Sunrise on K2 (8611 meters high) with lenticular cloud.
Gilgit/Baltistan region, Karakorum, Pakistan.
K2 is not only a mountain, but the incarnation of our desire, sky and earth embracing. Matter and spirit touching.
15 august 2022, h5.
Nikon D800.
K2 - Sky and Earth embracing
Child in Longwa Wasa village.
Nagaland region. India/Mynamar.
Nagaland is one of the smaller states of India, in the north-east of the country.
February 2020.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Life in Longwa Wasa - India
Beech over a sea of clouds.
Mount Ramaceto, Liguria, Italy.
Over the clouds, it seems to me to live another planet, I could watch the usual land changes shapes and consistency.
The clouds permit us to see only the highest thinks: only higher mountains could appear over this amazing white coat.
Maybe we are trying to reach stability in life, but what we really need is just the right balance, like these trees over the abyss: in their stillness, they know how to slowly move to reach the equilibrium, and the bends of trees trunk remember to us how to adapt properly to strong wind that flows at this altitude.
They know and reproduce the shape of the air, their shapes are like the wings of a bird: stillness and movement at the same time, like a springboard towards our dream.
December 2021.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
The right balance
The following image shows a wood in Val di luce (Valley of Light).
This image contains multitudes, like ourselves. Inside our soul, many people inhabit: our ancestors, together with all the parts of us. Some parts in harmony, some others in conflicts. We aim to integrate all our parts, to create the masterpiece of life. Unique, deeply vast.
I love also how trees, together with their shadows, create a pattern. Photography can transform reality: our eyes can change the world, generating new shapes, reflecting our personal sensibility.
Here a piece of a poem by Walt Whitman:
"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)"
"Mi contraddico?
Ebbene sì. Mi contraddico.
(Sono vasto, contengo moltitudini.)"
(italian translation)
Winner in category 'landscape' in Gubbio Photo Contest 2023.
Competition title was 'Apennines: environment, history and territory'.
Abetone, Appennino between Tuscany and Emilia Romagna region, north Italy.
January 2023.
Nikon D800
I am large, I contain multitudes
The El Molo, also known as Elmolo, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the northern Eastern Province of Kenya. They are the smallest ethnic group in Kenya, numbering about 300 people. They originally settled in the north of Lake Turkana but were forced by the other tribes to move south to the small islands.
Turkana lake, northern Kenya.
Thanks to photographer Mauro De Bettio to take me in this region!
August 2023.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Snowfall in Via Luccoli, in Genoa ancient historic center (Caruggi).
March 2005.
Nikon FE2, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
Snowfall in Genoa
Sunset on Machapuchare (6993 meters high).
Annapurna sanctuary, Nepal, Himalaya range.
Machapuchare is called also 'fish's tail' because of it has two summits similar to the tail of a fish. It has been climbed in 1970 and after this climbing never climbed any more, because of for hinduist it is the home of God Shiva.
October 2016.
Nikon D800.
Machapuchare and nepali forest
Taj Mahal in Agra, Rajasthan, India.
This is one of the most famous monument in the world. 'Taj Mahal' means 'Crown Palace' and it is the marble mausoleum built for Mumtaz Mahal, the wife of Shah Jahan, the fifth Mughal emperor.
It has been built in 17th century and it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, considered the jewel of Muslim art in India.
March 2019.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Taj Mahal - India
Polinago, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
The title of this pic is 'Trapped heart' (Cuore in trappola). I noticed a spiderweb in a foggy and autumnal day, and I liked the idea this spiderweb could metaphorically trapped the chest of the women in the distance. I believe that it is important not what you see in an image, but what you don't see, a pic must evocate some hidden feeling inside us.
First classified at 3° international competition of visual arts "EM’ARTE 2006 – Castellina Marittima - Art paths in the land of alabaster" in Castellina Marittima (Tuscany, Italy).
October 2005.
Nikon FE2, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
Trapped heart
Concordia Camp (4500 meters high), Baltoro valley, Gilgit/Baltistan region, Karakorum, Pakistan.
