Tuscany in Mono. (and colour)

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Superb work Jim - I prefer the colour one myself by a long way, in fact I might even go as far as to say, it is the best landscape shot I have seen on this forum. 

Dave

[michswiss]

I'm definitely not a person to comment on landscape shots, but this one is quite special.  I can only imagine how wonderful it must have felt being there on that hill in the early dawn.  Magical.

[Rob C]

Also, Jennifer, one of the reasons people living in cities can get violent and depressed. Of course, folks in the stcks find their own reasons for doing and feeling much the same: the human condition, I guess.

Parts of the Dordogne also allow for that sort of atmospheric display, though the 'design' of the place is quite different; a beautiful example of the genre, indeed.

Rob C

[Jim Pascoe]

Thank you all for your positive comments.  I really have no great skill in this but it is just important to get in place at the right time.  This last picture was taken three minutes before the previous colour picture, but looking a bit further to the east, and with a 135mm lens.

Jim

[jule]

Thanks for the kind words Eric and everyone else.  Like I say, I am not a landscape photographer but more into people really.  Usually I am shooting at f2, and it was quite a change to stop the lens down for a change to f11 and use a tripod.  Amazing how dirty the sensor was though - never really noticeable at f2!
I have some colour pictures too and this is one of them, taken with the same Zeiss 50mm lens, this time before dawn.

Jim

This colour one has brought out not a very good quality in myself..  ENVY!!!!

:-)

Julie

[sdwilsonsct]

About 30 seconds later the outside light on the house went out.

Really, really nice, Jim. The porchlight is a big part of the strength for me. Inspirational.

[Jim Pascoe]

This colour one has brought out not a very good quality in myself..  ENVY!!!!

:-)

Julie

Ah Julie - I know that feeling well.  Envy is something that is absent in every area of my life - except photography!

These pictures of Tuscany were taken on a photo workshop with a friend of mine, Ian Badley.  Ian had been to Tuscany before and decided to organise a workshop there - he normally runs them in the UK.  He asked me if I would like to help him run the training, and our wives would be on hand to help entertain the other photographers partners if necessary.  My area of experience is more in people photography, but my wife Nicky really wanted to go to Tuscany and so we went.  Ian had booked a hotel very close to the location of these pictures and we did several dawn shoots.  In addition we took the group into local towns including Sienna and here I was able to help the pupils with their street photography.  All in all it was a great trip and the dawn pictures alone made it worthwhile.  For landscape work I am now a firm convert to tripods and f11.  We are going to run the same workshop in the first week of May 2013.  The poppies were amazing too!

Jim