Sensational Umbria by Steve McCurry .

HeyHey

Thursday afternoon I went in Perugia, one of the biggest cities of my region. As last year, the famous photographer Steve McCurry (that you may not know but you surely know this work of him, appeared on National Geographic) is doing an expositions of his works there, and this year the theme was my region itself. Known as ''Sensational Umbria'', the photos collection is composed by pictures of local landscapes, medieval and traditional festival and events, monuments etc. . McCurry was around in the main months when the cities have their main traditional festivals and events, and he was here to catch almost all of them. 

I found all his works magnificent. I can honestly say he's my favourite photographer, mainly because he can perfectly compose a picture that looks normal at the same time, and he is also able to use the colors in the best way.

These are some pictures I got to take at the entrance of the exposition, that was divided in two buildings, Palazzo della Penna and the ex Fatebenefratelli. I found this last building having the best pictures, mainly because they were exposed in the nicest way ever. Dark room and panel on the floor with the pictures on them. Loved it ! 

These are the pictures I took out of the Ex Fatebenefratelli, the view was lovely!

These are the stairs inside Palazzo della Penna. It is quite an old building but the inside is modern as you can see. When we entered, there was a conference about the reading public of the city, I didn't quite get what was the main theme of the speech of the lady, because we were heading downstairs to the 2nd part of the Steve McCurry's exposition and also because this reading club organised a photograpy exposition as well. All those lovely pictures of the city contained people or a single person reading in the corner,at the center, everywhere basically.

The quality of the pictures is not the highest because, as you can imagine, I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside. I had time to collect some quotes before going inside the expositions, and you car hear them in the promo video that the photographer himself made.

I hope you like this blog post, I wish goodluck to everyone who's starting or restarting school tomorrow morning. Have a nice week :)

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An inspiring door .

HeyHey ! 

I know, it’s definitely been a while since when I last wrote here, but I have good reasons!I've been sick (and I still am); I have sore throat, cough, cold, headache…all the germs family was together, but temperature strangely didn't show up! I was also waiting for all my birthday presents + some orders I did on the internet (that were not here yet) so that I could make pictures and write blog posts about them. Although i didn't write here, i made those pictures :3

Since when I stayed home on Monday, I started watching movies and tv series nonstop. Now, the 5^th season of Gossip Girl I downloaded it’s over, I watched all the movies in my pc…so I decided to write down this blog post ! Finally ahah!

Several time, in other blog posts, I mentioned this bedroom’s door I have that I consider so special. I pasted there quotes, sentences and posters about things I like. There’s even a coke label with my name on it and a Sourcy Vitamin Water’s one in blackberry flavor. I love that drink, too bad we don’t have it in Italy. There’s just a bad IMITATION of it -.- .

It may or may not be interesting for you to read about this, I just wanted to show you this thing, It’s something creative I do and that I want to show you guys. Maybe one of my readers does the same thing, and I’d be glad to see some pictures of your creative spot in your bedrooms!

Here’s the picture of my door.

Basically what I do with those papers is to stick them behind the door. There I can see them every time I’m on my bed, when I’m studying at the desk and also when I sit on my pouf (I guess there’s no English translation for this one) to read and listen to music. To read them that often will probably make them part of my way of thinking, I hope.

Rereading them after a while makes me realize also what are the quotes that really should be important in my life and those that shouldn't. For example, the last time I wrote here, on this blog post, I was thinking about a quote from Janis Joplin’s song. I found myself disagreeing with that so I removed it.

Should I write a blog post about the quotes I remove or that I paste on my door? I think it may be interesting to think and write about them. If you comment below there may be also a confrontation, we could talk about it !  Have a nice week everyone, stay tuned for the next blog post, that hopefully will be in the weekend!

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Photo contests .

HeyHey!

How are you? I hope you all had an amazing Christmas! I know i'm late but i wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS in any case :) I think i will write a post showing you some presents my friends and family gave me this year, so maybe i can give you some ideas for future gifts (Christmas and bday ones).

But today what i want to do is to show you two pictures I made to take part and ofc try to win two different photo contests.

● The first contest i took part was organized by Assicity, an association composed by young people from my city who try to create events such as christmas markets in the main square, parties during the whole year, Halloween included, or summer games. Everyone likes these events because my city is small, medieval and mainly famous because of St.Francis, churches and other religious things. To keep the tourism alive no one really thinks about the young people who lives in here, there are no special occasions for us to meet and party.

In any case, this association, to finance other events, this year decided to print a calendar that was going to have 12 different pictures, one for each month. To find original photos they decided to organize this contest, where the main theme was 'Red'.

This is the picture i sent to take part in the competition.

