Mediterranean tones

Here’s a bit of a change from recent programming: a photograph from outside the UK, taken 5 years ago in Cinque Terre on our honeymoon.

After getting married in the April, we delayed our honeymoon until later in the year: travelling to Italy for a bit of a driving tour in the September. Landing in Rome, we had a few nights in the city’s sweltering heat before driving north to Florence, followed by Cinque Terre and finally the Italian lakes, staying on the shores of Lake Lugano.

I can’t unfortunately remember in which of the 5 towns in Cinque Terre this image was taken (I think Manarola) but I’ve always loved the warm, Mediterranean vibe it has with the bright sun casting a peachy reflected light off the pink walls into the deep shade of the alley from which the image was taken.

I made this image with the original Fujifilm X-T1 and the Samyang 12mm F2. Back then, the XF range of lenses was still in its relative infancy and the Samyang was—still is, really—a great shout as a wide-angle lens for the X-system.

I find myself using such wide focal lengths very rarely these days (after being so keen to get the GF 23mm F4 for the GFX system, I’ve barely used it in the year or so since buying, same with the XF 10-24mm) but the little Samyang did a great job in this instance.

Having a quick look back over my images from that Italy trip, I got a few keepers with the Samyang. Most often I had it attached to the little X-T10 body as a wide option to whatever was mounted on the X-T1 (generally the 18-135mm or 23/1.4).

Maybe I should challenge myself to a couple of outings with only a super-wide lens to work with and see what I come up with. It would certainly be a challenge on my usual walk to the beach, but “constraints breed creativity,” as they say. The afore-mentioned GF 23/4 (~18mm full-frame equivalent) and XF 10-24/4 (15-36mm equivalent) both need some love, as does the exceptional XF 16/1.4. The Canon 24/3.5 tilt-shift would be an option too.

I’ll check back in on this one if I do follow up on the challenge.

And then who knows, maybe one day it’ll be safe to make it to another country again. Our 4–year–old has heard tell of the ice cream and hot chocolate Italy has to offer, so he’s on a promise.