Harpa and reflections on a cloudy day, Reykjavik, Iceland

dailies from Iceland: quiet day in Reykjavik with lots of Sagas

June 6, 2017

Everything in Reykjavik is quiet and at a slow pace. As you move around you can't help but notice the silence, no rush on the cars that pass by, the people that greet us friendly and today even us.
As it was our last day, we did not plan much, we just wanted to enjoy a nice meal and end the trip with the joyful Icelandic Sagas at the Harpa.
And so we leave with a smile on our somewhat cold faces, and the will to come back and explore this extreme land.

Telma & Antonio,
From the land of Ice & Fire

Views over the Þingvellir national park, Iceland

dailies from Iceland: the golden circle

June 6, 2017

Today was golden circle day.
The most touristic tour anyone can do in Iceland does not disappoint.
We began with some history, in the peaceful Þingvellir national park, the place where the chieftains met once a year to decide the future of their countryman. One can only wish it was so simple.
The day progressed with typical farm life for a taste of creamy Sky and a trip to the massive and impressive Gullfoss waterfall. On the way back we saw hot water being expelled from the inside of Earth in geyser land and the blue waters inside a crater.
A day where blue skies and sunshine made everything even more striking.

Telma & Antonio,
From the land of Ice and Fire

Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II and the Basilica di San Pietro by night, Rome, Italy

weekly update 019 - Dailies from Roma

May 15, 2017

Finally we've made it to Italy, after a few years postponing it as I tend to prefer the colder northern climates. But Rome is definitely an unavoidable destination in the world, and I'm very glad to have been persuaded to go at last.

St. Peter's Basilica from the Via della Conciliazione on a cloudy night, Rome, Italy

This post is just an introduction to the trip, and the city, illustrated with the photos I shared daily while there. The weather on the first two days went from grey and gloomy to short strong showers, so not the ideal to leave a good impression or take pretty pictures. But when you're in a city so steeped in history and full of art, a decent photographer can produce some illustrative images. The bad weather also meant that we could just walk into an almost empty St. Peters square in the middle of the Vatican City, without any queues. Just two days later, on a sunny Sunday, you could hardly see the street leading to the Basilica for all the tourists and pilgrims that headed towards the Vatican.

Inside the Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy

The second day started with a quick visit to the Vila Borghese gardens, and a lengthy visit to the Galleria Borghese which houses an impressive collection of works by my favourite sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and also a great collection of paintings and frescos organised over two floors. If you like classical art this is an obligatory visit.

At the end of the day, we went for the two other well-known tourist traps in Rome, the Spanish Steps and the Treviso Fountain. And don't be fooled by the images in all the movies and television were these places aren't completely overrun by visitors and people selling all kinds of useless knick-knacks like selfie sticks and strange, gooey, dolls that make annoying noises. Even on a rainy Thursday evening, both places were full of people, so I would say to try and go there early in the morning if you want some space to photograph.

By the third day, we had a glorious sunshine and a, boring cloudless, sky. I know, only photographer complain about a blue sky. And we decided to go to the Colosseo, the Foro Romano and the Palatino. These are basically two attractions and you can get a single ticket for both. I would advise to buy this in advance, as the queue to buy tickets on location was huge. And then there is the queue to actually get into the sites. I was not expecting these sort of amount of visitors waiting to get in. You can see on the picture to the right the huge amount of people present at the time. If after you visit these sites you can still walk, you can visit the imposing monument to the fatherland, the Altare della Patria pictured below.

I think that a four-day visit is great to get a feeling for the city, but there are things that we didn't get to visit, and will probably come back for, like the museums which we didn't get to visit any. It is definitely worth staying in the old part of town and just walking everywhere, which we did. We stayed in an apartment from Airbnb, just of Piazza Navona. Gabrielle, our host, was great and the apartment had the perfect location and a great neighbourhood feeling.

This is for the first impressions, soon I'll start showing the full-colour images, and more in depth posts.
Until then,
Keep wandering, keep looking...

#project365 year1 [day 011] Daillies from Scotland

June 12, 2016

Day after the trip has ended and now I have a couple of thousand of photos to go through and sort out, so I thought I would show the last of the daillies I had prepared. This time from the Donald clan castle. Tomorrow the theme will change completely as I will rely of older photos I haven't published yet.

-- Gear 
Fujifilm X-PRO1 
FUJINON XF10-24mm F4 R OIS 
-- Post 
Lightroom : Photomerge, cropping ,initial toning and levels 
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

#project365 year1 [day 008] Dailies from Scotland

June 8, 2016

Travelling around the Highlands it seems that every day you find a new distillery, today it was the case for Skye's Talisker.

