This blog post is gong to divided into multiple sections. This is one of those trips where you travel a lot, see a lot, and shoot a lot, but don't always get what you want. So while I could easily show a few pictures for each day, instead, I will be highlighting the most memorable and amazing places I visited and shot. Not all of the images in this blog post will make my portfolio, but the places they were taken were such an inspiration to me that I feel it would be a crime not to release some of these photos in another form.
This post will skip around, and each new location will be given its own header. The locations are given in the same order I visited them.
Rome
My first stop was in Rome. Of course, there are many famous locations to shoot in Rome, as it has some of the oldest and most amazing architecture in the world. Unfortunately, this means heavy crowds and immense amounts of construction. While I had planned to shoot certain locations, such as the colosseum, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong, from the crowds to the weather to the construction of a new subway line to metro strike while I was there.
However, there is so much to shoot in Rome, I was still able to go out every evening to shoot something different. Sadly, between the worst jet lag I have ever experienced and the 100° heat mixed with nearly 100% humidity, I couldn't manage to get out in the mornings.
The shot I wanted most is a well-known bridge called the Ponte Umberto. It sits one bridge down from the Castel de San Angelo and has one of the best views of the dome on St. Peter's Cathedral in the Vatican. The bridge was surprisingly not crowded with photographers, as I thought it might be. I was also very fortunate on this night to have one of the best sunsets I would seen on the 1 month long trip.
This image is a composite of several images. One image shot earliest contains the information in the tree, which were moving too much in the later hours to get a sharp exposure without raising my ISO. Another exposure served as the base exposure for the buildings and roads. One more exposure was taken after the lights came on so those could be blended in, and a final exposure shot at the same time as the one for buildings was used for the sky.
On the second night, I moved to the bridge that can be seen in the previous photo, known as Ponte San Angelo. I wanted to shoot the castle, but this image would be turn out to be a processing nightmare. Ponte San Angelo is a pedestrian bridge, and is crowded until the later hours in the evening, at which point there is little light left to shoot with. My strategy was to put my tripod in a single place with shutter relsae cable. As the crowds moved, different areas of the bridge and castle became visible. In photoshop, with some masking, I could blend in the frames that were clear of people and end up with a shot completely devoid of humans. I used only a single exposure for the sky, but the foreground and castle consist of around 20 different exposures with some extra clone stamping to clean up areas that were never clear. While I consider myself to be skilled in photoshop, this was tedious, time consuming, and difficult. In the end, though, the result justifies the hard work.
These were the only two images from Rome I was truly happy with. Nothing seemed to go right, and the jet lag didn't help. I still walked away with 2 great images in 3 days, so not too bad at all. My next stop would be the Cinque Terre.
Cinque Terre
The Cinque Terre is a group of five towns (hence the name) on the coast towards the Northwestern corner of Italy. These towns began to form around 900 years ago and today are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. My home for the next few day was in the town of Vernazza, my favorite of the five villages. I stayed in a small apartment up some of the steepest stairs that one could climb. Lugging a suitcase along with my photography equipped up server floors of 18 inch stairs counted as enough of a workout for that day. Being coastal towns, the seafood is what shines. Ranging from shrimp to various fish to octopus, they had many choices served either alone, or with pasta. The region of Italy in which the Cinque Terre exists is also famous for its pesto and focaccia, which can be thought of as a flatbread pizza. Pesto focaccia became the staple for lunches while in the Cinque Terre.
Since I was staying in Vernazza, my favorite view point of the Cinque Terre was easy to access. Only about a 10 minute hike up the hill behind the town, this was an obvious shoot the for the first night. I ate an early dinner and worked my way up the hill. I'm glad I went up that evening to shoot this spot, since again I got such an amazing sunset. This photo is a 4 image composite, the base, one to compensate for the sky, another to get the brightest part of the sky, and one more to get an interesting shape to the crashing waves on the left side of the frame. While I had a good feeling at the time, I had no idea that this would turn out to be my favorite and best image of the trip.
To my dismay, the next few shoots didn't go so well, usually due to either bad light or foliage that didn't allow me to get into the spot I wanted. However, my last two shoots did cooperate. The last night I ate dinner by the castle on the tip of the small peninsula. I then made my way down all the stairs and around the small bay where the harbor is. On this side, a whole new perspective can be taken on Vernazza, and although the sunset wasn't the best I had ever seen, it was certainly a nice evening with a fantastic subject.
