I’m not sure what I really like about this photo… I think maybe the symmetry of the mailbox and flower box in the wall. Or maybe it’s the interesting color combination? It could be the composition overall.
What do you think?
Proclaiming its Age
Here is a building, in Brescia, proudly proclaiming its age. A weathered door, the missing stucco. All of it unapologetically saying here I am, take me or leave me! I hope that I weather age so well. 🙂
Proud Blossoms
A couple more photos from Friday… I think these blossoms look like a crown, when they open up completely. Each little flower unfurling with enthusiasm and pride in its own dazzling beauty. They say, “Ha ha! Look at me! I’m an early bloomer!”
I’m glad I went out on Friday, when these tree was still in the stage of budding blossoms. I love the way the balled up flower buds look like lights in the background in these photos, and show the potential of what is to come. Today the whole tree has bloomed, a sea of white. It’s beautiful for sure, but it’s less about the individual blossoms and more about the whole tree. The personality of each little bud has been lost in the whole.
Beautiful Brescia
A hidden courtyard invites you to stop for a moment in Brescia, Italy.
Brescia is a medium-sized Italian town about an hour from here. Yesterday morning I had my Italian driver’s test (I passed!) and then we headed out for a sunny Saturday in Brescia. Just a new place to explore. Brescia has it’s own personality, with many of these hidden courtyards, large doors with stone arches and rock walls partially stuccoed. Every time I start to think, “I’m taking the same picture, over and over again, just in a different place,” I realize the subtle differences that give each town it’s own sense of place in the world. These little details are what make each town we visit more than just a point on the map, more than just the same thing over and over.
Fleeting, Fragile Spring
Spring has finally arrived in Italy! The flowers and trees and bushes are suddenly bursting with buds. Friday morning was chilly and windy and a bit rainy, but I realized that this beauty is fleeting and I needed to get out there if I wanted to capture it. My particular view this morning was to use a shallow depth of field to really pick out a bud or two amidst a soft background. That proved challenging – hard to focus while the branches are blowing around! 
An elderly gentleman walking his dog in the park saw me taking photos of the buds and asked, in Italian of course, if I saw these purple flowers on the ground. He picked this one for me and had me smell it. Very sweet. Very tiny.
Inhale. Exhale. Spring!
Unexpected
Where do you think this picture was taken? Holland perhaps, in a display of how they make wooden shoes? No. It was taken in a flea market in Bergamo, Italy, a town about 30 minutes from where we live.
You never know what you are going to come across when you are out and about, you never know when you are going to run across the unexpected. That’s why I love to have my camera with me, to capture these little finds!