Archives

Archive for September, 2011

« Older Entries

Fountain of the Four Rivers

Friday, September 30th, 2011

Just had a completely awesome shoot at Piazza Navona before sunrise. Seriously nighttime is the ONLY time to see Piazzas and ruins – they really look like blah during daylight hours.All the sites and historical centre are so well lit at night and the colours and textures of the stones are spectacular. Of course there’s no people which I just love (yes, the eternal city does sleep). I had Piazza Navona all to myself for the first hour. Joy!

The Fountain of Four Rivers was inspiring. The sculpture pays homage to the four great rivers – Nile, Ganges, Danube and Rio de la Plata.  It includes example of the flora and fauna including a palm tree, snake, horse, crocodile etc. The murky laneways were atmospheric in a way that wasn’t sinister. I felt completely safe. Bonus is all the pickpockets are asleep at that time of night! I recommend night shoots all the way in Rome. Can’t wait to do the ruins and a view of St Peters across the Tiber.

I seem to be getting better at photography. I only have to take 1or 2 series of shots to be confident I got what I wanted. Two years ago I would take maybe 200 shots and have 1 or 2 keepers if I was lucky. There’s a lot of practise involved in becoming proficient at photography. That’s where digital photography has made it so much easier, quicker and cheaper to learn. I’ve definitely improved since Paris. Not taking anywhere near as many shots and hence don’t go through flash cards as quickly.

Posted in General News | No Comments »

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva

Thursday, September 29th, 2011

If you like churches Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is a must see, for several reasons. From a practical point of view, it’s one of the few churches open in the afternoon as it doesn’t take the Catholic siesta after lunch. It’s the only Gothic church I found in Rome with wonderful soaring arches. Of course it’s been Romanised with liberal frescoes and gilt. I enjoyed it immensely and did lots of guerrilla photography, mainly out of respect.

Pews are certainly a photographers best friend. I often shoot without the camera to my face, laying it down on a pew looking straight up at the ceiling or facing straight ahead. It guarantees no camera shake as these shots are significantly slower than handheld speed. This style explains the lack of variety in my compositions and also why they are only wide angle. The 20mm prime is the only cut glass and therefore light lens that I have. Any extra weight on the camera amplifies camera shake.

Another good tip for those shooting in guerrilla circumstances – an L bracket. It wraps around the left and bottom edges of the camera. It’s great for reducing shake as you can press the smooth edge against a wall or bench and presto – no shake! Churches are also great for HDR shots of people as it’s one of the few times, they are not moving much.

This church was the first with stained glass windows, something Rome generally lacks. Paris was excellent for stained glass windows.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Il Gesu

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

Il Gesu is the founding church of the Jesuits. They bought into the reformation in a huge way and must have run several gold mines to produce all that gilt. The Gesu also features a prime example of a baroque ceiling with wonderful frescoes, stucco and cherubs roaming into the fresco along with gilt that has been trowelled on (rather than delicately painted with a brush).

Now technically I shouldn’t have any photos from the Gesu. There was a small sign inside the church that said no phtoography. I was devastated so I sat down to enjoy the view. A whole heap of tourists walked in taking photos so I thought I’d be Italian and just ignore the rules (that’s a serious comment. Italians are worse than Northern Territorians for not following the rules). The clergy saw me but seemed quite happy as I was correctty dressed with no flash and tripod. Italians came in in shorts and skimpy tops. When told to leave, they refused to!

The Gesu was also the first church that had a mirror for viewing the ceiling. Fabulous idea. Makes photography so much easier as the subject is put into a single plane for focus. That means you can shoot with a very low Fstop. The mirror shots were taken at F6.3 and the non mirror shots are about F9. That’s the difference between being able to shoot handheld or not. It also made for a great self portrait. I’m committing to taking a self portrait on all my trips (recall the one in the mirror at Palais Garnier in Paris).

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Forum and Colosseum

Tuesday, September 27th, 2011

Went to the Forum just after sunrise. Took one look at realised it needed to be shot at night. So I headed off to the Colosseum. I walked straight in with a Roma Pass while the rest of the tourists were queuing. When I got out at 10am the normal queue was a nightmare although not as bad as Versailles. The displays on the upper levels were excellent, better quality than many museums. It was good simply being there despite the masses of people. I didn’t find my “vision” and really couldn’t get any images I was happy with (don’t worry, there’s some great ones later on!). I enjoyed just closing my eyes, feeling the centuries old masonry and imagining what it was like.

