Apulian Stories - Olive trees

Apulian flora is dominated by olive trees. Millions and millions cover the ground. Flying into Bari or Brindisi, one can see the characteristic landscape dotted with olive trees from above and into the distant horizon.  

Approaching  Bari - olives to the horizon (and a limestone quarry)

I have photographed many old olive trees and some individuals may have been around for millenia. Weather and age have carved beautiful structures in their bark through the centuries. 

  

In addition I  have tried to capture the "living soul" of the olive trees  - moving their greenish grey and silvery leaves in the wind, quite vivid and lively despite their slow growth and stately age. Here are some long exposures capturing the movement of the silvery leaves in the wind.  

and the real thing in a double exposure : 

I spent a happy afternoon shooting experimental "nonsense" - but that's what vacations are for :)! 

Landschaften

I admire American landscape photographers. Their skies are always dramatic, a pink-blue or orange or racing clouds or all of it. Their images are uncluttered by human influences. No telephone poles or footprints, or other imperfect man-made objects disfigure the perfect nature. They sit for hours or sometimes days and weeks through unforgiving weather conditions to "wait for the light".
I, on the contrast, take my pictures "on the go" - I usually have my family with me, whose patience I don't dare test, and who wait without complaint as long as my photos don't take ages, meaning seconds or a couple of minutes max. The skies are mostly a nondescript boring grey without contrasts and no discernible cloud contours, my gear is heavy enough so I often leave the tripod at home, and my editing skills need developing. Therefore I have so far avoided doing landscape photography. There seems to be no way to do it right without enormous amounts of effort. Sometimes, however, I feel I get lucky and I happen to be at the right spot at the right time - here are those vacation pictures that I like even if they were taken passing by or possibly from a hotel verandah.

                                                                   Land- and Seascapes

                                                                      More Here ....

Two photographers that I follow for inspiration are John Paul Caponigro, he has an amazingly informative website, a wide portfolio with wonderful images and lots of other very useful information (http://www.johnpaulcaponigro.com) which he shares freely, and William Neill (http://www.williamneill.com), who lives in Yosemite NP and makes extremely beautiful images in a very refined and subtle unobtrusive style.