Merry Christmas

The Virgin Mary had a baby boy
(traditional)

"The Virgin Mary had a baby boy
And they say that His name was Jesus

He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom.

The wise men saw where the baby born…
And they say that His name was Jesus.

He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom
Oh yes, believer!
He come from the glory, He come from the glorious kingdom.

The angels sang when the baby born,
And they say that His name was Jesus."

Immaculate Conception

"Sicut lilium inter spinas,

sic amica mea inter filias"

Peeking Kitten

The 16th September 2008 I went with my boyfriend to take some pictures to the ruins of a roman amphitheater that there is in Catania... well, I guess that the first lesson of that day is: "Taking pictures to monuments isn't something you should keep doing".
Indeed, I enjoyed more to take pictures to some kittens that had their "house" there. These little cats gave me the chance to take a lot of pictures and of different kind: from the happy to the gloomy type.

Today, I choose a picture, that, according to me, belongs to the second group... or at least, it seams so to me and I feel kinda of "represented" from this kitten.


This little guy used to be peeking from its home t to see if it was safe to get out, its siblings did alike but this one was probably the most prudent kitten.... then, I set with my camera a little further and I started to watch and wait.

All the kittens came out 3 or 4 times, giving me the chance to take some nice shots. Later, alas, came a numerous group of tourists that scared the little cats a who run to their home

After few minuets my boyfriend showed me that there were grinds on the floor, from these grids you could see part of some tunnels... the cat of the picture was watching us, at a first moment I thought to take another picture of this cat but the kitten behind the grid seemed in prison so I gave up the idea to take this picture and I went away in order to leave at peace that little cat.

Reflected Love

Me: "Close your eyes, think about a picture of mine and tell me which is".
M1L: "The one with the rose that seems lit from inside"

Me: "Why?"
M1L: "I love the strange light there".

This is a part of a conversation about pictures I had with my boyfriend, few minutes before he left to go to sleep.
I wanted a picture to dedicate to him for a post. Tomorrow he will have the spoken part of a test to start the PhD in Nuclear Physics, that he, hopefully, will get in 3 or 4 years.

I am glad he chosen this picture. I like the light effect too and today I like it more because it made me realize that Beauty in things is like a light, that seems to be coming from inside but instead it is just a reflected light.
For this reason, probably, even such a "common" thing alike a little rose I have seen growing up year by year, can became something of amazing... something that I will probably we'll ever get bored to look at.
I think that by instinct everyone of us look for this "reflected Eternal Beauty"... we have just to look at things and let this Beauty feels our hearts.

Thinking about this picture another idea came up to my mind... an idea that probably "solved" a "problem" I have been thinking about for years: "What makes so special the person we love and we see everyday. Why are we so amazed in seeing their friendly faces that we already know very well? Why don't we get ever bored by them?"
I think that such an amazing love or friendship came when both side open their heart and let that Beauty, that Eternal Love, fill their souls... so everyone we love is a source of "that reflected Love", and we can be such a source for them as well... and, by the nature of that Beauty, we will never get bored even of the people we know through and through.

My dear, it is one of the most important reason that make me look forward to see you again, to hug you again.
And I hope we will be able to celebrate a good result in the spoken test your going to have in few hours.

You are doing a great work for both of us.

Please, pray for us too!

The sun shines less, it's getting cold outside, but...

It’s probably me unable to do it, but I don’t use to take pictures in this period of the year because it’s often cloudy (so no good lights) and it’s wind.

The period I prefer is spring-summer when the sun often shines and this allow me to take colorful pictures alike this one:

I took this picture the 15th April 2008, that day it was warm outside and the and the shining sun helped me a lot taking this picture.
The flower in the picture is a Passiflora (Passion flower), it’s among my favorite ones.

