Take all the pictures you've taken during the last month, get comfortable and pass them in review.

How many are good and how many are bad?
What is the percentage of images that you waste?
What's wrong in the photos you throw away?

This is an experiment, a work of analysis, an exercise to rationalize what is insufficient into your images.

It can be difficult and tiring to get used to go regularly to review our less successful photos, but this could change the way we see and live photography.

Last March 20 two celestial events coincided with spring equinox, Supermoon and Total Solar eclipse.
The evening before the solar eclipse infact, the Earth and Moon were as close together as they possibly can be, giving rise to a so-called Supermoon.

This makes the 2015 Spring Equinox eclipse a supermoon eclipse, which means a supermoon, equinox and eclipse all on the same day.

Around 60% of the sun's light was blocked out at my location and this is what I saw...

It is not unusual for some people to get a little tired of winter.
Is this happening to you?

It may be cold, but there is plenty of green already in the landscape, not to mention blossoms as an early sign that spring will soon be in the air.

I love to breathe the spring smell that the land produces in late March. It's equal parts rain and soil, grass and ozone, creating a perfume that no one can replicate.
Can't wait for the real season...

Every photographer wants its work to have some kind of “magical” quality in it.

In order to achieve that, one element you should add is something photographers refer to as “the golden hour.”

In very informal terms, the golden hour is simply the first hour of light after sunrise, and the last hour of light before sunset.

The golden hour is also known as the magic hour, but I prefer to think about it in terms of "pretty fast hour"...changes in lighting occur pretty fast, so keep shooting as much as you can and be sure to capture as many variations as possible!

Snow, ice and the air crispness that comes with freezing temperatures can add a new dimension to your photography.

Even the most mundane of scenes can be transformed into a place of beauty and wonder with snow.

After a nice snow, I find myself getting out to photograph vistas that I wouldn’t even think twice about without the white stuff.

There’s just something about snow that makes everything pretty and exciting. I luv snow! :-)

© Copyright Mads Nissen

The World Press Photo is one of the first events of the year regarding the most important photographic prizes worldwide.

The photojournalist Mads Nissen was proclaimed the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year 2014 (the contest goes to reward the images taken in the previous year).

His photo was shot in St.Petersburg, Russia, and shows an intimate moment between Jon and Alex, a homosexual couple. The photo is part of the project "Homophobia in Russia" where life for lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender people is becoming increasingly difficult. Sexual minorities face legal and social discrimination, harassment, and even violent hate-crime attacks from conservative religious and nationalistic groups.

Photography is therapeutic.

It helps to think, to evolve, to stimulate ourselves.
It helps to take your time, slowly.

If we use our eyes thinking about the next shot we experience the world in a different way, we become an integral part of it, we perceive it with other senses.

Photography involves sensory implications, cultural and makes us essential and complex at the same time towards reality.

Many people think street photography as simple snapshots of random people in the street.
But street photography is not as random as it might appear at first sight.
A street photographer is first and foremost a great observer.

Attention should be paid to several details simultaneously that could somehow influence the final result: light, shape, colors and shades of objects and people in front of the lens.
That said, your imagination and awareness doing the rest...of course!

When I'm wandering around I really like to relax by taking some photos of the natural environment seeking more items to enclose in the same frame and trying to get cute results from an aesthetic point of view.

In this sense, a walk to the sea-side offers several ideas, the important thing is to have a bit of ...observing curiosity!

Start this 2015 posting a photo of a recent photographic trip with friends.  

I think it fully represents the beginning of a new adventure in this brand new 2015.

Happy New Year to all my followers! :-)

As 2014 is coming to an end and we look toward the new year, I wanted to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season!

I shall do so in the universal language of... JPEGs!


See you in 2015!

Small picturesque seaside village of Lerici, Liguria - Italy

Panoramic pictures always fascinate me. It is a wonderful gift from the digital era and you can find software that makes the stiching process very easy. Or, if you prefer, you can use the built-in function in your iPhone.
I love taking panoramic pictures because of the details, the sense of vastness and the wide perspective that gives out especially when you have a breathtaking landscape.

With all other subjects, can be also a different way to present a classic postcard shot into an...extended one! :-)

After Genoa, Florence, Milan, Bologna, Naples and some European cities such as London and Paris, the famous street artist Clet Abraham arrived in my hometown Parma, where, thanks to simple stencils stickers - has redesigned the look of the signs in some streets of the city center.

Using stencil adhesive has a positive value because the purpose is not to destroy the functionality of the object, but rethink, through a simple act of street art, the meaning of road signs - often bans - which are the symbol of authority and power.

A few days ago, at sunset, some spectacular mammatus clouds formed in the sky, gloomy and dark at times, but extraordinarily fascinating and suggestive.

The "mammatus" clouds are typical of the more intense storms and take place when the air is very humid in the lower layers and a storm will form in the afternoon in the inland areas and at high altitudes, without too much wind.

Too bad that they were clouds announcing the floods that would have occurred a few days later near here where I live....

Malta National Aquarium - Qawra, Malta

The underwater world has fascinated people for ages and we still have much to discover.

A good opportunity to experience this magical mystery world is visiting an aquarium.

It’s great to immerse in this fantastic world and enjoy some fascinating encounters of the close-up kind, meeting some of the incredible animals that call these environments home.

Walking across a floor of glass and watching the predators swim right beneath your feet or upon your head is amazing! You are never too old or too young for this! :-)

It happens very often to see huge murals around the cities all around Italy.

Art or degradation. Adornment or mess. A mural can be one or the other, depending on where, how and why it is drawn.

Which is the line between art and vandalism?
What do you think about this?
Do you know places where art is expressed on the walls with the approval of the government or where there are fine works, but which are true acts of vandalism?

What does it take to photograph the sunset?

Well, first you have to be in the right place and with a camera in hand at the time when the sun sets.

In this case you have already in mind that you want to create an artistic image; of course it can also happen to be in front of a beautiful sunset and decide to take a picture of the event, but you will agree with me that these are two very different things.
The result could also be very similar, but for the photographer are completely different experiences. Two opposite approaches.

Which is the one that most suits you?

Each of us has his own September 11.
The day when something happens that makes that date unforgettable for ever.
September 11 belongs to the history of us all,
then there are the dates that belong only to a few people.

(Fabio Volo)

It's some time that I do not write. It happens. There are times when the ideas are few or maybe you just do not have the ability to share what you live.
 
One of the strangest summers that I can remember is slowly saying goodbye, giving us the appointment for the next year.

Now I have no excuses and I must return to my routine. 
Goodbye summer!

I'm leaving for my summer holidays with the family... destination seaside!

I wish you all happy holidays and a great summer with the ones you love...

See you by the end of this month...take care!