This image consists of only two exposures, one for the base and another for the city lights. The biggest challenge with this images was correcting the serious wide angle distortion. It was shot at 10mm on my Fuji X-T2, which gives the equivalent full frame field of view as a 15mm lens. This type of wide angle produces serious distortion which is especially apparent on buildings, which generally have straight vertical lines. When shooting architecture or buildings of any sort, unless lines are deliberately left slanted, they should always be made vertical in post.
On my final day in the Cinque Terre, I had to catch a train to my next location around 11 am. Which meant I could still shoot sunrise. I caught the first train, a 4:45 am, to Manarola and headed for the classic viewpoint. Unlike any other town in the Cinque Terre, where the best viewpoints aren't obviously marked for tourists, Manarola has a paved pathway that winds its was to the opposing peninsula. While this makes my access easy, it also means shooting sunset is near impossible as it gets so crowded with tourists. At the early hour I was there, only a few shopkeepers were there to wash down their patios or prepare their tables. From the overlook I was stood on, I could see several of the towns, and watching the ground slowly lighten and the city lights fade was a magical experience that only I had that morning.
This image, like the previous, is only two exposures. There is a base image, and there is one for the city lights. While I am generally a big fan of the golden hour and sunset/ sunrise shoots with incredible color, I learned to enjoy shooting the blue hour and contrasting the cool blue sky with the warmer city lights. It creates a contrast that makes the city feel more homely while also adding interest to the image.
Lago di Como
My time in the Cinque Terre was over, and I moved on northward to the Lago di Como, or Lake Como. Known for its wealth, it is the getaway for many of the rich and famous from around the world, and its beauty has allowed major movie franchises like James Bond and Star Wars to film there. While the area is beautiful, it is also one of those places where it seems there is no good place to shoot from. It is so beautiful, but not photogenic from most angles. I tried moving up on the surrounding hillsides, but the towns became indistinguishable, I tried shooting from a boat, but the images were flat. Ultimately, I settled on a simple composition in the town of Varenna, where I was staying. This sunrise shoot was luckily only about a 5 minute walk from my door.
This image is 4 shots composited, one base, one for city lights, one for the sky, and one for the boats, which were bobbing the water a little. In post, I decided to give this image a slight fairy tale glow, while still chiseling out the edges of the buildings to give a sharp but soft look to the image. While it is not my favorite image of the trip, it captured an area of Italy that I do not see many other photographers visiting, which was the goal of going to the lake as opposed to spending more time somewhere else.
Venice
Venice is a city known worldwide for its unique canal system and the gondolas. Its uniqueness makes it a major tourist attraction bring in countless tourists form all over the world. For photographers, this means that we have to battle the crowds every time we go out. Or, alternatively, we go out when there is never anyone out: before the sun rises. When in Venice, I woke up somewhere in the 4 am range every day, and was back between 7 and 8 am every day. Sunset shoots were out of the questions at this time of year. The summer is the high of the tourist season and setting up at a major attraction during the high season and expecting your tripod to not get bumped or knocked over, or your gear not to a prime target for thieves is ridiculous.
I was staying the southwest corner of Venice, but where you stay in Venice isn't important, since everything is about a 20 minute walk using google maps as a guide. For my first shoot, I went to the place closest to where I was staying. The Academia Bridge is one of the largest and most famous bridges in Venice. It can be spotted in many movies and is a classic view in Venice.
This image is a simple 2 image composite of the city lights and the sky. This morning was one of those awful mornings where the sunrise behind me was amazing, but in front was still good, but not quite as epic. I think most landscape and cityscape photographers have been there at one point, and we all know how terrible that feeling is.
Most locations in Venice, if you want a clean image, are early morning locations. While I was there, the Vaporettos, which are Venetian water taxis, started running between 5 and 6 am. So in order to get smooth water and not any tourists, shooting in the early morning is essential.
My next location was a little further from the small hotel where I was staying. I made the walk over the Piazza San Marco, one of the world's most famous squares. There is so much that can be shot here, but there are two spots that are within about 20 meters of each other and is one of the few places that with only a single camera you can shoot two totally different shots on the same morning and capture the same fantastic early morning light. The two locations are the Bridge of Sighs and the San Giovanni church across the water. I first shot the church, since the water was devoid of boats at the early hour I was there, which later turned out to be a wise choice, since a massive cruise ship parked itself right in the middle of my frame during the golden hour. Directly behind me was the Bridge of Signs, named since its windows were the last view of the outsides that prisoners would see while being walked from the courthouse into the prison where they would spend the rest of their lives, which may have been short depending on their sentence. This shot was taken slightly later, since the sun was rising behind the bridge and cast a warm light on half of the buildings.
