HDR's Cheatin'!

Quickly took a bracket of 9 photos (ahhh D200 bracket burst!) from + and - 4Ev at 1Ev stops. Bang it all together with some photoshop magic and you have a HDR, play around a bit and you have a photo that can't be done without digital photography. Makes even my backyard look interesting. Ah well new trick up my sleeve, but better not use it as a crutch too much.

Carrara - Fosdinovo Castle

Quarry from Township of Carrara

We continued from Pietrasanta to the source of Carrara Marble, quarried since roman times, used in sculptures such as Michelangelo's David


Township of Carrara




Giant Bees




Lardo again!

We then continued to Fosdinovo castle which had amazing views from the rampart of the surrounding country side.








Gio managed to convince me to get in front of the camera, once again resulting in a photo which confirms why I belong on the other end of a camera.



We got home just in time before Viareggio got hit by a large storm... so pretty!

Pietra Santa

I'm not usually one for religious works, but sometimes like at Pietra Santa, I find them awe inspiring. Even though I don't quite get the God thing, they do feel ethereal, primarily because of the effort gone into them.

North Stradbroke Diving

Just as a quick aside, I went diving on the weekend with a bunch of uni people on North Stradbroke. It was an amazing couple of days weather wise.

Dive 1:
Site: Flat Rock
Start pressure: 220 bar
End pressure: 50 bar
Bottom Time: 50 min
Rate: 3.4 bar/min
Max depth: 26m
Visibility: +20m
Conditions: Calm, light swell

Dive 2:
Site: Manta Bommie
Start pressure: 230 bar
End pressure: 55 bar
Bottom time: 47 min
Rate: 3.72 bar/min
Max depth: 13.1m
Visibility: 20m
Conditions: Strong current outside of dive site, some surge

Fauna: Manta Rays, leopard sharks, wobbegong sharks, Octopi, small rays, green turtles, nudibranchs, Moray Eels, puffer fish.

Highlights: Lying face down in front of a leopard shark and just watching it. Watching Matt B razz up a puffer fish so it blew up. Manta ray (even though it was in the distance). Swimming with a turtle.

We stayed on North Stradbroke over the weekend and had a great time just hanging about. After the trip I think we were all pretty exhausted and needed another weekend.

Photos from the weekend can be found here

Desperately wanting a housing for my D200 now.

It really LEANS!

As you can guess, you can't go to Pisa without at least seeing the Leaning Tower! Gio apparently walks straight past it on her way to uni! She says it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the tourists all trying to pretend to push it over or hold it up. Luckily I got there before the press of tour buses, and sure enough it did look ridiculous as the myriads of people all jostled to take photos of themselves holding it up. I scoffed at them for being so pathetic, but deep inside I knew the only reason why I wasn't one of them was I didn't trust anyone with my camera L

Gio Blogs IV

Righto, after a long hiatus and perhaps forgetting quite a bit of my journey, I have finally returned to my Italy trip photos with a vengeance. The time spent on the wedding photos wasn't all bad, taught me to sharpen up my colour balance skills etc, and that sometimes oversaturation can add dramatic effect to an otherwise dull photo. Not that any of my photos are all that exciting to begin with.

There as a huge feast thrown for Gio's Birthday at her grandma's house. I have never eaten to excess like I did there, so many tasty foods, including a Tuscan speciality called "Lardo". Might not sound tasty, but it was mouth wateringly flavoursome with garlicky goodness.

Gio, could have romantically spent her birthday with her boyfriend, but instead she had to drag my sorry arse to a lovely town called Lucca, which, once upon a time, was a direct rival to Pisa. We walk through leafy boulevards and along the protective walls of the township, apparently they were built at the time when Cannons were all the rage and hence were much thicker and sturdier than those of Pisa.

Inside were spectacular villas, piazzas and churches. I was blown away. I met some of Gio's friends (Hullo!) and we had coffee in a secluded piazza not frequent by tourists as it was tucked out of the way.

Villa Bottini

Torre Guinigi

Duomo San Frediano

Duomo San Michele

Testing Word 2007 integration

So I have lumped money in this Office 2007 bandwagon. And it's giving me grief mainly, oh well it took me the last ten years to learn how to deal with the old office, so I guess I had better start again.

Been busy with predominately wedding photos (well still busy with them really), and haven't had a chance to play with my own photos of late. Still have a heap of Italy trip photos to put up, so I will get back to it once I have finished my other photo commitments (sorry Selina and Angus… soon really soon!)

Watch this space.

UPDATE: Chris and Michelle's Wedding Photos