I was banging on about one of them the other day -- how, on an overcast day, if the sun breaks through you can end up with glorious light bouncing off white buildings.
The rest of this post is a set of images I took in those conditions a couple of years ago. You can also think of it as a subtle form of boasting.
I was in Pisa. There had been torrential rain for some time from very dark clouds, before a pause and strong wintry sunshine appeared:
White buildings are often difficult to photograph against English-style blue skies, but when there are dark clouds overhead the contrasts can be delightful.
This being Pisa, I was doing my best to resist taking photographs of the leaning tower and, instead, was looking at the rest of the cathedral's building complex -- where there are some absolutely delightful structures.
It's not all plain sailing. Let's end with this image, one I like a lot, but which neatly illustrates some of the problems. Look at the building on the right: the strong sun has meant it's blown out -- it was that or let the stuff on the left become too dark and shadowy (which would have been quite the wrong feeling for the day):
Then again, you can also get a sense of just how wet everything was.
I suppose I'm trying to persuade myself that winter has some compensations. Maybe.
2 comments:
I went to Pisa (for Florence) 2 years ago and going again next month. The thing about Pisa is the tower is so famous that nobody seems to have noticed that the cathedral is one of the loveliest in the world - esp the interior.
There is an oddity - at one end (furthest from the tower - the roofline bends upwards sharply. It's not just the belltower that leans (curves actually). I took a snap then googled when I got home but no-one seems to have discussed this strange feature. Am I the only one to notice. Anyway that's a lovely shot of the West porch against the dark clouds
I hadn't notice that oddity, either.
Ah, lovely Florence...
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