The Roman Forum
A view over the Roman Forum and Colosseum in Rome, Italy...
When in Rome...
While we were in Rome last year, we took a historical walking tour that went through the Colosseum and meandered around over to the Roman Forum. It was fun, educational and interesting. I had never really done anything like that, so it was a nice surprise. Usually I prefer to travel at my own pace and guide myself, but this was an exception and it was a really excellent tour.
It was mid-afternoon so the sun was high and hot, but nonetheless I was able to take quite a few photos. With my travels in the Fall/Winter last year as well as other projects, I have spent very little time working on the photos from Rome. In fact, I want to create a list to add to the site of the best places to shoot there. So much to do!
The view from up here on Capitoline Hill is amazing. If you look in the distance to the right you can see the Colosseum at the end. Pretty fascinating stuff, considering the history here!
Blue hour on the Bridge of Angels
A lovely blue hour on a famous bridge in Rome - good times!
Ah, wonderful Rome - so much to shoot there!
I swear, despite being in Rome for about a week, I feel like I ran around like crazy trying to get as many shots as I could get done in that time. It's a big town! My feet hurt just remembering it. Luckily, I was able to cover a lot of ground, and I have a huge collection of Roman photos to work on.
This is the Bridge of Angels, which crosses the Tiber River in the center of town and is basically next door to the Vatican. That is the Castel Sant'Angelo at the end of the bridge, and of course you have all these lovely statues lining the bridge, too. It makes for a great leading line.
I was there after sunset one evening, sort of waiting on the crowd to thin a little bit (which it never really did, sadly). I prefer sunrise shots in popular places like this, but I had so much trouble getting up early enough for sunrise. Considering I was there in August, sunrise comes pretty early! So I had to make do with evening shooting, which isn't so bad. This is Rome after all, so I ain't complaining! ;-)
Dining in Rome
Inside a little cafe that we visited in Rome - great food, great people, and great photo opps too! :-)
We loved this little spot in Rome!
One afternoon while wandering in Rome, we passed this little cafe. It was interesting looking and the menu sounded great, so we made it a point to return for dinner. It's somewhere near Piazza Navona - and it seems all the streets there just go this way and that - so I am actually a little surprised that we actually found it that night when it was time to eat.
The people working there were super nice, the food was great and the whole place just seemed fun - so we ate dinner there again the next night! Hey, if the food is good and the atmosphere is good, too, why not? I also loved the look of the place, so I snapped a few. ;-)
A night at The Vatican
Two versions of a lovely blue hour in Rome for ya today - color and mono. Either way, it was a gorgeous night to be shooting in Rome!
Wandering at The Vatican after sunset is wonderful.
I'm a big fan of wandering aimlessly, but I also take time to wander with a purpose. While I was in Rome, I did a fair bit of both, but on this particular evening I had a purpose - I wanted to photograph The Vatican at sunset and blue hour.
Luckily, I had some great clouds that evening which made my shooting that much more fun.
The Vatican is shot by everyone, professional and hobbyist, and I just don't care. I am sure that a million people have stood here and shot this same view before, but I just had to get it for myself. (For the record, I took a lot of different shots of The Vatican too, but haven't gotten to them just yet.) It's iconic, and you just have to get the shots, right?
The above photo was processed as an HDR in the all-new Aurora HDR 2017, which is an amazing product and you can find out more about it here. It goes on sale in 2 days! :-)
But I have also become a big fan of monochrome over the last few months, so of course I had to convert it to black and white using Tonality from Macphun, which is another amazing product. The combination of these two (Aurora HDR and Tonality) can help you create some very compelling images, and you will continue to see more of these from me. Enjoy!
A stunning Roman sunset
I always wanted to shoot a gorgeous sunset from this spot in Rome, and as luck would have it, it happened to me last week - by accident. I wasn't even out on a photo hunt, I was just walking home from dinner with the family. Then, this!
I walked right into this one!
I was out with the family in Rome last week and we were making our way home from dinner. We had been out for a while and were all pretty tired, and I had only brought along my camera - no tripod. It wasn't supposed to be a big photo outing. We were just being tourists.
But things changed when I got to the Bridge of Angels!
The Bridge of Angels crosses the River Tiber right in front of Castel Sant'Angelo, in central Rome. It was the route we needed to take home, and boy am I grateful for that! As you can see, the sky started to get REALLY interesting, so I had to stop for some shots (ok, a lot of shots).
This is a popular spot for photographers, and tourists, and trinket salesmen, and con artists, and musicians, and.....well, let's just say it gets crowded. But easily enough I found a nice spot to lean up against the railing, hold the camera steady, and fire away. And fire away. And fire away. And fire away. (I told you I took a lot of shots!).
I processed this image in Aurora 2017, the latest and greatest version of the amazing software from Macphun. It hasn't been released yet, but it's coming soon. I've been experimenting with it for a while now, and absolutely love it. I have a full post coming on it when it is officially released (I think around Sept 15). You will hear a lot from me at that time!