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15 December 2017Barcelona is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and interesting cities in the world. Planning a holiday in Barcelona means spending at least 4-5 days to enjoy at least the main attractions that this incredible city offers to its visitors. Among the many reasons of interest of the Catalan capital, a main place undoubtedly is occupied by the modernist architecture that characterizes many of the most interesting buildings of the city. Catalan Modernism Catalan modernism is an architectural style developed in Barcelona between the end of the nineteenth and the first three decades of the twentieth century, more or less in correspondence with the birth in Belgium and France of the artistic and philosophical movement called Art Nouveau, then declined throughout Europe with other names, such as the Jugendstil in Germany, the Liberty style in Italy and, precisely, Modernism in Spain. In Barcelona the modernist style is truly scattered everywhere, and it is possible to recognize it in an infinity of elements, from the most famous buildings including residences, churches and even a hospital, to other more common elements such as shops, pharmacies, lampposts and benches. This great diffusion of modernist elements is due to the work of over one hundred architects who have worked in the capital of Catalonia. Among these, the most famous are Lluís Domènech i Montaner, Josep Puig i Cadafalch and, above all, Antoni Gaudí. The modernist itinerary This itinerary, called in Catalan “Ruta del Modernisme“, is marked by a symbol present on the streets of Barcelona, corresponding to about 120 modernist-style works, including the most famous works by Gaudí as Casa Batlló, Casa Milà (La Pedrera), the Sagrada Família, the Parc Güell, the Palau Güell, the Casa Vicens and the Colonia Güell just outside Barcelona, or the Palau de la Música Catalana and the Hospital de Sant Pau by Domènech i Montaner, or the Triumphal Arc, the Parc de la Ciutadella, Plaça Reial and many other sites of interest. Visiting them all would take several days and many tourists are therefore faced with the need to customize their itinerary by selecting only the sites of greatest interest. Having a single day at disposal, my advice is to concentrate your efforts on what is probably the most classic of modernist itineraries, which includes the most famous buildings of Antoni Gaudí, located in a rather circumscribed area of the city and therefore easily reached on foot. I’m talking about Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, the Sagrada Família and the Parc Güell. My photowalk on Gaudí’s tracks This photowalk took place in August 2017, during my last holiday in Barcelona, a city that I had already visited in the past when, however, my interest in photography was little more than a hobby and had not yet resulted in a real professional activity. This time I returned to Barcelona with “the eyes of the microstocker” and a photographic gear much better suited to capture all the incredible visual stimulations that this city can give, ready to create a large number of images to enrich my portfolio of microstock files. I spent an entire day exploring the most famous buildings of Gaudí, dividing the morning between Casa Batlló and Casa Milà on Passeig de Gràcia in the Eixample district and continuing in the afternoon with the Sagrada Família and the Parc Güell, taking advantage of all the hours of sunshine that the month of August fortunately offers. Some places of this photowalk, in particular Casa Milà and the Sagrada Família, appear as a location in the bestseller “Origin” by Dan Brown published in October 2017. It is therefore to be expected that the popularity of these places, however already extraordinarily famous, will grow further with the predictable success of the book and the more than likely film adaptation by Ron Howard with Tom Hanks once again starring in the role of Professor Robert Langdon. Gaudí and legal issues in Microstock A premise is needed: modernist architecture and in particular Gaudí‘s masterpieces are a rather delicate topic when it comes to stock photography. It is one of those so-called “gray areas” in which it is difficult to have precise and unequivocal references to follow in order not to run the risk of running into legal problems about protected architecture. Before submitting the images made in these places it is good to know what can be sold with a commercial license, what requires necessarily an editorial license (and a specific description format) or finally which subjects are not acceptable nor with a commercial license or with an editorial license. Performing a simple search of Gaudí‘s buildings in the engines of the most important microstock agencies, we can have rather controversial and disorienting results: some buildings (even the interiors) are present with commercial license on some agencies while on others they are not present at all, while other buildings are present only with editorial license and only on some agencies. You may think that each agency manages this type of content in different ways, so in doubt you might be tempted to submit all your images about the works of Gaudí indiscriminately, leaving the individual agencies to approve or reject files according to their specific guidelines. But it is likely that reviewers of some agencies mistakenly approve contents that should be rejected for legal reasons. If this is true, then the risk is all in the hands of the contributor, because notoriously microstock agencies do not protect the authors in any way from possible legal disputes concerning their files. Is it worth it? Surely not. What to do then? Thankfully, specific legal restrictions about the architecture of Gaudí are included in the non-exhaustive list provided by Shutterstock and available at this link: https://goo.gl/YL6SJY. Since Shutterstock is the leading microstock agency in the world, I think it is reliable to refer to its guidelines on this topic. Please notice that also Adobe Stock (Fotolia) explicitly includes Gaudí‘s works in his list of restrictions (https://goo.gl/YtBPUV), but in a much less detailed way than Shutterstock, merely declaring all the buildings of Gaudí – without distinction of any kind – as not acceptable with a commercial license (the only one available in Fotolia, which notoriously does not accept editorial content). Summing up therefore Shutterstock‘s directions on the legal limitations related to Gaudí buildings: Casa Batlló Interior NO Exterior NO Casa Milà / La Pedrera Interior NO Exterior YES, editorial only NO* Sagrada Família Interior NO Exterior YES, editorial only Parc Güell YES, both commercial and editorial *Update (Dec 15, 2017): Shutterstock has just wrote me an email with their apologizes for deactivating all my images with exterior of Casa Milà, despite I submitted them as editorial, according to their guidelines. They say they are no longer accepting images for Casa Milà, nor under commercial or editorial licenses, so as it is for Casa Batlló. They say they will update their guidelines soon. For more information on legal issues in microstock, I recommend you my article on this important topic. Directions The photowalk took place entirely in the 2 adjacent neighborhoods of Eixample and Gràcia, right in the center of Barcelona. It starts from Plaça de Catalunya – very near to the Rambla – and nerve center of all city connections. From here you can easily reach the magnificent Paseo de Gracia (in Catalan Passeig de Gràcia), the most beautiful and elegant of the avenues of the Catalan capital, full of wonderful private residences and luxury hotels: notable for example is Casa Fuster, a modernist building created by Lluís Domènech i Montaner where I had the opportunity to stay during my previous trip to Barcelona in 2006. The Passeig de Gràcia is also a famous shopping street with the most prestigious international brands and countless buildings of interest and modernist style that you can meet by going north, starting with Casa Batlló, probably the most famous private residence built by Gaudí. Continuing along the avenue, about 4 blocks away, is the famous Casa Milà, also known as La Pedrera. From here, with a walk of about 20 minutes along Carrer de Provenca also crossing the Avinguda Diagonal, one of the biggest avenues of Barcelona, you arrive at the Sagrada Família, Gaudí‘s still unfinished masterpiece and authentic symbol of Barcelona. The last stop of the photowalk is the Parc Güell, located in the Gràcia district at about half an hour’s walk from the Sagrada Família: it is recommended to make this part of the itinerary by public transport, because the last stretch near the Parc Güell is in considerable climb. Casa Batlló Casa Batlló was built in 2 years, between 1904 and 1906 by Gaudí on commission of the wealthy entrepreneur Josep Batlló, from which the residence takes its name, and was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2005. From the end of the ‘900 has been open to the public and is currently one of the most visited museums in Barcelona. As previously stated, according to Shutterstock, Casa Batlló is a protected architecture subject for which it is not possible to submit images or videos with commercial or editorial licenses. It would therefore seem perfectly useless to visit it with the aim of creating images for the microstock. However, it is one of the most important attractions in Barcelona and taking a trip to the Catalan capital without seeing Casa Batlló means missing an unforgettable experience. Below is a series of images obtained by searching for “casa batllo” on Shutterstock, evidently approved despite the guidelines do not predict it (there are about over 800 search results…): Also on 123RF doing the same research you get a lot of results about it. In the case of this agency, however, the images of Casa Batlló, both interior and exterior, are accepted under editorial license: Moreover, even if we want to strictly follow the Shutterstock guidelines, it is not entirely true that it is not possible to bring home any commercially viable image, as the exceptional position of Casa Batlló on Passeig de Gràcia allows to take very evocative shots of this incredible avenue, symbol of an entire artistic movement. Below