Day 19 - The Watcher on the Branch

It started with "The Watcher" and then, as a huge Game of Thrones fan, I simply couldn't resist the rest of title. It's no raven though, so it's not a good a connection as it could have been, but hey, why not :)

This is another one of those unplanned bird shots. This little fellow watched us as we sat down in the shade, and since he sat there so calmly, I got plenty of opportunity to get shots of him. He was quite close too, so I didn't even have to change lenses, even though I had brought my telephoto lens along.

Moving along the trail of thought about gear, I have to say I'm very happy with the CPL-filter I got before this trip. It has really helped improve the colors, and the general quality of the sky in my photos. I have no shot without CPL to compare this to in order to show you the difference (if you're interested, you can find plenty of that on Google, here's an example), but wow, compared to what I used to get, it's miles better!

/MrsHjort

Day 18 - Jump!

Here comes another one of those cliché travelling shots. It seems where ever you go where there are cliffs, there are always people willing to jump off them. As we sat down to have our lunch people started chanting "Jump! Jump! Jump!" as this woman stood on the top of one of the cliffs. So out went the camera, and this is the result.

I'm never really happy with these shots when I see them in my computer. If I get the person mid-air, the drama seems lost to me, and if I get them splashing down I think it looks like just another splashy wave. This one is one of the better ones though, since it genuinely looks like she is falling and not just resting on the rock in a funny position haha. Plus, I got her against the darker spot in the rock which made her stand out more. Yey :)

/MrsHjort

Day 17 - Narrow

It's weird how foreign places can sometimes remind you of home. This made me think of Old Town in Stockholm - it has narrow alleys too, and both Old Town and Manarola are touristy places. I was very lucky to find this alley empty - the town core was totally packed as it neared lunch time. But then most tourists keep to the main street :).

Processing this shot was fairly easy - not many steps and not much tweaking. Only some lens correction, color enhancement and contrast adjustments. I thought about adding some blue to the blown out sky, but then it's not a large enough part of the image to matter that much, and I like the general balance of colors, so I left it. I hope you like it too.

/MrsHjort

Day 15 and 16 - Picturesque

As you can tell by the top picture, this is a place that is a little crooked. Some buildings lean a little bit this way and other a tiny bit that way. It's unusual to work with, but what it lacks in straight lines it makes up in charm. So, since nothing is really straight here anyway, I decided to let it be that way and not correct it in post-ed. This feels more true to the real thing to me :)

There is only one main street in Manarola, and along it you'll find many small boutiques and shops. There are some nice places to eat too, and we were lucky to find an amazing ice cream shop a bit higher up, away from the main crowd. I'm sorry to say I don't remember its name but it was the best ice cream I had during our entire trip. I love cherry ice cream, but I often get disappointed since most of the time, it's really just vanilla with a bit of cherry jam in it. Not here though. This was the real thing! And they had really, really nice cinnamon flavored gelato too. Yum!

/MrsHjort

Day 14 - Manarola

Cinque Terre is an absolutely gorgeous area, and Manarola is one of its jewels. As we looked at photos on the internet when we were planning this trip, I knew I just had to go there.

It did not disappoint! The town is nothing like anything I've been to before. The streets are narrow and the buildings are quite close together, built higher and higher on the steep cliff sides. I overheard a guide say that they build the city this way to hide it from pirates. Their hope was that the narrow valley would make it less visible from the sea. I don't know whether it worked or not but the way it's built is very unique. It's like a small town with very tall buildings, except they're not that tall at all, it only feels that way. Very cool!

There's only one small road leading to Manarola. It runs through the mountains and getting there took us longer than you'd think. It wasn't that far from the city we stayed in after all, but the winding roads meant the travel distance was longer. That didn't deter the tourists though. The place was packed and I hadn't seen so many people at one place in a long time. So, if you're planning on going here, set out early and you'll get a much better parking spot :).

/MrsHjort

Day 13 - The Cliché

Being in this beautiful place I could not help but go wild when the sun neared the horizon. No matter how overdone sunset shot are, I have to confess I'm still a sucker for them. Also, the light here was simply too gorgeous to pass up. The way the sun beamed down trough the mountains was beautiful enough to make you cry... literally in my case haha - I stared into the sun too long as I shot this, and there went the water works. It was totally worth it though :)

/MrsHjort

Day 12 - A Surrender to the Blues

I spent a lot of time tweaking this. The blue color drift and the gloomy atmosphere bothered me and I really wanted it to... I don't know... pop into my vision of the shot I guess? I wanted my Italy photos to be bright and colorful, but alas, no matter how much I tweaked and poked, I wasn't satisfied. Cranking up the saturation only made things worse and adjusting the hues manually only made it look artificial. Finally I decided to give in to the "problems" and embrace them. Let there be gloom, let there be "blue" and let there be less saturation. It's not usual my sort of thing but this shot seems to need it. So there, I surrender!

/MrsHjort

Day 11 - Tranquility

I processed an other lake shot today. It was a fairly easy one compared to the ones I've showed you the last few days. I just did the usual color and texture enhancements, and that was it.

Having grown up in a city by a big lake I always feel at home near water. I never grow tired of shooting it and I love just sitting and staring out at the horizon. The lake I live by is large enough for the horizon the water to meet the sky, but this place has prettier mountains. Not to say that the hills here at home are mountains - we only call them that in lack of higher things to compare them to.

Lake Como and Vättern are similar in other ways too. Both are very deep, and quite cold. Even in August it's extremely rare for Vättern to be hot enough for me to want to go in it, and I suspect the same i true of Lake Como. I didn't try though, but the pool at the B&B was lovely.

/MrsHjort

Day 10 - On the Lake

If you're ever at Lake Como, I highly recommend going on the ferries! We spent a day travelling between Bellagio, Varenna and Menaggio, and it was one of the high-points of our trip. I love boats and it's simply wonderful to see the cities from the water. The boats go fairly often too, so it's a very convenient way to get around.

This is Varenna, as seen from the boat we were on. I just love the beautiful warm colors of the houses against all that green. It took me several sittings of post-ed to get it right. Sometimes I get a bit blind to my work you see, and I have to return to it later to get it right. This time it was the cyan color drift that bothered me. I brought it down two times after I first edited this, but I think I'm finally happy with the result. I hope you like it too :)

/MrsHjort

Day 8 and 9 - Bellagio

After having spent a lovely day in Bergamo, our next stop was Lake Como. I love landscapes with mountains and water, and this place is absolutely stunning! The towns climb up the mountain slopes, so you have a wonderful view from almost anywhere, and there are so many places to eat where you wan marvel at it all.

We stayed in Bellagio for three days. Today's photos are from the fisherman's village, which is a five minute walk from where we stayed. A wonderful place to just sit down and take in the view....

The view wasn't just mountains though. Lake Como is also the home of many beautiful birds. I was so happy I brought several lenses along for the walk, so that I could get some closeups. It's like I said to Craig as he started his challenge; the only time when I get good bird shots is when I don't plan for them :)

/MrsHjort

Day 7 - The Stonemason's Handiwork

One thing I love about Bergamo is all the stone. It's everywhere – the street, the houses, the statues, the walls... Neatly bricked with embellishments or plain and jumbled, like in this shot. I find the textures very interesting. Initially I had though to use this as a source and try my hand at texturizing images, but I have to admit, it also has a beauty in itself. Don't you agree?

/MrsHjort