We arrived in Cocordia Camp with the sun, but during night monsoon arrived, taking with it four rainy days.
The rain was not so heavy, but regular, it lasts all the night, and most of daily time.
It was cold and wet, and we were tired, but not so tired to exit from tent and take pictures. Sometimes, a piece of blue appeared, but the fogs suddenly hidden it: the clouds created special effects of light and shadows between these mountains, the best mountains I have ever seen.
1° classified in photography competition 'The faces of the mountain' (category 'Mountain in black&white') organized by Italian Alpine Club, october 2022.
August 2022.
Nikon D800.
Light, clouds and loneliness
Miceno, Appennino modenese, Italy.
Miceno is located on the top of a small hill. Here its tower bell appearing at sunrise, like a boat in a white ocean. I like to call some of these places 'sailing countries'.
October 2015.
Nikon D800.
Light, clouds and loneliness
Beech in the fog, Mount Ramaceto, Liguria, Italy.
The forest is a dark father, who rarely reveals his charm.
3° classified in photoclub competition 'Il Campanile' (Noventa Vicentina, may 2006).
December 1999.
Yashica FX-3, digital scanning of analogic 35mm film.
A family of trees
Possotomè, Benin, west Africa.
Possotomè is an arrondissement in the Mono department of Benin. The name derives by the first man who settled here, so Possotomè means, in the local language, 'the place of Posso'.
This huge lake has many villages all around it, thanks to the water plenty of fishes. You can meet women fishing, but most of fishers are men, and they start very early in the morning to catch fishes, with wooden boats, using typical fishing tecniques. After an hard work, fishes are given to women, who sell it in the local market, also by night (sometimes market is illuminated by candles, with a magical atmosphere).
Here a mother teaching her child fishing tecniques.
October 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Possotomè - Fishing reflections
There are many special places here, not so known, one of them is Lago Santo Parmense'. If you wait the right moment and you are lucky, there are some special effect (specially with fog), I have seen only here.
I have waited a lot to take the first picture, in the cold, and finally the evening fog from the faraway sea has met last sunrays on sunset, creating such amazing view.
I like also trees, and in the last picture the tree roots seemed to be the fingers of a human hand, and I feel a real connect with natural world.
Life has many different shapes and we are really a part of nature, we should never forget it.
Lago Santo Parmense, Appennino emiliano, Italy.
April 2017.
Nikon D800.
Magic wood
Askoli village, Gilgit-Baltistan region, Karakorum, Pakistan.
Somatic features of faces are similar to Afghans.
These places has been a crossroads of peoples for many centuries, starting from Alexander the Great (Alessandro Magno in Italian language), the conqueror of these valleys during 3rd century BC.
August 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Children portraits in Askoli
A gipsy child freeing a dove in his village near Brasov, Romania.
In Romania around 8% of the population is commonly referred as 'Gipsy'. There are many Gipsy villages, with farms and houses managed totally by themselves. Traditionally the most important Gipsy group dedicates life to build metal manufactured goods, other ones are farmers and/or breeder. Their life are not easy, but we discovered an archaic and free life.
August 2021.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Gipsy live
Longwa Wasa village, Nagaland region, India/Myanmar.
I was impressed by the wrinkles on the face of first woman. An entire life on her skin. Also, I really can't imagine her age... In this region the skin gets ruined soon by sun and open air life.
February 2020.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Longwa Wasa - A family
Annapurna sanctuary, Nepal, Himalaya range.
Machapuchare means 'fish's tail' because of its two summits seems to be the tail of a fish. It is sacred and it is forbidden to climb it.
It is 6,993 meters high and it is inside the Annapurna Sanctuary, in front of Annapurna I and Annapurna South.
October 2016.
Nikon D800.
Machapuchare - Nepal
Two trekkers on the wide summit of mountain, towards Holy Mary statue.
Mount Aiona, Liguria, Italy.