are 3 images of mine about Passeig de Gràcia for sale on Shutterstock: Casa Milà – La Pedrera Like Casa Batlló, also Casa Milà was built by Gaudí on commission of a wealthy businessman (Pere Milà i Camps) and was completed in 1912. It is located on Passeig de Gràcia just a few blocks from Casa Batlló, from where it is possible to reach La Pedrera with a short walk of 10 minutes. It has a very impressive external appearance, thanks to the presence of 3 main facades, one of which is at an angle between Passeig de Gràcia and Carrer de Provenca. The most striking feature of the building is the presence of suggestive wavy shapes on rough stone, which simulate a shape sculpted by the erosive force of the wind and the sea. Precisely this plasticity of forms has inspired the nickname of this building, from the Catalans called “La Pedrera“, ie stone quarry. The interiors of Casa Milà are also very interesting, although much more “normal” than the fairy-tale interiors of Casa Batlló. The visit of the interior of Casa Milà, however, is the only way to access the incredible roof, a real open-air museum, with staggered passageways, niches and chimneys conceived as sculptural complexes of great effect. Just on the roof of Casa Milà is set one of the most adrenalinic scenes of the novel Origin by Dan Brown, with a shootout between the sculptures and a daring escape by helicopter. In particular the characteristics chimneys in the form of sentinels with the helmet, called “witch scarers“, are one of the most iconic symbols of Casa Milà and of Barcelona. It seems that even George Lucas was so impressed by these sculptures that he took them as a model (and indeed the likeness is notable) for the elite assault units of the Imperial Army of Palpatine called Stormtroopers, in the legendary sci-fi saga of Star Wars. La Sagrada Família In the Catalan language, the full name of this building is Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família. It is undoubtedly the main symbol of Barcelona, like the Colosseum for Rome and the Eiffel Tower for Paris, as well as the most visited monument in all of Spain. Gaudí worked on the construction of this work starting from 1886 for about 40 years, of which his last 15 exclusively and until his tragic death occurred in 1926 just near the basilica. It is impressive to know that such a famous and important building, recognized as a UNESCO heritage site in 1984 and consecrated in 2010 as a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI, is in reality still a largely incomplete piece of work. Still in 2017, only the 2 side facades of the church are completed, while the main façade (called Facade of the Glory) is still far from being realized. Moreover, only 8 of the 18 towers planned are currently visible and the main tower (Tower of Jesus) that will rise in the center of the church will be 172.5 meters high, almost twice as much as the towers currently completed. All this means that the image we are used to seeing of the Sagrada Família is to be considered absolutely temporary and the overall appearance of the building is destined to change substantially when the construction will be completed. Forecasts suggest the date of completion in 2026, 144 years after the laying of the first stone and 100 years exactly from the death of Gaudí, but because the work proceeds only thanks to rather discontinuous private donations (as well as to the revenues from the expensive entrance tickets requested to visitors), it seems very likely that it will take more years to complete the project, moving the inauguration date forward well past 2030. Nativity Facade It is the oldest of the Sagrada Família facades, the only one that Gaudí could see almost finished before he died, having been completed in 1930. As the name says, the facade is dedicated to the birth of Jesus and therefore all the sculptures and architectural elements that characterize it are pervaded by a joyful and life-giving spirit. Remarkable are the 3 richly decorated portals and the abundance of symbols and other elements of interest. Passion Facade Completely opposite is the spirit behind the realization of the Passion Facade, dedicated precisely to the Passion of Christ. It is a very austere and gloomy facade, with few decorations and pillars reminiscent of human bones, tendons and muscles, to symbolize the suffering of Jesus during the crucifixion. Built between 1954 and 1976 according to the drawings left by Gaudí, this facade gives back to the viewer a sense of anxiety and oppression that is also reflected in the sculptural groups placed around the portals. Interiors, Towers and surroundings of the Sagrada Família The interior of the Sagrada Família – although not useful from a microstock point of view as they are protected from any use both commercial and editorial – are equally impressive and interesting to visit and it is absolutely advisable to take advantage from the audio guide and spend a minimum of half an hour to be able to fully appreciate all the innumerable elements of interest. The visit to the Sagrada Família allows also the climb on one of the 2 towers that can be visited (one for each facade), from which you can admire an incredible view of the center of Barcelona, even if for their structure the towers are a bit claustrophobic when approaching to the top. Moreover (but I admit that this is a very personal perplexity), looking at the panorama of Barcelona from the top of the Sagrada Família means having a view of the city where the Sagrada Família is not there! It’s a bit like looking at the panorama of Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building: much better the view from the top of the Rockefeller Center, from which you can see the Empire State Building too. On the sides of the Sagrada Família architectural complex there are 2 small urban parks. The one facing west is called Plaça de la Sagrada Família, while the one facing east, also recognizable by the presence of a small pond, is called Plaça de Gaudí. My advice is to visit this second park to enjoy a privileged view of the Nativity facade, with scenic reflections on the picturesque central pond. Parc Güell This incredible wonderland park is located in the upper part of the Gràcia district, at the foot of the Carmel mountain. It was designed by Gaudí on the commission of his friend and patron Eusebi Güell, a wealthy businessman and Catalan politician of the late nineteenth century. The most practical way to get to the Parc Güell from the Sagrada Família is to take a bus to the Travessera de Dalt and walk up Carrer de Larrard to the park. Moreover, right on Carrer de Larrard there is a small museum called Gaudí Experiencìa (with free admission for holders of the Barcelona Pass card) and if you have twenty minutes available, it’s a good option to make a rest and see a short show in 4D about the main masterpieces of Gaudí. The park is basically divided into 2 zones: a free zone, for which no access ticket is required, and a monumental area, for which not only is it necessary to pay for the ticket but it is also strongly recommended to book online a few days in advance: access to the monumental area is in fact limited and on a pre-established schedule. There is a minimum tolerance for the delay, but it is better to be on time so as not to risk losing the ticket purchased or having to make long lines to enter. The entrance pavilions When you arrive at the top of Carrer de Larrard it is impossible not to notice the two bizarre pavilions that mark the main entrance to the park: these are 2 buildings originally designed by Gaudí, respectively as a waiting room for visitors and accommodation of the park’s guardian. For their shape and decoration, they look like marzipan houses coming out from a fairy tale. The Staircase and El Drac Beyond the main entrance you will find a spectacular staircase on two ramps leading to the upper pavilions. Right at the center of the staircase is the iconic element of the park, as well as one of the most famous symbols of Barcelona and Gaudí‘s work: a statue of salamander (also called “El Drac” in Catalan) covered with a multicolored mosaic in style trencadís, recurrent architectural element of many decorations of the Parc Güell. Hall of a Hundred Columns and panoramic terrace At the top of the salamander staircase is the hypostyle hall, also known as the “hall of a hundred columns“, a large covered space supported by Doric columns and embellished with circular-shaped mosaics on the ceiling. Exactly above the hall is the park’s main terrace, one of the most beautiful viewpoints in Barcelona. This is a large square, called Plaça de la Natura, whose perimeter consists of the famous bench-balustrade with a wavy shape and covered with trencadís style mosaics. The terrace is always very crowded (a bit like the terrace of Pincio in Villa Borghese park in Rome) and it is very difficult to realize a wide angle image that includes the bench without tourists entering the frame. Lovers of panoramic photography, however, will enjoy a privileged view of the center of Barcelona with the sea in the background, in a chromatic triumph of the most famous in the world. The masonry viaduct Descending from the terrace on the west side of the park you can easily reach the spectacular masonry viaduct, designed by Gaudí in order to minimize the intrusion of the road into the natural landscape of the park. The pillars of the viaduct have in fact the shape and color of tree trunks and frame one of the most spectacular pedestrian crossings in the world. Following the downhill walkway you return to the entrance square, at the foot of the main staircase, not without a last chance to admire the perfect integration of the architectural structures in the natural harmony of the park and the absolute genius of Antoni Gaudí who conceived it. Due to its fairy-tale atmosphere, Parc Güell has often been chosen as the location for a large number of films, including for example “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” by Woody Allen in 2008. In conclusion, as usual, the map with the geolocation of my images shown in this article. The photowalk took place between 10 am and 8 pm, with a break of about 2 hours for an excellent tapas lunch on Passeig de Gràcia. Liked this article? Would you share it? [...] Read more...