By the way, when I bought this plant (in March) the information I read about this said that it used to bloom only in a period of the year alike “late spring” or “summer” according to the plant… if it works really this way my plant isn’t well informed! It has been blooming from April with almost no rest. ;)

Yep, Thursday had been a great day, full of new events: joining SOL group and finding a lot of wonderful people, my boyfriend did an important test and I had also the chance to see such an unusual but amazing event that made my day looking nicer, a lot nicer.

So… even if I was tired, I was in a hurry and outside it was windy and cloudy I wanted to try try to take a picture to the brave (or reckless?) flower that bloomed on Wednesday (I think) and was going to close… fortunately mom showed me in time!

This isn’t surely alike the picture I took on April, colors aren’t vivid, I couldn’t play with camera settings to get the black background (this was due to the flower position too) but I think that, despite all, I am satisfied by this picture.
I think it’s AMAZING that a flower blooms in the period when the whole nature is going to sleep for some months, don’t you?
I hope that this won’t kill the plant, though! Outside it is getting colder!

Well… that day someone probably didn’t enjoy my presence on the balcony:

Here you are who was observing me, standing on the gate of the balcony of the apartment that is above mine, I guess they were waiting me to go in order reach the little dish where we leave some food for them.

As soon as I noticed them I wondered if they were thinking something such as: “This one has to annoy just at lunch time?”

Overcoming (little) pain

Problems, pains and a lot of things can make life so awful that it seems almost no worth to live... but we have to go ahead and with time we learn that we have to deal with this negative aspects and most of the times we cannot overcome problems without the proper support.
This support can come from friends or relatives or "something else" that everyone reaches walking along his/her own way... one of these ways, in my case, is photography.

Taking pictures, in my case, is not only a way to appreciate that world beauty I wouldn't notice otherwise, it's also trough this "hobby" I can find a way to stand little problems alike pain, that famous "leg pain" that bothers me since I was 15 years old. It isn't a big deal but it can be really annoying because sometimes I am slowed down by pain and it makes me complain a lot (Well... I am also really good at complain).

How can taking picture be a way to accept pain?
JUST... I have noticed that if I have to suffer "leg pain" started with no reasons seems like the biggest problem in my life, whereas, it is much easier to overcome if I decide to try to ignore it in order to take a picture! (Not always, but most of the time it works this way).
In the same way, I usually don't complain if I start feeling pain because I had to adopt weird stances to shot pictures. I behave this way not because I have a "bad conscience" (I usually mock myself to have been clumsy) but because I have learn that this a little price I have to pay to have had the chance to "pin" in a picture a small but amazing part of that Eternal Beauty that created everything that surround us.

Looks like that passion for photography and the conscience that trough it I can appreciate at least part of that Beauty, can work as a perfect painkiller! ;)

To take pictures I squatted down in front of this dragonfly for several minutes, my legs didn't enjoy it, but I guess it was worth.

No words

I don't know what to say, but these words might be the proper ones.

Half a second

Even half a sec can be a really long time for a lot of reasons, not necessarily for bad reasons. This time lapse can seem too long if you have to "take a picture"...

Suppose you must stay, in an uncomfortable position for *only* 0.5 second and you must be "steady" if you don't want a blurred picture.
Suppose that the place where you want to be steady is a rock, and that your shoes are slippery.
Now suppose your crazy enough to be leaning over what is below the rock you are on, because what you want to be the subject of your picture is down there!

I can assure you, even half of a second in this situation is long enough to be an obstacle for your intentions!

I don't know if it was love for taking pictures, if it was the tendency to always try to surpass yourself or the typical teenager craziness but I didn't give up in that "dangerous" situation.

The rock and my shoes were slippery, my classmate wanted to go away but I felt I had to lean over that little water fall and to try the "just discovered" new technique with that subject!
I looked around me and tried to find a position that allowed me to take that picture but saved me from falling off the rock.

A tree branch above me was exactly what I was looking for, indeed it, as an arm of a giant, allowed me to stay enough steady and partially suspended over that little waterfall and this is how I had the chance to shot this picture!

This picture probably will never win a first prize in an international photography contest but to take it I won my fear, I improved my photographic skills and I came back home really happy that day!.

