The Significant Other and I are spending the first days of the year in our “Southern Home” in Genoa. Yesterday afternoon we walked from our place into the historic center to see the exhibition of Genoa born photographer Lisetta Carmi in the Palazzo Ducale (will do a separate post about the exhibition). Her black & white street photography work is really inspiring, and as I was with the Fuji in the Centro Storico, I dialed in the ACROS film simulation for some monochrome shooting of my own. For the resulting images (all jpgs out of the camera) continue after the jump….
This house is on fire – as a lighthouse should be. Only that the backlighted illumination of Genoa’s historic lighthouse, La Lanterna, is natural, with the sun setting directly behind the almost 500 year old structure guiding to the entrance of the port of “La Superba”, as Genoa is also known since medieval times. The photo is a throwback to last November, when, during the first days of the month, the sun is setting directly behind the Lanterna, with 77 meters height the tallest lighthouse in the Mediterranean and still the second tallest in Europe.
The Significant Other and I left Austria on New Year’s Day to spend the last days of our Christmas break at our “Southern Home” in Genoa on the Ligurian Coast in Italy, enjoying the perfect weather, as beautiful as on that November day when I captured the lighthouse on fire with my iPhone 14 Pro while strolling along the Porto Antico.
Tonight is “All Hallow’s Eve”, the eve before the religious feast All Saints (aka All Hallow’s Day), remembering the dead, saints and martyrs of christianity. Obviously that calls for an appropriate street photograph, albeit one from the archives (but previously unpublished on this blog). I captured this shot I dubbed Halloween Hunting two years ago during a Halloween event in Genoas medieval city center.
Also this year, there is another Halloween Ghost Tour on the Streets of Genoa. The Significant Other and I still need to decide whether to go. Having spent last night on the road traveling down to our Home (South), and after putting in a full day for the work that pays the bills, there might not be enough energy left to go Halloween Hunting tonight 😉
Taken with my Leica SL2-S and the TTArtisan 50mm .95 prime M-Mount lens. Image specs are 1/250 sec | f/2.8 | ISO 6400 | 50mm.
Raw processing and monochrome conversion in Lightroom Classic.
If you like to go Halloween hunting tonight and are still looking for some tips and inspirations around street photography, check out my free Learning Center.
Whether these two ladies, running up the marble stairs of Genoa’s wonderful Basilica della Santissima Annunziata del Vastato, are late for mass, is pure speculation. But it is one of these wonderful stories that make street photography so worthwhile.
Snapshot taken with my iPhone, cropping and monochrome conversion in Lightroom Classic.
Yesterday, after a long workday, The Significant Other and I headed down to Genoa’s Porto Antico for an “Apericena”, Cocktails combined with Italian Tapas. I was pleasantly surprised, when the Regent of the Household suggested to visit the Summer Luna Park set up in the Harbor on the way back to our place. “So you can take some photographs while I look what the fair has to offer”. No questions asked from my side 🙂 . While having the X-T2 with me, I shot also various images with my iPhone, leveraging the feature to turn images taken with the “Live” function of the camera app turned on into long exposure photographs (you can to that in the photo app). Check out more image of the series “Luna Park with an iPhone” after the jump….
There is always something going on in Via Pré, in Genoa’s medieval Centro Storico. In daytime buzzing with live between all those little shops, but also during night. While this street photograph seems very cluttered, I still like it a lot. First of all, Via Pré is normally very cluttered, and then there is a lot going on in the moment I captured that shot around 10:30pm on a sizzling hot August night when walking home with The Significant Other after a nice dinner in the old center. A lot of little stories of the street are told here, each of those nightwalkers going about their daily lives.
Taken with the Fuji X-T2 and the Fujinon XF 1:2.8-4/18-55mm R LM OIS, image specs 1/50 sec @ f/4, ISO 3200 and 40mm focal length (60mm full frame equivalent). Monochrome conversion in Lightroom Classic.
Talking about LCR, I didn’t manage fixing that corrupted catalogue file, so I had to restore from my last June 2nd backup. I lost about two months worth of editing, but as I didn’t photograph much it was overseeable damage. And a good reminder to regularly BACK UP MY DATA. Especially as Lightroom kindly reminds me every week. Only that I typically click that reminder away. Not any more. Promised to myself.
Strolling through Genoa’s Centro Storico the other night I took this street photograph with my Fuji X-T2 and the Fujinon XF 1:2.8-4/18-55mm R LM OIS. I like this shot, for the composition, color balance, light, gesture and the story. I tried a monochrome conversion, but stuck with color. You might note, that the neon sign of the little Trattoria is inverted, as it is transparent and shows the “right” side uphill to were likely more potential customers come from when walking down Via San Bernardo towards the port area. So when doing post production in Lightroom Classic, I mirrored the image horizontally, so the sign reads the right way. But with that, I think, the photograph lost its visual balance. Check for yourself after the jump….
After posting all those landscape and nature images, it is about time to get back to some Street Photography, which is still the main theme of this blog. I just love this simple shot I took the other week in Genoa‘s Old Town. Young people queuing after midnight in front of one of La Superba’s most famous “watering holes”, the “Bar degli Asinelli” in Via Canneto il Lungo, enjoying a mild spring night out. Asinello means donkey in Italian, hence the animal on the sign of the bar. But Asinello is also the local liqueur with vermouth, cinchona bark, rhubarb and gentian. Behind the bar, the two legendary owners Adriano and La Marchesa welcome you in an ambience of days gone by, between mirrors and furniture from the sixties.
The image was taken with my iPhone 14 Pro, jpg out of camera.
If you looking for tips and inspirations around street photography, check out my free Learning Center.
I took this photograph while sitting on the balcony of our “South” home with a glass of a very good Italian Red, and I captured it with my iPhone 14 Pro. In all fairness, it took me about 60 attempts to finally catch the lightning, and what a nice one it was. Soon after the shot, the rain started pounding and the spectacle was over. It’s still raining, so we’re having a rather wet Mayday. But who would complain about enjoying a very lazy public holiday?
It was the purple attire of the lady sitting on a bench in front of the Genoa-Pegli train station that caught my eye. That there was the little dog playing hide and seek behind her boots I realized only with the second glance while passing her and snapping this colorful street shot with my iPhone 14 Pro. Proof once ago that the streets are full of little stories waiting to be discovered and captured. There are a few articles in my Learning center about this, like Instant Inspiration (23) – Hidden Street Portrait and Street Photography Quick Tip 5 – Composition – the hidden subject. Most important, take you camera, hit the streets and have fun capturing the stories of the streets.
Easter is about color. As my Easter Egg for you, I’ll give you a colorful post this Easter Sunday. Enjoy some views of Genoa from above. Exactly one week ago The Significant Other and I had the chance to visit a Candlelight Concert on top of the Grattacielo Piacentini, the highest skyscraper in town. With the concert (film music by Ennio Morricone) came the opportunity to enjoy the splendid views from “La Superba”, as Genoa is affectionately known. Click below for more views of Genoa from above…
When live gives you lemons…make lemonade. If the sunny weather forecasted for an afternoon spent at Lido di Camaiore in Tuscany turns out to be rather dull, use the bad light for some long exposure photography of the incoming waves. All these shots were taken with 1/8 sec exposure speed, perfect for these kind of images. I didn’t carry any ND filters in my bag, which would have been necessary to reduce the incoming light enough to (combined with closing down the aperture and lowering the ISO) get to 1/8 sec on a bright afternoon. So using the bad and rather dark light as my natural grey filter helped me to play with shapes and textures of the waves….click below for a few more images.
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