During second lockdown in Italy, we had the opportunity to go out from home, and this was the first trip after months. On the top of the mountain, the sea seemed to have a golden surface.
Landscape was snowy and windy: it seemed to be in a nordic country of Europe, not in front of Mediterranean sea.
January 2021.
Nikon D800.
Golden sea
There was a lot of wind, and I saw far away a group of ski mountaineers. The wind raised the snow, creating a beautiful effects, similar to fog. In the background the summit of Mont Blanc (4.810 meters high).
Picture has a lot of analogic grain, with give to the print a precious taste of old times.
«A little above here is the stellar edge
of the rocks where one feels semi-star,
the burned pupils capture visions which then,
as they go down, seem stolen
to the dream:
"I live in a star"
says one up there»
«Poco su di qui è l'orlo stellare
delle rocce dove ci si sente semiastri,
le pupille arse vi colgono visioni che poi,
scendendo, sembrano trafugate
al sogno:
"abito un astro"
dice uno lassù»
(Ettore Zapparoli)
February 2011.
Nikon F100, digital scanning of analogic 35mm film, converted in black&white.
Ski mountaineers under Mont Blanc
Landmannalaugar, or the 'People's Pools', or 'Land of lonely man', is a vast area of stunning and unique beauty in the heart of Iceland's southern Highlands.
Here with the special light of sunset coming, making more colorful this rocks plenty of minerals.
August 2015.
Nikon D800.
Landmannalaugar - The land of volcanos
This is one of my favorite black&white pics, taken near the summit of Grand Tête de By (Valpelline, Alps between Italy/Swisse).
In the summer afternoon the sky is plenty of clouds passing through glaciers and rocks, and I like the smallness of the silhouette of these two friends climbing summital ridge, disappearing in the fog, in this majestic and sacred environment.
My fellow, linked to me with the rope, hurried me, so I have taken only this pic, and I started to follow again the path.
July 2001.
Yashica FX-3, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
The Man and the Mountain
Waves of clouds at sunset on Mount Penna, Liguria, Italy.
I met there some friends of mine, and I felt another kind of humanity: on summit all people are friends, and I remembered the words of a movie/book, 'The Green Planet':
"And who manages the planet?"
"Nobody ... and everyone ... there is an meeting once a year with village delegates, on top of a mountain."
"Why on top of a mountain?"
“Because when you walk uphill for two hours, you are smarter."
January 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Sea of clouds at sunset
Sea of clouds on Mount Ramaceto, Liguria, Italy.
I wish to be like these trees.
It would be like to fly, exploring another reality.
We live in a prison most of the time: the prison of our mind, our mental schemes, our time. Yes, time is only an human perception, the seed of consciousness is timeless.
I see these clouds under me evolving quickly, moving like the sea, and I wish to feel, at the same time, the movement of the souls inside me.
I reached to reproduce inside me what I see outside, this means to be in harmony with the universe.
As this sea of clouds is a single body, I want to feel all the ancestors who live inside me as a single soul, where time stops to clock, and we start to become eternal.
I felt like in a dream.
"I don’t know where I belong
Forever a lucid feeling
I'm always out of place
And I don’t know where i came from
I see it when I’m dreaming
Another time and space"
(Isae by Ison)
December 2021.
Nikon D800.
Another time and space
Above Nakamuli and Collon refugee, Valpelline, Aosta valley (Italy/Switzerland).
I followed this ibex on the rock. It was very photogenic! I stayed faraway to take some pics, then I tried to get close to him, and he has gone away, walking on a ridge and going back to the refugee.
July 2022.
Nikon D800.
Ibex in Valpelline
Child in a school of Hushe village, Gilgit/Baltistan region, Karakorum, Pakistan.
I visited this school in Hushe. I could take pictures at the girls, but only while they were reading.
They were a bit shy, and also curios about where Italy is located, so teacher explained to them some of characteristics of my country.
In childhood room, I met this child, and I liked so much warm colors and her spontaneous face.