Well, taking picture in the oddest positions has it's cost:pain.

But, believe me, this kind of pain is never annoying for me!

I will talk about it tomorrow.

Not in the mood, sorry.

[...]
"Never fool myself that my dreams will come true
being use to trouble I anticipate it
but all the same I hate it, wouldn't you?"
[...]

The last 2 lines are perfect to describe my status today, the first one might be perfect to describe my status in a month or so... once again.

Hope I am wrong.

I wanted to write a post about a picture I shot in May 2006, but I am not in the mood today.

Sorry.

Nostalgia is... missing the chance to take pictures.

In these days I have been sick, so I didn't go out, I missed almost a week of lectures and I didn't go to the Mass too. I did nothing of what I usually do.
Despite this "bad" situation, something nice happened: I had the chance to talk more with my friends, and to discover new-old ones and this made me turn back into a positive mood.

This positive mood makes me willing again to do thing alike going out to take pictures!
Alas! In the next months I have to study a lot so I won't be going out for a very long while and this makes me feeling a big sweet nostalgia for shooting.... but I am happy!
Why happy? It's a long story, just know that for a while I did want to do NOTHING, absolutely nothing, and I reached the pretty annoying (or worrying for friend) point that I didn't want to care about my passions too...

Everything is fine now, so... I am going to show you one my last work... hum, these words make the picture seeming an important one and it isn't... but I cannot think of other ways to express the concept that "this the last picture I shot".

I took this picture at my country house on 19th October 2008. It was a really cloudy day so light wasn't the best one and everything looked monochromatic, all the same... but I knew it must have been something of interesting so I forced my eyes to find something that was nice, and after few minutes I found this grapes.
I took some pictures at the standing grapes, later my mother asked me if she could picked the and I said to her smiling: "Only if you allow me taking the pictures to you while you are picking them!"... she agreed of course and here your are the result!

Yeah, those are my mother's hands, aren't them amazing too?! :)

Later I have been able to fin a couple of interesting things... I may post these pictures in the next days.

Today I just wanted to show you one of the reasons that make me love (and miss) "photography" so much: the fact that this is a way to force yourself to "look for beauty" and "to not just stop at a the first impression of the reality you have".

Wouldn't you miss such a joy too?

Nostalgia is... missing a friend

"I don't want him for other four years!" or something similar said Randy when Bush won for the second time the election to be USA president.
I remember I tired to make Randy smile and show him that 4 years are not the eternity, that they will pass and he won't Bush won't be the president any longer.. I think that as always happened with him that frustrated conversation changed into a fun one and every sad thought disappeared, from our minds, for a little while.

I guess it's normal I have been thinking about him a lot in these days.
I found me thinking things like: "somehow those 4 years really meant the eternity for Randy"; or yesterday I was thinking: "I am sure he knows who is going to win and he is probably laughing at the idea we don't know"; and today I am thinking "I would like to know what he would have said about these election. I would like to know who he would have voted for... probably Obama?!".

Yeah, I am missing a lot our fun chats!

About a dream, about an hope.

The dream

Who knows me knows also that I dream a lot and one of my biggest dream is to go, at least for a travel, in the USA.
I have had this (not that) secret wish surely since I was 9... probably even since I was 6, indeed, few months ago I discovered that, on a side of a table that was in my room, there is a label where I wrote my name and my surname and "New York". This label reminded me that I liked the idea to be visiting at least that city since I was 6 or so.

I guess that now I don't know exactly which is the FIRST thing that made me having this wish but I can say that the reasons to go there changed with the passing of years.
For example, in the last 4 years the reason that makes me keep on with this dream is the desire to go for a visit and an hug, at least once in my life, those American friends I talk with almost every day.

The hope

Now ...Americans are voting. And I am curious to know what is going on... but at the moment the only thing I understood is that journalist, politicians and writers are fully expressing their endless ability to keep talking for HOURS about something they don't know! It will take a lot of hours till will be clear who is the 44th USA president. It's a little irritating, so I decided to turn off television, and going to sleep but...

