An Hungarian friend

My not-at-all-smart phone cam strikes again. I found this little moth hanging on my the curtains of my hotel room, one of the last times I was in Budapest. Now that the company spending restrictions are keeping me anchored in the harbour, I have less opportunities to shoot abroad but much more time, in turn, to delve into the folders of my previous shootings, including the very bad images taken with my phone.

It's marvellous to find out some good shots, worth of being processed and published in the folders of a phone cam. Sometimes, less than one million pixels can surprise more than the fifteeen megapixels of the bulky, heavy and expensive high-end companions.

The catcher in the rye

Let's stay united

A great team comes out in the toughest of its moments. Whatever the beliefs and the opinions, its member stay together and closer than before and openly talk, discuss, communicate and build the ground for a better future. The fringes blur, whereas the core looks sharp and solid.

The coordinator

This is how it goes. There are some who don't take part to event and stand or sit behind the curtains of the stage but still need to make themselves heard.

Waiting for something to happen

Autumn has just began but still we're enjoying great sunny days and warm temperature. Good for walking, cycling, laying on a long-chair, preferably close to the sea. It's real pity that we have to sit quiet in our offices, in the grey atmosphere of the Milanese metropolis and spend hours in endless discussions, instead. I can't help it. Can't do better that waiting for better times or something to happen.

... been waiting so long ...

I forgot to post this picture for some months after I put it in the "draft" queue of my blog. Digging around its folders, today, I spotted it and though it was about time to give it to light. I think it dates back to one of my last travels to Goteborg (if not "the" last). The current downturn does not allow me to travel so often anymore: my last years photo albums are a precious resource not to make this blog running out of pics. This picture has something that fits with long lasting wait. So ... it was worth publishing it in any case.

Lost in admiration

"And the big wheel keep on turning neon burning up above,

And I'm just high on the world ..."

Dire Straits

I'll call you Ishmael

Flora Alpina - IV

Flora Alpina - III

As the storm approaches

It's time to go, time to leave, to get back on our tracks and reach a safe place. We've been hanging around too much. This place is no longer for us.

Pastoral

Satisfaction always comes later

At current time my son Flavio loves cycling more or less as much as I do. He never misses a chance to go out with me for a ride and, to wit, he really looks mentally and physically tolerant to the thoughness of pedalling and climbing with his own strengths. Most of the times a candy and bottle of water are enough to make all effort light up and regenerate the energy until home's gates are in front of us. Nevertheless, I don't want him to take this road as his principal sport activity. Cycling, either for professionals or amateurs, has become a world of hysteric people (starting from the young athletes' parents), self-neck-brakers, careless of their own safety, high-tech maniacs and ... yes, addicted.

Needless to say I don't like it at all. That's why I never joined a team and still, after several years, I prefer to go around by myself, at my own pace, or with Flavio at my side, at his own pace.

I have time to look around myself, understand where I am and where I go, I have time to think out loud, to decide my route on the fly, without programs and, if possible (ad worth), to take pics. Cycling means "discovery" to me, some kind of a learning and self-check phase. Satisfaction come from the big little things, after all, such as getting back home wet to the bones and covered with mud.

I've told several times to my son that the joy, the big satisfaction always come later, after the big effort, when it's time to look back at the road just made or staring the valley below before the excitation of the downhill speed fills our veins. Simple, isn't it?

A twist in the sky

"I once was a tree and made all my best everyday to reach the sky. Now I've been gifted of immortality, I stand still under the rain and the scorching sun but I still run my daily twist to touch the bottom of heaven."

 

The Four Elements

It's not gone too much time since I collaborated to the 591 Spring Exhibition devoted to the four classical elements, in Spring 2012. It was a great success, indeed, with hundreds of submissions from every corner of the world. We spent a big deal of time to make our choice. The resulting selection is still available on 591.

I promised myself I would have dedicated myself to the theme again as soon as I would have had some time. No comment. This project has been laying in my mind so long that I nearly forgot it, until I found these four wood carvings in Folgaria, the village on Trentino's mountains where I spent the August vacations with my family.

The sculpture is from Roland Veith and was made on the same location where it now stands in July 2010.

Alpine Landmarks

The unlucky seller

Not really the best time for emptying out the attic.

Thinking Spot

Nordic Walking

Flora Alpina - II

Stolen images of "samples" grown and dried up at the bottom of a mountain muretto a secco (drywall). After all, it's only a matter or looking carefully. Beauty hides everywhere.

Flora Alpina - I

"Don't even dare to swallow them, 'cause you'll miss 'em ...".

Yes, these pictures (and some of those that will come in the following days) are so much blown up and close to the floral subject that I couldn't get the focus they probably deserved. I could give my gear the whole fault. Yet, I'm proud to say that I knew they wouldn't be canonically perfect and that I got the tossy results I was looking for without using a post processing tool. I love the feeling of uncertainty they convey, the need for a better sight. They're in line with my current mood.

Summer Harvest

I'm back home again after a couple of weeks spent on an alpine plateau not far from Trento, in the east end of Italy. My memory cards are overflowing with pictures and urgently need a reassuring download. I know they won't be all satisfactory: I've been distracted by some time consuming events. My car broke two times and required an urgent recovery for fixing. I could have bought a brand new camera with all that money bu the two event made me think about the importance of taking quick decisions.

The coming Autumn season will be busier than usual. Someone talked to me about an extra-mile to walk. I can't do but laughing at this, as I've always been running that stripe of land and I would like to harvest instead the fruit of my sowing.