Religious Structures Final

Jesus Rays
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
48mm
f/5.6
1/80 sec
ISO 800
No flash
Comments: Taken inside Saint Maria. I had to crouch up and down to get the right color in the shot. It was pretty dark inside so my ISO was up. In LR I dropped the shadows to take away the detail from the wall. I boosted the oranges and reds and cropped closer to the window.

Venus
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
48mm
f/5.3
1/40 sec
ISO 1600
No flash
Comments: A small portion of a Venus statue. I had to boost the ISO to get a clear picture. In LR I made her less yellow and boosted the shadows and contrast.

Due (two)
Nikon D5200
55-300mm
55mm
f/4.5
1/1250 sec
ISO 100
No flash
Comments: My lens couldn't fit the whole of the columns in the shot so I just got a close up of two columns. I believe this is Temple E. I cropped the top of the column out of the shot. Boosted the blues, lessened the yellowy orange from the columns.

Bell Towers
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
18mm
f/3.5
1/2500 sec
ISO 400
No flash
Comments: Taken in Dublin at Christ Church. I wasn't able to get the whole cathedral in the shot so instead I tried to get the branch in the shot. I straightened the building but left it with an obscure angle. I made it black and white because there wasn't much color to begin with.

Gibberish
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
52mm
f/5.6
1/4000 sec
ISO 6400
No flash
Comments: Taken in Perugia. Close up of a slab of ancient writing. The room was dark so my ISO was high but it probably could have been lower because the shutter speed did not need to be that fast but at the time I didn't care for this photo. In LR I cropped the photo so the crack didn't go into the corners and so the second and third line of writing were not complete. I made it black and white because it appealed to me more than the yellow color. I had to bring the shadows and blacks down a lot to bring more contrast into the letters.

Blue Steel
Nikon D5200
55-300mm
140mm
f/5.0
1/125 sec
ISO 6400
No flash
Comments: Taken inside Saint Peter's. ISO was high to accommodate the dark lighting and the far away subject. I cropped in on the statue's upper half more. I tried to make the body look more light and everything else a bit darker to match the subject. I made it black and white because to me the statue looks as if it could be real if it weren't for the colors giving it away.

At Nightt
Nikon D5200
18-52mm
24mm
f/4.0
7.5 sec
ISO 100
No flash
Tripod used
Comments: Taken at night (obviously) with a fairly long exposure so the Colosseum was lit up as well as the clouds. I liked the weird angle of the picture. I added more shadows and contrast to the image. The two closest arches to the bottom had a grate in them and I blacked them out though I think they might be a little too dark and distracting but it was either that or have ugly grates in the image equally as distracting.

That Calf
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
22mm
f/5.0
1/50 sec
ISO 100
No flash
Comments: Taken in Milan. Close up of the rubbed bronze of Jesus at one of the stations of the cross. I got close to the door to get this shot and didn't have to crop much after. The colors of the bronze were dull in the shot so in LR I brought the yellows and oranges up to make them closer to what they looked like in real life.

Angry Cathedral
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
18mm
f/5.6
1/400 sec
ISO 100
No flash
Comments: Taken in Milan looking up at the cathedral. I was going to straighten the building out but I kind of liked the feel that this massive thing is looming over you and super tall so I left it the way my ca,era took it. I made it black and white to make this church look more grave and did nothing for cropping because it would have messed up with the tops of the building too much.

Cultural Traditions Final

These are my final images for the cultural traditions section. I chose to show images from my time in Venice and the flooding going on. Most of them are people reacting to the flooding and one picture of the splashing waves.

Rock the Boat
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
46mm
f/5.3
1/500 sec
ISO 1000
No flash
Comments: Took a while to get a decent wave caught on memory card. I needed a fast shutter speed to stop the water from moving so the ISO was required to be higher the normal. In LR I dropped the saturation of all colors except blue. The picture was cropped to hide the ground and to show less of the sky.

