This was the street outside our hotel on the first night. So Italian, shutters everywhere, they became an obsession for me, as you will see later.

And here is Julie relaxing on our first evening as we took in the town. Regular readers might recognise her “Kelly Moore” camera bag, very girlie compared to my manly black “Lowepro” camera rucksack, grrrr…

This one is of Julie in the opposite town of Malcesine enjoying a drink by the lake.

We went on a guided tour of the whole lake, and one of the most lovely stops was in the town of Lazise, on the opposite shore from Limone, close to Bardolino and the wine country. It was a walled town, and had a lovely harbour area. I’m sure the leaning of the church tower has more to do with my lens being wide and therefore slightly distorting. It was my Sigma 10-20 at 10mm, and it was so good for fitting in whole townscape scenes like this. Talking of which, I took six lenses with me, I didn’t carry them all with me everyday, but I actually used them all! I can’t decide whether that was self-indulgent-overkill, or good sense since photography is my passion, even on holiday?

In this self same harbour, was the cutest duck ever, freeloading on a speedboat tonneau cover; it looked really happy. We should all consider parking speedboats with covers, it’s for the animals….

Back in Limone, this view shows the steep backdrop again to the town, and the ice-cream shop that the tour company claims to be the best in Limone, the “Pink Panther”. You would have to ask Julie however, I can take or leave ice cream. Another more trivial phenomenon can be seen in this picture, this seemed to be the year when DSLR’s have exploded into common use, huge amounts of them were hanging from tourists necks just like the man in this picture. This is a Nikon, but Mr Canon in Japan will be chuffed to note they were mostly Canon.

Just down the right hand street from the previous picture was this fruit stall; when people say that black and white pictures are always more artistic and striking, they are not thinking of fruit stalls!

This is one of my favourites, my shutter and wall obsession really got going here, and this lemon on the wall, a common Limone ornament, contrasts starkly with the unadorned and rough walls. Bizarrely, Limone is not named after Lemons! This one using my main walkaround lens, the Canon 17-85 IS, at 17mm. This is a lens I don’t love much, as I mainly photograph people and it’s maximum f4 aperture is no good for portraiture, but it is sharp and versatile.

Note: (I was using my Canon 7d, so all focal lengths have a 1.6x multiplication factor, so 17 mm lenses become effectively 27 mm in old 35 mm film camera terms.)

Another detail from the same wall.

I love this one, as it shows the old town with it’s rough Mediterranean stonework, juxtaposed against real modern life; the children’s toys don’t seem to fit somehow, although the woman below could be working in an earlier time. This is the same 17-85 lens at the full telephoto end.

The roofscape of a lemon orchard using the telephoto compression of the 85mm end of the same lens; I love this effect as the gaps between the beams are reduced. Choosing a shallow angle for this shot helps as well.

Here is the same roofscape zoomed out to 20mm.

Looking the other direction from the same magnificent viewpoint, (the Limone, lemon museum), gives a fabulous landscape looking to the North of the lake. Sigma 10-20 again, 10mm.

And straight ahead to complete the set, 10mm again, what a viewpoint. The town opposite is Malcesine.

Here is Julie at the lemon museum, high up in Limone.

The red terracota roofscapes are delicious, I cannot resist them. That telephoto compression effect adding something by squeezing the roofs together. 17-85 again fully extended.

Terracotta roofs and shutters, it had to be photographed.

The Italian heritage is evident in the endless Catholic artefacts around the towns. This is a typical pathside shrine, I loved the colours.

Perhaps the main feature of a Lake Garda Holiday is the flottilla of water buses/boats that run in a regular timetable all across the lake. They are fun and efficient and considering the roads are tunnels and ledges hewn or blasted into the mountains, the quickest way to get from place to place! There were two paddle boats working the North end and I loved them. Our hotel was right behind the Italia’s stern and was in fact adjacent to the ferry pier.

The castle at Malcesine, from one of the ferries. The Monte Baldo range is behind the town. It has a cable car and a healthy ski industry in winter.

The G. Zanardelli at Malcesine.

Malcesine again from its own ferry pier.

