Eyelash Palm Pitviper
Playa Punta Uva
Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
The Camponile and St. Mark's Basillica in Piazza San Marco. Venice, Italy
The square was bustling and the light was soft this evening. I was heading through the square to snap the evening light coming across the Grand Canal. The Campanile is the bell tower for Basilica di San Marco, at the end of the square.
The church was originally completed in 832AD, but was burned in a rebellion. Rebuilding began in 978AD, and construction was finally completed 114 years later in 1092AD.
Gondoliers await thier next riders in Piazza San Marco.
Color homes on the island of Burano, Italy.
May 24 // 1:39PM⠀
Island of Burano // Italy⠀
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Italy romances you with its food, and its color, and its people. I can't imagine anyone going to Italy for the first time and not leaving changed in some way or another.⠀
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On the island of Burano, the houses are bright and colorful, and the clock seems to stop moving. In the 16th century, Burano rose to fame with it's production of lace and needles. When Leonardo da Vinci chose the cloth to be used on the altar of the Milan Cathedral, he chose it from Burano.⠀
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These days, the island isn't exporting much lace, as it’s expensive and time consuming to make by hand. Instead, it relies mostly on selling goods and cappuccinos to folks who want to come by and visit. It's a great get-away from the hustle and bustle of close-by Venice, and only a 30-40 minute water-taxi ride away.⠀
Four very early mornings in a row I waited for an image of this scene. The light was too soft... or the light was too harsh... or the was no color. Persistence pays off when you are hunting an image, and on the 25th, the sun rose in east and cast a beautiful orange/pink glow over the Grand Canal. The wait was worth it - this is the image I wanted.
The Rialto Pescheria [Fish Market] has been the source for seafood and produce to the Venitians since 1097AD.
May 27 // 1:46PM Todi // Umbria, Italy . I was working in Italy and spent the day scouting the incredibly narrow streets of the Medieval town of Todi. . I stopped off at the salumeria to get a few cuts of meat and a bit of wine to go with it for lunch. I sat in the window of a shop and ate my salami and wine lunch. I watched people passing for a while, looking up occasionally to see a few birds flying overhead. . I thought about how many people had sat where I was sitting, looked up, and saw the same sky framed with the same set of buildings. The city dates back to the 8th century BC, or more than 2,700 years. So, that is to say - probably quite a few people.
I went out for an early morning walk to make a few images while staying in the Umbria region of Italy. The wind blew the grasses on the hilltops as the sun bathed everything in the first hours of the day. The medieval town of Todi sits on the distant hilltop and gazes at it's communities in all directions.
For this image, it was all about the layering. The way the light was hitting the olive trees, and the grass - the hillsides in the distance. Todi standing triumphantly in the background. This region is rife is distant beauty, the things that you'll see sitting on a hilltop; but the things that are in your immediate vicinity are also beautiful. I wanted to marry those two things together for this photograph.
The Italians have a sense about them. A confidence that manifests itself in many different ways. Sometimes it’s most evident with their fashion, sometimes the food. Other times, it’s best observed by watching them work with a serious dedication to their vocation. The men are fit and strong, and they come at you like freight trains in the street, as if they would walk directly through you if you made the mistake of being in their path. Their presence led me to make a few images of the people of the country I was visiting and photographing. While, to this point, I’ve never considered myself a street portrait photographer - I couldn’t help myself.
Shot almost from the hip, these two men were cutting their way through a small piazza in central Rome. It was evening, around 5:30PM, and I can assume they are on the way home, though their stride and attitude suggested that they were just getting started.
The Arch of Constantine in central Rome. Constructed in 315AD, it commemorates Constantine I's victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge.
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February 28 // 9:15PM
Glencoe // Scottish Highlands
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The moon was bright, and the mountains were beautiful in the light. I was heading through the highlands to the Inner Hebrides, the islands off the coast of northwestern Scotland. It was cold. The southern part of Scotland had been hit with the worst snowstorm in half a century. The wind was whipping and howling through the mountains. As I came through Glencoe that night, the sky opened, for the first time since I had been in the country. The stars were beautiful, and stood out even among the bright moonlight. There was a dusting of snow on the mountain-tops, reminiscent of the feet of snow I had just left in the south and foreshadowing the snow that would come in the next few days.
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I stopped to get a shot with my camera. The air chilling me to the bone as the wind whipped around my tripod. I had to take several shots to get a still image. It was beautiful, and it made me quite excited for what the next few days in the highlands would bring.
