Featured Forum Thread: "Greetings from Italy" by Ray Sachs

Took a side trip to Positano today - that's where we'll be spending the third and fourth week of this fantastic trip. Praiano is beautiful but everything is sort of a variation on the same amazing beautiful view. Positano is much more interesting, although also much more touristy, but only down in the center near the beach. Take a walk and it gets pretty Italian pretty quickly.

I shot everything with the Fuji 14mm today - I'd brought the Fuji as almost an afterthought, but it'll probably be my most used camera in the tight little spaces of Positano. And I'd forgotten how incredibly much I love Fuji colors!

The first is on the main street through Praiano, waiting for the bus. The rest are Positano...

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Praiano by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Positano-10-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Positano-36-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Positano-38-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Positano-43-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Positano-18-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Wonderful images from a beautiful country. My only concern is that you did only bring 5 cameras with you and the week has 7 days...... ;) Enjoy your vacation and continue to share your Italy impressions with us.
 
Waiting for a bus :eek: ...get a scooter Ray !
Ha! I've thought about it and may rent one the last week, when the visitors are gone and its just my wife and I. But this week my elderly mother-in-law is here and my daughter just showed up for the next 2 1/2, so I don't want to just go off on my own much. But, frankly, I'm not sure I trust myself around Italian drivers on a scooter. They're good drivers, but the roads are crowded and they deal with it differently than I've been programmed to. And on THESE roads, I could all too easily get absorbed in the view and suddenly find myself in a several hundred foot free fall! So, maybe, maybe not...

-Ray
 
Wow, Ray, great stuff!!!

Sorry, I've been busy and kind of had my head-in-the-sand and missed a lot of stuff. Still catching up.
No problem - I'm not doing as much looking as usual while I'm here - combination of shooting and processing and also fitting in the vacation stuff, and not enough bandwidth - I won't be able to check out your video until I get home and have broadband again...

-Ray
 
Wonderful images from a beautiful country. My only concern is that you did only bring 5 cameras with you and the week has 7 days...... ;) Enjoy your vacation and continue to share your Italy impressions with us.

I had to leave room to buy a couple more while I'm here! :D

Kidding. Obviously, I hope! But it will be really interesting to see how the different cameras shake out over the course of the whole trip. So far, the Nikon/Sigma 28mm cams are getting the most use - no surprise there. The OMD is playing the role I thought it would with the 75mm (I have the 9-18 along too and may pull it out one of these days). The Fuji 14 is gonna get a lot more use than I anticipated, I can tell that just from shooting with it yesterday. The odd man out so far is the RX1, which pains me. I bought it with this trip very much in mind. But as amazing as its IQ is, I just don't see nearly as naturally with that focal length as I do with wider options. Particularly in this environment when wider seems to work better in both the tight spaces and for the wider open landscapes. And while its IQ is absolutely and mind-bendingly better, it may not be better enough to matter 99% of the time. We'll see - I'm gonna give it a good solid chance the rest of the month. Its a pleasure to use, no question, but the focal length is a real tradeoff for me...

-Ray
 
Better sell that useless RX1.

I gonna use it as much as possible, particularly for low light shooting in Positano, when we're there. Hopefully I'll bond with it. But, IF I manage not to really connect with it on this trip, I don't know when I will. In which case I probably would sell it. But I hope that's not the case - I like it a lot and figure it'll really come into its own at some point on this trip.

-Ray
 
Great armchair travel via this thread, Ray, and I do appreciate your personal views on which cameras you feel more compelled to shoot with while on this trip.

Keep 'em coming but don't spend too much time online - we're a patient group, for the most part.

Promise to go swimming for me!
 
Great armchair travel via this thread, Ray, and I do appreciate your personal views on which cameras you feel more compelled to shoot with while on this trip.

Keep 'em coming but don't spend too much time online - we're a patient group, for the most part.

Promise to go swimming for me!
Not to worry. I'm only online when we're relaxing at our place. Which given the view and the presence of my 78 year old Mother in Law, we're doing a fair amount of. But I've been swimming a couple of times and she leaves Saturday, so less and less time around the apt, probably. Today was rainy until mid-afternoon, so no shooting during the day. But we went out to dinner at a nearby hotel and finally had some clouds for a nice sunset. Here's the view through the hotel lobby window, and one of the sunset... Both with the Nikon, which I stuck in my pocket to take to dinner...

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Positano-12-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Positano-34-Edit-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Hey Ray! I missed the start of this thread due to being busy, and just plain missing it. Love the photos! I'm jealous and wish I could be in Italy this summer.

Fantastic images! The second is especially to my liking, though all are strong. Not a bad way to spend some time. Enjoy and congratulations!

Stan

PS it appears you've taken a lot of cameras :) I'm guessing bag with all the cameras far outweighed the bag with your clothes.
 
Ray, the photos and stories are great so far. But next time you shoot an image with a flat stretch of water on the horizon and it's not level, you need to give up one camera. I don't ask much of travel photos...really just two things..... horizon level....and not in the center of the frame. Seriously...anything else is fair game. Now where are your famous street shots?! Are there no other tourists anywhere?

Enough brow-beating......enjoy your trip.
 
I have a perverse need to DARE the damn water to leak out the edge of the image if it can. So far, hasn't happened, but I want to see it TRY! I sort of try to keep things level, but my head is un-level enough that close is as close as I get sometimes. As for rules of composition, I don't believe in 'em. Sometimes I end up with the water/horizon at a third or two thirds, as the rules would indicate. But if there's something else in the frame that says leave it halfway, or make it 6/16 or 10/17 or whatever, that's where it ends up. If you're ever planking in one of my shots, I promise to have your face down self at 1/3 or 2/3 - otherwise, no promises!

Not to worry - I'm enjoying it immensely and I have a feeling I'm gonna enjoy the second half in Positano even more than I'm enjoying the first. It would be a hard place NOT to enjoy...

-Ray
 
We took a boat ride to the island of Capri today. The RX1 is back in my good graces. I used it for the vast majority of shooting today, pulling the Nikon out for a couple of wider shots and some street shooting (I got bored waiting for the boat at the end of the day and there were mobs of people around, so what's a guy to do?), and the OMD and 75 for some personal family portrait stuff. The RX1's focal length will never be my most natural, but I like it fine for plenty of shooting.

Here are yet more scenic shots, with a couple of street shots tossed in at the bottom:

This is Positano - not Capri - from the boat:
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Capri RX1-119-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Capri RX1-43-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Capri RX1-49-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Capri RX1-150-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Capri RX1-103-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

And a few from the Nikon:

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Capri Nikon-11-Edit-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Capri Nikon-18-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

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Capri Nikon-14-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
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