The Colosseum is well worth a visit in my opinion but get there early or late and buy a Roma Pass.

My kness think the best invention in the last 1000 years is the grader. The cobblestones are uneven and I ahve constant knee pain. If I was a leader of a civilisation, it would develop around not having to walk on uneven ground or up stairs! The lift, the grader, bitumen and wide footpaths would be invented early. In both Rome and Paris I saw a large number of dogs that obviously had discomfort while walking. I wonder if it’s because of stairs or cobblestones.

Tags: ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Water Fountains

Monday, September 26th, 2011

Gotta love a city that makes architectural masterpieces out of drinking water fountains. They really are lovely sculptures. The one below is outside an old library. These fountains are everywhere within the old city – can’t go 50 m without running into another one. That infrastructure is incredible to think about – laying all that pipe, engineering the water to flow. These fountains run 24 hours a day.

The water is so cool and tasty. I’m saving a fortune not buying drinking water. Infact I’ve stopped carrying a water bottle even. The water that comes out of the shower here is freezing, unlike the 27 degree stuff that passes for cold water in Newman. Loving Rome!

Tags: ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Sant Andrea Della Valle

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

After the Pantheon I wanted a baroque fix. So I headed to Chiesa Nuova. I deliberately chose this particular church to visit as it is billed as the “gilt”iest church in Rome. That’s a possibility based on what I saw. The church is quite dark and the gilt is a bronze colour so the overall affect is not the bright, sparkly gilt of Versailles. The weird bit was I went in with a dozen other tourists who all starting taking photos. I was doing the right thing – dressed appropriately, no flash, tripod. There were no signs about photography anywhere. A clergy guy comes up to me and says no pictures. I was genuinely stunned. First church where photography was not allowed and there were no signs at all!

The whole point of baroque was a counter reformation tool to get more people talking about and going to catholic church. It’s aim is to be showy and attract people like a peacock. It needs to be seen to be effective. Not allowing respectful photography goes against everything baroque represents. Confounding!

So I gave up on Chiesa Nuova and went to the church not 50m from the hotel – Sant Andrea Della Valle. Awesome frescoes and gilt and the second largest dome in Rome behind St Peters. Most churches in Rome close between 1 and 4 in the arvo and I visited after 5pm. Lovely soft yellow light was pouring into the church and turning the gilt covered walls and ceiling a buttercup yellow colour. I loved it. I think I’m just going to plan to shoot early in the morning and later in the evening. I can go back to the hotel and rest in the afternoon when the light is harsh and colours are blown out.

Tags: , ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Pantheon

Saturday, September 24th, 2011

Walked over to the Pantheon for a quick look. It was overrun by people. I swear that buildings like the Pantheon have the majesty sucked out of them by the weary scuffing of people trapsing through them. I took a few images but wasn’t really happy with any of them. Remember I’m shooting with a 20mm (very wide angle) lens and still couldn’t get the whole dome into shot.

It’s an awesome peace of engineering – the largest unsupported dome in the world I believe. The occularus (hole in the middle) is the only source of light and is permanently open. When it rains, a very clever drainage system efficiently gets rid of the water on the floor. I couldn’t see the drainage system unless I looked very closely. Some stats. Built in roughly 120 AD, the word Pantheon means all of the gods and was originally a pagan temple to all gods. The dome is 43 m in diameter. It was engineered with great harmony – the distance from the floor to the start of the dome is exactly the same as the diameter i.e. it would form a sphere if the supporting walls were removed. The supporting walls are a whopping 6 m thick! Those Romans knew what they were doing.

Tags: , ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Finally in Rome

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

Finally landed and am having a ball in Rome. Service at restaurants, hotels etc is soooo much better than Paris (what a surprise!). The hotel is in a perfect lcoation right near Campo di Fiori and Piazza Navona. They have put me in the only single room and it’s bigger than my twin room in Paris (which was in the suburbs relatively speaking!).