August 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Hushe school - Women in Pakistan
Frozen lake in Pavullo nel Frignano, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
A chair near an icy lake in winter, some footprints on the snow, maybe someone has just passed away.
The silence is like a carpet wrapping us.
I wish only to seat down and wait..
February 2015.
Nikon D800.
Absence
Machapuchare from Annapurna sanctuary, with tibetan prayer flags.
Annapurna sanctuary is an inhabited place. We are never alone here, also because of continuous rumbles: avalanches and seracs that fall down from a living mountain. In the grass there are many small "men" made by stones, memories flowers and many other objects.
We feel the breath of all dead people on mountains, here they are still alive, and they play to hide and chase themselves. Annapurna sanctuary is an open sky "church" where people celebrate diversity, mankind, the return into the home of you souls. People celebrate the Mountain as everybody's home, the Mountain as freedom and dream. The Mountain as idea and the Mountain as stone.
A girl from Chile is painting Annapurna South face. A dog is sleeping under an ocean of tibetan flags. It is dreaming. An advice says: 'You should stay here'. Everyone should stay here, wasting time, watching around, because of the time spent with beauty is never a lost time, but a rediscovered time.
October 2016.
Nikon D800.
Annapurna Sanctuary
African Darter and fisher man on Baringo lake, Kenya.
Baringo lake is a volcanic freshwater lake of 130 square kilometres and an altitude of 970 metres above the sea level, placed on East African Rift.
It has no obvious outlet. The waters are seeping out slowly into the volcanic bedrock, and it is deeper near these volcanic bedrock. Depth is between 4 meters to 25 meters around an island placed in the middle.
The main bird is the African Darter ('Aninga Africana' in italian language), very elegant, with its typical neck S shaped, useful to fish very fast: they don't miss the target ever!
August 2023.
Nikon D800.
Baringo lake - Kenya
An old man smoking his pipe.
Arunachal Pradesh region, north-east India.
Image classified in top 150 on 6th 35awards competition (total number of pictures in competition was 444k).
February 2020.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Pipe smoker - Arunachal Pradesh
Dawn at Gondogoro La (5700 meters high), with sight on beautiful spear-like shape Laila Peak.
Karakorum, Pakistan.
Gondogoro La is a not so easy pass connecting Baltoro valley with Hushe valley.
It permits to complete as a ring the Baltoro trekking.
Going up is easy: there is a continuous 50-degree slope on glacier, with some fixed rope. A bit complex is the descent, due to eventual rocks falling, so it is better to afford it during night or during first hours of the day.
August 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Santa Giulia church, Lavagna, Liguria (Italy).
This gulf is named Tigullio (from Sestri Levante to Portofino), and it is part of a greater gulf named 'Golfo Paradiso' (Heaven gulf). Golfo Paradiso goes from Cinque Terre to Genoa town, and it is famous because of it is a place very frequented by dolphins and whales.
There is here a special place where I usually wait for the sunset: Santa Giulia church.
This tower bell is like a finger pointing towards the horizon, always inspiring us to go beyond.
"And my teacher taught me how difficult it is to find the dawn inside the dusk" (Franco Battiato).
Here a sentinel waiting for the coming dark.
December 2012.
Nikon D800.
Golfo Paradiso (Heaven Gulf)
Nepali girl in a shop at Flagstone Steps.
Annapurna trekking, Nepal.
October 2016.
Nikon D800.
Flagstone Steps - Annapurna trekking - Nepal
Frozen trees near Croce Arcana.
Appennino, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
December 2017.
Nikon D800.
Other images of the same place, always in winter:
Croce Arcana - Frozen Wind
Nagas woman in Hong Phoi, Nagaland region, south-east India.
February 2020.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Nagaland tribe and life in Longwa Wasa
Possotomé, Benin, west Africa.
Around the great lake in Possotomé there are many villages, with some markets and farms.
It was very hot and the sun was high in the sky.
I liked this scene: a children sit under a wall, and the leg and the stick the child took in his hand seemed to follow the crack extension.
