just walk right on by and miss what time has wrought. Take a moment today to look at something from a different angle, to see what the light shows. What do you see that you didn't see before?

Winter in Spring

It's become normal, each day, for me to pick a photo to post based on a random impulse. Call it my intuition. Then I just write what comes to me based on looking at that photo. While there is sometimes a plan or a "theme" week (like when I show a specific place we visited, or show several pictures with similarities), they are usually just selected based on what calls to me that day. It has worked very well, and I'm often surprised by what comes out.

It's not intuition that makes me choose today's photo, it's my body. I have an icky cold, it feels like winter to me. So I'm going to drink my tea, finish this post and then crawl back into bed. Because my body is telling me to. I guess sometimes you have to listen to your body too.

Purple is the Color of Italy

We noticed it last year when we first got here... purple is everywhere. People wear purple all of the time. Purple sweaters, striped shirts, purple pants and lots of purple shoes. Men, women, children - purple, violet, lavender - all decked out in purple. In the winter it changed to darker purple shades to go with black. So I guess it shouldn't be completely suprising to have found a purple gondola in Venice, near some beautiful purple flowers in bloom, but I have to admit it was an unusual sight. Italy always has little surprises for me like this.

Drowsing

Time for a little nap, in a warm and comfortable place. Cats know what they are about! My thanks to this cat Burano, who so nicely dozed in a place that was good for my artistic composition. Learn from cats - when in doubt, nap!

What do these colors make you think of?

Today my son Brandon picked out the picture for the post. This is part of a building and window in, where else, Burano! I loved the bright, unlikely color combination and the hint of the items for sale in the shop window.

I asked Brandon what these colors make him think of, and he answered flowers. My answer is: they remind me of a party! How about you? What do these colors make you think of?

Exploring with a Camera: From a Flower's Point of View

Have you thought about the flower's point of view before? What is the perspective, near to the ground, reaching for the sun? The answer is found in these photographs. I had a marvelous time yesterday, playing around with my camera from a flower's point of view. I got a couple of amazing shots, like the one above and the one below. They are delightful because they are so unplanned, they are the results of experimentation and play. And digital photography is a WONDERFUL medium for this, because there is no cost to just play around!

There is creative power in exploration and play. I'm thinking to post some "Exploring with a Camera" ideas like this from time to time, let me know if you want to participate and I'll create a Flickr group to share photos so that we can create a little community of explorers!

So here are some tips on how to explore from a flower's point of view:
1. Hold the camera near the ground, pointing up toward the flower. You are not looking through the viewfinder, at the screen, anything. Depending on your camera/lens minimum focus requirements you will have to play with distance to hold the camera away from the flower.
2. Shoot, review, shoot, review. Move the camera, the angle. After a while you'll get a better hang of what you are aiming for remotely.
3. If you're not getting the focus you want (say, on the flower), switch to a manual focus point. For the second image above, I set the focus point for top middle point, then took a bunch of pics moving the camera around a bit to get the one flower in focus that I wanted.
4. Play around with aperture. Higher aperture will give you a better opportunity to get what you want in focus. Lower aperture will really help your flowers pop, but focus will be difficult.

During the whole process, delight in the randomness of the images. Laugh at the ones that came out totally awkward. Swoon over the ones you think that come out amazing. Enjoy the freedom that comes out from letting go of planning, composing, deciding with every shot!

One final image for today, of my favorite stretch of the path in Parco di Monza. You've seen it in winter, and here is spring. This was the time of year we moved to Italy last year, and I remember thinking over and over "I need to go over and take pictures of those flowers under the trees" as I drove by the park. I never did, spring progressed into summer and the flowers went away. So I promised myself THIS YEAR I will go do it. And I finally did!

Time for some Color!

I hope I don't hurt your eyes today, with all of this color. I had a marvelous time capturing the color in Burano on Saturday, and had to share some of it here. (If you read this in a blog reader, come visit to see my new blog header!) I hope you have a color-filled day!

Stepping along Flowers

This image has been popping into my head a lot lately, which means that I should just share it already! A little bit of color and a whole lot of texture can be found in Varenna, a town on the steep edges of Lake Como not too far from where we live. I like that the "streets" in these lake-egde towns are often really stairways up the hillside, and named appropriately in Italian, salita (which means climb, rise, uphill) instead of the usual via (which means street, road, or way). And a stairway means that you can have a fabulous flower display on many levels. I used to want to paint this picture, but for some reason I never did. Maybe that's because the image was already good just as it was, waiting to be shared with you today. Happy Monday!

City on the Hill

This is Civita di Bagnoregio, a city perched on a hill top in Umbria. It's a "dead" city - depending on who you talk to there are only a few or no residents. It's filled with tourists by day, marveling over the city perched on top and carved into the rock of the hill, some back to Etruscan time. Slowly collapsing into the valley below, one cliffside at a time. I love the profile of the town in this image, the buildings and hill against the clouds and distant hillside.

Aaaaah, Venezia

I must share this today, I am compelled to share this today, as we head to Venice this morning for a quick overnight trip. Because we can. I love Venice and Murano and Burano and have had the urge to get back. So we planned this short little trip last weekend, bribing Brandon with the promise of a gondola ride (he's begged the last two times we were there), and off we go. Because we can. Isn't that amazing? I am truly, truly lucky.

Farewell, Assisi

At end of the day in Assisi, as we were heading back to il parcheggio (parking garage) we walked past this pretty entry way. Same place we walked past in the morning, same light (shade), but from this angle it looked totally different and caught my attention. Just a little reminder that sometimes we need to turn or look back to where we've been, for a different perspective. You never know what you might find.

With this, I'll move on from Assisi, this wonderful town of stone and flowers and views of the Umbrian countryside. You are welcome to visit my album and see more pics of this day here.

Time to PLAY!

Today's image is from the Umbrian hill town of Orvieto. We had two rainy days based in this hill town on our spring break trip. I found I took fewer pictures than normal on these days, probably because it's hard to hold an umbrella and take a picture and keep your camera dry all at the same time. This image normally wouldn't make it to my blog. I would include it the overall album of the trip as a nice shot of the streets of the town and the weather of the day, but nothing special. But today, just for fun, I decided to play around with it.

You see, the Pioneer Woman Photography blog recently offered their free actions for Photoshop Elements. Yay! So today I played with them on this photo and was amazed at the all of the different feelings I could get with this one photograph. I view actions as a little like candy - easy to overdose on if you're not careful, but a little bit is fine! I would love to hear your comments on these. Which do you like? Which don't you like? Why not? (There is no special order to these, I've just uploaded them in alphabetical order by action name - because it was easiest!)

Boost

B&W

Define&Sharpen

Dim the Lights

Fresh & Colorful

Heartland

Lovely & Ethereal

Sepia

Seventies

Soft & Faded

Vintage

I didn't include all of the actions here, just the ones that I thought "worked" in some way with this image. Some really didn't work at all! What's fun about all of this playing is that you learn in the process. I hope you have some time to play too!