A Curse Manifests

The Italy 2024 Blog

I’m not sure I believe in curses as a general rule but I am starting to think that I have inadvertently offended a very particular deity and invoked their wrath. Every time I go on one of Lee Frost‘s photography workshops, there is some point on the first day where I am either wringing out clothes or emptying water out of a camera.

It was therefore of little surprise when a day before setting off to Pisa for a trip around the Cinque Terre and Tuscany, that Lee sent a WhatsApp message warning of a near-biblical weather forecast for the first few days. I replied flippantly that I had already packed my most waterproof clothes, but I could add a snorkel if required.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised when my trip was untroubled by rain, and the first full day dawned bright and sunny in Pisa. The other attendees gathered at Pisa airport also without apparent problems, and the only delay was inevitable Italian over-complication of the paperwork when Lee collected the minibus.

We had a pleasant drive to Manarolo, also in fair weather, and a delicious if slightly late lunch. Then Grant repaired to his room and opened his suitcase, to find every item soaking wet! There was no obvious cause, but some items were so wet they could be wrung out. While it had been raining heavily when he and John boarded the BA flight, the thorough wetness of his gear suggested that the case had not just been left in the rain, but somehow immersed.

After lunch we went down to the seafront, Grant wearing his only dry outfit. And the heavens opened, dousing all but myself, as I had returned to my room to collect something.

This is the most focused manifestation yet of the curse. I don’t understand how I have escaped, but "false sense of security" suggests itself. Hopefully Grant will dry out soon…

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

We had a late lunch, which for most of us of consisted of delicious but very large pizzas. I had a gorgonzola and truffle pizza which I failed to finish, very unusual.

The weather was less than ideal for capturing the traditional shot of Manarolo across the harbour, with a leaden overcast sky, and little prospect of a sunset. However very occasionally the sun did break through the clouds with a few well-placed beams of light, and working quickly we each captured a few well-lit images. As the alleged sunset came and went we were luckier with blue hour, less dependent on direct light, and we all came away with satisfactory shots of the town lit up in the gathering evening.

I did make one astonishing discovery. I have become used to hand-holding the Panasonic G9ii (and its predecessor) for shots with exposure time of 1/5 or 1/4s, but I wasn’t even touching the surface of the possible. I have come to Italy with only a small tripod, incompatible with the relatively high railings of the cliff walk, and I decided to try hand-holding longer exposures. I managed a couple at well over 2s which are acceptably sharp, and captured several very sharp images, like the top one here, in the 1-2s range. Obviously this only works with wide angle lenses, but even so it’s quite remarkable.

We each stuck to a single course for dinner, but that turned out to be further enormous portions of delicious food, with no complaints about quality, but one or two concerns about quantity. I can see that managing my diet is going to be a challenge…