29-Feb-2020
Before and After
Recently I have posted a small gallery, composed of photos, taken at an exhibition about dinosaurs, set in a garden centre near my home. At the beginning I didn't know what to do with that series of pictures, quite unpretentious. Later I decided to play with them, recreating a different environment, where I placed "my dinosaurs".
I have had a lot of fun, although manipulating and processing every photo needs a long time. I have used pieces of pictures from my own stock, which I have collected for many years, since I have always enjoyed composing digital scenes.
A few kind visitors of my gallery asked me to see some of the original photos to realize the work I have made on them.
For this reason I'm showing here an example of BEFORE" and "AFTER".
19-Sep-2019
Hummingbird hawk-moth in my garden
I don’t like insects. I know that I’m not alone, many other people fell a certain disliking for this rather mysterious little monsters, which have undeniably their own important role in the delicate natural balance (except mosquitoes, they have no reasons to justify their existence, but this is another story), but are like aliens. Maybe it’s because they are too small to make us easily familiar with their features and their aspect, or maybe it’s because they are often source of itch and pricking. Obviously the majority of them are quite harmless, but my distrust for them has always conditioned me. On the other hand there are many other people who are fascinated by them, not only professional entomologists.
One of the fundamental components of friendship is accepting spontaneously each other’s oddities, or at least what appears an oddity to us. One of my dearest friends adores insects and we often joke about her passion and we gently tease each other.
Usually I stay away from insect as much as I can, but living in the countryside, in a house with a rather large garden, imposes on me a necessary cohabitation with a lot of different kinds of more or less annoying little fellows. Nevertheless they would never be favourite subjects for my photos. But I feel like making an exception here, not only to confirm the rule, but to exchange a wing of friendly complicity with my friend. I know she will smile.
This hummingbird hawk-moth, as far as I know, are relatively rare in America, so it’s possible that my friend, who lives in Canada, has never seen it “live”, but I’m sure she knows a lot of things about it. I find it quite funny, because definitely it reminds me of a hummingbird, which I have never seen in reality, since these birds don’t exist in my country and so on, and so on, like a circle.
Anyway the photo is just average, but it was not easy to capture a little thing which flaps its wings so fast.
So this is for you, Christine.
01-Sep-2019
Models and Teddy Bears
I should start with a disclaimer. I have nothing, but really nothing against photos of models, more or less lightly dressed or naked.
I find them quite boring and repetitive, unless they are supported by the originality and creativity of a smart photographer, a real artist who can add something personal and new (that is rarely the case).
I don’t care for the stereotyped poses of a hyper made-up young model (it’s more embarrassing when the model is old, I have seen also that…). In portraiture I prefer more spontaneity and less studio stiffness, but it’s just a matter of personal tastes and I consider it the absolutely right of every amateur photographer to take photos of what they consider inspiring. After all I take pictures of tomatoes and books, which are not more appealing than a girl, I imagine.
But in my benevolent indifference for photography which has its subject pseudo-sexy models taken under the spotlights of a studio, there is also a little pet peeve, or I should call it “favourite annoyance”.
I cannot stand the presence of teddy bears.
In too many series of photos of undressed models an innocent teddy bear is obliged to take the role of those rather ridiculous little stars, which are used to censor pudenda ( I voluntarily use this out of fashion word because I consider this kind of censorship out of fashion as well). The model, with what is supposed to be a naughty and mischievous look (unfortunately is rather a bored look instead), sticks a teddy bears against her breast to hide the nipples or lies on her side with the resigned teddy bear on her belly. I have seen hundreds of teddy bears in similar photos.
Oh, please save the teddy bears from this gloomy role. Use anything else, dear fellow amateur photographers, but leave teddy bears in peace. You might try pumpkins, slippers, leaflets, vinyl records, whatever you like. Dare to be different.
Or maybe take pictures of a gigantic, naked teddy bear covered with a girl on his strategic parts. Thank you!
