Inside The Pantheon

I have been posting a bunch of photos from Italy the past week or so....the reason is that I just recently "found" these photos which I thought had been lost with my Drobo failure. I had to go back and "re-work" the photos as my last versions (which I had processed before) were lost with my Drobo. So here is a shot from inside the Pantheon which was going through some renovations where I was there. It was really crowded inside, so in order to get shot with no people in it, I had to shoot UP...this limited my compositions and it was tricky to find something that worked and looked nice...

Saint Peter's Dome in Rome Now In A College Textbook

People have said that HDR images have no place in the market place. I beg to differ...I just sold this photo to a Publisher in New York who will use it in a college textbook. HDR is no longer just a fad or gimmick...people are buying this stuff...

Bridge Of Angels

I tried three nights in a row to get down by the river to get this shot, but dinner plans and hanging out with non-photographers always prevented me from getting there. So, on our last night in Rome before heading back home, I told my wife I was going to head out on my own to get the shots I wanted without being hassled to "hurry up"...after a late dinner, Tika took a taxi back to the hotel, and I ran off and went running around Rome with my Leica and tripod in hand trying to get to all the spots I could...this was my last stop, and it was so peaceful down by the river and a glorious night (but really black sky)...

While In Rome...I Like These Too

I was going through my photos last night I took in Rome last summer. I came across these two, and processed them...I like the way they turned out...the Colosseum is an amazing place, and it looks different from different angles, so if you go there, go there at different times of the day, and walk around the place and shoot different angles...

A Rome Street

Gotta love the architecture in Rome...gotta love lots of things about Rome...the people, THE FOOD, the history...what a great place!!

Light, Color and Gesture

I was recently watching an on-line video of "A Day With Jay Maisel". He is a fantastic photographer, and an even better teacher. One of the things he said (there were many great quotes) was that if a photo doesn't have either light, color or gesture, then it is really not a photograph worth taking. I think about that all the time when I am out with my camera.

No color in this photo, but the light was nice...Gesture? Ha...I guess that is up to the viewer to figure out...what do you think?

Waiting For Customers

If I were to pick one place in Rome to hang out with my horse and cart, this would be the place...

Talk About Crowded and HOT

I loved Italy...the food, the people, the history, the colors...but wow, the crowds of tourists were just about unbearable...and throw the heat into the equation, and what you end up with is a grumpy Scotty Graham. A typical scene in Rome...this at the Trevi Fountain...you can see just a bit of the fountain, but I was so amazed at the crowds, I just had to get a photo. For me to get a photo of the fountain, I had to stand on a chain and balance myself in order to get above the crowds...I am standing on the chain to get this photo too...guess I will just have to go back to Rome in the winter time to avoid the summer crowds...

Saint Peter's Dome

What can I say? An amazing church!!

This Guy Is Cool

Don't you wonder sometimes what the people, that are now stone carvings, were really like in their time? My guess is that this guy was one cool dude!!

Too Many Tourists

Funny. I posted this photo in the forums over at NAPP, and was talking about all the tourists inside the Pantheon. There were so many people inside, I had to point my camera straight up to get any kind of photo without people in it. Just goes to show that there are always interesting angles and light to shoot...ya just gotta look around. My tourists comment on the forum sparked some really funny replies...

Anyway, I liked the light in this photo. I wonder what they do when it rains...that hole at the top of the dome is BIG!!

The Tree

You gotta wonder sometimes what trees have seen in their lifetime. These trees were perched along a walkway on the hill overlooking the Colosseum in Rome. I have no idea how old they are, but they were BIG trees...

Inside St. Peter's Basilica

Truly the most amazing church I have ever seen...

Where The Gladiators Played

The Colosseum was my favorite place to visit in Rome. Of course, they told us on the tour of the place to not believe any of the movies we saw....like "The Gladiator". That crushed me. I was really hoping it would have been true. For example, they said no man ever fought an animal in the colosseum. Only animals fought other animals. There were also ties in the man against man fights...they wouldn't always fight till death. Even if the movies got the history all wrong, it was still an amazing place to see and imagine what it must have been like two thousand years ago...

A Dark Alley In The Colosseum

If you ever go to Rome in the summer, you will know the word, "crowded". The colosseum was no exception. The place was packed!! We had to wait in line for over an hour to just get a ticket, and then another hour to get into the place. So, what do I do when confronted with such crowds? I go where the crowds don't go...like this little back alley...it was cooler, no people, and made for a nice photo!

The Accordian Player

You'd see a lot of these musicians on the street in Rome. The difference is, at least from my perspective of street performers, they were GOOD. Really talented musicians playing on the streets...I am sure they made pretty good money too!

Street Artist

I caught this Italian street painter in action talking about his painting to some other guy on the street. I wish I spoke Italian. I love the way many use their hands with so much expression when Italian is spoken...I guess the hand gestures come naturally once you learn the language...

Back From Italy...Thanks For Waiting !!

A GREAT trip, indeed...

Tika and I spent two weeks touring Rome, Florence, Siena, Cirque Terre and Venice. Rome and Venice were super crowded and hotter than Indonesia, but other than that, we had a fantastic trip, and I of course took tons of photos that I just started to edit today. I also started a diet...eating Italian ice cream and pasta every day doesn't really enhance the mid section...ha!!

Of course, this is the Colloseum...during the day, it was so crowded and so hot, I could not position myself anywhere to get a shot without three million other tourists in the photo...the solution? Wait till late at night. The sun did not set until after 9:00 pm, so after a long day of walking in the heat all over Rome, I ventured back after dinner to get this shot...Tika was not happy....her feet were hurting, and she was tired, but I just HAD to get this shot..it is rough traveling with a fanatic photographer, and she was a great trooper only complaining a few times while I set up my tripod and moved around at every conceivable angle to get my needed shots...

We missed our daughters, so two weeks was enough time away for our second honeymoon...great to be back home!!