So I found out today at about 2 pm that I'm leaving at 11 am tomorrow for a 6 day trip. To Italy. Now before you all think this is just TOO cool, keep in mind it involves very complicated travel (my organization has no money and the way we keep expenses down is really something to behold) and attending conference activities all day and several evenings. But still, it IS Italy. So it is kinda cool.
Not sure I'll have internet access and pretty sure I won't be able to enter any challenges or do much voting, which is a bummer with the Free Study up. :-(
Where in Italy are you going? I was there for a 3 week vacation in Sept/Oct, it was terrific. I am sure you will love it. Depending where you are there are quite a few Internet Cafe's (very few towns do not have them).
The city is Livorno, on the coast. From a map, it looks lovely. According to weather.com, it'll be partly cloudy this weekend and Monday, then rain the rest of the time. Still, it's Italy. :-) Now to figure out where I put my passport when I unpacked stuff....
Thanks for the comment on Aces Jeffrey. I did do a shot with focus on the actual aces, as another commenter suggested, but I found then that the pattern wasn't quite as I liked it - too washy. So then I settled on the somewhat more obscurely chosen focal point of the waddingtons branding. In the end perhaps not the best decision like you say, but I think if it were all in focus I would have left myself open to literal artwork DQ, which was in my mind. arg!
Thanks for the comment on Aces Jeffrey. I did do a shot with focus on the actual aces, as another commenter suggested, but I found then that the pattern wasn't quite as I liked it - too washy. So then I settled on the somewhat more obscurely chosen focal point of the waddingtons branding. In the end perhaps not the best decision like you say, but I think if it were all in focus I would have left myself open to literal artwork DQ, which was in my mind. arg!
You're welcome, but oops - maybe I wasn't clear enough. I meant that perhaps the chosen focal point didn't match the title well, so your intention with the shot was lost.
I definitely didn't mean to put the whole thing in focus. Not only might you run afoul of the rules, but it wouldn't be nearly as interesting as even your entry was.
I definitely didn't mean to put the whole thing in focus. Not only might you run afoul of the rules, but it wouldn't be nearly as interesting as even your entry was.
Aye true. The title wasn't perhaps quite right in combination.
The city is Livorno, on the coast. From a map, it looks lovely. According to weather.com, it'll be partly cloudy this weekend and Monday, then rain the rest of the time. Still, it's Italy. :-) Now to figure out where I put my passport when I unpacked stuff....
So I found out today at about 2 pm that I'm leaving at 11 am tomorrow for a 6 day trip. To Italy. Now before you all think this is just TOO cool, keep in mind it involves very complicated travel (my organization has no money and the way we keep expenses down is really something to behold) and attending conference activities all day and several evenings. But still, it IS Italy. So it is kinda cool.
Not sure I'll have internet access and pretty sure I won't be able to enter any challenges or do much voting, which is a bummer with the Free Study up. :-(
yohoo!!I LOVE Italy. Livorno, isn't it near Piza somewhere? have you been to Liguria: Cinque Terre and Portofino? Cinque terre (5 villages) is heaven:) I envy you badly :)
if you can, visit portofino. i had an almost transcendental experience there when i was 5 or 6. my parents and i were in a restaurant for supper (it loked out over the beach and bay) and a little old man came in carrying a guitar. (well, i thought he was old, but i was 5 or 6. he did have grey hair.) he sat down and played tarriega's recuierdos de la alhambra. of course, i had no idea that's what it was called then, it was just this absolutely sublime sound. i remember my entire being focused on his music and his fingers, and everything around fading away. i remember crying with the beauty of the music.
my parents bought me a tape of john williams (the guitarist, not the composer) that included that piece when we got back to england, and that was the first recording i owned.
it still makes me cry, over 30 years later.
so, go to portofino. my parents were there on their last trip, and said it was still lovley.
I will do my best to get to Portofino but the problem with traveling on business is the stupid business stuff gets in the way of seeing things. I'm traveling with another person from my office and we'll hopefully have a car and we do have some time on Sunday. I'll talk him into it. And I'll be sure to post pictures when I get back - sooner if either of the places I'm staying have an internet connection!
And I think I'll have to find a way to get a copy of that piece of music you mentioned. How gifted you must be to have it move you so at a young age!
have you been to Liguria: Cinque Terre and Portofino? Cinque terre (5 villages) is heaven:) I envy you badly :)
I have! And boy, are you right. My wife and I spent a day driving from Florence (Firenze) to Pisa, checking out the tower, then driving to Santa Margharita Ligure, one of the towns in that region. That night, Italy won their World Cup semifinal match and the town went nuts! People were running around screaming and driving around honking the horns. It was very fun to watch.
