eclektic photography + design | blog

Yes, we chose to swap our Sydney summer for a European winter. As you may have heard, Paul and I have been traveling around Europe for the last 8 weeks or so. A much needed break from the craziness of 2011 but the sad part was escaping the warmth of Sydney summer to face the freezing temperatures of winter.

It’s been an amazing journey so far…awesome seeing our ancient history classes come alive right before our eyes, finding little idiosyncrasies about each town or city like why there are so many sausage dog (or cross sausage dog breed) owners in Italy? And…finding funny signs like the one below about  keeping off the grass.. what grass?Also… I  thought I had it figured out – the less impressive the gelato looks in the shop window (usually hidden away) usually means that it tastes heaps better.

We decided not to bring a compact camera this time but instead travelled with two SLRs so we wouldn’t be fighting over the camera like we have on past trips! Of course this meant that we were lugging around more weight on the 20+ train rides and planes but it was all worth it. Looking back on our photos in the past, it’s almost like we were there but not present if that makes sense! We don’t take photos of ourselves which is something that we laugh about because the scenery looks so much better than us and we tend to destroy the photos. So this time, we’ve been conscious to stick in a tourist shot or two just for a bit of balance.

Shooting purely for ourselves has been such a rare occurrence in the last few years as life just goes by and ironically when you are working with a camera in your hand, sometimes your free time just needs to be without a camera in hand…. but without our cameras, it feels like we’re missing a limb sometimes! It’s taken a while to get back into the zone but it has taught us a immensely about how differently we both individually see the world, what we look for in the same settings and what we are drawn to.

Paul is definitely gifted in landscape photography where I love catching beautiful light, expressions, fleeting moments and quirky settings. We’ve been so richly blessed this trip with some absolutely amazing weather and light! I was afraid that travel in winter would mean dark, dreary, short days that would be devoid of any light and color. But instead though the days have been short, it means however that the direction and quality of light has been nothing short of beautiful.

So, here is the collection of our photos from our 10 week European trip starting with Part #1 – Rome.

Driving into Rome city from the airport, we both had to pick up our jaws off the floor of the taxi as we drove past the Colosseum for the first time. We couldn’t believe we were seeing it with our own eyes! Paul booked us into this fantastic B&B (B&B Trevi Roma) just a stone’s throw from the Trevi Fountain. It was the perfect location to walk and explore the city from. Later we discovered much to our delight that it is also one street away from one of the best gelato bars in Rome – San Crispino! So good was the gelato there that we ended up going back 3 or 4 times! Sorry no photos though, cos the gelato didn’t last long enough for us to take the camera out!

Other highlights of Rome included doing a Segway tour on our first day there. We reckon it was the best and most fun way of getting around the city and getting your bearings on the first day. A highlight of that tour was being asked by the tour guide to look through a tiny keyhole before he explained to us where we were. (Find the photo next to the Swiss guard) We were amazed at the view that we saw but even more amazed that we were looking at three states in the one photo – Knights of Malta (we stood at the door of their Embassy which is recognized as a separate state), St Peters Basilica in Vatican City and Rome.

See if you can tell who shot what and we’re looking forward to coming back refreshed and re-inspired to create some amazing photos for your wedding and family portraits.

Enjoy!