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I thought about the Scots who lived in this country hundreds of years ago. How they must have struggled to survive this rugged place, but now understanding why they persisted. It's beauty is unmistakable. Scotland grabs you, it's unlike any other place - with a sense of lore and myth about it - you feel a bit like you're in another world. Something similar to your own, with hints and traces of things you know, but with a new set of rules, and a new kind of people, in a new kind of land.
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March 3 // 6:19PM Neist Point // Isle of Skye, Scotland . I drove for what seemed like forever. The narrow, one lane, half paved road that I had been traveling on to traverse the island was in a terrible shape and the vehicle bounced back and forth constantly. My only moments of peace were when I pulled over to allow an oncoming car to pass. . The weather was bleak, but that was to be expected, for this area is known for it's saddened overcast skies. As I exited to begin eyeing my composition, the wind whipped harshly, and the cold came leaking through my many clothes layers, straight into my bones. I wondered how I would ever keep my tripod still in the wind. I hiked up to the top of a hill to get a good view of the lighthouse, only to find that I had left my shutter release back in the vehicle. It would have been a fatal mistake had I been hiking for miles. Though, even the 200 yards I had walked felt like miles in the cold, damp, windy weather that was upon me. . I stashed my gear, and made the trip to get my shutter release, then set up for a few frames. I tried a few different compositions to compose the peninsula the way that I had imagined, and finally - a photo I was satisfied with. . A 30 second exposure proved difficult to keep steady in the wind. With a ND grad on the front of the lens, the wind pulled and tugged at the corners, giving the camera a decent shake. I would have to time the shot with a break in the wind, and yet would still have to block the wind from the camera with my body. . The drive out was a tired one, though I was happy to be out of the cold. None of it mattered, the photograph lasts far longer than the memory of the numb fingers and wind blistered skin.
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March 8 // 7:17AM
Amstel Canal, Amsterdam // The Netherlands
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The week before I arrived in Amsterdam the canals were frozen over and folks were ice skating on them. It was cold and windy, almost unbearable.
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I arrived at Schiphol airport late the night before. I hopped on the tram and rode to Prinsengracht (my street) to walk to my hotel. Sleep came fast and it wasn't long before I was dreaming on the images I hoped to make the next day.
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I woke up and layered my clothes to head out to make photos of the streets and canals in the heart of Amsterdam, the Centrum. There's not a lot of car traffic in this part of the city, rather, everyone rides bicycles. Every canal, building entrance, and the edges of the canals are lined with bikes. There are hundreds in a 100 yard stretch.
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I watched the people as I walked. Bikes whizzing by, some folks walking, others running. I looked for a set of houses that I wanted to make a few photos of when the sun came up. I had my tripod and my Nikon on my back, with my Fuji in my hand as I walked. I found it torturous to stop to set up the tripod. It was hard to keep the camera steady in the wind, and the images just weren't compelling. I kept walking.
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My time was short in Holland. I knew that this would be one of the few opportunities I had. So I persisted.
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As the sun came up and started to light the narrow homes and buildings along the canals, the air remained incredibly cold. The sky was turning pink and orange, and I was still struggling to slow down my hurried walking long enough to find a decent composition in the cold.
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I finally decided to shoot the houses across the Amstel Canal with this bicycle in the foreground. The spot was blocked from the wind and it turned out to be a great representation of the city - which was my goal. The color was short lived, as the rest of the day was a cold, dull, grey mess.
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I was walking through the fishing village of #Hamnøy, when the mountains beyond the #Rorbu fishing cabins starting fading into white. A snowstorm was blowing in and the wind was picking up. I stayed and made a few more frames with the distinct red fishing cabins against the misty white approaching snow shower.
. March 13 // 5:10PM Moskenesøya - Fredvang // Norway . As the tide comes and goes with the heartbeat of the ocean, the thin layer of ice on top is left at low tide sitting atop the rocks and seaweed in the shallows, close to the shore. . I was almost too late to get this image. With the rocky landscape, hiking out to the waters edge under a few feet of snow can be a bit tricky. The rocks themselves are frozen over, so you really should avoid stepping on them if you can, and especially if you don't have any microspikes on your boots. But further, there are huge pools between the rocks at the water's edge that freeze over with a thin layer of ice. With a fresh snow, it piles atop the ice and tricks you into thinking it's solid ground. One step and you go right through into the freezing water. Many of these pools are chest deep. . Don't ask me how I know. . I crept around the shore of this tiny island for a while before I settled on a composition that had the texture I wanted, but also didn't overpower the rugged mountains in the back. . Scenes like this are never-ending in Norway. The country us both rugged and incredibly beautiful.