06-May-2019
"Looking Through a Broken Mirror" - Would you like to receive a complimentary copy?
The title of my most recent book is
"Looking Through a Broken Mirror".
I have a few complimentary copies which I'd be glad to offer to the first people who might ask me for that, writing to my personal email address.
This novel is a new adventure of the extemporaneous group of friends, who live in a farm on the Tuscany hills, near Arezzo. They have become, more or less voluntarily, passionate amateur-detectives and have already brilliantly solved several cases.
An American soap opera company arrived in Arezzo to film some instalments of their serial. The actors who play the leading roles in the soap are very popular in Italy too, and they asked for a calm and relaxing location during their stay. The beautiful farm of Peter Boyle and William Collins, which hosts a comfortable B&B and a restaurant, would be the ideal place for the American actors, the producer, the director and the screenwriter. Unfortunately a malicious fate has something different in store for them.
A merciless killer starts targeting the actors of the soap, without any apparent motive. The local police are stumbling around in the dark with no clue. But the murderer hasn’t dealt with William’s uncommon foresight and his friends’ talents for deductive inquiries.
Or maybe this time it’s William who neglects the killer’s evil ingenuity…
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02-JAN-2019
After the storm...
Mark Twain said that one can enjoy a rainbow without necessarily forgetting the forces that made it.
It would be even too easy to repeat that, after a storm, either metaphorically or in reality, there is always a rainbow to apologize for it. Actually it’s not the case, alas. Sometimes being necessarily always optimistic at all cost is not exactly the best attitude, even though it might help in the short term.
Nevertheless, when we have the chance to enjoy something beautiful, although temporary, we can take advantage of the precious moment.
31-DEC-2018
A walk...
Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instil in us. A new year can start every day at every hour, like the first day of the rest of our lives. If we keep on with our mysterious trip, sailing serenely over the waves of unexpected, with few certitudes and many wishes to fulfil, maybe we’ll arrive somewhere. Then, what really matters is the journey, not the final destination.
23-DEC-2018
It’s good to have Portuguese friends.
The simple things make life pleasant. Little gestures of friendship, sincere mutual attentions, spontaneous empathy, a pinch of lightness, and two spoons of fancy.
I have not been very active on PBase for a too long time and I wonder why I’m writing these lines, which probably very few of you will have the patience to read.
I don’t know. It’s the little pleasure to share something nice, symbolized by this snapshot. Our Portuguese friends are very special people. All friends are very special people.
Marcel Proust said “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Usually the great Proust is a bit too wordy and occasionally slightly pompous in his prose, but, in this case I can only fully agree with him.
I’m wordy too, even though I have no talent for literature. I was wandering from the subject.
So here you can see a symbol of Portuguese Christmas, “O Bolo Do Rei” which means “The King’s Cake” and a bottle of noble Porto wine, that I have received today from a senhora Rosa. Maybe one day I’ll write her story…
If I could, I’d share a slice of this cake with all of you, because I have received so much from PBase fellow photographers in all these years. You have all my gratitude and I wish you all the happiness and the joy you deserve.
I sincerely hope we’ll have many opportunities to meet virtually on PBase also next year.
O bolo do rei has a hole in the center and is baked from a soft, white dough, with raisins, various nuts, and crystallized fruit inside. Bolo Rei is a bit more complicated to make and has quite a few ingredients but the end product is totally worth the effort.
15-AUG-2017
I'm back...
I have been away from many familiar places of my daily routine for several months. Among them I have totally neglected PBase and–even though I feel both sorry and guilty for realizing it– two of my greatest and more important ways of communications: photography and writing.
I realize that, in the quick times we are living by now, everything goes fast and is forgotten even faster. People always look forward to something new, something to add, something to change…
It's the basic principle of communication through social networks, I suppose. But I don't intend to give rise to any polemic consideration about that, at least not now…
What I mean to express, posting this picture after my long absence, is my moved gratitude for people who didn't forget me and were so kind to try to get in touch with me to know if everything was fine and to wish me to come back as soon as possible.