After a cable car trip up Monte Baldo, (an overrated trip due to overcrowded cars, scratched windows and horrendous queuing), the gorgeous summit ridge was a lovely 20 minute stroll giving great views of the whole lake. This is the North end with Riva and Torbole at the head. I chose the 17mm wide angle approach, but Julie zoomed in and selected areas of the landscape to compose into more dramatic landscapes. Her pictures are better, hey-ho, I’m always learning! Julie’s Pictures here.

This one looking back inland.

Due to the aforementioned horrendous waiting, we almost missed the last ferry back to Limone. Every cloud has a silver lining however, the light was fading and the view South was dreamy and elemental.

This lovely couple, Jean and Kenny, kindly introduced themselves to us and joined us for drinks over a few evenings. Great people and fellow Scots from Ayrshire. They might have been a bit shocked by this portraitist’s voracious need to photograph them, but hey, I’m used to that and they were too polite to hurt my feelings anyway.

These guys were playing latin jazz guitar and they were frankly shit hot. Sooooo cool. My two Euro’s in their cases was good value for a snap I thought.

This one from our trip to the “Grigolleti” winery in Nomi, Trentino. I tasted the best red wine I have ever enjoyed, and in fact bought a couple of bottles. Friends will know I take my red wine seriously, and will understand that I do mean the best. I have lost faith in the general old world French and Italian wines and far prefer the big, oaked and spicy Californians and Aussies. The “Gonzalier” oak aged Cabernet Merlot blend is the most vanilla spiced sweet oakfest I have ever tasted. I’m kind of in love. These are the oak barrels they use; 800 Euros each and used twice. 16 Euros a bottle is expensive, but understandable.

One of their storage rooms. Although it is a small boutique vineyard, it is full of design and artistic touche like this.

It is run by one family, and even their children helped with the tour. Marica and her children are shown here. It is not the best picture technically, but I wanted to include it as they were such warm and welcoming hosts. They were too busy for me to want to ask them for multiple shots!

Torbole at the ferry pier. This at the North end of the lake. I love these posts that the ferry sits against. They make lovely leading lines to the town. Torbole is a windsurfing mecca. How the ferries navigate among them is anyones’ guess. Certainly our trips were punctuated by ferry horns and angry crew.

The other town at the head of the Lake, and a lovely short walk from Torbole, is Riva. This is one of its squares with the mountains, as ever, behind. The white tower is a ruin, called the Bastione and has a small cafe. It is a steep half hour walk, but so worth it for the views.

OK, sorry, shutters and walls, I did say earlier, here we go…

They might be the last, might not, I’m not saying. This is the view from the Bastione with the cafe I just mentioned.

During the walk down in intense heat, we saw butterflies flowers and beetles. If any naturalists out there want to identify them, let me know. If any naturists out there misread this, well what the hell, you can get in touch too!

Yay, I know this one, it’s a daisy!

Maybe some more shutters! Framing a picture with an archway is such an easy device. Good fun for travel images. (Holiday snaps, but posher!)

Julie suggested bringing home pasta, but I felt that would take up wine space in the luggage.

After the pasta pics, I just craved colour, sorry, these scarves could be anywhere, you’ll just have to trust me that they were in Riva.

There I go again, it’s a sickness. Would you like to see the other 50 I didn’t show you? No, really?

Julie having a relaxing lunch, when I noticed the Lake reflecting in her sunglasses. Never travel with a photographer, we’re just annoying!

Riva from the ferry to give you a flavour of how it nestles in its mountain cradle.

And now the windsurfers and even cat racers from the ferry. It’s one of my rare uses of servo focus mode. They move so fast you could never nail focus and press the shutter in time. My 70-300 lens was useful here. It would have been difficult to bring them in close otherwise, except those who broke the rules and leaped the ferry’s wake.

What a setting to play in for watersports, surrounded by these peaks, rising from sea level, they have such fearsome summits. The rather ugly car ferry provides a sense of scale.

And back in Limone, a view from the ferry showing the backdrop to an amazing town.

Julie, relaxing after a chilled week.

Oh, I know, I can’t help it, look at those textures…

This was Gerry, great company as a fellow resident of the hotel. I enjoyed some of the “Gonzalier” wine with him on the hotel balcony, and exacted my photographic price for the drink; poor Gerry. I love the picture in particular because of the background wall and T-shirt blending nicely. So much of portraiture is about using colours for contrast or complement.