But, before closing this day I wanted to express my hope about what is going on.
I cannot express my opinion because I know pretty few about politics, I let you figure out what I know about USA one... but I think you don't have to be an expert to understand that this an important day for USA and world future.
So, even if I don't know who is the best one between Obama and McCain, I HOPE that will win the "less dangerous" one! :) I hope this because USA is too powerful and its government behavior can influence world history a lot.

Really, may God bless American and suggests to American citizen and politicians the best behavior.

May the whole world moves, with the help of God, toward the proper direction.

Against Darkness

It was a Monday in late November. You had come to the university even if you hadn’t to. You wanted to spend lunch time with me because you knew I would have been alone, you knew I needed you.

In those days, too, I used to go to the university with my digital SLR camera because I wanted to catch something for a university photographic contest.

That Monday, after lunch, we had a free hour or so before I had to go to the laboratory for a couple of hours and you offered to be the subject for a picture.
I have spent one of the most amazing hours in my life, I was spending time with you, I was taking picture and you were a perfect model! You did everything I said you to do… “Go there”, “look on the right, not that much”, “now look toward me”, “no, no, no, turn on the page too, don’t be so steady!”.

Here the best picture I shot that Monday…

It’s among the best pictures I ever shot. This picture means a lot for me.
There is you, the person I love since March 2007 [well...that's the "official" date but... :)].
This is the final result of a series of tests I did to learn a new photography technique.
This is also a post-it of a great lesson I should never forget: “Love taking picture, love what you are taking picture at”. I realized this rule only after few months when I understood that one of the common elements of each picture I am “proud” of is the mood I was when I shot that picture: being glad. Yeah, usually I take pictures I like only when I really love the reality that is surrounding me at that moment, when I am glad to have had the chance to see that beautiful aspect of this world.
And in that Monday it was you, holding the “Bible” for physicist that study matter and listening to my “orders” and doing something you had never done but seemed so “natural” for you.

You know that this picture is also shown in an article written on another blog about photography, and thanks to this article I had found at least 3 new friends.

I didn’t win that contest but you are beside me, I have learnt a new technique and probably one of the “golden rules” to take pictures and I had met new friends.

I think I have received from that hour of “work” not what I wanted but much more than I expected! :)

P.S. My flu and some annoying people tried to ruin this 3rd November, but we won't let them down us ;)

Cold and cool!

What have I been doing in these last days?
A lot of tiring things, the main one is lying on my bed. Don't you think it's tiring?!
It is when you have high temperature, you have to blow your nose, and later when temperature goes down and you think "I am going to get well" you start coughing every 4 seconds...and you feel like you have to do your best to keep your lungs inside your chest... but, it's getting a little too macabre!

Maybe it's better if I talk about another (pleasantly) tiring aspect of my life: Friends! ;)
Why tiring? Because when I just want to be LAZY they call me back to "active" life!.
Yep, I have really amazing friends that are extremely bothering: they made me keep doing "something" even in these days!
This mean that in these days, when I hadn't a too high temperature, I have been trying to do thing using my iMac.
I have to admit that this attempt has been productive (or harmful?) because I STARTED to work on the Italian version of this blog, just to make happy Italian web surfer. (But the Italian blog is NOT opened yet, I have to complete some works!)

I had also discovered new realities and even a new aspect in my behavior: the ability to keep calm.
It has been strange but in these last days I have been able to keep calm in front of problems that few days ago would have made me really furious or sad. Problems alike illness, annoying people, bad events in general (like the last chaotic days at the university) seemed less difficult to be solved.
I wish this "coolness" it is not due to my cold only!
I hope I can keep improving the ability to not get angry too easily and to do my best to avoid any arguments and so on...

I am glad I can say or, at least I HOPE I can say that in these days I had the luck to see another good, but apparently, hidden aspect of my life... despite all the bad events where surrounding me.

Thanks to my friends and to my Love for being so supportive (and patient of course) :).