23 October 2016Subways are always a particularly attractive photographic subject for all photographers in the world. Generally it is simply a cheap way to get around in town, maybe even a little too oppressive and claustrophobic during rush hours, especially for those subway systems built without any artistic or aesthetic ambitions. There are however some notable exceptions, though they typically concern individual stations particularly attractive from an architectural point of view: some examples are the Toledo Station in Naples, the Arts et Métiers Station in Paris, the Formosa Boulevard Station in Taiwan and several stations of the spectacular Stockholm subway (especially T-Centralen, Solna Centrum and Stadion). Another exception deserves the Moscow Metro, which was instead conceived entirely as an exaltation instrument of socialist realism, and for this reason nearly all stations, especially the older ones, are of absolute architectural interest, with luxury items such as mosaics, bas-reliefs, statues, marble, chandeliers and many other elements that make these stations seem like real underground museums. The Moscow Metro To understand what we’re talking about, it is worth quoting some statistics about the Moscow Metro. Inaugurated in 1935, it is one of the busiest subways in the world, a little less than those of Asian megacities like Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai and Seoul, but far more than any other European (Paris, London) or American (New York , Chicago) subway system. It carries every day about 9 million people and includes 12 lines and 200 stations, fifty of which are considered cultural heritage of the state. Trains run with an impressive average frequency of 90 seconds! In practice, you never need to wait more than a couple of minutes to catch your train. The history of the Moscow Metro has seen several expansion phases, during World War II and then especially in the ’50s. During the period of the Cold War, the stations were built at very great depths, so that they could serve as bomb shelters in case of attack. Unfortunately, the Moscow Metro was also the scene of the horrific terrorist attacks in 2004 and 2010, both of Chechen separatist matrix, which caused dozens of casualties. There are also a lot of curiosity and urban legends, such as the fact that the circular line (Koltsevaya) was built after Stalin placed a cup of coffee on the subway map. On the map remained the circular sign of the cup and for this reason the line was built on that path, and still today bears the brown color, like the stain of Stalin’s coffee. Besides being punctual, precise, clean and scenic, the Moscow Metro is also very economical: 1 single trip costs about 50 rubles (less than 1 Euro) and allows unlimited travels in all zones and for all the time you want until you exit on the streets. In practice, if you have time and good will to walk a lot, you can spend several hours in the Moscow Metro, dropping to visit all the most interesting stops, all at the price of a coffee. Just as I did during this photowalk. My photowalk in the Moscow Metro I had visited Moscow in November 2005 and already on that occasion I had the opportunity to visit some of the most beautiful stations of the Metro, although randomly during my movement paths while I was exploring the city. When I had the chance to return to Moscow again in August 2016 I decided to plan a precise path going to touch all the most interesting stops to photograph. First it should be said that taking photographs in the subway is not at all an easy exercise: beyond all legal and security problems that you may find for example in the Italian subways, where due to a very old Royal Decree it is still forbidden to take pictures without being previously authorized to do that (thankfully in Moscow this is allowed without problems), there is objectively a series of technical problems such as poor lighting, a difficult white balance, the inability to use a tripod, the crowding of people in transit, the risk of theft or damage to your camera equipment, etc. Photographing in the Moscow Metro, with 9 million people passing each day, makes it extremely difficult to find a moment to take pictures in the absence of people that may ruin the shooting. It’s better to choose a time of day when there is less traffic of people, such as late at night or Sunday morning at dawn. I chose to do my photowalk on a sunday evening after 11pm until closing time, at 1am. This allowed me to really have very few people in my shots, so as to minimize the post-production work (even though I needed some) to erase them in Photoshop. As instead regards the problem of poor illumination and the simultaneous inability to use the tripod, I had to use a rather complex technique of shooting and post-production: first I shot bursts of 9-10 shots, raising the ISO automatically so as to allow a shutter speed of at least 1/200 of a second and an aperture of at least f/8, obviously getting shots with much digital noise; in post production in Photoshop I then used the technique of image stacking: in a nutshell, I opened the files as layers in Photoshop and applied the automatic alignment of the levels and the conversion to Smart Object, then finally I applied the median stack mode for smart objects (layer menu->smart objects->stack mode->median) which it has allowed me to almost completely eliminate digital noise caused by the fact that the single images were taken with high ISO. After this I applied the usual basic adjustments in camera raw, straightened lines, the possible application of Tone Mapping in order to give a eye-catching look to the images, the output sharpening and finally the exportation in JPG. Moreover, in order not to take risks about the licenses, I indexed the files as editorial and I sent them to agencies. All images in this article were accepted for sale on Shutterstock with the editorial license. Directions In order not to waste energy and time, since I was also near the close of the service, I decided to follow the path recommended by my Lonely Planet Moscow city guide, though going in the opposite direction, therefore from the outside towards the inner city and starting from a station not listed on the guide, but unexpectedly very interesting and nice to visit. I started from Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya line (blue line – n.3) and the Slavyansky Bulvar station, then I continued on the same line with the stations Park Pobedy, Kiyevskaya, Arbatskaya and Ploshchad Revolyutsii, right near the Red Square. From this station, I changed the line, going to Zamoskvoretskaya (green line –  n.2) with the stations Teatralnaya, Mayakovskaya and Belorusskaya. This last station, with the same name, is also on Koltsevaya line (circular brown line – n.5), from which I went to the stations of Novoslobodskaya and Prospekt Mira, to conclude the tour with the incredible Komsomolskaya station. Slavyansky Bulvar Station Line #3 – Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya The Slavyansky Bulvar station is the first stop on my photowalk. It is located in the west side of the Russian capital and is of recent construction, having been opened in 2008. It doesn’t present the typical elements of socialist architecture, typically of the stations built in the 50s, but it has undoubtedly an attractive appearance, thanks to the “belle Epoque” style of the lighting lamps, the green marble walls and the granite floor. Park Pobedy Station Line #3 – Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Also the Park Pobedy (Victory Park) station was built recently, having been opened in 2003. It is the deepest station of the entire metro network, located 84 meters below ground level, with the longest escalator in Europe. The walls covered with red and gray marble and the checkered floor create a pattern of symmetrical lines vaguely reminiscent of a sci-fi location. Kiyevskaya Station Line #3 – Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya As you approach the center with the line 3, the stations become older and decorated with valuable elements. The Kiyevskaya station dates back to 1953 and is decorated in a similar style to baroque, with white marble and pottery on the walls, stylish chandeliers, as well as a long series of paintings concerning the recurring theme of the station, that is, life in Ukraine. On the bottom of the central hall there is a mosaic that celebrates the 300th anniversary of the reunification of Russia and Ukraine. Arbatskaya Station Line #3 – Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya The Arbatskaya station opened in 1953 and has a very large and deep quay, designed as a bomb shelter as well as a metro station. The special feature of this station is that it has an elliptical instead of round tunnel and is decorated with red marble, classic chandeliers and patterned floor. It is located underneath Ulitsa Arbat, the most famous street of the historical center of Moscow. Ploshchad Revolyutsii Station Line #3 – Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya The station Ploshchad Revolyutsii (Revolution Square) is an incredible museum full of bronze statues placed as an ornament of the elegant marble arches that characterize the central hall. The 72 statues represent the people of the Soviet Union, portraying soldiers, athletes, workers, students and other categories of people. It is one of the oldest stations in the subway system, whose inauguration took place in 1938. The station is located near the Red Square, the very heart of the Russian capital.       Teatralnaya Station Line #2 – Zamoskvoretskaya Teatralnaya is the first line 2 station on my photowalk. It is located in correspondence with the Bolshoi Theater and the square of the theater, from which it takes its name. The most interesting part is undoubtedly the ceiling decorated with majolica bas-reliefs. The station is one of the oldest ones, opened in 1938. Mayakovskaya Station Line #2 – Zamoskvoretskaya The Mayakovskaya station is probably the most beautiful station of the Moscow Metro and one of the most famous Metro stations in the world. Opened in 1938, it was conceived with an art deco theme about the Soviet future. It has a single span, with 2 rows of columns made of steel and marble and 34 mosaics on the ceiling, depicting scenes of life in the Soviet Union. The station is named after the poet Vladimir Mayakovsky in whose memory is ideally dedicated. Because of the large size of the central hall, during the Second World War the station was used as a bomb shelter and as a place for political gathering by Stalin. Belorusskaya Station Line #2 – Zamoskvoretskaya There are 2 stations named Belorusskaya: one located on the Zamoskvoretskaya line (green line) and the one that is located on Koltsevaya line (brown line), both connected via underpasses and both connected to the Belorusskaya railway station. The station on the green line dates back to 1938 and is adorned with decorative elements that recall Belarus. The walls are made with pink and black marble. The lighting is ensured by ceiling chandeliers as well as by floor lamps placed in niches of the central hall. There are also statues, including a monument to Belarusian partisans and a bust of Lenin. Belorusskaya Station Line #5 – Koltsevaya The Belorusskaya station located on the circular brown line (Koltsevaya), always inspired by architectural motifs that recall Belarus, opened in 1952. It has a beautiful ceiling with bas-reliefs and mosaics, marble columns and lighting with sconces on the side walls. From this station, I continued my photowalk following stations clockwise along the circular line. Novoslobodskaya Station Line #5 – Koltsevaya Despite Mayakovskaya is the most popular station, my favorite is undoubtedly the Novoslobodskaya station. It dates back to 1952 and has a rather unusual look, with pink and black marbles and a set of 32 stained glass windows in the grafted side pillars and surrounded by very rich and elaborate cornices. The stained glass windows are backlit, with a very attractive visual effect. The lighting is completed by the elaborate chandeliers on the ceiling, while at the end of the hall there is a beautiful mosaic that represents the World Peace.       Prospekt Mira Station Line #5 – Koltsevaya Another very spectacular station is Prospekt Mira: opened in 1952, it features a white marble pillars and bas-reliefs in Soviet theme. Quite remarkable are the huge candlesticks that provide light to the hall. From Prospekt Mira I took the last transfer of this photowalk, towards the end stop at Komsomolskaya station.       Komsomolskaya Station Line #5 – Koltsevaya The Komsomolskaya station, opened in 1952 and placed on the circular brown line Koltsevaya, is undoubtedly the most richly adorned station in Baroque style, with a spectacular yellow-painted ceiling with floral mosaics and bas-reliefs. The side columns are naturally white marble, with Ionic capitals. Noteworthy also are the enormous candlesticks that provide illumination.       Moscow Metro in Microstock Being one of the main attractions of the Russian capital, the Metro is definitely a popular photographic subject and therefore already extensively covered in microstock. If you perform a search on Shutterstock with the words “Moscow Metro” or “Moscow Subway”, the search returns more than 3,000 occurrences. Not too many (if you search for “Colosseum Rome” you get more than 15,000 results), but not even few. The very positive aspect is that there aren’t among the results, with rare exceptions, high-quality images, most likely because of the technical difficulties of shooting which I mentioned at the beginning of this article: only cameras that manage well the high ISO needed for shooting or a lot of effort in post-production can help to make these images acceptable from a technical point of view. In addition, the poor lighting and the difficulties with the white balance make it very difficult to achieve high-impact images. In almost all cases, in addition to the procedure to eliminate digital noise with the image stacking technique previously described, I have chosen to apply also a passage of tone mapping, to get a bit more structure and detail by shadows and high lights. This allowed me to have images that stand out in the pile of the results: in fact even from the very early days after the publication, these images have begun to sell quite well In conclusion, as usual, here following the map with the geolocation of the images shown in this article. Of course it is a map of the surface to give the right idea of the territorial extension of the path, but the photowalk took place entirely underground in about two hours. Liked this article? Would you share it? [...] Read more...
