not alone

What a wonderful day, today in Rotterdam. We went for a nice fsamily walk in our neighbourhood so I left home the gear bag. I had only the Powershot G9 and I still enjoied photographing around.
As me, many others enjoied the beautiful weather but they had with full gear, mainly Nikon. I would love to see their picture on line but I'm afraid it will reamain a desire.
I took nice architecure phographs which I hope to post tomorrow.

Rotterdam Marathon 2008

In case you don't know, I'm not a sport man but today I could not ignore the Rotterdam Marathon 2008 since it was passing right under my windows (as every year). This is a tribute to all of them, who had the courage to run for 42 Km in early morning on a chilly Dutch sunday. Well done and keep going...I'm sorry but I just don't wanna do it.
I know it is fantastic for my body health, but my mind simply doesn't care.
So for now, I will keep shooting with my EF 70-300mm IS the healthy ones.
Ah... I even forgot to ask who won, I hope you were not curious about that.

I've found the forgotten G9!!!

While organizing myself for the weekend, I realized that I own a Canon Powershot G9!
I almost forgot to have it. I must use it much more often, as it is a pity to not use such a nice tool.
In my opinion G9 has a great design but it also work very well. Some reviews are reporting bad performances with low light and high ISO but I didn’t have much problem with that as you can see on the photos in this post.


I find it perfect for street photography since you are quite less noticeable without DSLR and related lenses bag and that makes it all easier.
Of course it is not an EOS, but I believe G9 gives the opportunity to catch excellent pictures.
So tomorrow I will leave home the heavy bag with the lenses and carry the lovely black pocket camera, hoping to get the chance of nice shots. We will see...!!!

markets? interesting subject

One of the too many of my next tasks will be photographing some Dutch markets.
I find markets very attractive and colorful and I really don't know why I never take pictures of Dutch markets... maybe the poor weather here does not help much. But now spring is on the way so there is no reason to not have a nice walk between stands.
The photos posted were taken last year at Little India in Singapore where the weather is better.

That's why posting is not easy

She is the reason why it is not easy to keep posting regularly. To be honest playing with her is much more fun.
I will try my best but of course my priorities changed a bit in the last couple of months

old cigarettes

Few days ago, my wife found an pack of dutch cigarettes made in Amsterdam during World War II. It was given to her grandmother by an english soldier who she was hiding from the Germans.
I've tryed to find imformation about the manufacturer but without success.

the sky is blue

I've always been amazed by all the shades of blue the sky can have and I've never managed to properly catch them with the camera. Still you can get a wonderful blue but real sky is something else. Especially here in The Netherlands, when it is not rainig, the light is very particular.

green

I was trying to organize my photos and I found few nice shots made last year at Singapore Botanical Garden. I've never been a fan of nature or plant photography but that garden is wonderful, the green is marvelous. So great that I couldn't stop photographing.I really hate tropical weather but I must admit it gives an extraordinary bright green environment.

people

Without any doubt, people are the best subject in photography but probably also the most difficult one. Taking family pictures is not a problem but capture expressions which pass real emotion is a challenge. It requires much more than technical skills, it needs real talent and the capacity to look behind people faces, read their feelings.
Sometimes I try to photograph people but I fell like I’m stealing emotions, private moments, entering in somebody else life. For that reason, my people are not giving you emotions.

Trieste and its coffee

Going back to my hometown is always a pleasure and drinking a coffee is a big part of it.
In Trieste, coffee is almost a religion, ordering a cup of coffee is a ritual and everybody has his own ways to do it. “Nero”, “Capo”, “Capo in b”, “Goccia” are just few of the many ways you can ask the bartender to prepare the cup or little glass of espresso with or without milk.
All those names are totally unknown just few kilometers away from Trieste and we are very proud of this peculiarity. For people coming from outside the city is not simple to order a coffee and normally they get quite confused.
Trieste has a long history in trading and roasting coffee and maybe that’s the reason behind our particular ways of preparing the espresso.
Illy is one of the most known Italian coffee and it is still all produced in Trieste and that’s something which we are quite proud of.
Now, let’s get a good capo.