Sunday, February 28, 2010

The view from the iPhone - Soriano nel Cimino



Riding the Rome-Viterbo railway



The smile of life


Kicking up heels in the Bar Centrale


Evening in the piazza principale


The view from the iPhone - Florence night


There is a note at the beginning of the 'Florence day' entry about making use, deliberately or by relaxed exploration of the possible, of the iPhone's limitations. These are especially evident as it struggles for light at night...












the view from the iPhone - Florence day



The iPhone is limited as a camera, but also has many advantages over a camera in being discreet. It also, being slow and inflexible in exposure, able to produce some very interesting if you exploit these qualities, for example with slight (intentional or accident) movements of the camera while taking the picture. Its lens is also quite unprotected from sunlight or other sharp direct light, which has interesting effects. Admirably, though it lives naked in pockets and I give so little attention to the care of the lens, there are no signs of dirty lens, perhaps because it is pretty close to pinhole size anyway.

Here are some daylight pictures from Florence and getting to Florence. Some of the 'effects' are deliberate, some accidental.









end of Friday's walk


We had gone from our beautiful room near Campo dei Fiori in the bed and breakfast Domus Ester (which we can recommend), walked to the Pantheon, then to the Borghese Gallery, then through the Villa Borghese and down the Spanish Steps at sunset, then along the Via Frattina to the Via Del Corso. Now on the Via del Corso, we saw...

... a chocolate Labrador in a shoe shop, bookend to the dog in the bookshop seen in the morning.


... mice and men...

a lot of traffic...


and you can tell from this little movie that the man with the camera is getting tired!



and then there were shiny cars like this Lancia waiting for shiny people in the Piazza del Parliamento

then more quiet streets, people going home or shopping

till we emerged at the Pantheon, then proceeding home...



via Frattina shops - part 2

More photos from Via Frattina... evening of Friday 26 February 2010










Via Frattina shops - part 1


If you go down the Spanish steps and straight ahead you will find yourself on the Via dei Condotti, where the names of the shops are so famous and the products so extraordinary that you will not often see prices revealed and if you have to ask you should perhaps not be there.

Two streets to the left is the Via Frattina, which used to be very much cheaper and is still somewhat cheaper, but pretty glamorous. Here are some pics!