We got back from Italy!

I am quite upset that I have been sold a faulty Epson V700 that does not work, as I bought it mainly for the SWC. Now I have to mail out rolls for commercial scanning.
 
paulfish4570 said:
some lovely photos in there, raid. i really, really like the one of your family with the blurry pigeon caught flying through the frame ...
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Thank you Paul. I focused on my family, and I also took photos of streets and people and buildings and scenery.
 
I still want to post some images from Cortona and fom Galgano. In Galgano, there is in a small abbey a sword inserted inside a rock, and the story is that about 1000 years ago, a priest did that. A recent testing done by an Italian university concluded that the metal of the sword was about 1000 years old. I explained to my daughters the story about Alexander the Great, and Dana wanted to know (for Galgano!) whether she could pull out the sword to rule the world.
 
Once Nico and I met, his first question to me was "How do you do it all? Having a full time job, two daughters (as he has) and taking many photos and being active at RFF?"

My response to him was to take photos of his family.
 
Now there is the sun....

Now there is the sun....

Raid...
in Tuscany now there is a lot of sun........
Great reportage of my earth, i live 30 km from Lucca, in Livorno.
Two photo of San Galgano.... for you.
 

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Thanks. I will also post some images from Galgano.
Yes, I have seen the weather forecast for Tuscany. Sunny weather is nice, but almost all days are sunny in Florida, so having some rain is fine with me.
 
Thanks so much for sharing your vacation photos with us Raid. Lovely images and from looking at them one can get a real flavor of where you were. You have a beautiful family too!

My husband and I are going to Italy next month for our anniversary. I've been told to use wide lenses so that I can take it all in though my proclivity is towards the 50-85mm end. I read that you found 35mm your most frequented lens?

I've recently gotten the GR and am not overly enthusiastic about the 28mm focal length. Maybe that would change in the crowded streets of Venice. Wishing I could compare to an X100s w/35mm [this being actually more than my budget right now but something I'd swing for]. Opinions?
 
Thanks.
In your case, I would go with a 35mm or 50mm lens. Nothing beats it. Wide angle lenses are overvalued. Get closer, and use the 50mm lens.
I did really well in taking photos with a tiny Minox GT 13 years ago in Venice. It has a 35/2.8 lens.
There is no need to buy any new camera. A Pentax Spotmatic F with a 50/1.4 Takumar would be great too.
 
Here are some images from our visit to the hot springs resort Bagno Vignoni. Robert told me that these hot water springs were enjoyed from the times of the Romans.
I mostly used ISO160 this trip.



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I loved that soft light in the covered area here.

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I metered off Lina, and kept pressing down the shutter release button half through until I took the photo. This will not work with the M9 if you use the silent shutter release setting.

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The girls adore my wife.


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Robert and Simo!


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Raid, thanks for taking the time to let us share your lovely photo's. They make me want to return to Tuscany again. Well done.
 
I am enjoying it too here, and so is my family who keep on reviewing some of the images from Italy.
 
raid said:
Thanks.
In your case, I would go with a 35mm or 50mm lens. Nothing beats it. Wide angle lenses are overvalued. Get closer, and use the 50mm lens.
I did really well in taking photos with a tiny Minox GT 13 years ago in Venice. It has a 35/2.8 lens.
There is no need to buy any new camera. A Pentax Spotmatic F with a 50/1.4 Takumar would be great too.
Click to expand...

Thank you! My 28mm on a 1.6 Canon crop body is equivalent to 45mm, my 50mm becomes an 80 which I also like. I have for all around a 28-135 [45 - 216]. The GR [or X100s if I had one], would be a secondary camera with wider lens. If I was brave I'd use film but I'm not overly good at gauging light yet. Been angsting over this for a few months now as vacations don't come all that often and this is a special one :)
 
Then go with what you have mentioned above. Get closer to things and to people when you take photos. Have fun!
 
Basically, I would use my IPad each evening to browse "towns and villages close to Siena", or similar. Then I checked the weather.
For example, when we arrived, the rain was all over the region from Siena and NorthWest of it. Hence, I looked for towns to the South of Siena to avoid direct rain on us. We got umbrellas too.
I would then enter the name of the town into my GPS, and try to avoid highways. Then, after arriving there, we would drive to villages close to that town.



Next, we visited the town of Montalcino. Robert: Correct me if I visited another place!

I have been keeping a photography focused travel diary since 1982, with day by day recordings of events. So I just go by my diary, and I see which of the images are listed in chronological order that fit the description of a given town in my diary.
 
Thank you, Bill. I saw their looks, and I quickly grabbed the shot. The angle was different, and I was dangerously close to the minimum distance for the Lux.
They adore her. Each day, they cling to her.
 
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