Northern Lazio, near Lake Bolsena. This is the valley where rises Civita di Bagnoregio, also known as “The dying town”. Dense fog banks submerge the valley floor, while the first rays of light filter through the clouds. This burst of light only lasted for a few seconds; I’ve been lucky enough to have the camera ready on the tripod, waiting for a shy sunrise that, for this reason, I named “of fire and mist”.
“Great Horn”. Abruzzo, central Italy. Corno Grande, that means Great Horn, is the highest peak of the Gran Sasso massif and of the whole Apennine Mountains. Its unique shape stands out against the skyline and is visible from a great distance. Moreover, the clear sky helped to capture even the smallest details, otherwise invisible in different weather conditions. At the same time, the warm light of the sunset revealed the mountainside’s crags, emphasizing at the same time the three-dimensionality and the textures of the massif, through a contrast of light and color.
A fascinating spectacle, being in the presence of such an imposing peak, while looking at it from a distance and from a high altitude.
This photograph has been taken from Rocca Calascio, about 20 Km far from the subject as the crow flies, during the sunset. This is actually a panorama made of 10 vertical frames, stitched together to form a 109 MPixel image. Another detail about this shot is that I’ve used a vintage lens, specifically a Pentax SMC 200mm F2.5, built almost 40 years ago and made of steel and glass (no traces of plastic, except for the focus ring), as a sort of technical challenge and to discover if it makes out well against the high tech modern lenses. On paper, it could not seem the best companion for natural landscape. I have to say I’m quite satisfied, even if it’s heavy and not weather sealed.
This photograph has been awarded at the following international photography competition:“Kings fortress”. In the heart of Abruzzo, not far from the Gran Sasso massif, on the top of a mountain stands the castle of Rocca Calascio. A majestic fortification, the highest of the entire Apennine chain at 1460 meters above sea level, which dominates the surrounding landscape and watches over the valleys below.
Reaching the castle before dawn, from the village in the valley, is a fascinating experience in itself. Crossing the ancient village whose stone houses and the alleys are lit only by lanterns, and then finding yourself walking a snowy path that climbs up the mountaintop, makes you feel like you are in a fairy-tale.
The sight that you witness, once you reach the crest, is breathtaking: the eyes can see up to the horizon, in every direction you look. The distant snow-capped mountains, despite their majesty, appear small. Enveloped in surreal silence, the fortress emerges from the darkness; first as a silhouette, in the faint light of the blue hour, then as a clear and imposing figure that stands out above everything, illuminated by the brilliant and warm light of a winter sunrise.
Capturing this high-contrast scene required the combined use of a graduated ND filter and exposure bracketing. The filter alone, in fact, was not enough to reduce the brightness of the sky enough to allow the camera to fit the entire dynamic range in a single shot. However, it helped to minimize bracketing: in fact, two shots were enough, one exposed for the shadows and the darker mid-tones, while the other exposed for the highlights and brighter mid-tones. As a result, blending the exposures in Photoshop was smoother and more natural.
This photograph has been awarded at the following international photography competition:“Winter silence”. The alarm clock rings almost two hours before dawn. In the Abruzzese village of Rocca Calascio, not so far from the “Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park”, the temperature is definitely below zero. After a few brief preparations I go out and reach the car, in the light of the lanterns; proceeding very slowly, along the road that climbs the mountain and leads almost to the fortress, I park at about three-quarters of the way, to avoid not being able to continue in the event of an icy section. I continue on foot, in the silent darkness, warming up as I approach the destination: I pass the tiny ancient village, all made of rock, including the completely frozen paths and stairs, and then find myself walking along a snowy path. The headlamp allows me to clearly see to my left the massive grandeur of the peak and the fortress that rises there and to my right an escarpment of dense trees.
Before long, I find the small church of Santa Maria Della Pietà in front of me, a beautiful Renaissance work with an octagonal base and a large solid wooden door. It looks like a gem, there on the mountainside, microscopic compared to the vastness of the surrounding landscape.
So I decide to represent the impression that this small and fascinating architectural treasure has given me: I go up a little further along the path and find a suitable composition. In the meantime, the first light of dusk marks the beginning of the morning blue hour, revealing the white geometric shape of the church, facing an immense mountainous panorama. The nearest hills are mostly bare and with soft and sinuous shapes but, on the horizon, you can see the silhouettes of the highest and snow-capped peaks, including the unmistakable Corno Grande, the highest of the Gran Sasso, and all the Apennines.
