Wednesday 3 November 2010

Memories of Florence

Recently I had one of those big number birthdays, the kind of number when life begins or as they say. Faced with the impossible choice of what present to buy Sam (my wife) wisely avoided anything materialistic and instead spent months planning an experience I’d never forget.

So last week I found myself on a plane with my family jetting off to the historic city of Florence, Italy.

It’s one of those iconic places what just oozes history and where ever you point your camera there’s a photographic opportunity.

Some images like this one are classic “must have” tourist shots and shouldn’t be overlooked simply because this is one of 100 identical images that were taken by me and 99 other people during the 15 minutes I stood in this spot.

Florence is packed full of art of all types. Sculptures are everywhere, paintings adorn walls and photographers fill the streets. I had a bit of fun counting DLSR brands as we walked around one of the tourist hot spots. For the record Canon & Nikon were seen in equal numbers, but I also spotted a couple of Olympus cameras and one Pentax.

Graffiti was everywhere and whilst it might be argued that it’s a form of art, I disagree when it’s applied to historic buildings and even statues.

I’m a bit of a low light fan and Florence is one of those cities that looks as good at night as it did in the day. Their electricity bill must be huge! It’s not easy to take great low light shots, but that doesn’t stop everyone trying. It never ceases to make me smile when I see people use the cameras built in flash to photograph a building and then look surprised when it didn’t come out well. At least with digital cameras they only waste batteries.


I recorded several videos during my visit to Florence which I’ll post on the internet. Keep checking the blog or Facebook or Twitter.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Gavin, great shot of the city at night!
Do you mind if I ask what exposure you used including ISO.
Thanks so much for all you do!

Gavin Hoey Training said...

Hi Brain
That was a Canon 400D 24-105 lens (at 24mm)
Exposure was f/5.6 ISO200 4sec shutter speed.

The camera was mounted on a Gorillapod SLR Zoom mini tripod. Video review coming soon

Lory said...

I also hate graffiti, Barcelona and Venice are full of it too! :-( Thankfully, we have the 'clone stamp' ;-) lol

Unknown said...

Gavin,

Just found your website via youtube. Very Nice!

Too back too here about the Graffiti.

Dave Likes

Steve said...

What an opportunity. Great shots! I once lived in Vicenza for three years as a teenager. As you can imagine, photography was the last thing on my mind at the time. At least I can see Italy again through your insightful lens. Thanx Gav.

Anonymous said...

Really good shots. Must be a wonderful place. Mart

Álvaro Sánchez said...

Hello Gavin,

I love climb to the top of this buildings. It does not matter how high they are or how many steps they have.

I agree with you about graffitis in this places. Sure there are millions of ways to inmortalize their love, presence, whatever they want to say with them.

I remember me in a "nocturnalia" (shooting at night), when an italian man ask me. He wants a photo of them with Gran Vía Street (Madrid) behind, at night. I asked how to turn off their compact camera flash. They looked at me as I was crazy, but when they took a look at the photo, they were impressed ;)

Steve Parker said...

Hi Gavin,

The night shot is a beautiful capture. Have never made it out to that part of the world myself but looking at it...going to have to try if I can.

Don Davis said...

Excellent work Gavin. Love these great shots.

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