Last week I went to Italy to photograph a wedding.

***Quattro Canti in the center in Palermo.***

The wedding itself is going to be its own post; I have so many beautiful photos to share from it. I was lucky enough to be hired by a student of ours to take photos of their wedding in Sicily. Afterwards, I stayed for a few extra days to just relax and take everything in..

The first night I was in Palermo. It was fine. Fine in the sense that it is a city steeped in a rich, imperial history. Older than my own country of course, with lots of cars, people, motorbikes, noises, horns, and music blasting from crappy, rattling basses.. The buildings looked like a mix of French and Spanish styling; there were clear influences from Africa and the Middle East - what would you expect from the most conquered city in history?

I had many sleepless nights in Palermo, especially after two nights in a country villa (wait for the full wedding post). The food was good, VERY GOOD, it was FANTASTIC. But this is not a food blog, maybe it should be. Also, yes.. that’s a Ducati on the streets of Italy; I had to.

The day after arriving in Palermo, I jumped on a 50 minute train down the coast to a small town called Cefalu. There I met up with Veronica, another student of ours, and her boyfriend Jens. We walked our way through this charming little town on the Mediterranean used for White Lotus exterior shots. I brought along my Leica Q2, my EDC (every day camera), to snap some street photos. And this is what I got:

I’ll be the first to admit, I am NOT a street photographer. However, my wedding photographic style is based on a photojournalistic, street photographer vibe. I have a hard time taking photos of people who are not out in public looking to be photographed. If I was out relaxing or going about my day, I wouldn't want some random dude taking photos of me. It would make me uncomfortable. At the same time there is a way to be sneaky about it, if you don't get caught.. risky. I tend to not hunt for or re-do photos as I walk through the streets. I don’t shoot from the hip or get in people's faces. You can see most of my photos of the people I am not with are of their backs. I'm a voyeur capturing something they will never see. I am too shy and full of anxiety to actually talk to anyone on the street unless I have to… or they're wearing a Dodger’s hat.

With that being said, I think I got a few photos that are worth something of their weight in how I snapped them. First the Leica. It's ok, you can groan and make fun of me for using Leica; I understand your feelings. The Leica Q2 is my favorite digital still camera I have ever owned, and as far as I am concerned, ever made (to quote that blind elephant youtuber: FULL STOP). The autofocus on it is not always perfect, whatever, but the 47 megapixels is great for cropping, and this world-renowned 28mm summicron lens allows for ample space between the subject and myself.. The camera is a no BS tank of a camera. I've been off-roading with it, motorcycling with it, snowboarding with it, shooting in the rain with it.. it's been dropped and tossed and crushed.. TANK. And I couldn't be more happy with the look that lens provides and what it feels like to take a picture with that camera. It’s ultimately discreet enough to carry around on the street, and high quality enough to use as my side camera during weddings.

A couple in the streets at a table. Feels like I caught a moment. While it's a tad soft, you can still feel the intimacy. Shot from the hip with face detection on the AF. I use aperture priority for %90 of what I photograph on the day-to-day.

***I'm a little bummed about this photo of the man jumping in the air. I had hoped he’d be in focus; maybe due to the lack of Sony-level autofocus in the Leica, but it's still a cool photo.***

Very and Gianluca - two students of ours that we met through our photography and friends plus community (www.photographyandfriends.com/plus). Meeting with them and getting to photowalk together really helped cement the idea of this blog and also brought about further conversations with Sam and Phil about how we can collaborate and work with students in the future.

This is only my second blog post. I’m still developing how I can share my thoughts and photos in this form, so bare with me. Let me know in our online community Photo and Friends what you think and if you want more. Or what else you'd like to see and or hear about. It will help me continue to grow as a writer, photographer, and teacher. Thanks for reading :]

W

I went to Italy.