-- Gear 
Fujifilm X-T1 
FUJINON XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR 
-- Post 
Lightroom : Cropping ,initial toning and levels 
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

#project365 year1 [day 006] Dailies from Scotland

June 6, 2016

Day 6 of the road trip and we have left the Scottish mainland... Is it still mainland even though Great Britain is an island? Anyway, we are now in the Hebrides off the West coast of Scotland, on the beautiful Lewis island. Getting the ferry from Ullapool seems to be the best way to get here, as it makes for a great trip with gorgeous scenery.

-- Gear 
Fujifilm X-T1 
FUJINON XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR 
-- Post 
Lightroom : Cropping ,initial toning and levels 
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

#project365 year1 [day 005] Dailies from Scotland

June 5, 2016

Day 5 got us to our first taste of whisky at the Glenmorangie distillery just outside Tain, on our way from Inverness to the Highlands West coast north of Ullapool. Has as been the case the last few days, the day starts grey but the sun dominates the sky by lunch time.

-- Gear 
Fujifilm X-T1 
FUJINON XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR 
-- Post 
Lightroom : Cropping ,initial toning and levels 
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

#project365 year1 [day 004] Dailies from Scotland

June 5, 2016

Day four got us from Glen Coe to the capital of the Highlands, Inverness. Stopping at Fort Augustus to see the south side of the Loch Ness, and also stopping at the Urquhart Castle which has some great views over the Ness.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
FUJINON XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial toning, levels and cropping
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

#project365 year1 [day 003] Dailies from Scotland

June 4, 2016

Day 3 of our Scottish road trip starts at the shores of Loch Lomond, and took us up to Glen Coe. Along the way passing through the hidden Falls of Falloch, and up to the Glencoe Sky resort which has breath taking views and a bicycle downhill course for the adrenaline junkies. Picture of the day was taken at Loch Leven where todays journey ended.

-- Gear
Fujifilm X-T1
FUJINON XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR
-- Post
Lightroom : Initial toning and levels
Nik's Silver Efex Pro : B&W conversion

Dailies from Wien, Österreich

March 30, 2016

Vienna, Austria, Easter 2016

Just a small post about the recent trip to Vienna over the extended Easter weekend.

Vienna is the capital, and primary city, in Austria with a population of 1.8 million. Until the beginning of the 20th century it was the largest German-speaking city in the world, and before the splitting of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in World War I the city had 2 million inhabitants. Today it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin. It's city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. Apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be "The City of Dreams" because it was home to the world's first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud

Day one was the typical very long first day, but with a bit of time to get our bearings on the city after finding our hotel. With the weather against us, we headed to the center of town for a stroll.

Pick of the day has the Johannes Gutenberg statue in front of the Regensburger Hof building home of the Lugeck tavern.

Day 2 started with the sun barging in through the windows, setting the mood for the day. Vienna looks great in sunshine. All the opulence of the gold plated monuments around the town center shine, and you feel you are in a city that at some point in time was the center of the world. We just spent the day walking around town, starting with the Austrian Parliament building.

Day 3 was dedicated to the majestic Schonbrunn Palace, and thankfully had a glorious sunshine to make it a great day out in the gardens. Going up to the Gloriette for a light lunch is always a good idea, as it seats on top of a hill and has some of the best views of the city.

Day 4 saw the return of the clouds and the cold weather, but still had some sunshine moments. One of the must see places, the City Hall at the Rathausplatz, was the obvious choice to start the last day since it was a 5 min walk from the hotel. Visiting the Johann Strauss statue at the Stadtpark was the next stop, and a walk about the park is recommended if you like art-nouveau.

day 4 - Johann Strauß Denkmal — day 4 - Johann Strauß Denkmal

So, why is this post called Dailies from Wien, Österreich?
Well the second part is self explanatory, just the original name of Vienna and Austria, but the term dailies is not so common.

Dailies, in filmmaking, is the raw, unedited footage shot during the making of a motion picture. They are so called because usually at the end of each day, that day's footage is developed, synced to sound, and printed on film in a batch (or telecined onto video tape or disk) for viewing the next day by the director and some members of the film crew. However, the term can be used to refer to any raw footage, regardless of when it is developed or printed.(from wikipedia)

And It is a term I always liked to describe the rough first choice I tend to make every night at the hotel after a day shooting. Although they are not raw images, I always go through my dailies preset, they do represent a very raw perspective of the day just so I can post something from the day.
More on my dailies processing on a future post...