“Old” Italy

A few of you who have been following this blog may have seen my black and white landscapes from Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument (near Santa Fe). I was good-heartedly cajoled that I was channeling Ansel Adams and perhaps I was. There is something about black and white that causes the focus on form and texture and light, rather than getting “distracted” by color. Not that color is a bad thing and I most often am looking for color. But this latest episode with the raw landscapes of New Mexico got me to playing with some editing software that is a plug-in to Photoshop and Photoshop Elements called BW Effects (by Topaz).

And, in particular, I was intrigued by its ability to create sepia-toned images that, with an appropriately selected border, makes the image look like an old photo. Further, I thought this technique might look really cool with images from Italy, from our visit to Rome, Pompeii and Paestum in 2012. The subjects are obviously quite old, not as old as the rocks of New Mexico, but as man-made features of perhaps 2000 years in age (!), they lend themselves well to this technique – remember to click on an image and then scroll left or right through the images and Esc to come back to here. Have a look and tell me what you think!

The Temple of Neptune, Paestum

Paestum Temples

Temple of Neptune

In the shadow of Vesuvius, Pompeii

Bernini’s Fountain of the Four Rivers

Also by Bernini, a detail of the Neptune Fountain

Ceiling of the Pantheon

Trajan’s Column and two churches, Rome

Old fountain in Rome