Featured Forum Thread: "Greetings from Italy" by Ray Sachs

OK, a few last shots from dinner last night before I pack up the cameras today - I'll keep the Nikon handy for any last minute photographic emergencies!

We went to a fancy place right off the edge of the beach last night. The only time on the whole trip we felt like we got sort of ripped off, but it was by choice, so no complaints. We had a nice, if over-priced meal, but watching the sun and the wine go down from there was lovely anyway. And it was one last chance to play to the low light and narrow DOF strengths of the sublime and amazing RX1. Tonight we'll be packed and we'll eat in our favorite little neighborhood trattoria where the wine comes in a pitcher and we'll have a better meal for less than 1/3 of the cost. We'll feel much better about the meal and the place and the familiar faces who serve us and even sort of hang out with us, but its not NEAR as photogenic!

Thanks again to those who have followed along or checked in from time to time...

Location, location, location...
9369381794_b71474aa64_b.jpg

Dinner by the Beach-33-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

A nice start to a damn fine (and priced to match) bottle of wine:
9366603243_0a8173ee0a_b.jpg

Dinner by the Beach-46-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

The sun starts going down:
9369382822_ed29e7fd07_b.jpg

Dinner by the Beach-60-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

And then the wine, the sun, and this amazing, amazing trip, are basically done.
9366604251_8f44281790_b.jpg

Dinner by the Beach-72-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

9366604897_1ce6575997_b.jpg


And one last reprise of our last sunset in Praiano a couple of weeks ago, where we spent the first half of this trip. And while the town is a lot sleepier and less interesting than Positano, the views are even more incredible, as if such a thing is possible!

9266005655_82e66e4c01_b.jpg

Praiano RX1-11-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Thanks so much Jason - along with Stan you're one of the few folks I've known online since the earliest days I got back into shooting. I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to check it out. It truly has been an incredible month!

-Ray

Ray,

I've been terribly busy as of late and last night was the first night I've had a chance to go through your images. You must be extremly lucky. When I go on any vacation, its always a coin flip for the weather. As of late, every time I go anywhere for trips is raining or storming making it difficult to do any good photography. The lighting and atmosphere you had on your trip looked absolutely perfect for photography.
 
Ray,

I've been terribly busy as of late and last night was the first night I've had a chance to go through your images. You must be extremly lucky. When I go on any vacation, its always a coin flip for the weather. As of late, every time I go anywhere for trips is raining or storming making it difficult to do any good photography. The lighting and atmosphere you had on your trip looked absolutely perfect for photography.
Yeah, we were lucky. But OTOH, we had about three or four rainy afternoons and one or two others that looked threatening and the locals were complaining about RAIN. In JULY! Which I guess never happens here. So by their standards we weren't lucky at all. And I guess the weather was worse than usual. But still, it was very very nice. And I was grateful to have some haze and clouds yesterday mornings so not everything was clear blue skies!

-Ray
 
Hi Ray. Some magical shots there from a beautiful place. I have been to Sorrento, but never made it to positano. Had lunch on Capri which cost me an arm, a leg.....but was worth it. Yeah, Pompeii is huge and boredom can set in. We did Herculaneum which was much more compact and doable.

I am in Australia at present, 1/2 way through a 2 month tour. Wifey and I just left Sorrento on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria yesterday. Not a patch on the Italian one but pretty down by the water at sunrise/set.


9368369417_7b5f89dfb1_c.jpg

Sorrento Port Phillip Bay by petach123 (Peter Tachauer), on Flickr


9368365645_85f13d65b2_c.jpg

Port Phillip Bay by petach123 (Peter Tachauer), on Flickr
 
Wow, Ray.... What can I add except my own thanks for sharing your photos and parts of your vacation with us, your cyber photo pals. I'm particularly in smitten with "Nikon Restaurant-45-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr" and have added a few comments here and there... I look forward to revisiting your trip during the long cold winter months. Have a wonderful last evening, if it's still ahead and a safe and uneventful return trip home.

:bravo-009:
 
Thanks Ray for sharing us your wonderful views on your vacation trip have a safe trip back home and also a big thank you for your tips to my upcoming trip hopefully I will bring some photos from my GR to share with the community as well.
 
Very nice Pete. No, you don't have the same level of drama there, but a beautiful sunset is always a wonder to behold, and you've got a couple of beauties there!