Made with Canon1000D, edited by a friend of mine with a program i don't know
but that is better than mine for sure ahah

The pictures were not judged by photographers or by the members of the association but they were uploaded on Facebook on Assicity's page (without the names of the authors) and they were voted by all the people who were fan of the profile. Mine was one of the first 12, so it was selected to represent November on the calendar that are available since Friday 27th till Sunday 29th.

The pictures i sent had worse colors than the ones i posted up there but was really similar; i decided to upload here the one that a friend of mine edited to make it more lightfull, and i find it really nice in this way.

● The second contest i took part was organized by my school. On the last day before christmas holiday, the 21st of December, this contest was over and the people who won the writing contest (with poetries and stuff), the drawing contest and the photography one, received a little award that was a small present (a frame i guess).

I unluckily didn't win, but i'll show you below the pictures i did for the theme ''Violence against women''

Canon 1000D

To make this picture as i was creating it in my mind, i organized my own photo set at home and, as model, i chose my cousin Lorenza (you can find her on Twitter). If you are wondering... the hand is my brother's ahah just saying !

To be completely honest with you guys, i didnt really like these two pictures. I'm sure i've done better ones, also for other contests. I personally like street photography, i like to capture the moment and the geometrical shapes around me. When it came to build my own pictures, i really didnt know what to expect, i mean both the pictures are not natural and i was not sure if send them or not. I did and i'm glad i did in any case (either i win or lose) ahah

Write what you think about the pictures in the comment below, i'll be glad to hear your opinion of them :) have a nice day everyone!

My photography story .

I do not consider myself a photographer. I don't have a personal facebook page or a personal website, i think i'm not that good and famous to do that. This is why i don't understand why people that just buy a good camera just feel like they must have their name written on pictures that represents nothing (as lookbook with friends) and when they hit 100 likes on facebook on some of their ''artistic pictures'' they think that is time to create their own page to sadisfied all their fans!

In my opinion...this is not how it should work. I'm okay with people that buy SLR cameras, and i like the fact they try to use them as much as they can. I think that those people, at the same time, connect the idea of a good camera with the hability of a photographer. 

The pictures are the result of both; camera and who's behing the camera. Starting with this idea i approached to the world of photography. 

Everything started when a friend of mine, Ilaria, used to upload really good pictures on Netlog, and since the fact we all wanted to look good on social networks' pictures, we went out once with her to have nice portraits to upload! When i saw her camera i fell in love with it. It was much bigger than my parents one (an average compact camera), I noticed how good the pictures were in terms of quality, everything was looking way better on the screen with that camera. I started dreaming about getting one but that was when i was 14. After two years, in which i used to take macro pictures on every single family trip and than modify them using 'picnick' online, i finally got my Canon 1000D. That was an awesome christmas. I started taking pictures everywhere. I tried to avoid pictures of myself in the mirror holding my camera or pictures of friends of mine while they were in unnatural position, dressed in a better way than the average. 

After one year i decided that i didn't want to keep taking pictures with automatic settings and that's when i started following some lessons made by a photography association (Contrasti). Those 10 evenings helped me a lot in a technical way but also when it came to understand what kind of pictures i like to take.

I worked a couple of time in discos for events, same for big birthdays...but it just does not satisfy me enough. Yesterday i was working in Perugia at an 18bday party. Well the picture i like the most is one of the cake. I can't stand average birthday pictures with people with fake smile on, just standing there hoping for me to catch their best expression. Althought this is the kind of photo i do not like, is the easiest one to gain money, and that's why i accept everytime people ask me to do that. Oh i forget to say, i also took pictures for a football team for a couple of months...and that was sooo boring. 

In any case, i realised what i like to take pictures of when i was doing the things i love the most in the world; travelling. The lovest thing i could do while i'm abroad is to visit some place i've never been before taking pictures with all the kalm of the world, studying what i like the most about that place and than trying to capture it. 

I do love street photography. From the details of the cities, to the compositions of shapes you can find in the organization of a shop, the expression of the faces of subjects i don't know and i never will...eveyrthing looks so perfect and fascinating without being forced, it's all natural. 

This is what i like about photography; find harmony where you can.

I'm going to post below my favourite picture. I took this photo one year ago while i was in summer holiday in Holland, more precisely on Utrecht. I wanted to focus on a bike wheels but i had the luck to capture the exact moment in which every wheels of the street were on the same line. This creates this tunnel of circles that i absolutely love. I'm so proud of this work of mine!

My Flickr; http://www.flickr.com/photos/federicaz/

I have a Canon 1000D
Lenses; 18-55mm (Canon)
70-300mm (Sigma)


I'm going to buy my first tripod on amazon soon, just a cheap one (it's the first) and i'm thinking about a 50mm for portraits or a big flash for when i work at parties