Faded red colors of the wall was a perfect background too, with all possible gradations
October 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Children in the shadow
A woman collecting tea in Assam province, between Dibrugarh and Nagaland province, north east India.
We stopped the car to take some shoots to some women collecting tea.
I think about how much work is required to collect tea to permit, in western part of the world, to drink a cup of tea.
People here are working by hands, there aren't automatic machine to do this job.
Mainly young women do it. There were also men but they were doing another type of work, for example to bring heaviest stuff.
February 2020.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Collectors of tea - Women - Part 1/2
Pavullo, San Dalmazio, Ospitaletto (Emilia Romagna), Italy.
The fog as oblivion, the fog as a glowing blanket. The fog covers, the fog reveals. Like fish bones, like rags torn from giants and thrown between valleys and mountains, stranded among the trees, the fog rises and falls the slopes, to leave us that flavor of mystery, silence and beauty, which colors the depth of our heart .
Dedicated to those who have 'faded' into the fog, and now live a bright afterlife...
November 2021.
Nikon D800.
Sea of clouds (3) - November 2021
Sea of Clouds - Autumn 2021 - Video
Gaiato, Pavullo nel Frignano, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
I woke up and my town was covered by fog. I checked the webcam on faraway mountains, and I saw all valleys nearby were covered by the white blanket I love, so I decided to go out to make some pictures.
Taking a good pic is a matter of perseverance and luck, and yesterday I had either. I stopped under an hill, fog came and went away, and I catch these series of images.
I think the true 'click' we need to make a good pic is not only the physical click you make with the finger, but an inner 'click', a feeling raises inside our soul: only when I feel it with heart and soul, I use also my finger on the camera button.
November 2021.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Sea of clouds (4) - November 2021
Selva, Serramazzoni, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
I have waited this red sunrise for many years.
I don't remember how many morning I wake up hoping in a red and amazing sunset in a pond along the road to the office.
This pic rewarded this long time of waiting.
January 2021.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Trango Tower, Karakorum range, Pakistan.
Trango Tower group in a stunning light: I think I have never never seen a so beautiful light, wrapped one of the most beautiful mountain of the world.
Trango tower seems cathedral made of stone, vertical, hard to climb: the dream of every climber.
They are on the upper side of Baltoro glacier, just before Concordia.
August 2022.
Nikon D800.
Turkan woman in Loyangalani town, Turkana lake, Kenya.
The Turkana are a Nilotic people native to the Turkana County in northwest Kenya, a semi-arid climate region bordering Lake Turkana in the east, Pokot, Rendille and Samburu people to the south, Uganda to the west, to the South Sudan and Ethiopia to the north.
The Turkana people have elaborate clothing and adornment styles. Clothing is used to distinguish between age groups, development stages, occasions, and the status of individuals or groups in the Turkana community.
Thanks to photographer Mauro De Bettio to take me in this region!
August 2023.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
A snowfall in Genoa, from Monumental Bridge (Ponte Monumentale). Liguria, Italy.
In Genoa a snowfall is rare, it happens only one or two time each winter,
I went up on Monumental Bridge, and I use a relative long time exposure (I think 1/15 sec) to create this swirling snowflackes traces in the dark, like a flock of shining insects moving around a strong public light.
January 2001.
Yashica FX-3, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
Snowfall in Genoa
Ex headhunter, Nagaland region, south-east India.
Nagaland is a region in the north-east of India, near Myanmar border. We visited some tribes and we met some of the last ex head hunters: they cut head of enemies some decades ago, and they stopped this traditional activity after the arrival of Christian colonization (Don Bosco).
After each head cut off, the Princess of Nagaland painted on their body a new tatoo.
February 2020.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Ex headhunters - Nagaland 2020
Sacra di San Michele, Avigliana, near Turin, Italy.
This place is a very famous place of Piedmont and an heritage of all the world. In the background, Alps range.
"Like Ganden pilgrims, with bodies made of light, on invisible planets" (Franco Battiato).