13 June 2016This is the story of a photowalk made during summer holidays in 2015, in places that I love very much because they are related to my homeland, Calabria. I’m talking about the magnificent Coast of the Cedars, in the Upper Tyrrhenian coast  near Cosenza. A real paradise for landscape and naturalist photographers, but also an unforgettable territory for true sea lovers. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on  point of view) it is still a very underrated area by tourists and little known by the masses, especially in comparison to other more well-known places in Calabria also internationally, such as Tropea, Capo Vaticano, Palmi and Scilla on the Tyrrhenian coast, or Soverato, Copanello and Isola Capo Rizzuto on the Ionic coast. Just recently the Coast of the Cedars was the subject of controversy following the reporting made by the known italian blogger and journalist Selvaggia Lucarelli, who on her social profiles showed a debatable advertising campaign appeared on the magazine onboard of Ryanair. She judged this campaign very amateurish. In this campaign it is displayed a very ugly picture of the Arcomagno beach, with distracting elements such as slippers and towels on the rocks, mistakes in the text and bad stylistic choices (such as the font in Arial, barely readable and not centered). In short, a very embarrassing campaign for the Administrators of Calabria Region who promoted this advertising. After the inevitable wave of indignation that has arisen especially on the web, they could not help but make a public apology and promise to carry out an investigation about the responsibles of the campaign. Controversy aside, and despite the bad style of the campaign, I hope that this episode can help to give fame to one of the most beautiful areas of Calabria, the region of which I am proud to belong and to which I hope to make a good service with this article. For what happened during my excursion, it would be more appropriate to talk not only about “photowalk”, but also about “photoswim” and “photoclimb”. In other words, it was a great opportunity to fully test my camera gear, including my Nikon AW130 rugged all-weather camera for underwater shots and offshore. The excursion lasted a whole day, with key stops in Praia a Mare, Dino Island, San Nicola Arcella, Arcomagno and Diamante. Directions The Riviera is a long area largely coastal, conventionally stretching for about 80 km in the Cosenza province, between the municipality of Tortora (on the border between Basilicata and Calabria) and the town of Paola, also including some mountain areas of the Pollino National Park. You can reach the Riviera from the North via the highway A3 Salerno-Reggio Calabria, taking the exit Lagonegro Nord and continuing on the road SS585 towards Tortora-Praia a Mare or, for if you come from South, taking the exit Cosenza Nord-Rende and following the road SS107 towards Paola. The nearest airport is Lamezia Terme, which is about 70 km south of Paola. The Riviera is named after the Cedar cultivation, particularly flourishing in these territories, and specially in the municipalities of Santa Maria del Cedro, Scalea and Diamante. There are really a lot of places and beaches to visit, and for exploring better these areas is recommended a minimum stay of one week. If you must concentrate your visit in a single day, as it happened to me, it is better to focus attention on the stretch between Praia a Mare and Diamante. For further information, thematic itineraries and other explanations about these territories, I recommend the excellent site InRivieradeiCedri.it Praia a Mare and Dino Island Along the road that leads to Praia a Mare from the exit of the road SS18, you can enjoy a number of panoramic points to admire from above the spectacular Dino Island, located about 50 meters from Praia a Mare in Fiuzzi district. It is right from this district that you should start exploring the island. In this place there is a number of bathhouses where you can spend the day swimming with the island on the background. This is the larger of the two islands of Calabria: the second one, Cirella, is located about 20 km south in the Coast of the Cedars, near the town of Diamante. You can swim towards the Dino Island right from the beach of Praia a Mare, although almost all bathhouses provide boat trips to visit the island and its beautiful caves. These excursions are quite cheap and they last 1-2 hours at most. They are also highly recommended to learn about the fascinating history of the Dino Island. Over the centuries, in fact the island has suffered several dominations (Arab, Turkish, Napoleonic) to become, in 1962, ownership of the Advocate Gianni Agnelli, who bought it from the town of Praia a Mare for the sum of 50 million lire era. From that time and for some years, it seemed that the island could become a new international point of tourist attraction, like Capri and Positano, thanks to the work of progressive construction of cottages and luxury residences. In fact, it was simply built a road linking the pier of the boats to the top of the island, while in the lower part were built picturesque Tucul (small buildings with conical roof typical of some african regions) that housed a restaurant, a swimming pool and some houses for tourists. The development project has suffered delays between bureaucracy and changes of ownership of the island that have finally led the abandonment of the structures that had been built. Both the road and the tucul buildings, in a bleak state of neglect, are still visible today, when you approach the island swimming or boating. Swimming around Dino Island is a very exciting experience: the side facing the beach of Praia a Mare is easily accessible by a short swim, moreover in a stretch of sea where the depth is never exaggerated and you can see the bottom made of rocky and pebbles. You almost gets the feeling of being in a large pool. With my Nikon AW130 I could photograph the seabed, doing some filming underwater, and reach the rocky ridge of the island, with some very scenical gorges. It is also possible to snorkel with confidence, but do not expect to see tropical fishes and coral. Along the perimeter of the island are also scattered several limestone caves, some of them with stalagmites, as the Cave of the Sardine, or other rock formations that have similarities with people or animals, such as the Lion’s Cave or the Monk’s Cave. The largest and most beautiful cave, however, is the Blue Grotto, homonym of the most famous one which is located in Capri, where you can swim surrounded by water with an intense dark blue color and beautiful reflections on the inner walls of the cave. Technically it is possible to go around the island by swimming, but it is advisable to use a boat or a pedal boat because the western side of the island is more exposed to currents, therefore there is a greater risk of finding rough sea. In any case, the best route to follow is counterclockwise, starting from the island side facing the beach and going on to the north side, then on the West side facing the open sea and finally on the south side, where there is the Blue Grotto, just below the stretch where you can still see the Tucul and abandoned buildings. The advice is to arrive early in the morning and complete the tour around the island before noon, in order to avoid the crowds and especially to have a nice light to take good quality images. San Nicola Arcella and Arcomagno beach After spending the whole morning around the Dino Island, and after a good lunch of fish in the center of Praia a Mare, in the afternoon I went to the spectacular Arcomagno beach, near the town of San Nicola Arcella. You can reach the Arcomagno in 2 ways: by land, leaving the car in a parking lot about 1 km away, and walking through the homonymous beach, then up among some rocks and finally climbing on a wall rather steep along a short but winding path that leads directly to the beach at the shadow of the Arch. It is a very attractive option, especially for nature lovers, but that is likely to put a strain on the nerves, especially if you do not have proper shoes and if you carry on your shoulders a few thousand euros in photographic equipment. I was wearing flip-flops, backpack, SLR on my neck and my 2 years old son in my arms, therefore it was a very adventurous experience, to say the least! Unfortunately I had not taken enough informations and if I had known before, I would definitely prepared myself a bit better in order to avoid unuseful risks. You are now informed and certainly you will not make my same mistake… by sea, arriving by boat or pedal boat that you can rent in the beach next. Also this option is very scenical because you get to the beach by passing directly under the Arch and is definitely a more appropriate way for those who do not like climbing mountains or who have no suitable clothing. The only drawback is that you have to pay attention not to wet your photographic gear when boarding or when getting off the boat. By sea also come the organized excursions that from Praia a Mare allow you to visit by boat the Dino Island and Arcomagno with a single ticket, but personally I do not recommend them because you are forced to respect the schedule made by the organization (always quite tight) and hence you do not have all the time you want for swimming and taking pictures.. There is another reason why it is best to arrive by land to the Arcomagno beach: along the adjacent beach, on the North side of the Arch, you pass through some rocks that create some small bays that are really spectactular, including the tunnel that leads to the so-called beach of the Priest. From a photographic point of view, it is an incredibly beautiful location, with some views that recall some Thai landscapes or other tropical marine environments. Water has a deep blue color and among caves, tunnels and rocks you really feels like in a kind of paradise for nature and sea lovers. The Arcomagno beach is small and crescent-shaped, topped by a rock arch that marks a small body of water, in which you will feel like swimming in a wonderful natural pool. On the south side of the beach there is also a cave, inside which there is a small natural water spring that flows directly among the pebbles of the beach. It is not easy to find the beach deserted, especially in high season and in the central hours of the day, but with a little luck if you arrive in the early morning or late afternoon you may find little crowding. As you can see from the image above, I’ve arrived there just before sunset: therefore I had to use the Healing Brush and Clone Stamp tools in Photoshop in order to remove a bit of people who were disturbing the shot (and also some towels and flip-flops, which instead are present in the advertising campaign mentioned atop this article). However, thanks to the sunset over the Thyrrenian Sea I’ve had a beautiful golden light to decorate the contrast on the rocks. To have a balanced exposure, given the strong backlight, I used the bracketing to take pictures with 3 different exposures (-1, 0, +1 EV) and then I joined them with HDR Efex Pro Software by Nik Software. The other difficulty of the shooting is due to the little angle of view that you have from beach: the best way to frame the Arcomagno in all its dimension is to going up the arrival path as high as possible, looking for a place not too bumpy where to place the tripod. But even from there it is better to use a ultra wide-angle lens to include also the cave in the frame. I didn’t have one available at that time, therefore I had to take 7 vertical shots to be merged as panorama later via Photoshop. Whereas each image was actually a set of three shots taken in bracketing, the image above has been created from the union of as many as 21 images, combined together with the technique of stitching. After taking pictures of the Arcomagno from all possible angles, I left the beach with the sun low on the horizon, for taking a final image rich in suggestions, with the Dino Island on the background of an unforgettable sunset. Finally, I ended the day and the photowalk with an aperitif on the seafront in Diamante, 20 km further south than San Nicola Arcella. The Coast of the Cedars in Microstock To my big surprise, the Coast of the Cedars and the coastal villages of the Upper Thyrrenian near Cosenza are not very popular in the image banks of the major microstock agencies. This means there’s not such a big demand of these subjects by customers, but anyways the fact of having identified a niche in the images of Italian seascapes made this photowalk potentially interesting from a commercial point of view: in fact, after a few months, I can say that the sales performance of these images are far above average, although they have been made more with the spirit of a holiday than as a professional shooting. By the way, I was there in swimsuit mainly for swimming and having fun, rather than to work, but anyway I managed to come back home with about fifty standard images, twenty intentionally defocused images and 2 videos to be sent to microstock agencies. For me it was the classic “win-win” situation: if all goes well, these images will bring to a good gain in the medium to long term; if all goes wrong, I will always bring with me the memories of a beautiful day where I had fun and I visited wonderful places. And since we are close to the summer holidays, I hope my article will be a source of inspiration for those who now are looking for a great place to spend their holidays at sea without necessarily cross the planet in search of a very expensive and maybe disappointing tropical beach. Finally, as usual, the map with the geolocation of the images shown in this article: Liked this article? Would you share it? [...] Read more...