Raincoat
Nikon D5200
55-300mm
300mm
f/5.6
1/250 sec
ISO 500
No flash
Comments: Taken from a distance the original photo showed more people in the frame but they were distracting so they were cropped out. Again I dropped all saturation except one color, yellow, to focus on the little boy's raincoat. I wish I could get the remaining two people out of the shot.

Look at Me
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
55mm
f/5.6
1/160 sec
ISO 500
No flash
Comments: Quick shot of someone getting their picture taken. I zoomed in as much as I could with my lens but was still a bit far out so I cropped in on LR. Dropped all colors but the orange from the boots.

Splish Splash
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
55mm
f/5.6
1/200 sec
ISO 500
No flash
Comments: Another quick shot. I needed a fast shutter speed to stop her movements through the water. Dropped all the colors except blue.

Umbrella-ella-ella

Nikon D5200

18-55mm

55mm

f/5.6

1/100 sec

ISO 500

No flash

Comments: Taken on the rises above the water. Cropped in for just the three umbrellas. Brushed everything but the umbrellas to keep their color. I do wish the third umbrella was more colorful but it was gray to begin with.

Cultural Food Final

Here are my final edited images of cultural foods.

Here fishy fishy
Nikon D5200
55-300mm
55mm
f/5.6
1/50 sec
ISO 100
No flash
Comments: It was morning when I took this photo and the light was not the best so my aperture was as wide as it would go to let in the most light. In LR I cropped from the original photo drastically to focus on the fish and not the man selling it, I brightened the reds and blues more and made the shadows darker.

Hung to Dry
Nikon D5200
55-300mm
55mm
f/5.6
1/40 sec
ISO 400
No flash
Comments: Taken in Catania the same morning as the one above. Had to boost the ISO for this one to increase light in the photo. I cropped this one much like the other cutting the man out and the table below. Colors were boosted especially the reds and contrast increased.

Diavola
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
32mm
f/4.8
1/80 sec
ISO 400
No flash
Comments: This was a close up of a pizza I had in Amsterdam (I know a sin after coming from Italy but it was cheap). The lighting in the restaurant was less than par so the aperture was wide and the ISO was put up higher. I cropped in slightly closer than the original picture and boosted the contrast in LR.

Cappuccino
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
30mm
f/4.5
1/20 sec
ISO 400
No flash
Comments: Just a quick shot of someones coffee before they drank it. In LR I used the brush to desaturate everything other than the foam on top because it had an ugly yellowy tint to it. I wish there was a bit more to the top of the picture but that's all I had to work with.

Sugah
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
55mm
f/5.6
1/30 sec
ISO 1000
No flash
Comments: Close up of a bowl of sugar cubes in Amsterdam. I had to take quite a many shots of this to get it right, upping the ISO each time until I finally got a clear picture. Not much was done in LR other than changing the crop slightly and making the brown sugar cubes less yellow from the light they were in.

Salami Picante
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
18mm
f/3.5
1/25 sec
ISO 1600
No flash
Comments: I finally remembered to take a picture of the pizza before I ate it. Lighting was again less than desirable so my ISO was higher than I would've liked. Not much done in LR other than bringing shadows back into the picture from the raw photo.

Amber and the Stroopwafel
Nikon D5200
18-55mm
42mm
f/6.3
1/160 sec
ISO 400
No flash
Comments: Hot stroopwafel is pretty good, everyone should try it. It was a rather chilly overcast day so there was very soft lighting. I liked that the background is out of focus to draw more attention to the face. In LR I cropped closer to her face. I brought the red saturation down to lessen the redness on her face from the wind and made her face brighter.

Pastries Galore 

Nikon D5200

18-55mm

32mm

f/4.8

1/80 sec

ISO 400

No flash

Comments: Taken in a bakery. The lighting was less than fantastic but not too terrible. It was hard to get a picture of the baked goods without the reflection on the glass ruining the picture. I cropped from the original picture and brought the yellows down to help get rid of the annoying fluorescent color. 

The Last Post dundundun.