I felt like a pilgrims towards an invisible place.
Our fragility disappeared in front of this overflowing lights and landscape, and I thought 'I want to live here'.
There are places that are a 'no place', a nowhere, because of they are universal, and they speak directly to the soul.
February 2023.
Nikon D800.
Sacra di San Michele
Chili pepper collector going back home, near Dassa, Benin, west Africa.
I liked the red colors of chili pepper beside the road. As you can see there were many sellers, mostly children.
In the following image I like how the basin drawing and color fit with the clothes of this girl. She walked near me, I had tele on my camera (not wide angle), so I tried to take a good shot, improvising it. I had not so much time to decide the scene, shoot and to find right focus, but I was lucky to catch a good frame, in my opinion!
October 2022.
Nikon D800.
Benin - Chili pepper on the road
Porters at rest on the moraine of Hispar Glacier, between Karakorum and Hindukush region, Pakistan.
Porters, after preparing tents and food, were resting. Glacier is huge, and on both sides, there were steep rocky moraines, where we slept for the night.
I love the reflection/shadow of them on the wet grass, like a double unreal world.
July 2005.
Nikon FE2, digital scanning of analogic 35mm color slide, converted in black&white.
Porters shadow - Karakorum
Porro village, Samburu region, Kenya.
This place is one of the many valleys that seat on the floor of the Great Rift Valley in Kenya.
Going towards Turkana lake from Maralal, we crossed an high pass, with green landscape and wood (altitude was almost 3000 meters high, so climate is no more arid and dry, but fresh and humid). We stopped the jeep to watch panorama, meeting some children living there.
August 2023.
Nikon D800.
Lido di Chiavari, Liguria, Italy.
Those silhouettes against the sun reminded me of God, a tender God, who holds us by hands.
I have a special place in my birthplace: it is a beach, near a river. I come here at the sunset, for me it is like a place of the soul and freedom, where I can rest. I can watch the horizon, and for me the sea is like a mountain where I feel the horizontal dimension instead of vertical dimension.
I imagine the two persons in first pic as a child with a mother (or a father), and I liked the 'link' between them, it was some kind of protection against the incoming thunderstorm. Also in troubles of life, I feel safe because I feel that 'someone' protected and loved me somehow, in spite of everything.
October 2004.
Nikon FE2, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
Mother and child
Foggy morning in Levizzano, Emilia Romagna, Italy.
Here the fog often covered the lowland for many kilometers, only disappearing on higher hills.
I waited for the sun, its low light gave profundity and depths to fog ‘waves’.
"Waterfall of light, snow lake, ragged cloth taken out of the laundry, laid between the bones of the mountains, torn from the hands of a giant, the fog is an organic thing, it has its time, when it is slow it feed the earth. If fast, it goes up the slope like the avalanche spreading on the opposite sides of the valley. He steals from sight the old woods, cuts the villages in pieces. With the sun, it appears to us like the clouds from the plane, like the world from the top of the mountain."
("Cascata di luce, lago di neve, cenci e stracci appena usciti dal bucato, posati tra le lische delle montagne, strappati dalle mani di un gigante. E' una cosa organica la nebbia, hai suoi tempi, quando è lenta nutre la terra. Se veloce risale il pendio come la valanga che si spinge sui versanti opposti alla valle. Trafuga i vecchi boschi, taglia in due i paesi. Con il sole ci appare come le nuvole dall'aereo, come il mondo dalla vetta della montagna.")
4° classified in competition 'The landscape and its mutations' organized by 'Castelvetro di Modena' municipality (December 2016).
January 2015.
Nikon D800.
Foggy morning in Levizzano
Ski mountaineers towards Mont Telliers summit, Alps, Switzerland.
These two ski mountaineers friends, cutting the main traces, suggested to me how to leave the ordinary way, to find another paths to go up, following the same direction with a bit of creativity. This is the 'title' I have chosen for this pic:
The traces of the past do not hinder our ascent, it only indicates the roads of tomorrow.
