February has gone by very quickly, time flew away between printing & matting sessions to create new artwork and to fulfil orders, processing images to add to my catalogue, writing articles, answering your emails and so on. I am especially happy to say that this March issue will reach more than 100 new subscribers: this continuous growth, together with the increasing diffusion of my artwork, are your best guarantee that your purchases are not only aesthetically fulfilling and wonderful to look at, but a wise investment as well. Thank you for your support!
NEW BLOG ARTICLE: A COMPARISON: SIGMA DP MERRILLS VS. NEX-7 W/SIGMA LENSES
Last month, as you might remember, I published a blog article talking about the Sigma DP1 & DP2 Merrill cameras (click HERE if you missed it). Following the interest generated by my first look into these great little cameras, I published a follow-up article comparing the two Merrills to the Sony Nex-7, equipped with the same design 19mm & 30mm f2.8 Sigma lenses that contribute so much to the amazing image quality of the Sigma DP series cameras. Do these lenses work equally well on the Sony Nex-7, or is the Foveon sensor in the Sigma Merrills that what makes all the difference? Click HERE to find out!
NEW ARTWORK
This month, I created and added more artwork to the VENICE gallery for you. As always, these newly added artwork are for sale in the regular Peludio, Sonata & Sinfonia series (starting from $189 US): printed in-house personally by me on wonderful archival acid-free Hahnemuhle paper, they come either just matted or matted & framed in a beautiful black wooden frame with anti-reflection museum glass (matting and framing materials are fully archival & acid-free as well, of course) and no matter what size or finish you chose they all carry my unique 6-Points Warranty and a hologram-based Certificate of Authenticity. Here is "S. Marco in the morning light":
As well, many of you wrote asking for an update on my recent Death Valley trip: I know you want to see the new artwork, but you'll have to be just a little more patient, I am afraid... However, here is the good news: I started working on the images, selection and RAW processing are almost done and if all goes to plan I will start adding new Death Valley artwork to my catalogue next month - May at the latest. Since so many of you asked, let me just take a second to explain how my artwork-creating process works. First, I start by selecting the keepers from what can be hundreds of images, processing the RAW files and preparing them for the final editing in Photoshop; once this is done, I start doing print runs to find the best settings for each artwork, which can take as much as making 5-10 test prints per image. When I finally am satisfied with the print's tones, colours, contrast, details and so on, I finalise and note all printing parameters for each image, finally adding the new artwork to my galleries - a long process, but a necessary one to provide you with the best quality artwork I can.
PRINT OF THE MONTH
March's Print of The Month as usual is available for the whole month in Preludio and Sonata series (starting from $169 US), printed in-house personally by me on wonderful archival acid-free Hahnemuhle paper, coming just matted or matted & framed in a beautiful black wooden frame with anti-reflection museum glass (matting and framing materials are fully archival & acid-free as well, of course), carrying my unique 6-Points Warranty and a hologram-based Certificate of Authenticity. This month's print is "Segesta", out of the ITALY gallery:
Read below for a behind-the-scene of this image.
SHOOTING MARCH'S PRINT OF THE MONTH
Segesta, in Sicily, is one of the many archeological sites of this beautiful island; its solitary, unfinished, imposing Doric Temple, featured as March's Print Of The Month, is set in one of the most stunning, wild locations of all Sicilian temples. Set on the top of a hill overlooking a steep canyon, it is most often photographed close-by, either standing under its facade or from the road leading up to it or behind it, which offers usually views such as this:
That was OK, but I really wanted to find a different composition, so after some asking around I rented an ATV (All-Terrain Vehicles) and I started out exploring cross-country roads, looking for different shooting locations; during my explorations, I met a not-too communicative shepherd with his herd:
After some effort on my part he gave me directions, and I finally found myself in the middle of a vineyard on a hill with a great view of the Temple. The time of day was just about right, late afternoon just before sunset, so I set up my tripod and my D3x equipped with a 50mm f1.4 and waited for the sun to get low enough to keep at the same time the vineyard completely in the shadow and the temple completely in the warm afternoon light. After a few minutes wait the sun aligned just as I wanted it: I shoot a few of frames and then the magic ended, the light was gone and the temple started being cloaked in the hill's shadow.