4 October 2015Sixth episode of “Use of my images” and a new stage in the USA. After examining the photo of Piccadilly Circus in the previous episode, this time let’s look at its american “alter ego”, ie Times Square, undoubtedly the most famous square (or rather, intersection) in the world. The image dates back to May 2013, during a 2-week trip in the USA with stops in Boston, Washington DC, Philadelphia and, obviously, in New York. It was my third trip to the Big Apple, undoubtedly the most prolific in terms of images taken for the microstock market, as I have already told in other episodes of this series, for example in the episode #3 (“Manhattan“) and #2 (“Apple Store“). Each person who visits New York, whether it’s his first time or the thousandth, can not help but go to Times Square: among the many famous places in Manhattan, this is undoubtedly the most touristy and crowded. Theatre of a thousand scenes from movies and literary locations, it is a whirlwind of emotions, lights, images, 24/7. It ‘a huge amusement park for the eyes and mind. It’s the absolute exaltation of materialism and superfluous. It is everything and nothing at the same time. But above all it is the place that more than any other helped to create the myth of the “city that never sleeps“. Only visiting Times Square, at any time of day or night, you can see how this phrase is far from exaggerated. As tourist place par excellence, taking pictures in Times Square is something quite obvious: it is not so obvious and predictable, however, the result when you try to sell this type of images on the microstock market. First of all, there are millions of images of Times Square around the world and it’s almost impossible to find a unique angle or a new way to portray Times Square. Moreover, it is impossible to hope to find the place deserted… not even at the dawn of a festive day. The only way to see Times Square without people is thanks to the special effects, as happened in some films as “Vanilla Sky” with Tom Cruise, or “I Am Legend” starring Will Smith. Or, in reality, on a dramatic occasion as the arrival of the Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. But even if we were to photograph Times Square without people, the almost uninterrupted presence of the advertising light displays that make impossible to sell the image with a regular commercial royalty free license. The solution is to index the image for an editorial license, just like I did in this case. The positive side is that the particular combination of advertisements on displays, changing frequently, actually makes any image of Times Square “unique” and recognizable when you perform a search for images on Google. In this way, it was not difficult to find the main examples of the use of this image on the internet. The Location Times Square is not exactly a “square” in the European sense of the term. It is more like a huge intersection at the point where Broadway is knotted on 7th Avenue, through the blocks between 42nd and 47th Street. Its centrality on the island of Manhattan and the proximity to all the major attractions of the city make it the real center of the world. Most of all, Times Square is identified with the area of the Broadway theatres, which right in Times Square have their main advertising vehicle, through advertising displays and through the kiosks that sell tickets for the upcoming shows. It is also the location of the world’s most famous New Year’s Eve, with the enormous sphere that goes up on the north tower and then down at midnight to start the festivities of about one million people who regularly fill Times Square in New Year’s Eve. Too many cinematic and literary references to mention. But since we’re on the subject of photography, it is mandatory to mention one of the most famous images of all time, taken right in Times Square on August 14, 1945: the photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt immortalized a sailor kissing a nurse to celebrate the US victory over Japan, key moment which coincides with the end of World War II. The picture is called V-J Day in Times Square, and is also known as V-Day or The Kiss. The Shot Taking a well representative picture of Times Square is not as easy as it might seem. The square is spread in amplitude but also and especially in height, because of the skyscrapers that circumscribe the intersection. Ideally, the use of a wide-angle lens would be highly preferred, but I didn’t have one available, so I had to settle to use my 18-55mm kit lens, of course with a focal length set to 18mm. To find an advantage point and a favorable angle, I had put myself on the highest point of the famous red staircase, which was placed under the north tower in 2008 and which has become one of the main attractions of Times Square. Below the staircase are the box offices to buy tickets to Broadway shows and the staircase itself is “heated” in winter to make more comfortable waiting for those who decide to wait their turn sitting on the steps. Obviously, at the moment of my shot, the staircase was completely crowded with tourists and so it was not possible to use a tripod. Here following the EXIF data of the shot: S: 1/200 f/3.8 ISO: 100 Already knowing that I could not offer the image with commercial license, during the editing process I have not had to worry about removing logos or recognizable people, since these are allowed without permission in editorial images. Therefore, I only performed the usual basic adjustments, such as straighten lines, work on the curves of contrast and the color correction (which in Times Square is really the main component). After exporting the file in JPG, I edited the image in Lightroom to add keywords, title and description in the format required by Shutterstock for editorial images. The image has been accepted by virtually all microstock agencies (at least those who treat editorial images) and generated immediately several downloads that contributed later to keep this image always quite high in search results. It is still one of my best-selling images ever. The use of this image on websites It may seem difficult to find an image of Times Square in the midst of search results on the Internet, given the almost unlimited availability of images taken in this place. In fact the particular arrangement and combination of the advertising displays makes each image very unique, as long as you pay close attention to the details. By searching for images with Google I could finally identify several dozen of uses of my photo on various news sites or blogs focused on travel. The greatest satisfaction was seeing my image appear on The Economist, particularly on the publishing “Transforming Cities” (2014). As a student of economics, I had always dreamed to appear one day on The Economist crowning a brilliant career in the world of finance. At that time I never imagined that I would appear on the Economist through one of my pictures. Among other prominent examples, the picture also appeared on The New York Post, on the official blog of Hewlett Packard, on the portal UOL and on the Brazilian version of MSN Travel. In Italy the image was used by the network Zingarate.com, while there are countless other appearances on travel blogs from the rest of the world. Here following a selection of the main examples that I’ve been able to found by searching on the internet (click on images to enlarge them and browse the gallery or click on the link in the caption to read the article online, if still available): To read more about how buyers use images sold through microstock agencies, click here. Other resources: – Overview of the major Microstock agencies – Microstock Agencies Evaluation – My personal workflow for editing and selling images online – Sources about digital photography and microstock Liked this article? Would you share it?  [...] Read more...
