Stephen L Tabone Nature Photography

While in Venice, we visited the Island of Burano, which is located 4.3 miles from Venice in the Venetian Lagoon. Burano is a small island with a population of 2,800 and is known for its brightly painted houses and shops and its artists. The colors of the houses follow a specific system originating from the golden age of its development; if someone wishes to paint their home, they must send a request to the government, who responds with the permitted colors for that lot.

Burano is also known for its lace. However, it was not the lace that attracted me to the island. It was the colorful buildings. A typical canal and pedestrian street was captured in the below photo. (Nikon D700, 28mm, f14, 1/250, ISO 200)

Many of the buildings on Burano, as well as in Venice and throughout Italy, had very photographic windows–photographic for many reasons, such as colors, flowers, shape or age. The windows in Burano were simpler, but still photographic! Below are two examples. (First photo: Nikon D700, 98mm, f11, 1/320, ISO 200; second photo: D700, 122mm, f9, 1/500, ISO 200)

You can click on the above photos to see them in more detail.

Eventually, I will add these and more photos from Burano to my Website. Burano was candy to my eyes.

For those of you who have been following my blog, or that recently traveled through Italy with me, you know that I shot many photographs while touring Venice, Tuscany, Positano and Rome. Yesterday, I uploaded 167 of the photos that I shot with my iPhone to a gallery on my Website. Those photos “tell the story” of the tour–from Venezia to Roma. Italy is gorgeous, and there is a photo opportunity almost everywhere. However, there is a significant difference between a “photo opportunity” and having the right light and other conditions to capture the beauty of Italy’s endless breathtaking landscapes, cities and sites.

A really good photograph captures both the moment and the light. Most of my iPhone photographs captured the “moment,” but not necessarily how the sun or the evening lights were lighting the landscape/scene. Although I also captured the “moment” in many of my Nikon photos, in some, I was also able to capture the beauty of the “light” or how the light illuminated what I was seeing.

Since my iPhone photos told the story of the tour, I have decided to post an article each evening for the next week or two with one photograph that I shot with my Nikon camera that provides more than the moment, but also the light, and better depicts the breathtaking beauty of Italy. Below is one of those images. It was shot on one of the evenings in Positano after most people had ended the night. The dark, course sand on the beach and the boats, buildings and one of the town’s churches were lit by the evening lights of the small town nestled into the side of a mountain. I went out with my Nikon camera and tripod, while most slept, and captured the very quiet evening, which was quite a contrast to the daytime when the town and beach were busy with tourists and locals. (Click on the image to see it in full scene, and then click on it again to zoom in.)

(Nikon D700, Nikkor 28-300mm VR at 28mm, f16, 0.15 sec., ISO 200)

The above image was not selected because it was the most spectacular photograph and should be the first, but only because it happened to be the first image that caught my eye while quickly perusing my Italy directories tonight. Subsequent images and accompanying articles will also be selected in the same manor–that is, randomly.

I am very interested in your feedback and comments, which can be provided below. Hope you experience some of the beauty that I did through my photographs. Ciao.

As most of you know, Angela and our two daughters traveled with me to Italy where we joined a small tour group of wonderful people in Venice.

The group was led by Sybil Haynes of Dolce Vita Adventures. It was a fantastic tour, and Sybil did a great job of planning and keeping us on schedule, well fed with fantastic food and wine, and entertained. From a photographer’s perspective, it was perfect–there is hardly a place in Italy that is not photographic and there was plenty of time throughout the tour to capture what we were experiencing.

After spending several days in Venice, we traveled to Cortona (a Medieval town in Tuscany), Positano on the Amalfi Coast, and then to Rome. We were in Italy for 16 days and loved every minute of it. From each of the three primary locations, we visited many other cities and sites to include: Siena, Florence, Naples, Pompeii, Ravello, Amalfi and Capri.

When we were there, I took thousands of photographs with my Nikon D700 and iPhone, which takes amazing photographs and videos for a cellphone. I started processing my Nikon images, but have made little progress so far. Yesterday, I decided to focus on the iPhone photographs and have now uploaded them to a separate gallery on my Website at: http://stabone,com/p910353529.  When viewing the photos, I recommend using the slideshow capability–click on the Slideshow button in the upper right corner on the Web page.

Although the quality of the iPhone photos is very good, the Nikon images are much better. I will be processing them during the week and will be periodically uploading them to other galleries arranged by city on my Website.

The link to gallery with the iPhone photos: http://stabone,com/p910353529

This morning I started my daily routine to prepare for commuting to the Pentagon, which includes checking TV and Webcam traffic reports. Today, I discovered that all of the roads and highways (including I-95) around the Pentagon were shutdown due to a “suspicious” car parked at Arlington Cemetery. It was clearly a nightmare for thousands of commuters that had left earlier and could not approach the Pentagon–access was only by Metro or foot. Apparently, the police arrested an individual after hours at the cemetery, who was uncooperative and had a backpack containing suspicious items. More can be read at: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/43437875/ns/today-today_news/t/nbc-suspicious-device-found-car-near-pentagon/

I suppose the authorities need to be cautious, but in my opinion, they overreacted and caused a horrendous nightmare for thousands of people trying to get to work at the Pentagon or in and around Arlington and Washington DC. For me, I rejoiced in the situation because I saw an opportunity to skip work and hike in a local wildlife preserve and do what I would rather be doing anyway, photography. So, instead of checking the 15 bluebird nest boxes at the Merrimac Farm Wildlife Management Area on Saturday as I had planned, I went this morning and hiked the 300 acres for 5 hours to each bluebird nest box, recorded the status of the nests and shot photos of the nests with my iPhone and surrounding landscapes with my Nikon. It turned out to be a great day (for me).

I am one a several volunteers who check the bluebird nest boxes at Merrimac. The results of what we observe and do is recorded in a log and includes documenting nest activity, counting eggs and chicks, removing old nests and ensuring the nest boxes are in good condition. The results of what I found today were:

• 6 active nests
• 1 box with a new nest but no eggs or chicks (yet)
• 2 nests with eggs
• 3 nests with bluebird chicks that were about two weeks old

I also shot a lot of photos with my Nikon of flowers and the summer landscape at Merrimac, but have not transferred them from the camera yet. Bottom line, it was a bad morning for many, many people in the northern Virginia and Washington DC area, but for me, it turned out to be outstanding. This evening and this weekend, I will get back to reviewing and processing my images from Italy.