Posts about Italy
Probably my favourite thing to do when visiting a city is to seek out special light with my camera. It helps me truly see the details of the place I’m visiting.
Clearing out a hard drive, I came across a file with some notes made whilst travelling in Sicily in 2009.
I’ve never really been one for creating “fine art” from my photographs, but I have always loved producing prints. There’s something deeply nostalgic and satisfying about spending time creating a really good photographic print, then selecting the best paper (a lustre-effect one by my preference) and creating a proper photographic print to pore over. In…
Taking good, “nice” photographs of beautiful surroundings is like shooting fish in a barrel when you live somewhere as beautiful as Switzerland. Even going for a lunchtime constitutional with an iPhone in your pocket, you can take a couple of snaps of the magnificent lake view. Share them on social media, where they get lost…
We took advantage of a much-reduced number of tourists in July to visit Venice. I came away with an unexpected number of good and unique photographs.
It’s been a very difficult year, but the sadness has been diluted a little with some lovely memories along the way. Here’s to a better 2019.
Black-and-white photos from wanderings in the Italian Cinque Terre.
The sad way in which the success of a local tourism industry is putting paid to the draw of a peaceful, beautiful region of northern Italy.
Attempting to get away from baking temperatures, we headed for the mountains and a hike across summer snow fields to the Gries glacier.
The centre of attention for visitors to the Bay of Naples is a dormant volcano. Standing massive above the plains containing Naples, Ercolano (Herculaneum) and Pompeii, it constantly draws the eye. As a photographer, it’s pretty difficult to avoid having it as a main element in any wider landscape photo in the region. Its destructive…
Arriving in the town of Bacoli, on the headland a few miles west of the centre of Naples, you feel a long way from the tourist crowds and certainly not anywhere historic or especially noteworthy. But look into the history of the area and you’ll find that the bay here, now surrounded by slightly shabby buildings and busy with…
One of the best parts of visiting Positano is a stroll through the roads and lanes from the upper town to the beach-side restaurants, stopping off in the shops and for ice-cream on the way.
An unexpected water spout on the boat journey between Ischia, Capri and Positano in Italy.
The gruesome crypt beneath the former monastery in the Aragonese Castle of Ischia Ponte.
The lighthouse on Molo di San Vincenzo (the main breakwater of the harbour) in Naples was built in 1950 but taken out of service just 29 years later, being superseded by an electric alternative on a lattice structure nearby. The statue in front of the tower is of San Gennaro (original name Januarius), the patron saint of Naples, who…
“At the top of the great stone lighthouse, hidden beyond the ridge of the southern headland, the slaves were dousing the fires to greet the dawn. It was supposed to be a sacred place. According to Virgil, this was the spot where Misenus, the herald of the Trojans, slain by the sea god Triton, lay…
What is it they say? “I don’t know what art I like; but I know it when I see it.” I was captivated by this golden, glowing painting in the Santa Croce church of Florence when we visited in 2011. I don’t know whether it was the depth of detail in the painting, the tremendously…
