Bologna Photo Tour

We try to fit in a couple of photo tours at the beginning of our trips.  This one was through AirBNB - the first time we have tried one of their "experiences".  Massimiliano or Max came to our apartment to pick us up and we walked in the streets near us.  First stop was at the Basilica San Francisco.

The lesson was on how to get the best placement of the building.  I actually liked the straight on picture the best - though he was opting for more of an angle from the left or right.  He also told me about the perspective tool in Lightroom to straighten the lines - but I will need a lot more practice.  He also said that because things are so old in Bologna and have settled, nothing is really straight anyway.

 We then tried different techniques in the same street location.  On the weekends this very busy street is closed for traffic so there are a lot of people walking around.  With one of the many famous towers in the background I tried to use techniques to keep everything in focus and then to have motion blur.  In the last photo an crazy man ran straight at the camera and started ranting in Italian - I have no idea what he said.  I just tried to protect the camera as he seemed intent on knocking it down.  As our instructor was trying to get him to leave I snapped a shot of him.

Another street scene.  I saw this young couple from a distance - he is dressing her hair.  Mike noticed that a lot of salons were open this evening (Saturday night) so could be her boyfriend or her hairdresser.

 This is the Santurio di Santa Stefano church.  First picture is taken with a regular lens.  Technique is to use flowing lines in your setting.  As if so often the case the electric lines are everywhere and can't be avoided.  I am not willing to spend hours getting rid of them in Photoshop.

 These last three shots were experimenting with my fisheye lens.  Our instructor would have been upset that I cut off one of the legs on the guy on the right - its hard to be perfect!

 These are the buildings to the right of the church.  The instructor and Mike are talking in the middle right.

This last photo is of the Basilica de San Petronia - which has never been finished.  Notice the top section is a totally different style than the bottom.  Here I used the fisheye and also blurred the action.

This was a fun experience.  Our instructor had all kinds of ideas of how we could spend the rest of the evening.  But we opted to go back to the apartment - eat left over roast chicken and head to bed.  Tomorrow will be a long day as we are taking a train to Ravenna and there is so much to see there.