Secret ingredients for this image: a very sturdy, well padded camera bag with a dust/rain cover to survive the long ride on an ATV on very rough dirt roads; a very sturdy Gitzo tripod and a very sturdy head (in my case the Arca Swiss Cube) to survive the long ride in the ATV's non-padded rear bag; a set of filters to keep the exposure under control and add some saturation to the colours; some luck to find a shepherd and good communication skills to get directions from him; good timing to get to your desired location in time for the light to be right; a compass and/or a good sense of the sun's position and relative motion to understand where the light is and where it is going to be. Last, I took this image at the beginning of June, when weather in Sicily is already warm enough to require wearing a hat and drinking a lot of water. Don't underestimate Sicilian heat!
Equipment: for my Sicily trip, I brought along my D3x with the 14-24 and prime lenses from 35 to 135mm, plus my usual set of filters which always includes a polariser and a Grad-ND. As always, I had a very sturdy Gitzo tripod with me, equipped with the fabulous (but very heavy) Arca Swiss Cube head, which allows for very precise adjustments in framing. I also had my (now sold) Fuji X-Pro1, which I used here for the shepherd's photograph, and in general for street work around Sicily.
Composition: in this image, you can see how I used the play of light and shadow, the unfolding of three different image planes (vineyard, temple, mountains in the background) and the zig-zagging lines starting from bottom right, to lead the eye up left to the temple and back following the sloping curve at image right. This makes for a dynamic and active circular composition that keeps the viewer's eye in the frame and his or her interest awake and alert, bringing new details to attention the more one keeps looking.
On lighting: as I mentioned above, the light that made this shot work lasted for a very short time: about 10 minutes, if that. Before that, the sun was lighting the top of vineyard's hill, messing up the separation between the three planes of the shot; a few minutes after this shot, the hill off-frame on the left side started projecting shadows on the temple. Shooting near sunrise or sunset, you have to react very quickly to light changes: they can make or ruin a shot in the space of a few minutes.
This is it for March's Print Of The Month: if you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me!
SPECIAL OFFER FOR SUBSCRIBERS
February, the shortest month of the year with its 28 days, just ended. Since this was a great February for me, you'll not believe this but I decided to offer you a crazy 28 % discount on 28 selected images around my website! Which ones? You will know them when you'll see them, so to speak; when you open an image, just look out for the "BUY ARTWORK!" button over it and if you see "CRAZY 28!" written on the button... you know what that means! Just go to VIERI BOTTAZZINI FINE ART PHOTOGRAPHY, browse the galleries, add as many "CRAZY 28" images to your cart as you like (mixed carts with both "CRAZY 28" and regular images works too, of course!), and use the coupon below at checkout to redeem:
CF@VBFAP$2802
(Offer valid until March 31, 2013 for images in the "CRAZY 28" price tier only. No limitations on repeated use)
UPCOMING PROJECTS: WORKSHOPS & ARTICLES
In the last few years, I have been asked many times to do photographic workshops, and since I didn't do any yet people wondered if I had anything against teaching. In fact, it is quite the opposite: I have always enjoyed teaching, which is something I have been doing for the last two decades in different fields such as music and photography. Organising workshops is actually something I have been thinking about for quite some time, and I am waiting to make an announcement as soon as I will be ready: the thing is, there are so many workshops out there nowadays that I am aiming to do something different and hopefully more interesting than what is on offer already - and I don't mean just trying to find the next iper-exotic location or the next pre-organised excitement. I have a few ideas in mind that I am very excited about - let me finalise them, and you can be sure you'll be the first to know when the time comes! Here I am, shooting in Ireland:
I am also writing an article about inspiration for my blog - what is that inspires you, what makes you pick up a camera and go somewhere to take photographs, what is your relation with your gear and with new gear, what do you read and look at to get inspired? My take on all this is coming soon on MY BLOG.
OK, this is about it for this March's issue of my monthly newsletter, thank you very much for reading so far! Until next month,
Vieri
