Dealing with crowds.

I expected Modena on a Sunday afternoon to be a bit quieter than it was. These shots were taken with quite a few people passing through the scene. At 30 seconds, as long as nobody stopped to take a selfie, or let their dog piss on the railings ( yes it happened) the crowds were magicked away.

Worked much better than I expected. Very long exposures over 30 seconds, seem to be a really useful tool for dealing with crowded places. You can see some "ghosts" in the background, in the first shot.

The Bell tower and the apse lean badly, but it has been OK for a thousand years, so I quess everything is OK.

The lean could possibly become similar to the more recent issue in Bologna Italy [ beautiful town ]
www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67599067

We have very poor soil (sandy clay) under our buildings in the Po Valley. Lots of old buildings lean badly in this region.

The leaning tower in Bologna was already horribly out of plumb. It had been shortened in the past.

The problem in Bologna is vibration from traffic. The Po is very changeable, is rises and falls very quickly.

Did you ever take photos in Bologna?

Yes, I have been to Bologna quite a few times to take photographs. It is a very interesting city.

Bologna is known for its "towers, tits and tortellini" the three T's
I found it very interesting too....

I climbed up to the top too many years ago. A fantastic view from the top.

The arcades are interesting...

You might like this link . A day spent in Bologna. I have been back since.

Excellent work Nigel.

Anatomical theatre of the Archiginnasio was very interesting. I was interested in becoming a surgeon in my more youthful days...
I took many shots, but here is one example:

¡Hola!
Getting back to the main topic, "dealing with crowds," the other day I tried a different strategy: a selective stack of multiple shots. This can be useful when you can't (or don't want to) use shots so long that they require a tripod. The result is... different: the crowd is still there, but I think the individuals lose prominence and integrate well with the environment.

Yes, this is a good strategy and another one is to blur the people in the shot. In this shot the shadows could have been darkened to lose the crowd in the shadows.