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".