Hi folks, I apologize for my missing here, but I had some busy time the last couple of month.

Anyway what are the news?

First, today I'm turning 38. It's a certain age on the Internet, where the average it's about 27-30 years old, but I can't do anything against it :)

Second, do you remember my disappointment about my Curling team? Well, we did a good job on the last games and we've finished at the 8th place so we still are in the same league for the next year. I'm happy because we were in a very bad situation at the beginning.

Third, I'm working far from home and for the moment I'm filling my spare time taking pictures of my hotel rooms, since I don't have the chance to take pictures during the day.

Here you have some pics, I hope you'll enjoy them.

Bye!

What do you think about ballet? I love it. I know that many people find it anachronistic and  snob but I love it.

Last saturday I was at a ballet taking pictures and here it is a small selection for your sake.

I hope you'll enjoy it!

Did you never asked yourself why everybody are against digital noise?

At the beginning of my digital era I was one of them, too. As soon as I rose the ISO setting... BUM! here you had the noise... what to do?

Generally many tries to get faster lenses, noise reduction software and a lot of other stuff.
All right things, of course.

Digital noise is not as 'nice' as the film 'grain' is. At least this is what the wind blows, because I would like to see how much people is actually able to tell between a film grain and the digital noise on a printed picture.

But let's go to the point. Personally I shot pictures to print them.
Noise of current DSLR is so low that you can print an high ISO picture on an A2 size without get annoyed by it.... a doubt arises: does the people still print?
This fools me... I see lot of friend, photographers and forum members dealing with 100% crops (or more) to complain about something on the picture... but wait... those people is lookin at a giant picture from ten centimeters away, and you complain that it's not sharp, or it's noisy? Is it all ok in this depiction? Or something is wrong here?

Computer screen has a certain resolution, let's assume a 1280x1024. A 10 MP picture is almost 6 times bigger. What's the clue to look at it at 100%? Look it at your screen's resolution and you'll get the noise free image... for free..

So, are we all pixel-peepers? Does it worth?

Sure, if you can reduce the noise while keeping a decent detail, it's good. We are living in an oversharpened, oversaturated, Sony TV's style Image world, you get the idea. Each single 'not-pure' element is a annoying element and must be erased. But not when you distort an image.

If I buy a Nikon D200, Pentax K10D or Canon 40D, I can't expect that the resultatn file will be the same file I get from a Canon 300D (great piece, don't get me wrong). This is becuse who built the Canon 40D think that the 40d's user is not the same of the 300D's user, and then he will manage that file in different way. I think that the engineer is right.

  As already said, I like to use strobe in taking pictures.

Here you can see what a normal guy can do during the boring fall weekend days. My favourite model is my daughter that is almost always available to pose for me.

One of the best moments is when she's watching some cartoon on TV prior to get into the bed.

Here she's on the sofa, behind her there's a strobe heading her neck and in front of her there's another strobe with a grid, so to restrict the light and covering just her face.

Another shot that noon was the one on the right, always using some tools to restrict the light. In this case the strobes were also 'geled' so to have a consistent color temperature.
Since I wanted to capture some ambient light I did the exposure on the available light, underexpose it by 1.5 stop then I use the strobe power dial to get an appropriate balanced exposure. Strobes were used with a simple snoot on the sofa and a gridded snoot on the wall. The gel used was a full CTO, but it was not enough, as the lamp was warmer...

See you!

I'm playing Curling.
Yes, that strange game where people is brooming a pot that slides on the ice, trying to make it stop exactly where they want. :)

It's an exciting strategic game, and.... it's fun!

Anyway, I'm a Curling player, I'm the skip (aka captain) of my team and the last weekend we had the first Italian championship games.

Well, it was a disaster.

It's incredible how a good team can lose the head in some situation. But we are tough people, and we are trying to get up again stronger than before. We'll have to have hard discussion inside the team, but this is the sport, right?

bye!

I will have the chance to be in Paris at the end of October. I'll attend to a strobist workshop.

I'm a fan of using strobes in my pictures, it's so easy and light to carry it in the bag that I can't find a reason to not use it if the situation needs more light, or can be more interesting with an additional light.

Besides it I'm also a fan of David Hobby and the way he is able to explain simply what to do in relation to the light. That's why I'll attend his workshop.

It will be a 2 days of vacation, too. My wife, daughter and me will travel there and enjoy some of the fabulous amenities that Paris provides at every corner.

It's not my first time in Paris, and, being sincere, this is not my favorite place to stay. I've worked too long there, I think.

I'll add some picture while or after being there. See ya!

Yesterday night, almost 9 PM.

My kid and my wife dealing with the TV cartoon prior to get into the bed.

Look at the sleepy face of Matilda :)

Sadly, my two-weeks holidays are finished.

My family and me had a great time in the camping on the lake (Garda Lake, northern Italy) and a lot of fun with all the activities.

I played the character of a drunk mexican, of a latin lover, of a latin-american dancer and a photographer.

I also had the time to go to Neuschwanstein Castle with my little daughter for a couple of days:

This is during a dinner in Fuessen (Germany)

Here you have a couple of a morning shooting. I hope you'll enjoy them

Hahaha, I'm absolutely unable to write about myself, anyway, everybody is blogging so I wnat to give myself a chance.

See you again!