1 September 2015Orvieto is a city that certainly doesn’t need to be introduced: it is a place of international fame, known throughout the world for its iconic landmark (the Cathedral) and for its excellent position as a crossroads among three regions of central Italy (Umbria, Tuscany and Lazio). However, actually Orvieto is much more: it has a wide territory, making it one of the 50 largest municipalities in Italy, and in the old town it’s impossible not to be enchanted by the architecture of buildings, churches and squares, as well as from numerous interesting archaeological sites of the Orvieto underground. Like many people, I too knew Orvieto mainly because of the beautiful Gothic facade of the Cathedral, but I finally found the time to visit the city in June 2015 and on that occasion I discovered countless photographic locations that have allowed me to come back home with dozens of new images for the microstock market, as well as with a wonderful memory of that day. This is the story of my photowalk in Orvieto. Directions Orvieto’s distance from Rome is about 130 km (about 160 km from Florence and about 80 km from Perugia) and the city is easily accessible by car via the A1 Highway “Milan-Naples”, on which it has a dedicated exit. From Rome the journey takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes if there’s no traffic. The center of Orvieto is located on the top of a tuff rock and it’s very easy to visit it on foot, so the best thing to do is leave your car at one of the parking lots located in the lower part of the city, like the one near Porta Romana, and reach the historic center using the elevators that lead you from the parking lot to the old town. Coming off the elevator at Via Ripa Medici, with a short walk through Ripa Medici alley and then along Via Garibaldi you will arrive in a few minutes in Piazza della Repubblica, where there is the magnificent medieval Church of St. Andrew, the starting point of this photowalk. Chiesa di Sant’Andrea (Church of St. Andrew) The Church of St. Andrew and Bartholomew (more commonly known as “St Andrew”) is one of the oldest religious buildings of Orvieto, dating from the twelfth century, therefore even more ancient than the Cathedral. It is a roman cruciform church built on the ruins of an early Christian church. Over the centuries it has undergone several renovations and alterations, which have significantly changed the aesthetics, especially with regard to the external facade. The glass of the beautiful rose window, for example, it was replaced in 1926. Next to the church is the beautiful twelve-sided tower, which belongs to the same architectural complex, although in fact adherent to the Town Hall overlooking Piazza della Repubblica. Orvieto Cathedral Continuing from Piazza della Repubblica along Corso Cavour and then turning right to Via del Duomo, with a five minutes walk you will get in front of the most representative and most spectacular building in Orvieto: the Cathedral Church of St Mary of the Assumption, commonly known as Duomo di Orvieto. You will soon notice that shooting the Cathedral is not an easy job: the square in front of the facade it is not wide enough to allow you to photograph the Cathedral in its entirety and in comfort. An ultra wide-angle lens is highly recommended. With my 18-55mm DX Nikkor, even at 18mm I have not been able to frame the whole Cathedral horizontally from any position that was not excessively lateral to the front: therefore I could only frame partially or make vertical shots of the entire structure, plus obviously shoot details, but at the same time this allowed me to cut out the huge mass of tourists who surrounded the building. The facade of the Cathedral, with its famous bas-reliefs, spiers, cusps, mosaics, statues and the magnificent central rose window, it is one of the most spectacular examples of Gothic architecture in Europe. “The facade of the Orvieto Cathedral is one of the most spectacular examples of Gothic architecture in Europe”On the facade are represented stories of the Old and New Testament and the whole structure is dominated by the symmetry of architectural solutions and at the same time by the wealth of artistic elements. It is really worth dwelling (and photograph) the single parts that make up the facade, even better with a guide that allows to better understand the many details of interest of this absolute masterpiece. The interior of the Cathedral is just as remarkable: it is a 3-nave structure with wooden ceiling trusses. Among other highlights, not to be missed the two most important chapels: the Chapel of San Brizio, whose frescoes are a true masterpiece of Renaissance art, and the Chapel of the Corporal, where you will find the relic that gave rise to the construction of Cathedral itself, which is the linen cloth (called Corporal) stained with the blood miraculously seeped from the  consecrated Host during the Eucharist of the Mass of Bolsena in 1263 celebrated by Peter of Prague. Ferrari Cavalcade 2015 Gathering in Orvieto For a fortunate coincidence, during my photowalk I came across the mega gathering of Ferrari Cavalcade 2015, that in those hours stopped in Orvieto. Although I’m not a great expert about sports cars, I must admit that it was truly exciting to see hundreds of Ferraris, coming from all over the world, go through the ancient streets of Orvieto with their unmistakable roar or parked in the square in front of the Cathedral. Moreover the sharp contrast between the supercars and the gothic architecture of the Cathedral gave me an unexpected and interesting photographic subject. Obviously being recognizable cars with readable license plates, I could release these images exclusively with editorial license. Pozzo di S. Patrizio (Well of St. Patrick) Walking in Orvieto is a feast for the eyes, but a walk “under” Orvieto is definitely an experience not to be missed. Orvieto Underground is a network of about 1,200 tunnels and caves excavated over the centuries, starting from the Etruscan period.”Orvieto underground is a network of about 1,200 tunnels and caves excavated over the centuries, starting from the Etruscan period” Generally the excavations are not communicating with each other, as they mainly are independent wells and caves, built for both public and private uses, mostly with the goal of research and conservation of water in the subsoil. Among all the buildings of the underground Orvieto, the best known is undoubtedly the “St. Patrick’s Well“. The name of the well is a precise reference to the cave of St. Patrick in Ireland, which is the subject of a legend dating back to the Middle Ages: according to legend, the cave was indicated by Jesus Christ to St. Patrick as a place where unbelievers would have experienced the pains of hell and, rising to the surface, the remission of sins. Actually in St. Patrick’s Well in Orvieto there is nothing hellish: it is a very sophisticated piece of engineering for its time of construction (which took 10 years from 1527 to 1537) and it was used to safely transport the water inside the fortress in case of a siege of the city. The architectural detail that makes this structure so interesting is certainly the double helical flight of stairs, which allowed to obtain both the descent and the ascent one-way into the well, so that the mules could easily transport the water between the well and the fortress. Given the low light conditions in the well, it is a rather difficult place to photograph: the great depth and breadth (53 meters high by 13 in diameter) make unnecessary the use of the flash while the impracticality of using a tripod makes it necessary to shoot at high ISO, which results in high risk of digital noise. The atmosphere, however, is highly addictive and is definitely worth to descend (and to ascend) the 248 steps leading down to the bottom of the well, where a platform connects the descending ramp to the ascending one. In the upper part of the well there are several windows that illuminate the ramps with natural light, while going down deep the natural light gradually decreases and is replaced by the artificial light of the lamps. Orvieto in Microstock In addition to photos of the Cathedral, of the Church of St. Andrew and of the St. Patrick’s Well, I also took many pictures of streets and other picturesque views of the old town of Orvieto. Altogether, among standard versions and some processing in black and white and HDR, this photowalk has produced 44 new images to be sent to the microstock agencies with royalty-free license, plus 5 editorial images related to the Ferrari Cavalcade event, for a total of 49 new files. The result in terms of approval has been generally quite good, though with some differences from agency to agency and, as often happens, in some cases I had to proceed with some resubmissions in order to have a review as fair as possible (as usual especially with Shutterstock). Below the table with the approval rate of the new files for the main agencies: Shutterstock: 47% Pond5: 31% Kozzi: 100% iStock: 82% Dreamstime: 57% Colourbox: 86% Fotolia: 75% CanStock: 34% Veer: 90% Depositphotos: 84% BigStock: 65% MostPhotos: 100% 123RF: 92% Photodune: 9% Photokore: 100% Liked this article? Would you share it? [...] Read more...
2 July 2015For the fifth episode of “Usage of my images“, let’s go back to Europe and more specifically let’s fly to London, where the image analyzed in this article was taken: the famous statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus, one of the most well-known landmarks of the British capital. The image was taken in March of 2013, during my first trip to England, throughout three days spent exploring the city under a strong snowfall and definitely challenging temperatures, which made my photo tour quite complicated, although this did not prevent me to realize several images that then, in the following months (and even now at a distance of two years), would end up to give me great satisfactions with the various microstock agencies. Among the hundreds of images of London that are part of my portfolio, undoubtedly the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus is one of those that has generated more downloads in absolute and that has been used more frequently on the Internet, thus allowing me to track down the various uses through the usual Google image search. The Location Piccadilly Circus is one of the most famous squares of London: it is the most important crossroad, combining different streets of great importance for shopping, such as Piccadilly, Regent Street, Haymarket, Shaftesbury Avenue and Coventry Street. Due to its very favorable location in the West End it is considered the true center of the city and one of the first places to visit for all tourists coming to London. Besides the importance for its proximity to the shopping district, Piccadilly Circus is a focal point for the nearby access to Leicester Square and the theaters district of the West End, which is why it has also become known as the “Times Square” of London. But the similarities with Times Square are due mainly to the presence of the famous advertising light displays, present in the square since the beginning of ‘900, reminiscent of – but to a much smaller scale – the most famous intersection in Manhattan. Finally, Piccadilly Circus is just a short distance from St James and Green Park, near Buckingham Palace, while on the other side of the square, along Haymarket you can reach – with a short walk – Trafalgar Square, the most important museums of the capital and the places of the political power that governs the United Kingdom. But Piccadilly Circus is also known for the famous “Fountain” (though there’s not even a single drop of water in it) which is right in the middle of the square and is universally known as “Statue of Eros”, the God of Love from the Greek mythology. Not everyone knows (included me before my trip to London) that in reality it is a wrong attribution, even if well-established and conventionally accepted by everyone. The monument in fact, made by Alfred Gilbert in 1885 and titled “Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain“, was originally dedicated to the Angel of Christian Charity, to be identified in Greek mythology with Anteros, son of Ares and Aphrodite, brother of Eros and “God of requited love“. The Shot As previously mentioned, the weather conditions were not the most favorable ones: snow, wind, cold and generally a rather gray light even at mid-day, did not allow me to create an image of high-impact color or with a very “artistic” look. Among other things, this is a very popular location, therefore it was not easy to make a very original composition that could stand out among the thousands of similar photos on the market. Finally, as a place always crowded with tourists and passers-by who normally camp out near the monument, it was also difficult to find a way to frame by excluding people and recognizable faces. I had no chance to use my tripod for the shooting, so I preferred to use a rather unusual lens for this type of situation – the 35mm f/1.8 AF-S DX Nikkor – that could guarantee me to shoot at a safe speed, taking advantage of the exceptional sharpness that this lens notoriously grants. Normally to photograph monuments and architecture a wide-angle lens would be recommended, but in this case the 35mm DX proved very useful just to rule out the frame all the disturbing elements (first of all the tourists) that would have made it extremely difficult to finalize the image. Here following the EXIF data of the shot: S: 1/250 f/1.8 ISO: 100 The editing process was quite simple: in Lightroom I’ve only straightened the image, controlled the color temperature and to balance shadows and highlights. Then in Photoshop I completed the process by removing stains, controlling noise and applying the output sharpening before exporting the final JPG. The preparation of the file for forwarding to the microstock agencies was pretty easy: as the title I preferred to keep the conventional attribution of the monument as “Statue of Eros” (after all, if everyone calls it so, also the buyers will presumably search for it with this name); also the keywording and submission processes have been quite smooth. Although the subject was not particularly original (I would have expected many rejections due to oversupply) the file was approved by virtually all agencies unconditionally. Therefore it’s not surprising that this image has over time generated several downloads, despite having a lot of high quality competitors. It seems to me a good example of how even the simplest and most touristic shots, provided they are impeccable from a technical standpoint and indexed properly, they can generate downloads and revenues in the medium to long run. It is also further proof that the travel photography, although constituting a niche in the world of microstock, is still able to produce satisfactory results both in the short and the medium-to-long terms. The use of this image on websites There are many occurrences among the search results on Google about this image: though it is a common image, and apparently little distinguishable in a search online, some details (such as the gray light or the flag flying on the left edge of the picture) allowed me to easily identify it among the search results. Obviously the more frequent use of this image is on blogs or sites that deal with travel and tourism to London and England, with numerous examples from all over the world (eg. ViveLondres.es, Logitravel.com, PlanetWare.com, WeLoveExpedia.com and others). Moreover, this image has been used by the well-known blog “Womanitely.com” in an article that celebrates the 10 most beautiful streets in the world, among which of course also appears Piccadilly Circus. This article was then replicated by various blogs and sites around the world, especially in Asian countries. Among other uses, worth to mention sites of real estate firms (such as Brown&Carroll Living) or the many news sites that have adopted an article by David Hoile “Africa must leave the ICC” (eg. Leadership.ng, Chidiukwu.com and others). As usual, here following a selection of the main examples that I’ve been able to found by searching on the internet (click on images to enlarge them and browse the gallery or click on the link in the caption to read the article online, if still available): To read more about how buyers use images sold through microstock agencies, click here. Other resources: – Overview of the major Microstock agencies – Microstock Agencies Evaluation – My personal workflow for editing and selling images online – Sources about digital photography and microstock Liked this article? Would you share it?  [...] Read more...
