Every year we have a little photo project running during our summer holidays and this year is no different. We had a new friend joining us in our little adventure. A security droid with attitude, listening to the name of Kay. I talked about him in that other famous blog of note (joke intended).
Kay waiting at the steps to join the crew at the ferry to Kiel.
A droid with attitude that will make a prominent place in this year’s coffee table book.
Kay taking selfies in the Colosseum … one of the many places we visited this summer …Enjoying the evening cool of the city …
A droid that socialized pretty well after being hand painted by our chief builder and master painter Birk. Maybe he socialized a little bit too well …
Our little droid took the cider serious on day one … a true new hope …And demanded his own little Espresso on the Piazza of Turin.Kay taking pictures of tourists …
Pisa (/ˈpiːzə/; Italian pronunciation: [ˈpiːsa; ˈpiːza]) is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, straddling the Arno (the river, not the Belgian artist, a homograph) just before it empties into the Ligurian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa. Although Pisa is known worldwide for its leaning tower (the bell tower of the city’s cathedral), the city of over 91,104 residents contains more than 20 other historic churches, several medieval palaces and various pizzeria’s.
The white dinner in Pisa did include some pizza …
The city of Pisa did not lent its name to this protected traditional dish of Italy. That is a completly different story altogether. The history of pizza (the food not the city) begins in antiquity, when various ancient cultures produced flatbreads with toppings.
The precursor of pizza was probably the focaccia, a flat bread known to the Romans as panis focacius, to which toppings were then added. Modern pizza developed in Naples, when tomato was added to the focaccia in the late 18th century however the word pizza was first documented in AD 997 in Gaetana.
So, while Pizza and Pisa may after all not be connected, for me they are homonyms that date back to my childhood, when pizza for sure came from that Italian city Pisa with its odd tower. A childhood short of Wikipedia to provide the answer at your fingertips.
On a completly different side note, I just discovered the Wikipedia app for iOS and love the map feature that is included. If you like me have not discovered the app and just used the search in your iPhone, give it a try. A new toolkit in my bag of location aware devices and apps, but that is a post for later.
PS. Posting from the road and learning the tricks of the trade of only having an iPad. Not 100% happy with my image but posted nevertheless. Better one published, then ten stuck in draft.
The Cinque Terre (Italian pronunciation: [ˈtʃiŋkwe ˈtɛrre]; Ligurian: Çinque Tære, meaning “Five Lands”) is a rugged portion of coast on the Italian Riviera. It is in the Liguria region of Italy, to the west of the city of La Spezia, and comprises five villages: Monterosso al Mare, Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola, and Riomaggiore. The coastline, the five villages, and the surrounding hillsides are all part of the Cinque Terre National Park and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a clear No Fly zone.
Exactly. No fly. No drones.
You find photographers in all sizes and flavours. From the pure purists who will only shoot with a Leica and a prime over the brand fashionistas (Sony is a hot brand these days) to the extremes of rugged allround photographers who use their gear, and the geeks who actually talk shop, but may be less in taking pictures (how sharp can a lens be) or printing them for the fear of chromatic abberation (also known as purple rain). You find us in all kind of flavours. From strawberry to caffe latte and I am kind of in the middle. I like my gear, I am a loyal brand fashionista (more because I cannot change my glass that often, and I do hope Nikon will bring out a new mirrorless body in the full frame range in a few years, that let me reuse my glass I invested in over the years), and I believe in the mantra that the best camera around is the one at your fingertips. So as most of you know I travel with my good old Nikon D600, my ever evolving iPhone and my beloved Falcon II (actually it is a DJI Phantom IV, but gadgets need a name).
And here I was. In the middle of the five lands, screaming to get the drone out for the perfect shot, when traffic control decided otherwise.
Time to get the hiking boots out and walk to the end of the jetty to get that almost perfect sunset shot.
The end of the Jetty
And it was crowded there on the Jetty.
So crowded I ended up with getting photobombed by the crew trying to get the attention of Woody while rescuing lens caps of total strangers and hang out with this and other photographers on the Jetty.
Photobombing is an art.Fun it was.
B.
PS. The other members of the Crew where enjoying a local white wine at the top of the hill under The umbrella at the right while looking down on our climbing efforts to get that “perfect” shot.
I have been to Italy before. Yet the cities I have been visiting this summer so far have been new and different for me (special thanks to W). Today’s city of choice is the birthplace of one of the most iconic navigators who by accident found the new world on the other side of the planet. Talking about pure luck.
I don’t want to go here into today’s politics and the most worrisome climate we are living in. Maybe that is something for a later blog post (I must admit it is scary to find military in the day to day cityscape around Europe where I grew up). So back to Christoffer Columbus and his birthplace, Genoa. If our young Italian explorer would not have reached the shores of the New World in 1492, the world as we know it today may have been completely different and this other company founded 400 years later, located in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio would not have been the favorite casual wear of my model of today (again). No hidden sponsorship, just the travel kit of K.
Thank you, Christoffer, for taking the time to sail the wrong way, and put things in motion.
I chickened out and used B&W as my easy way out …
On a completly different note, the images shot here are both the “long exposure” kind without any serious editing (no HDR bracketing as I only can use the .jpeg of the series in my new self enforced back to basics workflow) and guess what, Stefan is exploring this one as well as part of his craftsmanship journey over at stuckinplastic.
I am sure we will exchange some notes on the topic.
Here is the color attempt of a single jpg. I will see if I can get better results out of the full blown bracketed RAW series
The second stop in our little cultural roadtrip is the city of slow food, the original capital of Italy, the home to the House of Savoy, the birthplace of FIAT, the precious guardian of the shroud, and last but not least the hometown of IFK Juventus.
Offcourse we had to stop at this temple of the human body, the celebration of running after a ball to just kick it away.
Just as their T-shirts says. Ambition. It is a matter of black and white.
And no. I will not go into detail on the two hour shopping experience of trying out new shoes inside the Juventus store and walking out with a simple silly T shirt.
No comment.
The first stop on our little summer road trip this year is a little romantic city just outside Walldorf.
A most beautiful university city I want to revisit next time I may have to travel to the center of the SAP universe in Walldorf. A most symbolic overnight stop (many more to come these two weeks) in an idyllic city as I have to refind my workflow. This is my first ever longer roadtrip I travel without a full fledge laptop. A roadtrip I will try to optimize my digital workflow from viewfinder to blogpost by using my iPad as my main digital workstation while on the road.
The last few years my workflow has become to top heavy, and the fun of getting a quick post out had disappeared. This year I will try to change that flow, and what better city to start this in as Heidelberg.