February 2005.
Nikon FE2, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
Mont Telliers
Moonlight on K2, under amazing Himalayan sky.
Concordia camp (4500 meters high).
Concordia camp is the last camp before K2 base camp, and it is located at the end of Baltoro valley.
From here the view of K2 summit is breathless, and I've taken this pics at night, just before bad weather.
Close in my tent, I felt this great mountain like an unseen presence. Nature is sometimes hostile, some others I felt the charm of it, like a spirit to be joined with.
August 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
K2 at night
Ali camp (5000 meters high) at night, with a stunnig Milky Way, Karakorum, Pakistan.
Ali camp is an heavenly and unreal under Chogolisa.
I used a tripod to take pic. No wind.
About nighty pic, I usually use these settings: 24mm, F2.8 (more light on the sensor better is, for example the mountain wall in first pic was almost black), time exposition between 20 sec and 30 sec (to avoid stars movement; time depends on focal length with the approximately rules of 600/(focal length) sec). About taking focus, it was set to manual, and it is a good choice to watch when star is on focus with the display, or to read the distance reported by camera: when it exceeded the hundreds meters and you read infinity, you immediately stop to rotate manual focus.
I hope to give you some unusual landscape and to recreate the atmosphere of this place unique in the world.
August 2022.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Ali camp at night
Sunset in Santa Giulia, Liguria, Golfo del Tigullio, Italy.
There was a time when I starved at the sky all day, trying to forecast how beautiful the sunset could be, to take good pictures at it. If clouds and weather had the right 'mood', I took my camera, drove my car quickly up to an hill above home, to wait for sunset colors.
A day, I received this gift, I was in the perfect place at the right time, and I took this image. It lasted a lot, all sky has become exactly as you can see.
December 2012.
Nikon D800.
Sky and sea burning at sunset
Turkana lake, Kenya.
People is very poor, and they have a simple life.
Here a school near the shore of amazing Turkana lake. They don't have a building and they do lessons under sky, but I think they are happier than children in western world.
August 2023.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Artic fox, Hornstrandir region, Iceland.
Hornstrandir is a wild region placed in north-west of Icenad.
Here you can find many families of arctic fox.
They are very shy, but some of them came very close to us (it was impossible to touch them). They are curios, and they also are looking for some food, but we can't give them food, because of they should live a completely wild and naturale life, without any help from human being.
The coat color is brown in summer, and white in winter, so they can blend in better with snow.
Favorite food is lemming, but they hunt also other preys and a very varied diet that includes mice, white hares, birds, eggs, as well as molluscs, sea urchins and even dead seals. The fox usually kills its prey in ambushes. If they have enough food during the summer, they prepare some supplies for the winter as well.
August 2015.
Nikon D800.
Tso Moriri lake, Ladakh region, India.
Tso Moriri lake (called also "Mountain Lake"), is a lake in the Changthang Plateau in Ladakh, Northern India. The lake is at an altitude of 4,522 m. It is the largest of the high altitude lakes entirely within India.
I have been here in august 2017, walking from Himachal Pradesh through
Parang La, an approximately 5100 meters high pass.
The water color is dark blue as you can in pictures, due to pure water and also to the colors of the sky at this altitude. With the snow of high snowly summits and the brown aridity of the lands, the color contrast of was unique!
August 2017.
Nikon D800.
Tso Moriri lake - Ladakh
Barcolana, Trieste, Italy.
The Barcolana is held every year on the second Sunday of October in the Gulf of Trieste.
Its particular formula makes it a unique event in the international sailing scene: from the same starting line professional sailors and simple enthusiasts compete side by side on the most various boats, racing machines and simple family yachts, divided into categories according to length.
October 2012.
Nikon D800.
Seastorm in Chiavari, with Portofino lighthouse, Liguria, Italy.
During autumn and winter seastorms are common in Tigullio Gulf, together with floods and rain, even more frequent due to increasing of the temperature of the sea. Mediterranean sea is not ocean, but waves can be very strong and high the same!