P.S. Well... looks like I am still really good at being delirious even if I have a normal temperature!
Sorry! :D

Sharing

If you know, if you see, smell, taste, hear, feel or just "read" something of beautiful wouldn't you like to share it with your friends?

I would.

Those American/English friends of mine, that I have been bothering for at least some months (if not years), can say that at least once while we were chatting I dropped them a message where I said "Oh, I am reading something that I wished I could share with you"... but I couldn't share with them that thing I liked, because it was written in Italian.

Why didn't I simply translated it?
Because it was usually a blog post about important topics, and usually it was pretty long... Beside, with the poor translation I can provide, I might change the real meaning of the post.

Fortunately, after some years one the owner of one of the Italian blogs I like, and i use to read almost daily, decided to open an Enlgish version of his blog.

So I hope everyone of you, friends or just passersby, will spend a bit of time taking a look to this blog written by Screwtape the devil who "has no time to throw away writing false or unimportant things"...indeed I can assure you that most of the time there are really interesting thing on his blog. :)

Surfing the web...

...A couple of months ago, in order to find an interesting Feynman's quote, I found this poetry of his.

I think the last lines are superb.

Out of the cradle
onto dry land...
here it is standing...
atoms with consciousness
...matter with curiosity.
Stands at the sea...
wonders at wondering... I...
a universe of atoms...
an atom in the universe

The seed.

The Seed

The Lord has planted a seed,
in the earth in my garden,
in the Lord has planted a seed
in the depth of my morning.

As soon as I realized it
I came down from my balcony
I wanted to see inside it
I wanted to see the seed.

But the Lord planted the seed
in the earth in my garden
The lord planted the seed
at the beginning of my path.

I wish that seed would bloom
I wish the flower would grow
But the time for budding,
i known to my Lord.

The Lord has planted a seed,
in the earth in my garden,
the Lord has planted a seed
in the depth of my morning.

This is another Claudio Chieffo's song that I used to listen to when I was a little girl and I re-discovered it only recently.
In the last 2-3 years I felt this way, anxious to see that seed growing, but I have to wait...
I just wish I won't miss the blooming.

Original lyric.
Il seme
Il Signore ha messo un seme
nella terra del mio giardino,
il Signore ha messo un seme
nel profondo del mio mattino.

lo appena me ne sono accorto
sono sceso dal mio balcone
e volevo guardarci dentro
e volevo vedere il seme.

Ma il Signore ha messo il seme
nella terra del mio giardino,
il Signore ha messo il seme
all'inizio del mio cammino.

Io vorrei che fiorisse il seme
io vorrei che nascesse il fiore,
ma il tempo del germoglio
lo conosce il mio Signore.

Il Signore ha messo un seme
nella terra del mio giardino,
il Signore ha messo un seme
nel profondo del mio mattino.

A couple of reason to go ahead...

Even in the darkest places there is Light.

Yesterday I went to my parents little country house, it's a pretty nice place if you want to observe an almost undisturbed nature.

It wasn't that late when we reached it, I was pretty sure I was going to shot some pictures but only there I realized that in that places sunset come early (due to an hill on the west) so I had only few minutes rest of direct light and than I had just to "be creative".

It's cold there now and there aren't the typical autumn signs yet... but there was a group of lilies (at least I think they are lilies) that fascinated me.
I think it is a strange period time for blooming but they were there and so fascinating, I decided to try to shot them some pictures even if sun was already gone and they were in a pretty dark side of the yard.

I am enjoying the result.

I love this weird situations and their result!

I am probably crazy and visionary, but when I notice this little beautiful shows in the places and in the time where I would not expect, I start thinking if it is just "a coincidence" or if it's something else.

I love to think that it's something else, that this little shows are more like post-it left for us to remind us that "it's not as dark as it seems", "it's not as impossible as you think"...

Third year?!

