Jim Nix 9/25/16 Jim Nix 9/25/16

The best view of Florence

If you are looking for the best view of the skyline of Florence, Italy you can find that in today's blog post. But it's not a secret - I had to share it with a few hundred of my closest friends. :-)

The best view of Florence is at Piazzale Michelangelo, but this is NOT exactly a well-kept secret. ;-)

I love to capture skyline photos when I travel, but it's not always easy to do. Some cities just don't offer a good location for taking in the grand expanse of a place, but Florence Italy certainly does.

Prior to arriving here, I did some online research (as I always do before going somewhere) about Florence and it wasn't much of a time investment to figure out that Piazzale Michelangelo is the best view of town. It's a hell of a climb, but it's well worth it.

So I set off quite a while before sunset and clambered up the fairly steep hill to get here. My expectations were that I would find some folks here doing the same as me (or at least watching the sunset), but in reality this place is BUSY. It was literally jam packed. It's a big, wide plaza on the top of a hill, and there is a bar/restaurant and hordes of people. Of course, I was there in late summer so that is at least partly responsible for the crowds, but nonetheless it was a madhouse.

At first I was concerned I wouldn't be able to find a good spot, but surprisingly I did, and quickly. Once I got settled, I stayed there for quite a while. I was afraid to move actually, for fear of not getting another spot with a clear view. While most of the people there were of the tourist variety (no tripod, iPhone or point and shoot camera - though I want to point out there is nothing wrong with that), there were some others like myself that had all the gear set up and ready to go. I guess everyone got the message that this is THE spot for a skyline view.

While the sunset wasn't exactly magical, it's an incredible view of a beautiful city and one that I am very happy to have spent an evening capturing, even with my iPhone (yes, I still do that a LOT) and my point and shoot camera - not to mention my full frame Sony (which the above photo was captured with). I try and cover my bases by using several cameras, LOL. Besides, you can never take too many photos, right?

If you visit Florence, be sure and spend an evening up here catching the sunset. You'll be very glad that you did!

Jim Nix 9/18/16 Jim Nix 9/18/16

Two minutes in Florence

I've been experimenting with long exposures lately, so today I share something I created recently while shooting a sunset in Florence, Italy. This is a 2 minute exposure shot with a Vu 10-stop Filter attached. Check it out!

How about some long exposure fun from Florence, Italy? OK!

I have been experimenting with long exposures quite a bit over the last couple of months, using the Vu Filters kit that I recently acquired. It's an amazing bunch of filters, though my personal favorite is the 10 stop. I just love that thing!

It's definitely the filter I use the most, and for good reason - you can get some amazingly cool stuff out of it. If I am shooting water or clouds somewhere, I generally grab that filter and the fun begins immediately!

It allows me to really drag out an exposure much longer than I could do otherwise. In this case, it was sunset in Florence, Italy and I used it to craft this single exposure, which is 2 minutes long. You have to set up your camera in manual and bulb mode and turn off bracketing (three things I never would do otherwise!) and then you are off and running.

This was a beautiful sunset looking over the River Arno, which runs through the center of town. I did a few of these and then go back to bracketing the sunset, too. :-)

I edited this single exposure in Aurora HDR 2017 - such an amazing product!

Jim Nix 9/12/16 Jim Nix 9/12/16

Street art in Florence

I found myself on a quest while in Florence, Italy - a quest to capture as much of the work by street artist "Blub" as I could find. I discovered 16 works by the artist, so here they are. They all feature either a famous work of art or a famous person (real or imagined), each fitted with a swimming mask. It's a fun diversion from all that other art in the city!

I found myself on a quest while in Florence - looking for street art by someone named "Blub". This is WAY better than Pokemon Go.

I'm a fan of street art (some call it graffiti, or urban art, or a million other things) and find myself photographing it just about everywhere I go. It's always interesting and beautiful. When I was in Florence, I found myself on a bit of a quest, chasing works by the artist known as "Blub".

You see, we spent over a week there, and while the town is amazingly beautiful and full of possibly the best art in the world, you can get "art fatigue" as they call it. You see so many historic and famous works that after a while your brain just wants to melt. Or you need a beer. Or gelato. Yeah, gelato. Florence has the best gelato.

Anyhoo, as I walked around the town I started spotting these works in all sorts of places. Generally they were pictures drawn of a famous person (William Shakespeare, or Santa Claus), or a famous work of art (Mona Lisa), all with a swimming mask on their face. Something about it just got me interested, so I took a photo the first time I saw one.

Then, I saw another one, and another one, and so on. The quest had begun. I ended up capturing the 16 photos you will find here today. And FYI these were all shot with my iPhone. It's always with me, and especially for a quick snap it's hard to beat. And these aren't great shots, just quick snaps of something interesting. I wasn't trying to create art here - it's already art, anyway - but rather just a quick capture of cool street art.

Sadly, in some cases someone had marked on these, or torn them, or otherwise defaced them. I hate when people do that. This is still art and should be treated that way in my opinion. Enjoy it with your eyes, take a photo, and leave it alone people!

So if you find yourself taking a trip to Florence, take a break from the famous art and go on a hunt of a different sort, chasing these also beautiful and interesting works of art, scattered on street corners and tucked away little spots all over the city. It's quite fun and a great diversion from the art browsing you will do in places like The Uffizi.

I sent one of these pics to some friends and told them I was chasing these all over the city, and they said it was like some "high brow" version of Pokemon Go. I don't play that game, but I get the reference and definitely got addicted to this quickly! And it was way more interesting to me.

By the way, I found this artist's Instagram page if you want to follow their work. You can find that right here: https://www.instagram.com/lartesanuotare/

Click any image to embiggen...

Jim Nix 9/1/16 Jim Nix 9/1/16

iPhone highlights from Florence

There's something special about Florence, Italy. We recently spent over a week there, and I loved it. Here's an iPhone photo summary of some of the great things we witnessed!

Thought I might do this again, sort of a teaser of coming attractions!

After our time in Venice - which I shared here - we headed down to the lovely town of Florence (or Firenze to the Italians) for 9 wonderful evenings. We camped out in an apartment just a short walk to the Ponte Vecchio (that is the famous and often-photographed bridge), which is very central and made it super easy for me to get EVERYWHERE.

Literally, I went just about everywhere in town and photographed it top to bottom. I love it there, and I find the city very photogenic. I had a list prior to getting there of all the spots I wanted to shoot, and I made it to every one of them.

So this post is just a sampler platter, or a teaser of coming attractions, or whatever you want to call it. But basically here's a preview of what I shot there, except that these pics were all taken with my iPhone 6. I still shoot with my iPhone A LOT when I travel, and usually my faves end up in this set on Flickr. So if you go check out that set you will see a lot more from all of Italy (and elsewhere, of course - going back a few years actually!).