Capinera #2

I love the way it moves and jumps like a dancer, just… I wish it came when there is more light on my balcony

And finally…

today, after lunch, the following 2 guys allowed me to take at least a picture of them.

One was:

And this one, I’ve been told, should be a “capinera“:

The pigeon of Rimini

It was August. I was in Rimini, before leaving for coming back home.

I was taking pictures, I felt I was failing. I didn’t notice the pigeon was flying in the picture are. I’ve noticed it only today.

I feel a little dumb but that reminded me of something I love of photography: how it shows details that you would have missed otherwise.

Not a serious picture

and sometimes things  just appears to be nice/funny, but I don’t know the reason

New start on Tumblr and other stuff

Yesterday I opened a tumblr page.

I followed the example of a wonderful Grandma’s who runs querere-deum.

Why doing this? Well, I’m curious, I thought it was interesting, it’s fast in upload and apparently friends enjoy more fast/short post. Beside, seems like it can be pretty useful for several reason and actually it easily gives me the chance to do what I wanted to do with a “blog” a couple of years ago. I have to admit that for a second I thought about shutting down this site and just work on tumblr, but soon later I understood that:

a) The webmaster (bf) would shut me down .  He is a lovely guy but he spent so much time, and still does, on improving the site… He just finished to do a great work (new layout), so he would be right in getting a little too angry.

b) 2 years ago isn’t now, I changed and therefore changed my intention and my style, so… it’s a pity to waste what I built with the webmaster’s help

c) With this web space I’m much more free to do whatever I want.

So here I am playing with both and today I post a Feynman’s quote:

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird…

So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.

and this picture:

It’s one of my favorite quotation because one of my biggest problem with passing exams at university is remember the name of things… a lot of time, during a spoken test, I’ve been asked to talk about “principle x” and I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know “principle x” was called X… I just called it “the principle that says…”. It’s terrible and silly, I know, it shouldn’t happen but it does… at least this sentence makes me laugh about my deficit and making me feeling a little less stupid.

The same happens with flowers and animals, I’ve observed, photographed many animals and flowers without knowing them, I let their mere beauty hit me and then discover the name of that specific flower or animal, and in some special case I discovered also something about that flower or that animal.

I’ve learn a lot from little simple sparrows that use to come to my house since Winter 2008. I don’t know everything but by just observing them I’ve learn something about them and their habits and not only

11 Weirdness

This morning it was warm and sunny, lovely to be late December… so lovely that I decide to go out for a couple of hours with the webmaster (my bf) to take some pictures.

The webmaster brought his camera too, but didn’t use it… weirdness #1… but he is the webmaster, probably he is not supposed to carry a camera to use it… he probably just stands pictures world to stay with me. How lovely is women power!

We were in a status of “lack of imagination” (Weirdness #2). Therefore we went to Catania port seeking seagulls. Actually I wished that Mt Etna were clouds free… wished, indeed. It had a big annoying hat of clouds! That’s not weird, at least.

I tried to take some seagulls pictures, but nothing of “wow” and MANY of them out of focus. Weirdness #3.

Soon later we saw an animal that the webmaster and a policemen (who will take part to this “Weirdness dance” in a few line) told me it’s a “Cormorano” (Cormorant?).

I don’t know if it’s true, both of them probably knows about animals as much as I know about Japanese language…

I took 3 pictures of this lovely, weird, big and black animal but in all of the 3 pictures the beak is out of focus, burned or blurred. Weirdness #4…
I was trying to get closer to it

in order to get a better shot but… I probably moved in a port area that for some weird reason I wasn’t allowed to walk in… weirdness #5 because there were no signal that said “Stop”. I mean, I guess I can read and see and there was nothing…

Despite the lack of advices, my terrible, awful and dangerous presence made 2 policemen get worried and come saying me that I couldn’t walk there… actually, I’m pretty sure they didn’t see me (small size, moving fast) but the webmaster loves law so much that stood in front of the police station door… I tried to explain why I was there but gave up because the only answer I received was: “Don’t walk there, you can take a picture from here if you wish” ["Here" was 3 meters away from me... A big distance in term of "getting closer to the subject" but probably a really ridiculous difference in term of "law": Weirdness #6].
When the policemen understood  we wanted just to take a picture to that animal said “Oh, the Cormorant, he stays in this area often…”. Weirdness #7 because I’ve seen at least other 2 of that animal in that area… I was going to tell it to the policemen but I gave up and moved away…
I can’t get angry with him, at the end, he was just doing his work (I guess) and probably being a little annoyed to work on Sunday during Christmas time…

But, I couldn’t avoid to feel really annoyed. It’s terrible how someone did an awful use of the camera made other people being always suspicious of other people holding a camera. It’s terrible how people can protect themselves from people like me, whose only interest was to take picture of a bird, and will never be able to protect from really dangerous “photographer”. Weirdness #8.

Sigh Sigh.

Weirdness #9. Usually when I’m stopped by human being in taking pictures of something, the subject (if an animal) moves in a place where I can take a good picture of it… it didn’t happen today.

I tried to take a few other pictures, but I got almost nothing.

It was too late and I had to leave…

In 30 minutes weather turned from sunny to cloudy and rainy. Weirdness #10.

It’s almost 3pm, and I still didn’t have lunch. Weirdness #11.

Do you think I can define today a weird Sunday?

Have you ever listened to seagulls?

I love to go on Catania port dock and listen to them.