The silence is surreal and, at this altitude and with such a clear sky, the little diagonal light is enough to make all the details of a natural landscape as wild as it is delicate shine.
A place and an experience that have remained indelibly in my heart.
To take this shot, I used a 2-stop graduated ND filter to slightly darken the sky, balancing the lighting with the foreground. The central area of the frame is thus more illuminated, from the church to the horizon.
This photograph has been awarded at the following international photography competition:“Dawn at high elevation”. View from the summit of Rocca Calascio, Abruzzo, at 1460 meters above sea level. The twilight reveals a snowy mountain range under a clear cloudless sky. Below, the villages are still illuminated by street lamps, waiting for the first rays of the sun.
“Last light on the fortress”. Rocca Calascio, Abruzzo. The highest fortress of the entire Apennine range is illuminated by the last soft light, after sunset. The imposing and solitary aspect of the fortress stands out on the surrounding landscape but, in some way, it blends harmoniously with the mountain, as if it were part of it and of the rocks that characterize it.
The clear air of a cold and cloudless winter day makes the peaks of the Apennines to the south-east clearly visible, many kilometers away and colored by the shades of twilight, in a calm and dreamy atmosphere that precedes the darkness of the night.
To capture this view, a graduated neutral density filter has been useful: it darkened the sky and the elements on the skyline, making the brightness of the scene more balanced.
“The bliss of tranquility”. A fleeting moment of perfect beauty in Sardinia, Italy. The bright and warm light of the sunset illuminates the clouds and, near the lakeshore on which they are reflected, some horses placidly graze.
“Castelsardo magic”. Sardinia, Italy. The ephemeral magic of the blue hour tinges the landscape of Castelsardo with a vibrant magenta, before giving way to the darkness of the night.
The peculiarity of this photograph is that it’s actually made of two shots taken at a distance of several minutes from each other while maintaining the position of the camera and the composition unchanged. The reason for this is the intention to merge the vivid colors of the blue hour and the lights of the town into a single image.
In fact, in the first shot, the scene is bright, colorful and detailed, but the town is “switched off” and a little flat and dull. So, after this first long exposure, it was sufficient to wait for the time the urban lighting was switched on and take a second, shorter shot.
By doing so, it was possible to obtain a more vivid and brilliant scene: the fortress on which the Castel dei Doria (or Castel Genovese) stands is illuminated by spotlights that highlight the texture of the rocky wall, while the coastal tower of Frigiano is illuminated by a magenta reflector, like the color of the sky. The street lamps and the lights of the houses accompany them. The atmosphere is completed by reflections on the still water of the inlet.
To merge the two shots, it was necessary to elaborate them in Photoshop, setting the first file of the blue hour as the base layer and the second file with the lights on as the upper layer. So the blending mode of the top layer was set to “lighten”. In this way, each brighter pixel was superimposed on that of the lower layer, thus obtaining a final image composed of 99% by the base layer, plus the small portions of the upper layer related to the lights of the town.
The only slightly tricky step was the method of blending the reflections on the water since they required a soft, natural gradient. To do this, it was necessary to reveal a further portion of the upper level, darker, relating to the water of the inlet, through a special handmade mask. In this way, with the slightly darker water, the reflections on it of the lights were brighter, maintaining, in any case, the naturalness and realism of the whole scene.
Detail of the waterfall of Sa Stiddiosa, sardinian name that means “the dripping”; the reason for this name lies in the conformation of the waterfall itself, a vertical rocky wall on which the water flows in random directions and which, before falling into the pond below, crosses a multitude of Maidenhair ferns. Sa Stiddiosa is a natural corner of paradise located along the Flumendosa river in the Sardinian backcountry and, to reach it, it is necessary to take a very steep path inside the wood.
Grasping tightly. On the edge of the path that goes into the wood, some trees have grown on the edge of a rocky slope: with their thin and knobby roots, they search for a safe hold between the fissures of the rocks’ layers, in order to reach the soft and penetrable soil. The combination, both visual and of matter, and the interpenetration between the resistant, living wood and the hard mineral fascinates me because it somewhat shows that in nature there is no real “incompatibility”.