Later I took one of Gerry and his wife Anne. A lovely couple and we enjoyed their company hugely, particularly during our regular dinnertime chats.

The obligatory holiday caricaturist. This guy has one hand missing, but it slows his art not one bit. He had a great nature and a really brilliant smile. Yes we did in case you are wondering. If you’re very good I might post them in an imminent update?

Kenny again. Amazingly it turns out we did the same course in Electronics in Cardonald college at around the same time; small world.

Jean again, complete with megawatt smile, worked in a call centre with Julie, all discovered over drinks. I’m glad I once read Duncan Watt’s “six degrees” or else I might start believing in coincidences and supernatural forces.

Last image before bed on our last night. A vespa scooter seems to me to be quintessentially italian. If only they could add some shutters to them?

Thats all from me. Regular readers of my blog might be interested to see some pictures Julie took of me annoying Italy and it’s denizens with my 7D. She has kindly given me permission to include these in my blog. Here they are with no comment from me. Thanks for reading such a long posting.

Ciao!

This is the view of the railway bridges over the Clyde into Central Station from the “Glasgow Bridge”.

This is from a similar viewpoint, but a telephoto image to pick out the silhouettes of the railway pylons. The damp wall of the bridge works well in the low glancing light.

Same again here. Look at the sunbeam below the bridges; amazing.

I would like my thanks to be noted for the birds who performed so wonderfully in this image.

I’m not so sure about this one, the wall splits it a little too centrally although the bus adds context and reality.

Two black and white bridge details exploiting the soft, low contrast light.

They say the best camera you have is the one you have with you. The S95 was a better than basic choice for me, this cyclist’s camera phone was his best available choice.

This was the dramatic sky I encountered on a visit to Tarbert last September. The range of brightness between the sky and the buildings was huge and so you could only get a correctly exposed sky or a correctly exposed street. To get both, handheld, I used auto bracketing and the impressive burst speed of the Canon 7D (7+ fps) to get three exposures with minimal movement between them. The trouble is that you then have to import the three images into “photomatix” or a similar HDR software to merge them to even out the exposures. It has only taken me 3 months or so to get round to this!

Addition:

Just for Julie, here are the three exposures used to make the HDR.

This is the little marina area in the bay in serious winter conditions, (in the coldest December on record).

This is the main street with it’s Christmas decorations from the sweet shop window. Amazingly that same day, well below zero, I saw a small child eating an ice cream cone; clearly even the children are tough in Campbeltown. The clock on the right is a real central feature of the town.

This next one is of an Inveraray building that I always find striking. The sky, with its wisps of cloud made it irresistible.

Do visit Inveraray, it’s cute and characterful.

This is the view from the hotel we stayed at in Sliema in Malta last week. This is the old town of Valetta. Photographically, the difficulty with this is the blank water foreground and the blank sky. It is dramatic that the city is so beautiful and it screams “please put me across the central third” , the problem is the blankness of sky and sea inlet; I waited from the hotel balcony for something interesting to break the blank water and was rewarded with this trio of powerboats. Suddenly an interesting picture! For the record as an ex sailor (failed) I hate powerboats – the antithesis of green transport).

Another view of Valetta, but with the apartments at Tigne Point, Sliema included.

In the foreground is an amazing pavement/walkway to the shopping centre at Tigne Point. It was only from the water that I realised it looks like a crane; it is a lovely piece of design that is (pleasingly) more than was necessary. With a wide angle lens it makes a great foreground for another view of Valetta.

The Maltese photographs found on a web search typically  include lots of doorways and old-style buildings; I wish I was so original that I could make an exception. (Oops, so sorry, the clichemeister strikes again!)

The compression of a telephoto zoom at 140mm!

This is the vibrant harbour of Sliema with two striking but elderly ships at mooring. A telephoto shot with my 70-300 mm lens at full stretch brings them magically close to the shoreline.