This picture of a new sunrise is, obviously a symbol of the beginning of a new period, which might be, at the same time, a way to go back in touch with my former and rewarding routine and, of course, last but not least, with the few people who still feel like following my work.
I'm back and, little by little, I intend to update my personal website, to find again the time to express something of my little creativity in the way that is congenial for me.
03-AUG-2016
"Little Russian Stories"- Would you like to receive a complimentary copy?
The title of my most recent book is
"Little Russian Stories (So true, that they look invented)".
I have a few complimentary copies which I'd be glad to offer to the first people who might ask me for that, writing to my personal email address.
It's a collection of short stories, which have, as common denominator, the feature of being all about Russians and based on real facts.
Actually there is very little fiction. In most of cases I wrote a literal description of true stories. In few occasions I adapted slightly a description or I shortened an event, for narrative needs only.
The stories are presented in casual temporary order, like a voluntary backwards and forwards excursion in scattered memories.
I became fascinated by Russia when I was still a child. Oddly the book which kindled my enthusiasm for that country was not a Russian one. I discovered Russia, at least in my imaginary ideal, reading 'Michel Strogoff: The Courier of the Czar', by Jules Verne. I was seven or eight years old at that time and I was a passionate reader.
My next step was plunging into classical Russian literature and I dreamed of the world of Natasha Rostova, as Napoleon advanced in Russia. I felt moved by the vicissitudes of Anna Karenina and I fought with the difficulty of grasping 'The Brothers Karamazov'.
All that helped me to build my little, yet solid literary background, but gave me information only on a Russia which didn't exist anymore, while I knew very little about the contemporary Russia, which had become Soviet Union.
Only later, when I was largely adult, I realised that to perceive the spirit of a country it's necessary to learn its language and to deal with common people. History is a novel for which the people are the author.
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19-DEC-2015
"Goodbyes, they often come in wave" - Would you like to receive a complimentary copy?
The title of my last book is
"Goodbyes, they often come in waves".
I have a few complimentary copies which I'd be glad to offer to the first people who might ask me for that, writing to my personal email address.
In this novel we meet once again all the extemporaneous group of friends who live in a farm on the Tuscany hills, near Arezzo, and were protagonists of my two former books.
William and Peter keep on running their fashionable restaurant and their charming B&B. Reginald and Ellie are enjoying their married life and everything seem to be quiet, serene and a bit monotonous in the peaceful village of Capacciano.
A serendipitous encounter with Maresciallo Ciricola, who has just been transferred to Capacciano to be in command of the local Carabinieri station, after the retirement of his predecessor, opens the way to a new friendship.
But the talents of the valiant amateur detective of the farm "L'Oliveto" is challenged by a new case, which they are asked to solve.
Two years earlier, Iris Ciancaleoni, the best friend of Loredana Sanchini, the mayor's wife, committed suicide during a cruise, throwing herself from the balcony of her luxurious, first class cabin and disappearing into the Atlantic Ocean.
Loredana is tormented by doubts and she still cannot believe that her friend could kill herself, even though the case is considered officially close, after an accurate investigation.
Her husband, in spite of the deep love and esteem he feels for her, cannot take Loredana's doubts seriously. The only people who can help her to clear up the mystery about Iris' death are the owners of the farm and their friends. In the village everybody knows the fundamental role they had in solving an awful story about a murdered girl, for which one fellow citizen, Giorgio Cini the photographer, was groundlessly charged.
William and Peter agree with Mrs Sanchini that there is something fishy in her friend's presumed suicide and they start investigating their own way, helped by their friends.
Unexpectedly, the Russian business woman, who we met in the former instalment of this series, Lyubov Orlova, landed to Tuscany again and she contributes to stir things up.
Other events grow intertwined with each other. People who seemed to be disappeared come back and others leave forever.
All the characters will celebrate a very unusual Christmas, but once again. William, Peter and Reginald will find the thread to settle all for the best…maybe only temporarily. Who knows?
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