Viva Italia: Some Peeps

I’m going to continue to milk this Italian cow in an effort to update my blog.  Still dealing with the volume of photos from our long-past vacation.  Still dealing with lack of motivation time to do so.  But I wanted to share some of my favorite people shots from Italy as we made our way through Venice, Florence, Tuscany, the Amalfi Coast, and Rome.  Caveat is that there is a distinction between photos of people representing Italy vs. photos of people that happened to be shot while in Italy.  Seeing as how I’m not on assignment for Nat Geo or Conde Naste I get to be judge and jury here, but I would hesitate to call many of these “travel” photos per se.

Colors

Any number of things can lead me to bring the camera to my eye when it comes to guerrilla street photos.  Situations, contrasts, humour, character, gesture.  Here I’ll start with color.  And the pervasiveness of red.  Lots of red, which for me represents Italy very well.  When you start being aware of it that’s all you will see.  Perhaps framing a local vendor/artist/artisan setting up their sidewalk store at the beginning of the day outside the Duomo in Florence…

Or a restaurant owner closing shop and running the numbers in Rome…

Or somebody just catching up on the day’s events…

If you look, you will see.

No real relevance on this next one, just vibrant color and massive contrast.  I love light like this, but you gotta pay attention and be ready to ride the exposure compensation; forget to dial it back and this shot would likely be blown to smithereens.  Actually, frames like this made me notice that the massive dynamic range of the Nikon D800 can actually work against you.  It can resolve all of the shadow and highlight detail here, whereas I wanted more dramatic shadows.  Fortunately the latest version of Lightroom has very precise control to allow me to pull them back.

Some more examples where the color is what interested me.

 

Artists

Art is obviously a vital part of  Italian history.  Everywhere you look it’s on display.  From the most grand examples of Renaissance sculpture and paintings, to chalk on the streets, to absolute shite on offer by decidedly non-Italian hawkers.

As for this guy, I have a few shots of him with his easel, painting away.  I couldn’t decide the story I wanted to tell with the frame but ultimately settled on this one.  Wantingly looking at empty space and no customers.

 

Men at Work

Vegemite sandwiches aside (people from my generation should get that reference) there is generally something interesting about people doing their daily thang.  Offers a peak into the community and culture.  Sometimes it’s no different than us on the other side of the pond.  Others it’s uniquely local in flavour.  For instance, it’s not every day you see the Swiss Guard holding the fort…

A Gondolier working his way down the Grand Canal, passing under the Rialto Bridge.  Or buddy working his phone as he pushes on through smaller networks in Venice (don’t text and drive!).  That one makes me chuckle.  As does the almost comically dejected guy holding a bouquet of roses he’s been unsuccessfully trying to ply on nearby diners.  There are fresh fruit and veggie stands all over, as are there places to buy Limoncello (that particular shot stopped me dead in my tracks while in Florence – the shop owner’s stance mirroring the late afternoon angles of hard shadows).

Because It Amuses Me

For no other reason.  It may appear funny in a way I can communicate.  More often than not others won’t have a clue and think me a fool.  But this kind of s**t cracks me up every time…

Sometimes maybe less obvious.  Four strangers sharing the pain of waiting for their significant others.  Shopping Widows.

I have a section below on gesture and moment.  This next one is probably better served there, but the timing of it is so damn funny.  Pure serendipity.  I’d like to claim I made this photo by waiting for the precise moment that the stars aligned but it just so happened that this guy scratched his nose at precisely the moment I took the photo.  Not before.  Not after.  It lasted for the duration of the exposure and was over.

This last entry could have been framed better but I was rushing to get the shot.  I knew what I wanted.  I knew my goal was to capture the irony of the scene.  Close enough for rock & roll.

Gesture & Moment

With this series I had a sniper mentality.  Find a spot or situation of potential interest and wait.   I am massively impatient by nature.  The only time I reign that in is with a camera to my eye.  This was my favorite of such shots taken on the Spanish Steps in Rome.

My wife says this reminds her of Steve McCurry’s amazing shot from Jaipur.  Nice kudo, and similar strategy; Steve staked a claim at his vantage point and waited.  I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have his frame in mind as I stood there in the warm light of early evening.

Walking past this wall of graffiti in Florence I did the same thing.  Great light, loved the colors and texture.  Just needed someone in front of it.  I have a few from this position, but this little dude was easily my favorite.  A fraction of a second after this he saw me and stopped goofing around.  Made me chuckle.

Gesture can be overt.  Like this…

Italians are a fiery, passionate breed.  They punctuate everything they say with a physical gesture.  Even when standing alone on a street corner while talking on the phone.  The folks above were in the process of setting up a stage for an evening performance in the amazing town of San Gimignano.  Beautiful light attracted me to the scene, and waiting for this interaction led to me pressing the shutter.

Gesture can also be more subtle.  I loved the body language of the violin player as this trio made some beautiful music on the streets of Florence.  He was truly enjoying himself.  A nice measure of contrast here between him and his partners as well.

As for this next one… gesture or moment?  I dunno.  It was both to me as this couple enjoyed each other and their view of Ravello.

And a few others where I watched and waited for a moment in time…

This next one didn’t reveal itself until I reviewed in post.  With this, I was focusing on the kid.  It was only afterwards that I noticed the shop owner giving him the stinkeye through the window.

And this one gave me a chuckle with these two fellows enjoying a game of cards in a general store/meeting place… with an American cartoon comedy playing on TV.

Italy Randomness

As for the rest of these… I got nuthin’ by way of commentary or background.  But I like them enough to share.  And so I’ll close off what became an unexpectedly long post with a batch of random.  I make no claim of being a photo editor.