The next day, we drove all the way up the west coast to Genoa, turning north to take country roads to Turin.
This was in 1994, so sadly, I have no digital pics to share.
I have! And boy, are you right. My wife and I spent a day driving from Florence (Firenze) to Pisa, checking out the tower, then driving to Santa Margharita Ligure, one of the towns in that region. That night, Italy won their World Cup semifinal match and the town went nuts! People were running around screaming and driving around honking the horns. It was very fun to watch.
The next day, we drove all the way up the west coast to Genoa, turning north to take country roads to Turin.
This was in 1994, so sadly, I have no digital pics to share.
yay!!:) have you gon Via Dell'Amore? and there are small paths linking all the 5 villages - it's one of the most spectucular and "dell'amore" trips I've had. we were staying in a paradise villa, don't remember the name, Villa "Something" in Moneglia. the two villages in the middle were my faves.
Portofino is great too, but somehow I like more deserted places. :)
yay!!:) have you gon Via Dell'Amore? and there are small paths linking all the 5 villages
Heh. This thread made me go check out the region on Google maps. And I discovered I've been wrong for 13 years! I always thought we'd been to Cinque Terre, but we drove past it on the main highway on our way from Pisa to Santa Margharita Ligure. But just that was gorgeous. :)
My husband and I were supposed to go to Italy last year with his work but the trip got cancelled at the last minute. Such a bummer, especially as I spent a couple of months learning basic Italian in preparation. I did go once as a child and found it amazing. I hope you have a chance to get out and about, Deb! And take some photos ;-)
yes, very beautiful!
I have to edit mine first before I can show them to everyone:), I shot them with a film cam and then scanned and they look horrible. I was there 2 years ago.
I also was in Rome on new year's eve 2007, a month ago. my romanoia collection is about it. I'm not quite sure that's what you asked for: I was more inspired by b&w weird italian movies, by Blow up and stuff and there are no "beautiful" images... sorry
Just looked through challenge entries and the Out Of Focusers are failing miserably. Not one shot in their recent challenges is out of focus!
We all know they are failed Hoovers, being OOFers, but really, we do have standards here!
Okay OOFers, do the job properly.
Sorry :) I had one in FS, but pulled it because it really was OOF!! I entered the wrong edit. In the first 24 hours I had 9 comments telling me so. It probably would have been a record in comments for me if I had left it in, but since it wasn't intentional I really felt it had to go. I'll post after the challenge.
...Blow up and stuff and there are no "beautiful" images... sorry
fi forced an ex-boyfriend and his car racing brother to watch blow up when i was in art college. poor men - the tried to be nice and polite, but they really ahad no interest. gawd, i was mean... ;-)
mind you, i love that film, and could watch it over and over...
fi forced an ex-boyfriend and his car racing brother to watch blow up when i was in art college. poor men - the tried to be nice and polite, but they really ahad no interest. gawd, i was mean... ;-)
mind you, i love that film, and could watch it over and over...
I envy you and your art college (how much I want to study art!) and that you actually watched that film.
I haven't!! I was more inspired by my image of that film than the film itself. I've never seen it. I couldn't find it anywhere in Russia (we don't buy things over internet there) and even in Rome - no one had it!
so i only read the description. it was enough to inpire me for the whole italy tour:))
but some days ago I found it on internet and will order soon.
I will expecially since you like it!!
blow up is definitely a sixties film - nothing ever really happens, and it doesn't happen for a very long time, and everyone looks really groovy not doing anything...
it's set in london, and the main character is really david bailey (the englsih one - there seem to be many david bailey photographers out there...)
i loved art college, but i actually went to a liberal arts university that had a fine arts program - art college is just so much easier to write. i spent one yaer at a real art college, and got so bored of just talking to art students - post modernism was all the rage then, and everyone just talked about art. at the liberal arts uni, we acutally made it much more than talked about it...
everyone just talked about art. at the liberal arts uni, we acutally made it much more than talked about it...
exactly like at my uni, I studied world and ancient literature and languages. linguistics and philology - talking and talking, I got so bored in the end. I like making things.
I actually wrote a diploma on post modernism, I was really very much into it that time. I am afraid I am still into it now though i try to find some other ways. back to the 1920s and 30s, back to the beginning of the 20th century. I don't know why it just feels right. some form and meaning after post modern play, I don't know how to explain it.
maybe you know, what is it now? post post modernism era - what is it?
forgot to say: it doesn't really matter much how exactly we call it, but I am trying to understand the main "lines" and I still can't get them right.
I used to buy b&w fine art photography mag, but i don't anymore. everything is blurred, sad, mad, static and frozen. I mean those are excellent images in their mood and intention and everyhting but it doesn't touch me. there are actually very few that really did touch me. I can't understand why. :(
