Thank you so much for traveling with us over the past couple of weeks as we toured the Mediterranean. When comparing this trip with our safari, we found that we shot quite a few less photos. On the safari, we each shot over 6,000 photos, on this trip we each shot about 2,000 each (and this trip was longer!). Since city’s and buildings don’t move, we only needed to take a couple of shots at a time, keeping the totals low. When we were shooting the animals, we would rip off 20 or more in just a few seconds!
Over our two weeks of travel, we found the larger cities (e.g., Rome and Barcelona) the hardest to photograph. Sites and architecture were so tightly packed into the city we had trouble isolating the interesting buildings or icons. Street views were filled with people and traffic. It was the small villages and towns (less interesting to the masses) that we enjoyed the most. The back canals of Venice, the reflections in the water in Sete’, views from Ravello, and the local markets to name a few. We also enjoyed our experiences such as the private bell concert with the priest in Triluke Bay.
We continued to push out of our comfort zone with a lot of street shooting of people. We had to ask a stranger from a foreign land whether it was OK to photograph them. What if they say no? Being rejected is one of the toughest things we humans have to go through (men, think about asking a woman out for a date!). Luckily for us, most of the people said yes. There were a couple who did not. There was a great shot of an older gentleman smoking a cigarette, leaning back in a chair against an old weathered building. I asked with the photographer’s universal motion – pointing at my camera. He used the universal no by shaking his head. Communication completed. Photo, not so much. Ah well, there will be others, I thought at the time. Another person allowed me to photograph her painting a mask – but only from outside the store. Does this make any sense? Of course not, but I guess she wanted to show who was in control. In the end, I got the shot:
She didn’t say no but also didn’t say yes.
And, how could I ask this lady? Since we could not see her face, it was OK to shoot.
I didn’t want to interrupt her. She should be happy as I moved around to take the picture from the side, not the rear!
Other than these restrictions we got mostly yeses. You can see some of the shots in this earlier post: Venice and its People.
As we walked the cities and towns we found ourselves looking at the light. Is there something interesting where the light is shining? The pursuit of light became our mantra. This is great departure from shooting a mountain. We learned a lot from our trip. But most importantly we learned we want to take another one.
Thanks for following us and remember, its all about the light!
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