Is your trip still bringing you to the States in September or so?

-Ray
 
Hey Ray, yep. Confirmed re NYC. will pm you the dates and location. My wife is going with her daughter in law and staying mid town to burn the cards at Macy's and Bloomies etc. I am staying Chinatown way and burning SD cards in the Fuji Twins.

Cheers

Pete.
 
im a newbie here joined to share my knowledge and to get more new ideas and suggestions from this community

Welcome! I'd recommend also posting a quick introduction in the Welcomes and Introductions area to introduce yourself and let us know what type of shooting and camera(s) you're interested in. More people will see it there than the few who are probably still reading this month-old thread!

-Ray
 
Good memory Stan! That was our 25th Anniversary Cruise, three years ago, that's the trip that both got me back into photography after a 25 year hiatus, and the trip that introduced us (for a day and a half) to the Amalfi Coast and had us swearing "we gotta get back THERE"! You never know if it'll happen, but three years later it did!

On that trip I took an EP2 and shot the whole thing with the Oly 14-150, 9-18, and original 17mm and the Panasonic 20mm - that was about everything I owned at that point. A few months before that trip I said to myself 'this is a really big trip - I should probably have a decent camera for it' after 25 years of nothing but family snapshots with whatever little point and shoot we had at the time. That was the start of round two of my love of photography and the start of my gear buying (and USING) addiction over the past three years as the gear has evolved and I guess I have as well somewhat. I shot mostly with zooms then and was just getting comfortable with primes again (primes being all I shot with in the film shooting I did back in the '70s and early '80s). Now I shoot almost only with primes. The only zoom I brought on this trip was the same 9-18 I took on that trip three years ago, and I think I pulled it out for a total of about five minutes on this one! So I guess I didn't need it!

Anyway, thanks for checking it out and offering your thought! I'm glad you found your way over to Serious Compacts, but we gotta find some sort of regular thread for you to at least write introductions for. Those hilarious intros you used to do for the weekly m43 threads remain a highlight of my "internet time" since I've been back into photography!

-Ray

For both of us m43 got us back into serious photography, though I did it much less than you in the film era. I shot a bit with film in high school for the yearbook and such, but not having my own money it was hard to get enough rolls of film developed to satisfy my urges. Then it was off to college and being serious about books for a long, long time.

I also started with zooms, and have also moved away from them the past two years. I seem to turning into a 35mm equiv. guy. It suits my landscape/documentary sensibilities, where I still enjoy also being able to take pictures of people with context. I find 50mm too narrow for most of my scapes, and 28mm a focal length that just makes me wish for 24mm (unless I'm in a city -- in which case I love 28mm). Personal preferences for sure. I once shot an entire event with 35mm and 135mm (on FF). I'm not knocking zooms, either. I find it beneficial going with primes for a while and then switching to a 24-105L, whilst trying to maintain what I learned from primes.

I'm glad I found my way to SC -- in fact it was due to your encouragement that I found this place. It's great to see you especially active and continuing to grow and experiment. It's what I like to see and I find it inspirational.

I'll think of a way to get back into the M43 Onion. I had fun with that, and would still be doing it, if not for being busier at work.

Cheers and safe travels!
 
For both of us m43 got us back into serious photography, though I did it much less than you in the film era. I shot a bit with film in high school for the yearbook and such, but not having my own money it was hard to get enough rolls of film developed to satisfy my urges. Then it was off to college and being serious about books for a long, long time.
I basically did B&W work and used high school and college resources as much as possible. They provided the darkrooms and all of the chemicals. I had to buy the film, but I used to buy Tri-X in bulk and roll my own into cartridges, so it wasn't all that much more than these days. And I spent LOADS less on cameras, so on balance, it was pretty cheap. After college I had to pay retail like everyone else, but I was making money by then...

-Ray
 
I got back home yesterday. I'm too jet lagged and scatter brained to do much of anything today, but I did manage to upload a full res file of that one Sigma time exposure night shot that I had promised to. The new link is back in the thread, but here it is again so nobody has to go back and look for it. I'm not generally a pixel peeper but this one is sort of fun to pixel peep to check out all of the detail in the buildings and mountains and stuff... Easy enough to click through and then select the full size version...

9339237095_2ee5e622f9_o.jpg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)

20130721-SDIM0550-Edit by ramboorider1, on Flickr

-Ray
 
Back
Top