* Wednesday C&C "No Theme" Thread #898 / Revived #118 on 2025 07 02*

I can just hear Tony Bennet singing 🎶 "I left my heart in Polignano" 🎶

(Sorry!)

Interesting. Is that an extinct volcano?

Rich

I had to Google "Yum cha."

Before we all became addicted to our smartphones we buried our faces in the morning news papers.

The fragrance of tea and newsprint. I can hear sound of pages being turned and folded.

Rich

A fast camera and willing acrobats!

But 330 shots? Ain't technology wonderful?

I have no experience shooting birds other than a seagull or pelican squadron that flew by while I was focused on something else at the sea shore.

Nice work.

Rich

Holy cow!

If the gorgeous lighting weren't enough. The arrangement of the room, the textures and color of the wood and light play on walls and baskets. The balance of indoor and out-door light intensity. And that splash of pink!

Just a beautiful, nostalgic image.

Rich

I assume it's morning.

I can hear and feel the stillness. Cool, moist air. The plunk of the line, the sinker and the float into the still surface of the lake. Muffled sounds from the opposite bank. Water skaters barely touching the film of surface tension.

Enjoy the experience, Kiddo!

Rich

I like this one - well captured and nicely separated from the background.

The composition and wide format work exceptionally well here. For a second I thought the person was too low in the frame... but then I reconsidered. It makes sense for the horizon to still be visible and it also adds a sense of scale and increases the importance of the (wonderfully moody) surroundings.

I think you succeeded. The way it's captured - with the foreground in motion - it almost feels like a magic castle that only appears for a moment and can't be captured otherwise. Very interesting and well done.

Hold fast by simple.joy, on Flickr

This image was one I created specifically for my latest article.

I love writing about unusual adapted lenses, I really enjoy researching stuff and getting in contact with different people who are connected to the matter in some way or another. Sharing information, knowledge, experiences and piecing together a kind of puzzle about something that's never been written about in any proper form... I really like that.

Once in a while however, I have serious doubts about the whole thing and it feels like I'm wasting an enormous amount of time and energy on something that doesn't matter to anyone really...

I found it funny (and sad at the same time) how this image seems to capture that feeling...

Well, it's called a midlife-crisis for a reason, I guess. 😅

But regardless, if you're curious, you can find the article here:

deltalenses.com/the-kiptar-story/

(BTW. this is the original image for the kind of concept some people hinted at in the last thread. So far I've only taken these two, but there would be lots more of possibilities, I guess. I just don't know if I can muster the energy to try that anytime soon)

It's called "Spray-and-Pray."

😏

Rich

Magical.

Looks like it's caught in a fortunate blink of the eye, and could vanish in the next instant.

Rich

Funny that you should mention Tony Bennett.
I don't think he has a connection with Polignano, but one of his colleague-singers certainly has.

It is the birthplace of Domenico Modugno, the original singer of "Nel Blu Di Pinto di Blu".
That song title may not mean much to many, but it is better known as "Volare" and has been covered a million times.

Here's the original on the Ed Sullivan Show:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=u99ivDAqwSM

Modugno has a nice statue in Polignano, and it is great fun imagining oneself flying and soaring over the coastline there.

Now about the image:
- no this is not a volcano, because the circular (heart shaped) enclosure is an optical illusion
- this is a narrow bay cutting into the rocks and cliffs on which the village sits
(it has lots of caves, some as dwellings, some incorporated into fancy hotels as e.g. grand restaurant spaces)
- so the water that we see is the Adriatic Sea.
- I created the illusion of it being a crater lake, by using my fisheye lens on a specific vantage point looking down on that bay, and where I had a wall on my right that I could make "curl back" into the frame.
(The original, uncropped, frame in vertical orientation, has a lot more sky and at the bottom it shows my own feet in the frame through the bars of the railing that I am standing behind.)

Oh, Yes,

Volare!

Domenico Modugno!

Do I remember!

Late '50s. Junior and senior years of high school. I had discovered Jazz and Ahmad Jamal, Dave Brubeck, Martin Denny (Quiet Village) were my listening preferences. But in Philadelphia, singers with Italian or Mediterranean-sounding names dominated the air waves . . . and were the music of the era.

Musica dolce . . . I loved Dean Martin.

Domenico could be heard anywhere on the radio dial, anytime of the day . . .

🎶 "Volare, Oh, Oh. . . . Contare, Oh, Oh, Oh, Oh . . . . Let us leave the confusion . . . and all disillusion behind! . . ." 🎶

Rich