We returned from Italy early yesterday evening to delightful weather (mid-70s and 60s this AM) here in northern Virginia. Other than feeling blue about leaving Italy, our return trip went very well with only one difficulty–the driver of the van to the airport did not speak ANY english, or chose not to, and could not have driven any slower. We thought we might not get to the airport in time for our flight. Now, we are getting physically adjusted and caught up around the house. “Physical adjustment” included going to Wegmans and buying a bottle of Italian rosso vino, several different cheeses, a container of carefully chosen olives, and an assortment of deli meats to include genoa salami, sopressata, proscuitto, and imported ham. So, tonight we will have an Italian dinner while reflecting on what we saw and the many fabulous meals we had for more than two weeks in Italy.

I shot over 90G of images and started the process of uploading and backing them up on the Mac and an external drive. I scanned some of them as they were being transferred by Lightroom and was pleased with what I was seeing. My Nikon D700 and the Nikon 28-300mm VRII lens performed very well. I did not use my 50mm f1.4 as much as I had planned, but it was useful a couple of times.  I had to limit my gear (bodies and lenses) for the trip, but had enough room for my Benro travel tripod and was glad that I did for a few sunrise opportunities. The D700’s ability to shoot at high ISOs and the 28-300’s VR (Vibration Reduction) permitted fast shutter speeds in low light, which was very useful when hand-holding the camera in the many cathedrals, museums and restaurants we visited

It’s going to take quite some time to review and process all of the best images (“keepers”). Below is one shot that is still very vivid to me. It was a sunrise in Positano, after arriving late the day before.  There was almost nobody on the beach, other than a few workers who were organizing the beach furniture for the day.  The sun had not risen over the steep shoreline behind me and the camera; therefore, much of the small mountainside town of Positano was not yet lit by the sun.

The next photo was shot from beyond a fence on a small knoll on the top of the island of Capri, which was breathtakingly beautiful, and provided a gorgeous composition of foreground and the island, water and boats below.

That is all for now and possibly today–on to other projects. Since it will take quite a while to review, select and process all of the raw images, I will periodically add them to this blog and to a new directory on my website.