I’m very excited to say that tomorrow I’ll be flying from Japan to Rome to kick off a 2 week photography adventure with my good friend and fellow photographer Ken Kaminesky. Together, we’ll be traveling through some very beautiful areas of Tuscany, Cinque Terre, and Venice, scouting locations for our upcoming series of Italian Photography Workshops.

While we’re on the road, I’ll be working on a project with Fujifilm, using X-E1 mirrorless cameras along with an arsenal of Fuji lenses to help scout and document the countryside. I’ll also be traveling with a kit of filters by Formatt-Hitech, to aid in capturing long exposures of the beautiful and rocky ligurian coast. Itโ€™s going to be a lot of fun.

With so many awesome countries to visit this year, It’s hard for me to pick a favorite destination but with Italy, It feels as though my heart is returning home. Sometimes I think I could spend my entire lifetime exploring and photographing Italy and who knows… someday I just might. ๐Ÿ™‚

Atrani By Night

With thoughts of Italy consuming my mind as of late, I felt inspired to process another photo from my 2012 visit to Atrani, an incredible little village on the Amalfi Coast.

This was shot on the last Sunday in August marking the end of the Italian vacation season. With so many cars and motorbikes zooming around the coastline, conditions were perfect for long exposure light trails. As I enjoyed capturing the beautiful scene below, I raised my glass of local Limoncello and made a toast to this beautiful and unique part of the world. Salute Italia, grazie per la costante ispirazione.

Technical Mumbo Jumbo

Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 14-24 f/2.8 (Shot at 16mm)
Tripod: RRS TVC-23 / BH-40 Ballhead / RRS L-Plate
ISO: 100 at f/8
5 Exposure Brackets

Location: Shot in Atrani, Italy – August 2012 and post-processed in Fukuoka, Japan – April 2013

Hardware: 15โ€ 2013 Macbook Pro Retina, Wacom Intuos5 Small Tablet

Software: Lightroom 4.3, Photoshop CS6, Nik Color Efex Pro 4, Nik Sharpener Pro

Technique and Details: 3 of the 5 exposure brackets were blended manually in Photoshop using painted masks. Contrast and color corrections applied using a combination of Nik Software and Photoshop adjustment layers.

Espresso: 8 shots of Lavazza so far today! Zoooom!

As I photographed this twilight scene in Atrani, I raised my glass to toast Italy and the incredible Amalfi Coast.