Utah State Fair

I decided to enter the State Fair again this year. It's kind of a fun practice run for the IPPA print competitions. Both of my images were taken in Venice, Italy.

"Mother of Tears"

Won 1st Place for Portrait of a Man/Woman

"Talking' Dirty on the Canal"

won Honorable Mention for Journalistic

When I told my oldest that I won first place, he said "oh, so you went down a level from last year? (I won Best of Show last year) He's always so good to point that kind of stuff out. :)

Burano, Italy

The second morning in Venice we caught a boat out to the islands of Burano and Murano. Burano is famous for it's lace and colorful buildings, and Murano is renowned for it's glass. It was fun hanging out on these islands, although my photographic creativity was running low. Having spent so many days with a 12+ pound camera constantly pulling on your neck can wear a person out. (or maybe I am just a wimp.) These images are from Burano only, because I was too busy shopping for glass jewelry to be bothered to take too many photos on Murano. :)

Ahhh, Venice

Thanks to romantic movies, and Indian Jones' famous "ahhh, Venice" phrase, I had some seriously high expectations for this city. We entered on private speed boat, and it was awesome seeing the buildings rise from the water. Tired, (and admittedly a little cranky) we arrived to our hotel. It was an amazing location, right on the waterfront. After changing, I wandered the streets and tried to feel the charm of the place. It wasn't working. It seemed dirty, crowded, and much more touristy than any other place we'd been. I missed the quaint, impeccably clean villages of the country. After some food and drink, things started looking up, and I fell in love with the reflections and colors of the water...

Day 6 and 7

On day 6 we left the castle and drove to San Gimignano to a nice hotel with more modern conveniences (and wifi). The city was beautiful, and that evening it rained, creating beautiful reflections. The next day we drove into Monteriggioni which was a cool small comune surrounded by some of the strongest walls in Italy. We also visited Volterra before going back to San Gimignano.

Monteriggioni and its overlook

San Gimignano

Volterra

San Gimignano

Next up: Venice

Days 4 and 5

The town we visited after the poppy fields was Montepulciano. Another photographer and I wandered down a street where we met this man just sitting with his dog. He realized we were photographers, and even though he didn't speak any English, he got all excited and started explaining where to find good overlooks and shots. Then opened up a few doors, and showed us the some very cool old furniture dating back 900+ years. He also pointed out the original facade of the buildings, which was amazing to see that the bricks were still holding strong.

(the image on the left is the framework of a drawer in a dresser.)

(this is where I ate a wonderful lunch.)

After lunch we drove to the Sant'Antimo Abbey and looked around. In the evening we had a delicious tuscan dinner at the castle and sat around this awesome fire, sipping wine and chatting. There may or may not be pictures of me zonked out in a chair. Put me by a warm fire, and I fall asleep like a baby. :)

The next day we went to Montalchino. This was probably my least favorite town. Steep, steep streets, and it was much less quaint than the other villages we visited. I did finally find wireless though, which was a first, and enjoyed catching up with my husband. The picture below was taken in a restaurant I ate lunch in.

After lunch we went to a winery where I had my first ever wine tasting. Although I don't know a lot about wines, I did enjoy learning a little bit and tasting the difference between certain varieties. AND I got this cool picture.

Poppies

I don't feel like I did this field of poppies justice with these pictures. You really can't capture what it's like standing knee high in gorgeous red poppies. It's one of those things, as dumb as this sounds, that I never thought I'd experience. I've always loved the paintings of poppy fields, but to see it with your own eyes is amazing.

Buonconvento

This was a very cool medieval village that we ate breakfast at on two different mornings. I always felt a little awkward barging in on these little pastry/coffee shops with 12 hungry, demanding Americans overtaking the locals. Their eyes would widen, and by the time we left the plates of pastries were pretty much empty, and endless cups and saucers littered the counter. At least they brought in a lot of money that morning I guess.

My favorite pastry was a flaky one filled with this rice mixture, kind of like rice pudding. Sounds weird, but it was so good, without being too sweet. I also fell in love with cappuccinos on this trip.

On the road...

Here are just a few images I took on our little roadside stops. Our leader would suddenly pull over and we would all pile out of the vans with our cameras and shoot until we heard the one minute warning and then all pile back into the vans and drive on. The best stop was a red poppy field, but that is for another post.

This scene is called "The Clump"

I was a little bummed the grape vines weren't very mature yet, but still cool!

Sunrise

Something I've always wanted to do, but have never had the motivation or willpower to make happen, is to photograph the sunrise. On Day 3 we woke up at 5 in the morning and stumbled into the vans. The sun rose fast, and we shot like we were holding machine guns. I liked the images best that were taken just before the sun came up, with that sweet light. Here is a small sampling of that morning.

leaving the castle

I've never seen a "moonset" before. :)