14 June 2015Villa Adriana is an extremely fascinating place to visit. Located near Tivoli, a few kilometers from Rome, is undoubtedly one of the greatest examples of authentic “Great Beauty” too often overlooked, due to lack of time or for purely logistical questions, from those visiting the capital city. It is an archaeological complex of substantial size (about 120 hectares) which houses a kind of royal palace ante litteram, built by the Emperor Hadrian in the second century AD. “Villa Adriana is undoubtedly one of the greatest examples of authentic “Great Beauty” too often overlooked”The villa is organized in a complex series of buildings and squares which were used in fact to carry out functions of representation and service, as well as of imperial residence. Beyond the historical and archaeological importance of the site (stated as World Heritage by UNESCO back in 1999), the charm of this place is due to the peace and tranquility that reign among the ruins and the monuments. Even on Sunday, there is no risk of long queues at the entrance, nor to be disturbed by crowds of tourists when visiting the area. “The charm of this place is due to the peace and tranquility that reign among the ruins and the monuments”The complex has no architectural barriers and takes no more than two hours for a complete visit with no rush. Moreover, the rich vegetation of the area and the huge pools of water on the site, make it a very pleasant place to visit just to wander aimlessly, perhaps looking for a little relax and coolness during the warmer days in summer. It was years since my last visit to Villa Adriana: the last time I had been there for sure I had not yet developed my passion for photography (or at least I still had no DSLR camera) so it was a long time since I wanted to go there again, this time “armed” with my gear and ready to take home some beautiful pictures that could help me enriching further my portfolio of images to be proposed to the microstock agencies. And so, a beautiful Sunday in April, I decided to dedicate a whole morning to the exploration of Villa Adriana with my photo backpack and all the main pieces of my gear (tripod, filters, tele and wide angle lens). This is the story of a photowalk at Villa Adriana. Getting to Villa Adriana from the center of Rome is quite simple: by car you can use the A24 highway “Roma-Teramo”, taking the exit to Tivoli and continue for another 3km up to Villa Adriana, very well signposted already from the highway exit. Near the entrance there is a large pay parking (very cheap). The visit begins with a walk uphill on the Via del Lago di Lesina, a long tree-lined avenue that leads from the entrance of the Villa up to a kiosk with a model of the entire archaeological complex. The Pecile The first area you come across after trespassing the big perimeter wall is the Pecile. It is a reconstruction of the painted portico of the Agora of Athens and it stands as a huge pool about the size of a football field, surrounded by trees of various types (olive trees, cypresses, cherry trees) while it was originally surrounded by a columned portico that bordered the perimeter on all four sides.     Just over the Pecile you meet the building with three Esedre, vestibule of what was most likely the private residence of the Emperor Hadrian. The Baths Continuing beyond you meet the huge bath complex, divided into Great and Little Baths, the latter presumably intended for the imperial family. The buildings that make up the spa complex are of considerable size and still show details that prove the richness of architectural solutions used to divide and at the same time enriching the spaces.    The Canopus Continuing the walk south over the spa complex, you come to one that undoubtedly can be defined as the most classic “postcard” of Villa Adriana: the Canopus. It is a long pool still surrounded by Greek statues and Corinthian columns. The pool is the representation of the Egyptian canal that connected the city of Canopus with Alexandria and is said to have been built just as historical re-enactment of the journey of Hadrian in Egypt.     Among the statues surrounding the pool, noteworthy are the statue of Ares at the Colonnade, a series of Caryatids on the west side and even a crocodile statue on the eastern side.     Other notable buildings Up the east side of the Villa is a series of buildings that made up the true heart of the complex. Among these, it is surely worth to mention the Hall of the Doric Columns and the “Piazza d’Oro” (Golden Court), so renamed in modern times because of the wealth of material with which the architectural decorations and sculptures throughout the whole complex were originally made. Also notable is the “building with Peschiera“, considered the true residence of the Emperor because of the centrality of the building relative to the entire complex, as well as because of the richness of the architectural details. And more, in the same area of the Villa, the Imperial Palace, the Hall of the Philosophers and the Hospitalia. Unfortunately at the time of this photowalk the Maritime Theatre (another famous “postcard” of Villa Adriana) was not accessible due to restoration work in progress.        Villa Adriana in Microstock I must confess that the time of day when I visited Villa Adriana (between 11am and 2pm) was not the most favorable in terms of light: a hot day and the blazing sun definitely are not the best conditions to take pictures that can be valid for microstock purposes, but I really had no alternatives. In these cases, you can often have backlight, with harsh shadows and reflections that are difficult to be fixed in post production. To overcome these problems, in addition to using the polarizing filter, I decided to also use the bracketing function, in order to obtain balanced exposure through the HDR technique and also to make more attractive and original images, that would have otherwise hardly distinguish themselves from other pictures of Villa Adriana published by other authors on the marketplaces of the main microstock agencies. As for the legal aspects it is to be noted that, despite being a place that is subject to the payment of an entrance fee, the reproduction of images of Villa Adriana does not infringe any copyright and therefore there is no need of a specific authorization (model release). However, on this subject I had a lot to argue with the Shutterstock reviewers, who rejected some pictures just for this reason (model released required): I had to explain that in their database there were already dozens of images of Villa Adriana without any model release, therefore I managed to have a second review and to have my images evaluated only about technical issues. As for the subjects, beyond the historic buildings and the architectural details (some of them truly remarkable, as for example the Greek statues and the Corinthian columns), I found very interesting also the gardens and the lush vegetation, that make Villa Adriana a truly idyllic place to visit.        Finally, a good set of textures for backgrounds, thanks to the many plots on the old walls, to the mosaic floors, to the grain of the columns and of other architectural elements.     Altogether, between main images and alternate versions with specific treatments (such as BW, HDR and other artistic filters) I edited a batch of more than 100 new pictures taken from this photowalk, and I progressively sent them to the agencies during the month of May. The results in terms of acceptance were as usual rather varies from agency to agency, but in some cases quite surprising. Below is a list of the acceptance rates of the main agencies: Shutterstock: 16% Pond5: 2% Kozzi: 100% iStock: 56% Dreamstime: 58% Colourbox: 100% Fotolia: 58% CanStock: 61% Veer: 55% Depositphotos: 65% BigStock: 54% MostPhotos: 100% 123RF: 80% Photodune: 8% Photokore: 100% Liked this article? Would you share it? [...] Read more...