And here are three evening views with my 50 mm f1.4 of the old town of Mdina

Malta is of course Justly famous for its elderly and characterful buses: (17 – 85 IS)

The challenge for a photographer with these buses is that the recognisable, straight from the front views are best to identify the colourful buses. The next two are a necessary step for this photographer; after the simple, recognisable, symmetrical shots, two different sections of the bus, add interest.

Another day in Valetta, and the amazing buildings are worth capturing.

This one is all about the textures and warm tones; any photographer who can walk past this is stronger than me!

Valetta is big on festival decorations, these are typical for the time that we visited. These enclosed balconies are classic Malta.

I was brought up in Catholic schooling, although I never liked it. I always joke that a Lapsed Catholic or a never-really-took-to-it Catholic like me can particularly appreciate the over-the-top nature of Catholic symbols. If you see this symbolism like me as being south of tasteful, then you’ll love the Maltese examples; this is one of the more understated ones.

I’m afraid that I can’t resist a cute animal. This little puss, resisted my advances, and I had no opportunity therefore to tickle its ears. Its a cutie.

My friend spotted this picture, I stole the idea and tried to do it as best as I could. I might go to hell for this blatant theft. Aren’t these British artefacts amazing in the Mediterranean? The 50mm 1.4 wide open helped single the postbox out from the background. Although centredness generally should be avoided, when the background shows symmetry, you are better placing the subject as perfectly in the centre as possible.

Another classic Valetta scene. A grab shot with my fast 50mm f1.4 wide open. My friend pointed out how odd the horses leg position is. I have to say, I feel for the horses working in this heat.

The traditional boats in Malta sport this paint job. This one is a tourist-boat in Sliema.

The genuine traditional style boats in the fishing village of Masaxlokk.

These are the background buildings in Marsaxlokk with the coloured boats in the foreground. All distances compressed by the 300 mm lens, fully extended.

A close up of the apartments at Tigne Point from the hotel balcony. I love the shapes and the sheer exuberance of the design.

Valetta again from an evening boat trip with the sunset beginning to colour things beautifully.

Ralph.

With Theresa

One of the real appeals of Valetta is the plethora of old-fashioned shop signs. Dig this!

This was the caricaturist working Valetta’s main street, and yes we did in case you are wondering?

Malta was a lot of fun, don’t hesitate if you fancy a visit, but a high hotel room overlooking the old town is to be recommended.

This one was from the slopes of Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh on the 31st December 2009. It was like an ice rink and frankly the path up Arthur’s Seat really needed crampons. (no really!). I set up my tripod and indulged in a 30 second exposure of our ever-so-odd parliament. The car light trails are fun.

f20 30s (56mm x 1.6) ISO 200

The best magic in photography seems so often to come from the unexpected. After watching the magnificent end-of-festival fireworks from Edinburgh’s Calton Hill, the folly suddenly struck me as looking fantastic (in the literal sense of the word) and so I quickly retrieved the beloved 40D and had a go. My “standard” 17-85 IS was on, and with its slow f4 aperture, it left the people too blurred. As is so often the case with Image Stabilised lenses it let me get a sharp folly handheld in almost no light, but it was giving a half second or so even on the 40D’s max ISO (3200) and so very blurry people. Anyone who reads my blog at all will guess which lens was quickly pressed into service, yes the Sigma 28 f1.8 prime. The fast aperture gave me 1/13th second, which was just usable. It’s not even vaguely a perfect picture, but it’s unprocessed, except a tiny bit of noise reduction and sharpening. It’s an atmospheric picture for me and captures a perfect moment on a special night.

Just get one of these lenses, I don’t regret buying mine for a moment:-)

Just one of the fireworks for fun:

I had a lovely day in Crail today with a friend, taking photographs and eating cakes naturally. The sky was only just south of crap for photography, and so I resorted to the sensible photographer’s trick of totally excluding the sky from my shots. A telephoto zoom, in this case my 70-300 is ideal for the job. Luckily Crail lends itself to this with its distinctive buildings in dramatic tiers around the harbour. If you haven’t visited the East Neuk of fife, I would urge you to do so; it’s beautiful.

Raining again all day, so I went to Glasgow instead. This is the view from the roof of the Buchanan Galleries car park. They have surrounded the roof with a high screen so that you need to use “live view” and hold the camera above the screen. I haven’t seen a nice sunset here for a month at least!