Saturday December 6th

Well everyone I am sorry to inform you this will be my last post on my adventures abroad. It's sad that it has finally come to an end, this was by far my favorite semester of school yet (for obvious reasons). I will never forget this experience nor the people I shared that time with. I can without a doubt say that I have taken quite a bit from my time in Italy other than just enjoying the country. Here's some advice for anyone thinking of traveling anywhere really but especially from what I've learned from Italy:

1. Learn to order gelato in Italian, they will appreciate it more and you officially become more cultured for trying. Really just attempt to learn the language of the place you are, don't be that arrogant person that wants everyone to speak english to them
2. Traveling really makes you miss home but don't let that stop you from exploring new places
3. Patience is greatly needed when traveling via train/bus/airplane, if you don't have patience you're going to have a rough time
4. Learn to sleep in weird places like on a bus or in a cafe while waiting for your plane
5. Don't sweat the small things and enjoying just being somewhere different and beautiful 
6. Be smart about going to certain areas by yourself
7. Try new things if you don't try new things like food there's no point in going to a new place
8. Respect the cultural traditions of where you are, life will be a lot easier than if you try and fight it
9. If the only thing that is stopping you fro doing something amazing is money just do it anyway, you'll find a way to get what you need
10. Can't is not an acceptable word, won't on the other hand is but be honest with yourself about whether you can't or just won't
11. Take a million and one pictures you're going to hate going through them for the good ones later but its a good way to relive your experience
12. Know when it's okay not to take pictures and to just have the beauty of something stay in your head just for you
13. Enjoy the difference from your own culture 
14. Finally have fun, if you're not having fun don't travel

I could go on and on with this list but I think that's a safe place to stop it. I hope you all enjoyed reading about my adventures overseas, I know I had fun writing this blog. And of course no blog is interesting without some pictures of my travels (I didn't forget about my Amsterdam pictures) and so here are the last of my travel pictures. Enjoy!

My plane from Dublin to Eindhoven.

The I amsterdam sign, there are a few around Amsterdam but this one is the original.

That's me hiding inside the M, get it because my name starts with M. AHAH.

And Amber hid in the A. A for Amber, we're so clever.

There was a small statue garden with iguanas and other statue lizards in it for reasons unknown, but it was funny because Amber's afraid of iguanas.

Little kid giraffe costume, if only it came in my size.

The canals are beautiful.

The Dutch like their cheese.

There was a building that had unicorns and weird fish on it so I thought I must make picture.

A pretty snazzy horse drawn carriage, the guy driving was actually wearing a top hat and official looking dress props to him.

Just a few of the many, many bikes chained up around the city. Like many many. You can't comprehend the number of bikes here until you actually experience it.

Our homemade dinner. Well the bread we bought, along with the rest of it but we did assemble it ourselves and we were very proud of it. Look at those tiny pancakes! So cute.

A canal tour boat.

Some tall ships.

There are also a lot of boats in this city. They have house boats too and they're super cool looking.

Some ducks on a boat. 

The trees are gorgeous.

Apparently putting sprinkles on things is like a big thing here (yes those are jimmies but for those of us who don't know the difference between sprinkles and jimmies I'll just leave it at that).

A weird Christmas-not Christmas boat parade thing, very weird.

Amber on the Fault in Our Stars bench, I sat on it too but I don't have that picture Amber does.

Some pretty roses.

This is a drunk bike and you know it is a drunk bike because it is decorated with fake flowers. I was pretty excited to see this.

Some locks painted green... for the season? I don't know but they were all painted green.

Amber eating stroopwafel, which is basically two very thin waffle cones that have caramel in the middle its pretty delicious.

The sunset from the plane back to Boston. It was weird since I was going back in time the sunset lasted for about two hours. So pretty.

And this is what I came back to in New Hampshire. But it was a pretty sunrise.

So pretty.

Look at that snow. And to think I was just in a country where the leaves were still attached and a pretty yellow color.

And then it all froze.

It was pretty chilly in the NH.

And that is all I have for you, again I hope you enjoyed this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Ciao!