13 February 2015In the fourth episode of “Use of my images“, we examine another case of editorial image, this time taken in Philadelphia (USA) in 2013 and having as its subject one of the most famous versions of the “Love” sculpture by Robert Indiana. Once again, it was a photo taken without much preparation, mainly because of bad weather: it was raining, there was a strong wind and water drops were falling on the lens both from the rain and from the fountain on the back of the sculpture. The only advantage was that despite being broad daylight in one of the more touristic areas of Philadelphia, there was no one around and therefore there was not the confusion of passersby that normally surrounds this monument. In post-production I was then able to eliminate major flaws, but certainly the light that day was not ideal. Even in the absence of recognizable people, to avoid problems of copyright infringement of the sculpture, I decided to offer the image for sale with editorial license, of course only to those agencies that accept this type of license. Despite this, quite unexpectedly, this image is among those that generate the most downloads in my entire portfolio and it is mostly used on sites that have to do with travel and tourism to the USA and Pennsylvania. How do I know it? Obviously through the Google image search, which has allowed me to identify many of the sites on which the image was used. As usual, there is no way to easily identify other uses outside of the internet. Below is a list of the main examples of use that I was able to track down. A couple of them refer to publications or sites of great fame (eg. Huffington Post) and even with the explicit author credits (eg. City Pass Philadelphia and Savannahnow). Click on images to enlarge them or on the link in the caption to read the article online, if still available: To read more about how buyers use images sold through microstock agencies, click here. Other resources: – Overview of the major Microstock agencies – Microstock Agencies Evaluation – My personal workflow for editing and selling images online – Sources about digital photography and microstock Liked this article? Would you share it?  [...] Read more...
22 September 2014In this third episode of “use of my images” we take as an example the case of the image visible above: the photo was taken on the 6th Avenue (also known as Avenue of the Americas) in Manhattan, New York City, in 2013. This street is characterized, especially in the stretch that runs parallel to Times Square, by a long line of squared skyscrapers placed side by side, on both sides of the road. Due to the “classical” shape of these skyscrapers (so to speak), marked by the massive presence of steel and glass, this part of New York is the one that, probably more than any other area, best represents concepts as Business, Finance and whatever it is associated with the world of Economics. At must be said that most of the buildings of Manhattan are copyrighted (eg. The Empire State Building) therefore you can usually put on sale only images with editorial license, through the agencies that deal with this type of licenses. In this case, however, given the vagueness of the buildings and the fact that they are only partially portrayed, moreover without the presence of a main subject, I was able to get approval from microstock agencies with a standard commercial license. As for the use that is made of this image, at least on the internet, its proximity to the concepts of Business and Finance pushes the image to be used especially on websites that talk about these topics, eg. blogs and news sites on exchanges and financial markets, sites of investment companies, insurance companies, banks and even law firms, architectural or real estate. Here are some examples traced through the Google image search (click on images to enlarge them or on the link in the caption to read the article online, if still available): To read more about how buyers use images sold through microstock agencies, click here. Other resources: – Overview of the major Microstock agencies – Microstock Agencies Evaluation – My personal workflow for editing and selling images online – Sources about digital photography and microstock Liked this article? Would you share it?  [...] Read more...
29 July 2014The second episode of the section “use of my images” in which I try to show some concrete examples of how my images are being used on the web by the customers of microstock agencies. In this episode we talk about the case of the image on top the article, taken in front of the famous Apple Store on 5th Avenue in New York in 2013. I must admit that this is a typical touristic snapshot, taken without any artistic purpose. Moreover, the almost uninterrupted presence of tourists, curious and buyers of the store, made it absolutely impossible to take the picture in the absence of recognizable people. Anyway, even if the 5th avenue would have been completely deserted, the Apple logo and recognizable architecture would have made anyway impossible to sell the image with standard commercial license. The only option was therefore to offer the image for editorial use only. If you need more informations about editorial images, I advise my article about the legal issues related to microstock images. Also check the list of the agencies that accept editorial content (not all agencies do). Going back to the image of the Apple Store 5th Ave, although it is an editorial image without many expectations, it is undoubtedly one of the most downloaded images of my portfolio during the past year. In most cases, online magazines use the image to comment on articles about Apple, mostly from the perspective of economics and finance. In other cases, blogs or websites that do reviews on Apple products or that talk about rumors on upgrades and new devices being launched. Here are some screen shots with a few examples (click on images to enlarge them or on the link in the caption to read the article online, if still available): To read more about how buyers use images sold through microstock agencies, click here. Other resources: – Overview of the major Microstock agencies – Microstock Agencies Evaluation – My personal workflow for editing and selling images online – Sources about digital photography and microstock Liked this article? Would you share it?  [...] Read more...
10 July 2014With this article I start a new section of this website, in which I will periodically talk about examples of how my images are being used on the web. Examples are tracked on the internet via the Google images search, which I covered on other pages of this blog “How do buyers use microstock pictures?” and “Web sources for Microstockers“. Let’s start from the image on top of this article, taken at Moorea (French Polynesia) in 2012, during one of my most memorable trips ever. This is definitely one of my best selling images ever on microstock agencies, so as to appear regularly in the top results when you search for the word “Polynesia” on Shutterstock. Fortunately it is a rather unusual picture, because taken at dusk, with other colors than those usually seen in the images of exotic beaches as Maldives and Polynesia. All this makes the search for images on Google particularly effective, and in fact the results of the research are numerous, mostly related to travel agencies, tour operators or websites and blogs focused on vacations. Below are some examples (click on images to enlarge them or on the link in the caption to read the article online, if still available): The examples of usage of this image from tour operators and travel agencies websites are numerous and too many to mention all of them. Nonetheless it deserves a particular mention the site Zingarate.com, well known italian portal focused on travel and on touristic destinations, of which I confess to be a frequent visitor. Therefore it was a big satisfaction when I saw my image used to illustrate the “most romantic islands in the world.” But the greatest satisfaction for the use of this image came from Air France, the French national airline, which used my image to advertise their flights to french overseas territories. Finally, below is a selection of examples of how my image has been used internationally on websites. To read more about how buyers use images sold through microstock agencies, click here. Other resources: – Overview of the major Microstock agencies – Microstock Agencies Evaluation – My personal workflow for editing and selling images online – Sources about digital photography and microstock Liked this article? Would you share it? [...] Read more...
23 May 2014After a few months during which my production of new images for the microstock had suffered a sharp slowdown, I finally found the time to edit some pictures that I took last March, after the planetary success at the Academy Awards of the movie “The Great Beauty” by Paolo Sorrentino. The purpose of this article isn’t in any way to make a review or to criticize the movie, but despite the idea that everyone of us can have about it, an undoubted merit of this film, moreover unanimously recognized, is that it has shown in a spectacular and involving way some of the most evocative places of Rome, from the most known (Colosseum, Janiculum, Piazza Navona, Via Veneto) to those a bit less known even by those who were born in Rome or who have lived there for all of their life. In particular, one of the most ironic scenes of the movie – the one where an alleged avant-garde artist performs in a resounding head shot against the pillar of an ancient Roman aqueduct – is set in the Park of the Aqueducts, near the Appia Antica. It is a rather large public space, in which are still visible the remains of seven Roman aqueducts, and where people are used to walking, jogging and being outdoors in a seemingly indifference to the historical and archeological importance of this extraordinary place. Certainly, however, the movie by Sorrentino has given international fame to this park, which has already become a destination more frequently included in the touristical routes of people visiting the Capital. And then on a Sunday afternoon I decided to take a walk as Jep Gambardella (the main movie character) bringing with me my backpack, my lenses, my filters and the indispensable tripod. The idea was to capture some striking images by taking advantage of the golden light of the late afternoon. Indeed the light was really remarkable but, depending on the vantage point, the exposure of some shots was made difficult by a strong backlight. In other words, I had 2 options: expose properly the ruins while having a completely overexposed sky (image 1); expose in order to have a sunset with more detail, while getting the ruins very dark and full of shadows (image 2). The only solution was to use the bracketing, then combining pictures in post-production to get a HDR image (High Dynamic Range) correctly exposed in all areas of the frame. This was the set used: Nikon D5100, 18-55mm lens with polarizing filter and lens hood, tripod, remote shooting and bracketing function with three different exposures (-1, 0, and +1 EV). Back home, I put together the sets of three shots in Photoshop using the plugin HDR Efex Pro by Nik Collection, trying to avoid oversaturated colors in order to achieve an effect as realistic as possible. Below the result at the end of post-production. Incouraged by the result, I took 14 good pictures, from which I also produced 9 Alternate versions in black and white or sepia, for a total of 23 pictures ready to be indexed and sent to the microstock agencies. After submitting the same images to all the agencies to which I contribute regularly and after waiting patiently for the reviewers to do their work, here are the results about the approval by the top 10 agencies, some of them quite surprising: Shutterstock: 5 out of 23 123RF: 7 out of 23 Photodune: 1 out of 23 (unusually rigid) Depositphotos: 23 out of 23 Fotolia: 11 out of 23 (better than usual) Dreamstime: 14 out of 23 iStock: 22 out of 23 (unusually generous) CanStockPhoto: 5 out of 23 BigStock: 20 out of 23 (in total disagreement with Shutterstock, yet they share the same offices!) Pond5: 15 out of 23 Here are some of the images for sale online, taken from this photowalk. This pleasant walk among the Roman aqueducts gave me several dozens of images approved, which increase my online portfolio significantly if compared to the previous month. Moreover, since the early days, 2 or 3 pictures have begun to sell well both on Shutterstock and on Fotolia, presaging good results expected for the next few weeks. So thanks to “The Great Beauty“, which gave me an opportunity to spend a day in a very special place of Rome, besides giving me the inspiration for new works which increased my personal portfolio. And, who knows, I may think of doing some other stroll in the other locations of the movie in the near future… Liked this article? Would you share it? SalvaSalva [...] Read more...