Dust and Rust

Tuscan Villa at Sunset

This shot was taken near the tiny village of Sant’Angelo. Typical of the beautiful sunsets in region, I really liked the light, and the pattern of the crops in the foreground. When taking a shot like this, it helps to keep the final composition in mind. Some cropping of the scene will usually be needed to remove the extra sky or foreground… but the width of the image remains intact. The idea is to keep as many pixels as you can, so the prints will retain as much detail as possible.

Italian Sunflower Field

Somewhere on the road between Volterra and Cecina, my friends and I came across this sunflower farm. Our timing was perfect with the flowers being in full bloom. Our goal was to reach the beach at Cecina, but honestly, the Italian countryside was much more impressive than the coastal town. They say that getting there is half the fun, in this case it was more like 95% of the fun.

Welcome to my new series called “You Lookin at me?”. Always looking for things to photograph on my walk to work… I decided I wanted to take more people shots. I have chosen every New Yorkers favorite creature of the street… the Taxi Driver. My first attempt netted 5 shots. It’s not easy to get a clear view into these yellow chariots of Gotham. The window needs to be rolled down, there needs to be some light on their face, and I need them to look my way before the light turns green. I’ll be posting all of the decent shots here, and at some point I’ll whittle them down to a “Best of You Lookin at Me”. Images 2 and 4 are my favorites of this bunch. Enjoy!

You Lookin at me? #1

You Lookin at me? #2

You Lookin at me? #3

You Lookin at me? #4

You Lookin at me? #5

Firewood, Bench and Urn

When it comes to photography, I’m not really a “People Person”. People really are one of the most interesting subjects, but I often find it difficult to take photos of people I don’t know, or feel a connection with. I’m probably over-analytical about the whole thing, but it does seem to reflect on some of my own issues.

The photo above has no hidden meanings about loneliness or solitude, I just happened to like the rustic look of the bench, and the textures of the different surfaces. I also feel that there is a nice sense of balance between the urn and pile of wood, and the contrast between the shaded top area of the scene and the well lit stone in the foreground. I’m curious how others feel about this image… I really like it, but I’d like some other opinions.

Tuscan Terracotta Roof

This old roof on one of the Villas at the castle caught my eye during the “Golden Hour”. The light made the orange moss stand out, and gave a nice glow to the tiles. All of the photos from this trip were made with a Nikon D200 and a variety of lenses.