I have to start this blog post with "Yay - I am in Milan!!!" because I finally had a chance to go out and see some of the city yesterday. Due to the schedule and how the US hockey teams have done, we had a day off yesterday. I tried to take full advantage of that. I worked on a couple of blog posts in my hotel room until 11:30am and then headed out into the city. Actually, before I left, I did a Google search on things I needed to see if I only had one day in Milan.
I made a short list on my iPhone and then headed to the metro station.
This first photo was taken with the
RF 24-70mm lens. I underexposed 1/3 stop (as I do with most daytime photos) to accentuate the blue sky and to keep any highlights from blowing out (over exposing).
Next I entered the Galleria Vittori Emanuele, which is the oldest and most beautiful shopping area in the city. It is also the fanciest and most expensive. I took pictures but did not do any shopping! :)
This photo was taken with the
RF 15-35mm lens. I wanted to highlight the building and show the motion of all the people walking around. For this reason, I changed my shutter speed to 1/3 of a second (f/22 at ISO 50) and held on tight to not shake the camera during the shot.
Throughout my day / night in Milan, I was switching lenses a lot! For this shot I went to the center of the galleria and shot straight up with the
RF 7-14mm fisheye lens. What a cool view, huh?
I saw this pretty painting on the wall and used the
RF 24-70mm lens at 70mm to get me in as close as I could.
This is the same view, with the same lens, this time at 24mm.
I then walked around the area for a while and came across this fountain, which is next to the castle. I tried different lenses here, but preferred the
RF 24-70mm lens with no distortion.
After grabbing a really amazing lunch (a light and very tasty carpaccio salad), and relaxing for an hour, I decided to return to the galleria for some late afternoon light. I saw these two officers and had them pose for me. I got down low with the
RF 7-14mm fisheye lens and took this shot. One of my favorites from the day.
My goal was to get to the Olympic flame for some "blue hour" shots. Those are images taken about 20 minutes after sunset, when the night sky looks the best. I had a little time to kill so I took a couple more wide shots before heading to the Olympic flame.
I arrived to the Arco Della Pace about an hour early. I wanted to get a position dead center and right in front of the arch, because I wanted to shoot really wide. I then waited. There was a 6pm show where the flame actually opens up, which was quick but fun to see. Everyone was there for that, but I was there for better evening light. I waited some more...
I used the
RF 24-70mm lens to get some tight shots as the flame opened up...
...and then when I had the perfect evening light, I switched to the
RF 7-14mm fisheye lens. I liked this image but felt that it was a little too wide.
I then reached down into the ThinTank bag and grabbed the
RF 24-70mm lens and took this shot...
...and this one.
Then I felt that this deserved something in between the mid range zoom and the fisheye lens, so I put on the
RF 15-35mm lens. I told you I was switching lenses a lot! I probably looked like the crazy American frantically switching lenses to get the best photos in the best light. And yeah, that's me!
Before leaving, I went to the back wall and took this photo at a distance. I did this because being far away like this gives me an image with no "bending" distortion.
Since I knew that there was a metro stop back by the Duomo, and I wanted to capture the Galleria once again at night, I walked back that direction.
This was a VERY wide shot taken with the
RF 7-14mm fisheye lens at 7mm from the center of the mall. After taking this photo, I decided it was time for some dinner and then a metro ride back to the hotel. I had walked over 10 miles and I was tired.
I woke up this morning and knew that I had some time before I had to head to the ice rink, so I Googled other fun places to take photos in Milan. I found some cool locations in the Garibaldi area, which is only 15 minutes from my hotel. So off I went. This is taken from the bottom floor of a parking garage (I posted an Instagram story showing this weird location), but it was really cool.
There is this interesting brass area for the kids to play with (using their voices through the brass tubes). It looks cool from above...
...but way cooler from below.
Once again, I used the wide angle lenses to capture this scene.
Once I was done shooting in the parking garage, I decided to walk around the area for a little bit.
Milan has numerous apartment buildings with trees growing on them. I saw this one and took some photos. They were OK, but nothing special.
Then I saw this reflective building next to the walkway and thought "This would make a much more interesting photo if I could include the building and it's reflection." And so I did.
This last shot shows more of the Garibaldi area and the lovely park that is there.
And now...I am off to the ice arena for the rest of the day and night.
I hope you enjoyed viewing my little tour of Milan as much as I did taking the photos.
Please excuse any typos. Normally I try to proofread everything before I post, but here at the Olympics, time is a commodity. I definitely miss some things. :)
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