In the background Portofino lighthouse (it seems to be not so far in the pic, but it is 10 km far away from that beach). Portofino is a famous wonderful town inside a beautiful park, in front of a protected sea area where you can see many cetaceans.
I like also as the liquid waves resemble to the land hills in the background. Hills and mountains are the 'waves' of planet Earth.
October 2020.
Nikon D800.
Seastorm in Liguria
Madonna on the summit of Mount Ramaceto, Liguria, Italy.
I climb mount Ramaceto during the last day of the year in early afternoon, to watch the sea of clouds show from the summit, a phenomena quite rare on the Mediterranea sea. That day half Mediterranean sea was covered by a low layer of clouds with about 800 meters high of elevation.
December 2021.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Sea of Clouds - Mount Ramaceto
Twilight from the summit of Mount Ramaceto, above a sea of clouds, Italy.
December 2021.
Sony Alpha 7iii.
Sea of Clouds - Mount Ramaceto
Snowfall in Genoa: Railstation, Santo Stefano Church from Monumental Bridge, Via Luccoli.
Winter 2001 and 2005.
Nikon FE2, digital scanning of analogic 35mm Ilford Hp5 film.
Snowfall in Genoa in black&white - Triptychs
– A FAMILY OF TREES
I've just crossed a sunburnt plain and here they are.
They're not growing beside the road; it's too noisy. They're living in uncultivated fields, by a spring, known only to the birds.
In the distance, they look impenetrable.
Ad I come nearer, their trunks move apart.
They welcome me, warily. I may rest and cool down but I can sense that they're watching me closely and cautiously.
It's a family, the elders in the middle, surrounded by the youngsters whose first leaves have just been born, more or less everywhere, but not one of them has opened up yet.
There trees take a long time dying and they keep the dead ones standing until they fall down like dust.
They gently stroke one another's branches, to make certain they're still there, like blind people. If the wind runs out of breath trying t uproot them, they wave their arms about.
But they never quarrel. When they murmur, it's only to show their agreement.
I feel that they must be my real family. It won't take long for me to forget my other one.
There trees will gradually adopt me, and in order to deserve it, I'm learning the things I'll need to know.
I already know how to watch the passing clouds: I also know how to keep still and I've almost learned how to stop talking.
(NATURAL STORIES by Jules Renard)
– UNA FAMIGLIA D’ALBERI (italian translation)
Li incontro, dopo aver traversato una pianura bruciata dal sole.
Non abitano lungo la strada, per via del rumore. Abitano in mezzo ai
campi incolti, accanto ad una fonte nota solo agli uccelli.
Di lontano, sembrano impenetrabili. Come mi avvicino, invece, i
tronchi si disserrano.
Mi accolgono circospetti: posso riposarmi, rinfrescarmi, ma indovino
che mi osservano con diffidenza.
Vivono in famiglia: i più vecchi in mezzo, e i piccoli, quelli che
mettono appena le prime foglie, qua e là, tutto intorno, senza
allontanarsi.
Son duri a morire, e i morti li conservano in piedi fra loro, finché
cadono in polvere.
Si accarezzano coi loro lunghi rami per assicurarsi di esserci tutti,
come i ciechi. Si sbracciano in gesti di collera, se il vento soffia
da sradicarli. Ma non leticano mai fra di loro. Mormorano tutti
insieme, d’accordo.
Sento che questa sarebbe la mia vera famiglia: l’altra sarebbe presto
dimenticata.
Questi alberi mi adotteranno a poco a poco, e per meritarlo imparerò
ciò che bisogna sapere.
Già so guardare le nuvole che passano: già so stare fermo e ho quasi
imparato a tacere.
(Tratto da STORIE NATURALI di Jules Renard)
Composition took sixth place at Saussurea Fundation competition, Courmayeur, Italy (2008).
Early 2000.
Mount Ramaceto, Liguria, Italy.
Analogic pics from color and negative films, taken with Nikon FE2 camera.
A family of trees
