*** This Week Through Your Eyes 2024.06.15***

Good morning to everyone wherever you are in the world...

I am standing in for Wormsmeat for a couple of weeks as he is on holiday.

• This long-running thread originated on DPReview has grown into an all-inclusive community in which all brands of camera are welcome.
• Leave your guns and knives at the door. Keep it polite.
• A new week kicks off Saturday morning (UK time).
• It can get a bit tangled in here, please edit your post to make it clear to whom you are replying.
• Don’t just post and run, try to comment on other peoples’ work. We all like feedback.
• Posting in this thread implies you’re happy to receive feedback.

Hope I got it in the right Sub Forum this week.

Northern Tuscany

Italy is not always blessed with sunshine. After a job in Florence, I took the long way home via Lucca and the Garfagnana, stopping off in Barga and another couple of places. The weather was grey with occasional breaks in the cloud to let the sun shine through. Crossing the mountain ridge to go home to Emila was "interesting" as I finished amongst the clouds as I drove over the mountain pass. I wanted some material for my Romanesque project.

The Duomo in Barga is quite unusual for a Romanesque church. It is a rectangular box shaped structure. It dates from the 12 Century, and is in a commanding position above the small town.

San Cassiano is a little hamlet high above the valley, reached after navigating an seemingly endless country lane. The church was closed, but I wanted to see the primitive carvings on the façade. I really enjoy this almost abstract Medieval art. The rain held off for a while and I even had a few seconds of sun.

Brancoli is another hamlet, reached by climbing high above the main valley, again along twisty turny country lanes, among the olive groves. A notice on the door gives the telephone numbers of the local volunteers who will open the church and let you have twenty minutes to enjoy the church. I was a bit rushed to make the pictures here, and the details I made hand held at high ISO.

I was in Florence, but I was in no mood for the crowds. If you have a car, exploring the more obscure areas of Tuscany, like the Lunigiana, or Garfagnana, can be a pleasurable and rewarding experience. With a bit of internet research, some wonderful little gems can be seen, and eating out is a more genuine and less costly experience. I had the Duomo in Barga to myself for most of my visit.

I mostly used my Nikon 24PC, 45PC, Laowa 15 shift as well as my new 28-400. The first frame below is a 28-400 shot, as are all the details.

The first shot is a good example of what the AI features in Capture One can achive. With one click the software chose the church as the subject mask, and let me lighten and brighten a little the stonework, caught briefly by some weak sunshine. Another few clicks let me render a little less obvious the people in front of the church, using some darkening and desaturation. Otherwise this is pretty much an out of camera shot.

Thre is still some sniffy snobbery about these superzoom like my new 28-400 lens (Reviews and Photo forums). But I would have probably missed the first shot, and the shot of San Cassiano briefly illuminated by the sun, as I could quickly zoom to make the shot. I was also able to work quickly in Brancoli, to make the details, when I was running out of time on my 20 minute slot.
Barga

Brancoli

San Cassiano

The Nockalmstrasse road in Carinthia

DPRevived has now returned to it’s former pleasant and friendly state; time for me to start posting again 😊
Last week we spent a week hiking in the Nockberge in Kärnten (Carinthia)
It’s a beautiful area with natural parks and fairly gentle, often grass covered, round shaped mountains, more like hills than the more rocky Alps.
There’s one 34km long curvy road here, that’s loved by motorcycles and sport cars, it snakes it’s way through the area up to a height of 2042m. I searched the map for a good place to get a photo. Then we hiked to that spot, it’s off the beaten track but we found it !
Took a few shots, I prefer this wide angle shot best. (taken with the Z 14-30, F4)
We will refresh all the photos in our local open air gallery in 3 weeks time , this shot has earned a place in that round :-)

A good selection!
My favourite is the first with that brief moment of sunshine and your processing, it really stands out against the darker back and foreground.
And also the inside shot and the other detail shots selected above

"...and took a few pictures (as you do)."
yes indeed, that's the fun we all have with photography :-)

I like this comparison of the two sets of steps, they look quite similar but I guess they are two different steps?

B&W is a good choice for the valves

This one is nice, I might have cropped a bit off the bottom, but then again, maybe not ;-)

Midsummer Moor

One of the daily walks follows a track along the Penkiln valley. The surrounding boggy moor changes through the seasons, and now is mainly green with splashes of magenta foxgloves and a few drifts of cotton grass.

A deserted sheepfold higher up the hill is an intersting subject - I've posted an almost identical image in winter conditions.

The first is a stunner.
These romanesque sculptures are always fascinating.

Great shot! Looks like a fine place for hiking, just the right altitude where the trees give way to open mountainside.

My pick.

Fire

It is good that the road is light in colour, so that it makes a nice pattern on the landscape. Would be fun to drive the Alfa in Sport Mode up this road, without traffic.

PS. I found the old home of this forum could often could become much nastier than this one has ever become. The problem of a couple of threads that went off the rails seems to have fixed the problem here. The weekly thread has always been delightfully civil though.

As I said elsewhere, the steps make a nice composition.

Yes, I became fascinated by this art, when I stumbled across a small Pieve by accident. There is something sophisticated about these primitive renditions of people and animals.

Gathering Place

Awen’ Gathering Place is a space along the Collingwood, Ontario waterfront to recognize the First Nations presence in South Georgian Bay and to create opportunities for engagement of Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples while fostering reconciliation through education and conversation.

Superb examples of the period architecture.
My fave.

Excellent capture and that road, unreal.

I like these windflower examples...