Tomorrow I will go to the university for the third "first lessons day"... I am going to start my third and last year at university... well, actually it is not the last ever, it's just the last one of what Italians call a "first level degree" (similar to an American BA, I think).

Apparently everything is fine in my life, apparently...

There is still so much to do, to wait for, to hope for and probably a lot more to accept even if makes you feel sad and humiliated.

I feel trapped but I can see the sky...I just wonder if it isn't just an illusion I created in my mind to survive.

It cannot be an illusion, a Sky cannot disappear.

Weird, I am speaking about love.

When I was 8 or so I asked to my parents why most of the songs speak about love, I thought it was stupid and boring!
They tried to explain me the reason but i was too young to understand that.

Few years later, but a lot of time before I had ever fallen in love with someone, I understood what my parents meant while I was listening to a Claudio Chieffo's song. I grew up listening to his songs, probably at that time I had already listened to this particular song, but only that day I thought: "...this is the best love song I have ever heard..."

I want to share with you its lyric, you can listen to a sample of the song music here...

I let you imagine why I like it.

The original lyric is in Italian.

BALLATA dell'AMORE VERO.

Io vorrei volerti bene come ti ama Dio
con la stessa passione, con la stessa forza
con la stessa fedeltà che non ho io.

Mentre l'amore mio
è piccolo come un bambino
solo senza la madre
sperduto in un giardino.

Io vorrei volerti bene come ti ama Dio
con la stessa tenerezza, con la stessa fede
con la stessa libertà che non ho io.

Mentre l'amore mio
è fragile come un fiore
ha sete della pioggia
muore se non c'è il sole.

Io ti voglio bene e ne ringrazio Dio
che mi dà la tenerezza, che mi dà la forza
che mi dà la libertà che non ho io.

English translation, i found it in the "libretto" that comes with the CD.

BALLAD of THE TRUE LOVE.

I would like to love you
as God loves you
with the same passion,
with the sam strenght,
with the same fidelity
that I do not have.

While my love
is small like a child
alone without his mother
lost in a garden.

I would like to love you
as God loves you
with the same tenderness,
with the same faith
with the same freedom
that i do not have.

While my love
is fragile like a flower
it thirsts for rain
and dies without sun.

I love you and for it I thank God
who gives me tenderness
who gives me the strength
who gives me the freedom
that I do not have.


To the one that is fighting for our future :)

Robots

Can robots love? Can they understand or appreciate love?
Can they appreciate the beauty of this world?

Probably not, I guess they can be programmed to reproduce a typical human behavior in front of something that is wonderful, that is amazing. They might be programmed to behave as an human that loves, but they will keep being an human product... they will probably always miss something.

I think only a pure human hearth can recognize the Beauty reflected on Beauty's creation, because only that Beauty (source of the pure Love) can really write the proper "code" that is in everyone's heart and mind.

We can choose to follow that code, or we can just ignore it.

Dedicated to someone that has been, unjustly, defined a robot but I know he can love and recognize the real Beauty.

Thanks for these last 19 months together :).

Forcing myself to keep my eyes opened!

I already wrote this post in a previous blog where I used to write posts both in English an in Italian, I am closing the English side there and "moving" it on PhotoN Message.

In a previous post I told you how some of those friends and relatives were surprised to "discover", through the picture I was showing them, that there was something of beautiful even where they didn't notice any beauty.
It was very pleasant to see their smiling faces and their surprised eyes. I loved this!

It was during the following months that I realized how easy was to "lose" those "beautiful" details of our reality, an example?

It was the 16th or 17th July 2004, when I was walking in a park in Rapallo (Genoa) and I heard a loud twitter. I looked around for some minutes and at the end I found a very little bird on the street...so I bended on it an tried and after I got surprised by the fact that it was "so small" I tried to take some pictures...It was too dark there so I hadn't been able to take "good picture" but this little bird made me able to notice something else...

As soon as I bended down, the passersby turned curious too and at the sight of the little bird they smiled and went away smiling... I was surprised, because during those minutes I spent to find the source of that twitter I had seen no one else trying to find the source of that sound...
It seemed like, for those people, it was a "too small" detail of the reality to care about.