I’m pretty sure that the time I spent there with my boyfriend, taking pictures, will be one of the sweetest and nicest memories. Even among the funniest ones, ’cause last time I went there (10th October 2009) a ship sound scared most of them who started flying away passing on the deck and, the second after I ended saying “Hey! It’s just a ship!”, they started “freeing their stomach” and hit my boyfriend’s hand. Sweetie, he’s a little “monkish” but he didn’t complain that day! ^_^

These are the kind of memories that came up in my mind when I’m in my bed, feeling that pain that makes me a little unable to understand even what I read… these memories come back in my mind and comfort me, make me smile and dreaming of coming back there, again, or in a more beautiful and peaceful place.

I’d just like to love and to take pictures, I know I can do these things.
I’d just like to be able to really leave something of really beautiful on this earth, leave a slice of that real beauty that is unforgettable.

That Beauty, that “makes you homesick” that makes you saying “again, I wanna see it again”… as some people I met on the web said about the shots can be seen here.

But… I need time to do this in the proper way, and  every day I wonder if I’ll ever have that time. (Sorry, cannot keep too quite my daydreamer side )

One of the pictures I’ve taken the 10th October 2009, in order to solve a “minor problem” ;D

Sparrows and humans

Have you ever looked at a bird seeking for food or at a children playing alone?
Has ever happened that while you were looking at them, jumping all around, seeking for food or fun, there was someone talking about “important” facts?

Some days ago it happened to me.

I was having lunch, and as usually some sparrow came to eat their lunch too… that day, as always, TV was on.
A journalist was talking about economy, I actually understood nothing more than “it’s going bad”. It wasn’t a nice information, definitely!

The bird kept on eating and drinking water, looking at that threatening sunshade that waved close to the food plate. The little guy kept on waiting for the proper moment (when the sunshade is steady enough) to catch the food and go to peacefully eat it in the safer pine pot.

The bird surely couldn’t care about that information, how could it? How could a sparrow understand economy or anything else about the human world? Could it solve any of those problems? No.

At the same time nobody could care about that bird, if it was having enough food that day, if it was dying or not. Why should we?

I feel like that bird, not important or useful…

…but…

If sparrows have been created, and they have the instinct to look for food or to “pay attention” to threatening sunshades, all in order to survive and go ahead… there must be a reason.

Therefore, why should I give up? Why should I stop eating, drinking or just stop trying to do and get the best I can?

Important, strong or successful people rarely care about showing to others that being “important”, being “strong”, and being “successful” it is nice, it helps, but it isn’t what define the “worth” of a person.

Some, or most, of them forget that life is worth. That’s all they should remember.

They are the same people that lead this world, they set it up… making  people, like me, feeling really uneasy with the idea to fail,  to become “nothing”.

And I think God gets sad more or less in the same way for the dying sparrow, for the depressed man and for the one who is being mean or forgetful about important things… but he surely caress all of them, even when they just drink water…

That’s a reason that makes me hope  to come back to take pictures:  it makes me easier to see God caress.

Even sparrows love to go for a “swim”

Should I envy him/her?
I wish I could go to the sea everyday when it’s so hot outside!

But, I want to consider what’s good in my life … funny-sweet-nice sparrows’ shows can be one of the good ones, don’t you think so?!

Drinking…

…mumble…

2 consecutive shots about “someone drinking something”…

….I start thinking that my subconscious is thirsty…

…but, who cares? It is so nice to be watching at them eating, than “jumping” till the “dish of water” and drinking,

and then…

…well, I will show you tomorrow what they do after they drink

P.S.
No, water is not laced with alcohol!

The power of friendship…or of Love? :)

Good things happens, often… we just have to focus on them!

You may, eventually, take a picture of something of nice that you have the chance to see…

You can do it just for fun or for the personal pleasure to preserve the memory of such a cute thing…

Than can happen that a friend send you a message  via cellphone saying: “Hey! I have just read about this photographic contest… why don’t you try?”

The pictures are already available, you have just to have them printed…why shouldn’t you try? It cost nothing.

And then can happens another pleasant thing, the woman in the shop where you go to have your pictures printed reminds of you because she liked the cat picture. And then, you just have to let your mind fly back to 10 months before, when that woman, about 10years older than you, asked you the permission to see the picture with the black cat…

And she asked you with such a sweet smile and a light in her eyes that are typical of those well-mannered children who ask for the permission of doing something (that, you know, it isn’t bad).
And you cannot stop thinking about the sentence: “[...] unless you turn and become like children,  you will not enter the kingdom of heaven”… and how it can comes true just looking at the Beauty of this world.

And few days later, happens another nice thing… your boyfriend spend a whole afternoon of his life to let you reach the place where you have to leave the pictures for the contest.

And few weeks later, while you are going to get furious because it’s not clear where you have to go to listen to a lecture, your cellphone rings, you don’t know who is calling but you answer… and someone tells you “Are you miss L.?”…and after you confirm your identity he keeps on saying: “I am the president of the E. cultural association, I am calling you to tell you won the first prize…”. At the end of the call you thanks, and then you spend the rest of the morning thinking:”What!? I won something? It’s incredible!”.

And it’s then that all your friends and relatives who knows about the news cannot stop smiling and enjoy the nice event with you!

And if with those money you can finish to pay your iMac to your parents (who paid in advance), if you can contribute to buy a new laptop to share with your boyfriend (laptop for which you were already saving money), if you can buy a little present to the friend who told you about the contest, and if you can give a little help to another one…who is, now, helping you even if he doesn’t know your plans… all with just those 500€…well, trust me, winning becomes just a background of a series of wonderful aspects of your life, as friendship and love. These are all “things” that you cannot put in just a picture with your camera, but that can make you go to sleep smiling.

And if  you won the the same contest that one of your relatives read about, but didn’t want to tell you about it in order to avoid you waste your time with such an useless thing as photography… well, the thing feels a lot nicer! ;D

I love to talk about love and friendship, especially on Wednesday