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October shots

In the last post I talked about the fact I haven’t took pictures in October (except that picture to a red rose) since I’ve my DSLR.

I said that I needed to take some pictures in October (my way to say:”I’m going to do that”) and…

As usually happens when I really decide to do something ^_^

Just a quick selection.
Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Going back to study physics… sob!

Fall and winter roses

Tonight I discovered that I have never taken pictures in October, at least, since I have a DSLR camera (May 2005).

The only “October shot” I’ve been able to find on my computer is the following:

October 2005. 4 years ago. That’s crazy… Looks like I need to take pictures in October too! ;D

That recalled me that when I was born an aunt called me “little rose of May”. I knew it was due to the fact I was born in May (don’t need to be that smart to understand it) but I asked her (after a few years of course! ;P) why “ROSE of May” and she told me that May is the months of the roses, and I was small and cute as a rose… very nice of here, but…

Now, the question is: Why, on my balcony, I can take a picture of a rose in October (as above) or

in February? (The coldest month here!)

Should I tell her about these crazy roses blooming in cold seasons?

The bending sunflower

Today I worked on 2 pictures, one was an “HDR” work (well, not properly and HDR , but probably close enough…):

(well, not properly and HDR , but probably close enough…)

This picture has been taken on July 10th 2009, as the following 3 pictures, that I edited on July 13th.

And this:

The second one I edited today.
It reminded me that in the following days it fully bloomed and… I just ignored it because I just become unable to take any other pictures.. seems like this last sunflower knew its destiny and started opening in a way that it already can seem dead or, just bending in front of something it cannot control…

And, except for a picture, I don’t take so “colorful” and “detailed” pictures since that day. It’s weird, so weird!

I can't easily

blow a dream off…

but everything and everyone seem telling me I should.

Mt Etna gallery

New gallery online!

Here you are some picture of one of the 2 things I love of my Sicily: Mt Etna. According to wikipedia in Italian is named “mungibeddu” (”mount mount”, I think that it’s so big that sicilian considered useful to underline the fact it was as big as a mountain…:D) and in sicilian “muncibeddu” that means “our mountain”. I didn’t know it… but I won’t argue about what they say because I didn’t study much about Mt Etna name origins (especially because Italian and English wiki page don’t agree about the meaning of the name too, that’s kinda weird!), but I’m sure that people who speak Italian here just refer to it as “Etna” or “L’Etna” (The [mount] Etna). Mystery of knowledge…

As most of you know it’s a volcano, so it’s kinda fascinating and scaring as it erupts, but growing up here you “get used” to it. You understand it protects Catania from cold north winds and at times from big earthquakes when it erupts. Thousands of years ago, probably even more, there was no mountain there, now it’s so big and fascinating… isn’t our world fascinating?

The are many legends related to it, but this isn’t the place to talk about it…that I can find in Italian wikipedia but in English one I cannot find much more than this, probably I’m not using the proper words in the search field.

Ok, I give up in trying to give you more cultural information, I’ll come back in having a too personal blog, so let’s see Mt Etna in my life…

I can tell a lot of things about, I love to look at it as much as I can and it’s one of the first “subject” I’ve tried to take “serious” pictures of.

From the airport you can see it clearly, indeed when I was 12 and left Sicily to go for 2 weeks in England (first time in my life outside Italy) I’ve been looking at Mt Etna as long as I could… I looked at it from the window of the airplane and tried to do a drawing of it. I did drawings of it and Sicily during all the 2 weeks in England. I was too young to left my house alone to “pretend” to study English in a way I could never learn it. I hated that travel from the deepest of my hearth, and was so joyful when I was coming back home. I was so happy that I’ve almost hugged the pilot of the airplane that took me back to Italy because he said me “Welcome” in Italian… and when I reached the airport, before caring about my bags, I hugged the first object that told me “You’re in Italy” only just because I couldn’t hug Mt Etna. Yes, I’ve always been a weird girl
Mt Etna and the sea are, now, the only “sign of Sicily” make me “feel at home” as I felt that day 10 years ago, at least for a few seconds.
The only signs that can make me smile and say “Wow, look how amazing it is!”, even when I’m in a really dark mood .

I see that everyone here loves the moumtain, in a way or another. Most of us are used to see it from one side that when happens to see a picture taken from another point of view we start wondering if it’s really Mt Etna. Kinda stupid, I know, but I think it’s “funny” and “interesting” at the same time

As you can see I do love taking pictures of Mt Etna with snow on it. In sicilian coast city, there is no snow… so it’s a little weird for us to see “so much snow” and, if I’ve to be a little proud of my land, even people from North Italy consider “strange” to see so much snow on a south Italy mountain. If we want to be silly Mt Etna is 100% Sicilian, silent but interesting and really dangerous if it gets angry

The pictures in the gallery are just 6 of the best I’ve taken with my reflex. I’m still thinking if doing a gallery about the 2002 Eruption. I’ve taken those pictures with a compact camera, an Olympus C-1 zoom, 1.3 mpx… but this is another fact.

[Numbering refers to the gallery sequence, not to the picture shown above]

My fave picture in this gallery is the first.

This is the last picture of of Mt Etna that I’ve taken. I took it on August 16th, early in the morning. As I’ve already told you. I hope to take more Mt Etna pictures with the polarizer.

The second and the third have been taken from the Catania port dock.

The 4th and the 5th have been taken in March 2008, at the end of a local way of the cross. The place we reach at the end of each WoC is amazing, I hope to get more shots of that place soon.

The 6th is the oldest. Christmas 2005, from the top of a building in Catania, close to the sea… a special picture for me, not for some particular beauty I see in it, but for what it recalls to me.

Hope you’ll enjoy them!

How to waste your time

I'm pretty good in wasting my time.

And new programs for drawing on my tablet pc can help me in wasting my time, as pdf editor program help me with studying...

Yesterday:

Today after lunch, leaving it incomplete in order to go to study:

At 8pm, got unhappy for a little reason and colored one of the incomplete fingers:

I've never studied art, never seriously did a draw or a paint... tried some times, but always failed.

I should be studying (and a lot) physics but I always end on doing something like this.

I've never been able to drawn a part of human body, yesterday I was close to be... It's not a great piece of art, ok, but again, I've never studied art or being able to do such a thing... why can I do these sketches now? Why cannot I just "be good at physics"? Why this skill, if it's a real skill, didn't came up when I was 14 and still in time to go to seriously study art?

God has his plans, I'm sure of this. I'd just like to know which are...