That day I realized that the simple act to just focus my attention on something, made some one else want to focus on it too and appreciate that detail of our reality.

Reflecting on this event I realized that what happened to those passersby could happen to me too! This scared me a little, I didn't want to be blind, to close my eyes in front of reality!
In order to avoid, as much as I could, this behavior I tried to do my best in forcing myself to look at the world that surrounds me... I am not sure if I can do it often enough, but I am sure I am still trying...

That day, I understood that taking picture was a good way to "force" myself to look for the world (even smallest and hidden) beauty!

Ciao bello!

I haven't wrote yet the post where I explain the title and the goals of this blog, but as I said previously one of the main topics I am going to talk about is: "what makes me loving this life despite all its bad aspects".
Therefore, I guess, there's nothing of strange if I am going to talk about the people I love for their birthday because it's the day in which they joined this world. :)


The "lucky" one today is Allyn from San Francisco, CA, whose birthday is on September 23rd... but, ssh! He doesn't want to make a big deal of it! :P


Who's Allyn? Difficult to define a person in few words...


I started talking with him in April 2008, this make him one of my "newest" friend... I know,
it is only 5 months ago when we started to talk, but it feels like it was 5yrs ago because we had the chance to talk and argue (difficult to avoid arguing with an annoying person alike me) about a lot of things.
I guess that, despite the little time passed since our first chat, he is a really good person who really loves life (yeah, even if he doesn't enjoy birthday! :P )
You can see his good hearth not only from how he talks with people but also from how he talks about his wife and his daughter who he loves so much!


I am really glad to have met this man. (What a news! I wouldn't define him a friend if he wasn't such a pleasant person! ;P).


Last but not least, I have to say that he is very skilled at photography. If you don't believe me you can see and buy (!) some of his pictures visiting this site.



I want to wish him a (belated) HAPPY BIRTHDAY, using this picture of his... despite it's a very good shot it's not one of his best shot... but I am sure he is going to understand why I am posting this particular sunset picture of his. :)

Loving the rain

I used to hate rain, I also had a couple “good reasons”:
- a couple of days before it starts raining I often star having a lot of pain for some days,
- if you look for the chance to take pictures filled with sun light… a rainy day isn’t that helpful…

It’s September 20th, 1.40 am and, I don’t know when, it has started to rain.
I realized it because I heard the typical noise that cars do moving along the nearby road, now I can also hear the noise of the falling drops. I love these sounds and this moment.

I am in my home, in my room listening only to water sounds (I guess I have to thank my silent iMac).
My leg hurts a bit, but it’s OK. I am fine.
Online there is a friend from Texas talking with me, he agrees that “rain is a good thing, in moderation”.

All this makes me think about another friend, from Iowa, who loved rain too.
I still remember our “friendly” arguments about rain, he loved it while I hated it.. and what great laugh we had those days that it was sunny in his town an rainy in mine! :).

I am smiling now… I am glad to have known this man… He did a lot for me…beside sharing with me one of the biggest friendship I ever had, he taught me a lot of things, he gave me the greatest chance I ever had to make real one of my biggest dream: being able to understand and speak English. I have a lot to do but he really helped me.

Tomorrow (the 21st) should have been his 57th birthday… “Should have” because he died in June 2007.

All this is making me really thoughtful, I cannot stop thinking about the strange coincidence happened during the night of the 21st Sept 2006. It was his last birthday, it has been one of the last time we talked, but at the same time I talked for the first time with the boy that now is my boyfriend and that I love so much!

I am also thinking about what rains means for me now, it was February 2008 when I first thought “seems like Randy has come to blow away my sadness”. It was a night similar to this; I was really thoughtful, and I understood it was raining in the same way…I heard that noise made by car motion on the street.

The following morning I had the chance to shot this picture. It’s probably not a great picture but you can understand why I love it.

