Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

A Balcony looking out onto Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy  

Piazza Novona, a ten minute walk from the pantheon, is probably Rome's most famous square. It actually sits on top of an ancient stadium built by Emperor Domitian in the first century AD. The track and field are said to have been used for competitions similar to the Greek olympics and during the Renaissance the stadium was often flooded for mock sea battles. 

More info and images after the jump.

Bernini's Fontana Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

The square is also home to three famous fountains. The largest of these is Bernini's Fontana Quattro Fiumui (Fountain of the four rivers), shown above. The fountain is said to depict the four major rivers of the known continents: the Nile, the Ganges, the Plate and the Danube. Legend has it that the Bernini designed one of the statues (image below), facing the church of Saint Agnes (in the background of the image above), shielding his eyes from the "horror of the church" which was designed by his rival Borromini. In actual fact the church was built after the fountain.

Bernini's Fontana Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

The solitary statue of Saint Agnes, above the facade of the church, turning away from Bernini's fountain when it would have normally faced the fountain. A small skull in the reliquary of the church is said to be that of Saint Agnes, who was beheaded in the stadium of Emperor Domitian in the 3rd century AD. 

Detail of Bernini's Fontana Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

The other two fountains in the square are Fontana del Nettuno (Fountain of Neptune)  on the northern end of the piazza and Fontana del Moro (Fountain of the Moor) on the southern end. The Fontana del Moro, shown below, was designed by Giacomo della Porta consisted of a basin and four Tritons. In 1673 Bernini added a Moor (African) wrestling with a dolphin. 

Fontana della Moro in Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

The basin of the Fontana della Nettuno was also designed by Giacomo della Porta in 1574 and is said to have been sponsored by Pope Gregory XIII.  For 300 years the fountain survived without any statues. The fountain we see today, with the statue of Neptune (shown below) was completed by Antonio della Bitta in 1878. 

Fontana della Nettuno in Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

A number of restaurants open out onto the piazza which is also full of artist's stalls, street performers and tourists. Needless to say, it is quite crowded during the day. A Christmas market is held at the piazza  every year. The markets run well into the night and are said to be worth a visit. 

Tourists and the Church if Saint Agnes at Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

All images on this post were captured with a Canon 7D and the 24 - 105mm lens.

A View of Piazza Novona - Rome, Italy

1/52 - Ganesh

A statue of Ganesh 

I finally got around to starting a photography project. I had been thinking about doing a 365 for a while but wasn't sure if I could commit myself to taking a photograph and doing the required processing, daily. I've decided to start off with a project 52 instead. God knows how long it will go for but I am starting with the best of intentions! I'll continue to upload other images from trips etc too. I'm expecting to update the blog around three times a week. In regards to the project, if I do use additional lighting for any of the images, setup shots and brief descriptions will be included in my posts. If you guys want any more info about the shots, just drop a question in the comments below.

The first image of this project is a small statue of the Hindu god Ganesh which we picked this up on one of our trips.

Lighting info after the jump.

Setup shot for the image of Lord Ganesh

I used a collapsed reflective umbrella and a Canon 430 EX II from camera right to light this image. I gelled the strobe with a 1/2 CTO to warm up the light a bit. I wanted one part of the statue to appear a bit darker than the other so I didn't use any reflectors. If I did want to brighten up the other side of the statue, I would have placed a piece of white A4 paper on the left of the subject, just outside the frame.

Somersby Falls - Part I

Somersby Falls - Brisbane Waters National Park

I've visited Somersby falls on two previous occasions and spent a fair bit of time photographing the three waterfalls. I went up there again last Sunday with Dean Toh and spent a couple of hours wondering around, photographing the different sections of the falls. The panorama above was one of the highlights of the day.  More info on this shot after the jump.

*The panorama was created using ten images.

In order to create a panorama which is made up of multiple images, a tripod is essential. Ideally the images would be shot in "manual" mode so that each of them are captured with identical settings. When capturing the images it is also important to ensure that there is a substantial overlap between adjacent images. This makes it easier to identify control points between them. These control points are used during the stitching processes.

During post processing I double check all the settings paying particular attention to the colour balance, fill light and blacks. All settings have to be identical across all images to ensure the final panorama is smooth. Stitching the images together is straightforward process and can be completed in any image processing software.

This image has to be viewed large for the details to really stand out. The final image was jpeg file which was over 10MB in size.

The images were captured using a Canon 7D and a Canon 24-105mm lens.

Other Shots of Somersby Falls

• http://devwijewardane.blogspot.com/2009/09/somersby-falls.html
• http://devwijewardane.blogspot.com/2010/08/somersby-falls-part-ii.html