There’s a bathroom with a bath (love it, will use it) as well as a room for the cupboard and a separate bedroom. Simona on the front desk is incredibly helpful and professional. The room has individual aircon which is great as I really feel the cold. The main staircase is a tiny spiral one in a small courtyard. And one side of the building is actually part of an original theatre with exposed original stone. Very atmospheric. I’ve already found my fallback restaurant. There’s a mini chain of Italian restaurants called Insalata Rica (literal translation is Rice Salad) and there’s one within spitting distance of the hotel. It has 3 pages of salads as well as the usual Italian fare. The serving size is huge and the buffalo mozzarella is absolutely delicious.

Rome is much easier for seeing sites than Paris – everything really is within walking distance even for someone with CFS. I’ve just walked from my hotel to the far end of Piazza Navona and back and didn’t even feel it! I must say the Piazza is as I expected during the day – no colour, very glary and contrasty and loads of tourists. No photo potential there for my style of photography.

The streets are truly tiny and the  cobblestones aren’t too bad on my knees. They’re smaller than the ones around Versailles. I love that the buildings have the mediterranian palette, not just limestone offwhite. There’s lots of oranges, browns and pinks.  Also lots of windy laneway photo potential. And check out the green wall below.

Tags: ,
Posted in General News | No Comments »

All roads lead to….

Friday, September 23rd, 2011

I’m back in Newman and had a ball in Rome. Just trying to recover now! As per last time, I’m going to write the travel blog in the order it occurred as if it’s happening right now. Just pretend you’re reading this 2 weeks ago! To steal a line from the wonderful scifi write JMS, “and so it begins.”

What a drama this plane flight is turning into! Lots of issues with the Malaysia Airlines plane from Perth – Kuala Lumpar. It was supposed to take off at 1625 and we boarded at 1900. We were still sitting on the tarmac in the plane at 2000 and no end in sight. I can’t get too stressed as I know there’s no flights out of KL to Rome in the next 12 hours. We’ll either make the connection or have a day in KL. I’m practising my meditation. The only real drama is they haven’t fed us yet so I’m certainly on diet having not eaten anything for many hours.

In some ways it’s nice to have all my planning and schedules upset. I don’t feel a slave to the itinerary now it’s completely buggered! Might be forced to just look at churches and not visit the really busy sites. Not a bad thing!

We did get away 4 hours late. Surprisingly, MA held 5 European flights in KL to wait for the Perth flight to land. Apparently the rule is that if the incoming flight lands less than 2 hours late, they hold all of the connections. We just made the cutoff. Extremely happy that I didn’t get stuck in KL. I’ve flown on quite a few airlines this year and received quite a few bad reports about MA. I’d rate them just under average. Worse than Singapore, Qantas and BA but better than AirFrance.

MA doesn’t give you any blindfolds or earplugs for sleeping (or a toothbrush) and they didn’t turn the cabin lights off. So most people didn’t get a lot of sleep – surely the msot important thing on a longhaul?! I’m not going to fly MA again for those reasons – not due to the delay which happens and is preferable to the plane falling out of the sky!

Just flying over eastern Turkey now. The landscape is so vastly different to the Pilbara (of course!). It’s very grey and a sea of crinkly little mountains smudged with clouds. Not colourful but the terrain looks like mini fjords and I want to get down there and explore it. Obviously arid land  but looks cooler since the dominant colour from the air is blue.

I was speaking to some Aussies in the cabin crew area. They do the typical style of European travel. Fly somewhere and almost immediately start catching planes, trains and automobiles to somewhere else. I’m glad that my health forces me to go to one destination and stay there. I didn’t see everything in Paris and I certainly won’t see everything in Rome or Prague. But at 8 days, I do see more than the restless nomad travellor.

Not sure how much I’m going to be able to do of the planned Rome schedule. Will have to prioritise the health if I’m going to survive the trip.

Tags:
Posted in General News | No Comments »

Offline for a bit

Wednesday, September 7th, 2011

I begin travelling for the baroque odyssey to Rome tomorrow. Which means I’ll be offline for a while. I should be back about the 23rd Sep so expect the blog to be flooded with images of ruins and gilt from then on.

Posted in General News | No Comments »

« Older Entries