Amalfi : B&W Street Photography

In July 2015 my wife Cheryl & I stayed for three nights in the small town of Amalfi on the Amalfi coast near Naples. Amalfi was the perfect place to practice my 'street' photography skills with my new Eos M3 mirrorless camera.

A selection of 35 B&W images can be seen below....

Colours & Textures of Naples, Italy

Naples is very different from any other part of Italy that I have ever been to. The traffic, kamikaze scooters, graffiti, grime and the dirt is an assault on ones senses. But gradually the shock wears off and one does notice some unwritten code in operation, some fleeting moments of order. 

The ancient city looms large over all human endeavors and provides a colourful and gritty backdrop against which the Neapolitans go about their frenetic seemingly chaotic business of living , working and existing..

3 Weeks in Europe - My Eos M3 Review - 3rd time lucky?

I have just come back from three weeks in Germany and Italy where I used my new Canon Eos M3 daily as a travel camera, photographing people, structures, landscapes and even some attempts at 'street photography'.

       Atrani , Amalfi Coast 2015


In this user report I will share with you my thoughts on how the Canon Eos M3 behaved as my backup compact camera and what worked and what didn't. 

Included also a portfolio of 30 images of my travel photographs of Germany and the Amalfi.

Milan, Italy

We arrived in Milan from Stresa and the contrast was fascinating...

The small almost sleepy village of Stresa lies on the shore of  Lago Maggiore, a beautiful lake with snow capped mountains in the distance and surrounded mostly by steep mountains. Milan on the other hand was a cacophony of sound & noise...especially on the Sunday when we arrived. There was some festival on with bands playing and stalls selling all sorts of things for charity. The streets near the Duomo were packed!

A Moment in Milan....

Next to the Duomo in Milan there is a ornate and posh shopping arcade, called the Galleria Vittoria Emanuele II.

Also know as 'Milan's drawing room' the arcade was designed by the architect Guiseppe Mengoni, who unfortunately fell to his death from the scaffolding a year before the shopping arcade's completion in 1877 . . .

Lake Maggiore, Italy

Isola Pescatori , or Fisherman's island lies just off the shore of Lake Maggiore between  Stresa and Baveno and is part of the Borromean island group.

The people that live on the island are shopkeepers, restaurateurs and fisherman. It is quite easy to walk around the island and it doesn't take long either. Lake Maggiore is surrounded by majestic mountains and with the lake in the foreground makes for a dramatic backdrop...

click on images to enlarge...

The first image posted here is a photograph made from Isola Bella towards Isola Pescatori. One can see that the island is very small. In the foreground is a fisherman rowing which looks like a toy rowing boat to me and he is probably rowing to the other side of the lake....quite a distance away....!

This island forces one to slow down and absorb its atmosphere. Life is slow and measured here and one can just sit all day long watching the passing parade, and always there is the backdrop of lake and mountains and the pleasure of knowing that you are sitting on a tiny island in this great lake that stretches all the way to Switzerland.

All the images were made with a Canon 5D2 and a 24-105L lens. This combination, although a bit on the heavy side makes for a great travel camera. The lens has a good spread and with IS can be used almost anywhere and at anytime....

There is a tourist office at the harbour in Stresa where one can get all the info and tickets for the excursions to the islands. They have a very comprehensive website that helped us a lot in planning our trip, not just to the islands, but the whole area around Stresa. The website can be found here....http://www.visitstresa.com/

regards, Ivan...

Isola Bella's white peacocks

Isola Bella, is a tiny island in Lake Maggiore near Milan in Italy. 

It is one of three islands that make up the Borromeo island group. Isola Bella has been totally transformed over the years and today there is a large castle, terraced gardens and a jetty. The whole island was build to resembles a ship . . .