The first image was a three shot composite of the base image, the posts, which needed to be brightened, and city lights. I also had to paint out part of a boat that bobbed in and out of frame. Since the exposure was around 45 seconds, this wasn't too painful. The second image is a composite of two images, one for the base and another for the city lights and sky. This morning had a lovely blue hour and the golden hour just slowly crept over the horizon, so had about two hours of reasonable soft and beautiful light to work with. Like I mentioned, though, a cruise ship blocked off the first composition. In addition, the water started to get rough and I had to shorten my exposures. After about 5:15 am, when the latter images was shot, neither of these shots looked nearly as good.
While in Venice, I tried a few other compositions, since as shooting from the Rialto, but nothing else when to plan, so these images were all I was able to capture. In photography though, shooting 3 sunrises and 1 sunset and walking away with 3 good images is a feat in itself, so it is tough to be too upset.
Hallstatt
Hallstatt, Austria was my final major stop of the trip. Hallstatt itself is very beautiful, but there is so much to see in the area that it is difficult not to stop. I had trained all the way though Italy up to Innsbruck where I picked up a car. I drove north and stayed a night in Salzburg. There is some much history in the area and while driving through the Salzkammergut that I would have loved to have some time to just explore and leave my camera behind. There is also a lot of fun to be had in the area. Once of my favorites are the Sommer alpine Rutschen, or summer aline slides. These are often built on ski runs and are covered by snow in the winter. In the summer, they tow you up the mountain and send you flying down a mental chute in what is basically a go-card with no motor. Other activities include boating and base jumping off the many surrounding peaks like 5 Finger, a viewing platform above Lake Hallstatt in the Dachstein range, specifically Mount Krippenstein. While these are fun, I was there for the famous shot of Hallstatt.
Before I shot the famous view of Hallstatt, I did go up the mountains to check out the old salt mine and the ice cave that only exists during the summer. I also went out to five fingers and the Hallstatt Skywalk, where some amazing panoramas of the surrounding area can be taken. This is a view of Obertraun, where I stayed and recommend staying if you want to shoot Hallstatt, since the town itself is so crowded. This was taken from the Skywalk, which, like 5 Fingers, is a platform that hangs out over the edge of a several thousand foot cliff. I would be happy to argue that these two views are some of the best viewpoints in the world. They aren't necessarily the most photogenic, but it would be easy to sit up there and have a picnic every day for the rest of my life.
Finally, it was time to get the big shot of Hallstatt. This is a sunrise location, since the water from the lake will form a fog or low cloud layer most mornings. I was unfortunate to get so few low clouds on my first day, and too many to allow for a sunrise on my second. However, the location is just one of those spots where it doesn't really matter if all the conditions fell into place perfectly, it was still beautiful and created a stunning photograph.
This shot is serious composite, since the clouds were always moving. I shot for about 2 hours, from 5 am to 7 am. There is the base exposure, another two for the clouds in the sky, another few for the lower clouds, another for the water, another to sharpen the moving trees, and a final one to add some details to the lighting and texture in the buildings. Some might consider this cheating, however I disagree. My goal was to caputre the entire feeling of the morning, not just a single moment. Therefore, I wanted to encorperate everything that happened during the time I was there. This one took a long time to put together, but it is the culmination of everything that happened over a two hour period at this amazing location.
While I love the classic view of Hallstatt, it is a classic for a reason: everyone has shot it. So I also wanted to try something different. That night, I went to the other end of the town, towards the ferry dock, and set up my tripod. I wisely chose a location near a bench, so I could have some dinner and relax while my camera did the work. This is only a two shot composite where one is the base and the other is for the sky. Personally, I like this perspective and shot more than the classic view.
Conclusion
That concludes my time in Europe this summer. While I did visit many other places, like Florence, Pisa, Milan, and a variety of other big cities and small towns along the way, none of them stood out in any way. They didn't produce amazing photos and they didn't produce amazing memories. As much as I enjoyed seeing some famous works of art or experiencing pieces of history, these don't stand out as inspirational highlights that make me desperate to return to a location. To keep this post inspirational and fun, I left out these locations so you can experience them yourself and so I don't have to talk about Renaissance art. As always, send me a message with any questions or comments on my contact page and most important, get out there and get shooting!
Gear List
While gear isn't really important, it can be nice to know what was used to capture an image. Here is list of the most important pieces of gear I had with me:
- Fuji X-T2
- XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR
- XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS
- XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR
- FEISOL CT-3442
- Sirui K-40x Ball Head
- Lowepro Whister 350 Backpack
- Cheap Vello shutter release cable