Since that day, each time it is raining I like to think that he is a step closer to me, I don’t care if it is a stupid thought but the important thing is that thanks to our friendship I love something that I hated and shouldn’t be hating (if it falls in moderation of course).

Wonder that moves

I already wrote this post in a previous blog where I used to write posts both in English an in Italian, I am closing the English side there and "moving" it on PhotoN Message.

"You look like a paparazzi! Why do you take so many picture?!". That's what usually people I know (not friends) say to me when I am shooting some pictures. I always try to explain them why I don't just "shot one picture"but it's very difficult, for me, to explain the reason of that behavior in such a little time to such not really "interested" people.

In order to find an explanation I decided to write some posts about "what makes me loving photography". I actually don't know what I am going to say, and if I will repeat myself... I guess a good starting point is trying to explain HOW I have fallen in love with photography.

Despite the fact I got my first camera for my 6th birthday, I started taking (really) a lot of picture of what I could see around me when I was about 14. In that period I got my first compact camera and I started talking with people from all over the world, I wanted to share with those distant (but so close) friends the wonderful sights I had the chance to see day by day.

I started showing them some sunsets pictures, the Etna eruption (Fall 2002) effects on my town, and how the volcano looked like in those says. I also shoed to my friends some pictures I took during short summer trips on the Dolomites (Summer 2002).

Usually people who saw those pictures commented them in a very positive way...well, probably most of them were just being kind friends, they were being nice with the "little girl" but I hope that some of them really appreciated the "beauty" I tried to "record" on my pictures...

Sometimes I have also shot some flowers pictures, those flowers were usually in some parks or just in some pots on on my balcony. It was amazing to discover, almost each time I showed those first pictures, that people who lived in my town or in the same house (as my brother) couldn't believe that those flowers were just under their noses but they hadn't been able to see such a beauty.

Their smile caused by a pleasant surprise really made me happy! :D OK, I have to admit I was happy also because they were appreciating my "work" but, please, believe when I say that in those days I started to discovere what became one of the first reason that makes me taking "so many" pictures...

The "wonder" that a detail of our reality arouses in me.

I think that without this wonder, I would take no picture and probably I would be a little more "blind"...

Here you are some of those pictures. Etna Eruption during October-November 2002.

This picture was shot the 3rd November 2002, from my country house.

For a better understanding, considere that Mt Etna is about 3,000 meters high and the place where I shot this picture is about 800 mt above the sea level.

The ash clouds coming up from the Volcano is made up of what some people in Catania call "Etna sand", it covered all city, the surrounding town and if I am not wrong wind brought part of it in North Africa.

The picture on the left shows the city panorama during the Eruption, on the right you can see a normal day sight. (I shot both picture from the "Cittadella Universitaria").

This is how the beach looked like those days...I guess it's enough if I say that it's 33Km far from the Volcano.

That's all!

I opened this blog some weeks ago, I created the banner you can see at the top of the page and I wanted to write an "introducing blog" post where I explain the title meaning.

I won't! :) why? Probably because I am mentally insane or just lazy or just wishing to do so many things in such a little time.

Tonight I decide to start the blog with my last shot.

It's not the best picture I took and it can say pretty few about "world beauty" (one of the main blog goal). It is just a picture of a rising moon which light reflects on the Ionian sea, and a girl is looking at it and at the so (love and hated) town where she grown up.

Despite all, I think it's a good way to start the project I have for this blog, because this picture not only was unplanned but it represents how beauty can stop any sad thought and bad feeling.

How a picture can represent such a thing? Simply, the girl in the picture is me, and while I was "posing" I was thinking: "Yeah, if the part of my dreams where I hope to leave this city will ever become true, I will miss the beauty of my town a lot".

Life is hard, sometimes painful too but I know we cannot let problems overcome us; and one of the few ways I know to defeat sadness is to keep in my mind that there is always something of great that stands around me, I just have to look at it... and the best way I know to do this is taking pictures.

I hope this (probably weird) blog will make someone else being able to "avoid sadness".