Italy - the other days

As I was poking round Stanstead airport waiting for my flight to Genoa (or Genova if you're Italian - why do countries feel the need to change the names of cities in other countries?) I noticed one of the airport bookstores featuring signs proudly boasting "Exclusive airport edition" for many of their books. Has anyone in the history of humanity ever purchased a book at an airport simply because it's an airport exclusive edition? A particularly ardent Katie Price fan who already has the hardcover and regular paperback version of "Being Jordan" and needs the airport edition to complete the trilogy perhaps? Or maybe there are those who buy 1p Ryanair flights simply to get on the other side of airport security and gain access to the treasure trove of airport exclusive delights that exist in the land of plenty. While I'm on Ryanair, how can you take an airline seriously that offers 2 for 1 drink specials on spirits (who are they in competition with for drinks up there?) and has hostesses selling scratchy tickets on every flight?

Right, enough of the introduction, let's get down to some photos. The following are some of my favourites from the trip. It's tough to pick a handful of shots for something like this, especially as there are so many diverse shots, but here's what I've gone with.

First up we've got a super simple shot that is perhaps my favourite from the trip. I notices these glorious colourful umbrellas and thought they'd go nicely with the washing hanging up behind them. I wanted to go for a really clean composition, something from the "less is more" school of photography, initially I took some shots in landscape which I liked but thought were not quite right, when I decided to switch it to portrait that's when I became properly happy with it.



This next guy was hidden away. There was this mini bridge type thing which people seemed to think made a good photo, then if you snuck under the mini bridge you found this cave type thing which those who ventured that far also thought made a good photo. I took it a step further and went as far as a could down the cave and was rewarded with this fisherman casting off. I was shooting into the light so I really had no option but to play the silhouette card, I converted to B & W in Lightroom later on the PC as the original colours didn't really work.



I'm convinced that photo opportunities are placed in your lap by Aperturian (the god of photography) if you're prepared to seize these moments when they come. After a big day of hiking I was enjoying a tasty lager overlooking Vernazza when this cat comes out of nowhere and jumps up on to the wall right in front of me. I'd been taking photos earlier and happened to have the flashgun already attached to the camera, all of which was sitting on the table, all I had to do was raise the camera, frame the shot and make meow noises until the cat gave me some eye contact. Too easy.



I'll finish up with a couple of classic postcard shots. Well, they're not actually as good as the ones on the post cards (my excuse is that these postcard photographers have more than 4 days to get the perfect lighting and the perfect ocean conditions - that's my line and I'm sticking to it) but they'll give you more of an idea of what the place was actually like. The region consists of 5 colourful towns built onto steep hills/cliffs in little bays, each town between 1 and 5km from the next. A very picturesque part of the world indeed. This first shots was taken from a boat, I think the second was taken from the walking trail.



Right, my Picasa seems to have crapped itself so you'll have to make do with just the 1 postcard shot for now.

I did a little mini project the other day, stay tuned as I will be unveiling it exclusively here at some stage in the next 7 days.......

Till then.