All over Italy with my D90 + 18-200VR (pics inside)

[cutsman]

So back in Aug, I asked for advice on what lenses to bring on my trip 2-week long trip around Italy in September. I got a variety of answers at the time, but ended up bringing my 18-200VR and my Sigma 10-20mm for my D90. The 18-200 ended up staying on my camera 95% of the time.
Here are some of my shots all taken with the 18-200VR, except the last photo (more can be found at my zenfolio site in my signature below).

Please let me know what you guys think... what you liked, what you didn't like...etc. Thanks for looking! :)

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p843055756-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p215238910-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p172161873-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p402433705-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p716960544-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p954333613-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p632593750-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p2202668-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p443655897-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p372952114-4.jpg

[Abokiniec]

The wide shot of the coliseum is amazing!

[phas3]

absolutely amazing man, great job!

[Phrasikleia]

Very nice photos! Thanks for sharing.

[Mr Ski 73]

Thanks for sharing keen to know where the 6th shot is taken.

[steve-p]

18-200VR is the perfect travel lens - the only one I take nowadays :)

[phas3]

how do you like the d90 and how much dothey run nowadays?

[88888888]

dang. these are some nice shots.

Do you shoot in raw?

[wassupdoc]

beautiful photos! Love the canal with the colorful buildings

[ckseid]

Great Set of Photos!
I like the coliseum shot a lot! :-)

[svndmvn]

nice shots!
the 6th looks like Venice, what about the 7th?

[iWright]

Did you do anything special for the nice wide shot of the Flavian Amphitheatre?

[cutsman]

Wow. Thanks for the kinda words guys! I really wasn't expecting to get such positive comments!

To answer some of your questions...

#6 was taken on the island of Burano (known for their lace industry). It's a beautiful little island about 45min boat ride from Venice, with streets lined with multicoloured store fronts. It's a fantastic place to visit, especially if you're tired of all the tourists in Venice.

#7 was taken in Cinque Terre just west of the Tuscany region. It's a series of 5 small coastal towns, all joined by hiking trails. Takes about 5 hours to hike from the first town to the last, but unfortunately, it had rained quite heavily the night before, so only a small section of the trail was open to us. It's commonly regarded as one of the most beautiful regions in Italy. The photo below is the town of Vernazza, probably one of the nicer towns of Cinque Terre.

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p261032242-4.jpg

[cutsman]

Do you shoot in raw?

I shoot RAW and process in Aperture/Photoshop. Considering migrating to lightroom though since Aperture seems to be unable to efficiently handle my growing library. It's REALLY REALLY slow after a few simple edits... maybe I can use that as an excuse to get a Mac Pro...? :D

18-200VR is the perfect travel lens - the only one I take nowadays :)

I couldn't agree more. On a few trips now, I've brought the 18-200VR along with a couple other lenses and the 18-200 just says on my camera. I should probably bring just that lens and enjoy a lighter bag. I don't get why that lens gets such a bad rep... it's almost become a lens that's cool to hate.

Did you do anything special for the nice wide shot of the Flavian Amphitheatre?

The colliseum shot is a panorama, created by stitching together 6 shots taken in portrait orientation. Stitching and processing was done all in PS.

[LMT]

Great shots, thanks for sharing

[epicwelshman]

I love love LOVE the shot of the chairs from above.

[mep42]

Great Shots!!

[someoldguy]

Great album!!! Maybe someday I'll get over there

[Little HZ]

These are terrific! They really make me want to go to Italy!

In the very first shot, I'd like to be able to see a LITTLE more detail in that dark shadow on left, if the available data would allow that ...

[ArtandStructure]

The third and fourth shots do nothing for me, but the rest are excellent. Keep up the good work.


All the best,


Jesse Widener
Art and Structure (http://www.artandstructure.com)

[Compile 'em all]

2 thumbs up!

[sananda]

Great photos!

[scottkifnw]

sweet.

Tell us why you used one lens so much and not the other

So back in Aug, I asked for advice on what lenses to bring on my trip 2-week long trip around Italy in September. I got a variety of answers at the time, but ended up bringing my 18-200VR and my Sigma 10-20mm for my D90. The 18-200 ended up staying on my camera 95% of the time.
Here are some of my shots all taken with the 18-200VR, except the last photo (more can be found at my zenfolio site in my signature below).

Please let me know what you guys think... what you liked, what you didn't like...etc. Thanks for looking! :)

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v0/p843055756-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p215238910-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p172161873-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p402433705-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p716960544-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p954333613-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v2/p632593750-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p2202668-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v8/p443655897-4.jpg

http://cman.zenfolio.com/img/v4/p372952114-4.jpg

[cutsman]

In the very first shot, I'd like to be able to see a LITTLE more detail in that dark shadow on left, if the available data would allow that ...

Yup... the data is available in there... I can most definitely pull out a little more detail from the shadows. I initially wanted to create a lot of contrast between the shadows and the sunny area, but maybe I over did it a tad? :)

The second and third shots do nothing for me, but the rest are excellent.

Thanks for your honest opinion! I really appreciate it! Is there anything you would recommend on how I can improve those photos? Or is it simply a non-compelling subject/composition?

sweet.

Tell us why you used one lens so much and not the other

IMO, the 18-200VR is the most versatile nikon lens for DX. When traveling with my gf (who's not a big photog herself), I don't want to stop to change lenses all the time. When traveling and walking about, the 18-200VR covers most of my needs.. and I can focus on taking pictures rather than changing lenses. The only couple times I switched to the 10-20mm, was when 18mm wasn't wide enough to capture what I wanted... which happened maybe a few times only during the course of my 2 week long trip.

[OrangeCuse44]

Brings back some great memories when I traveled abroad, excellent job my friend.

[deep diver]

There are a lot of folks on these forums that trash the 18-200. I love mine and use it exclusively. It's nice to see that others agree.

Your images are very nice.

[ArtandStructure]

Thanks for your honest opinion! I really appreciate it! Is there anything you would recommend on how I can improve those photos? Or is it simply a non-compelling subject/composition?

Sure, but bear in mind I am nitpicking a bit. You other photos are excellent and sometimes some photos simply don't work out, which is all right. I myself only print and frame about 1 of 100 photos for sale. Part of the art of photography is not just the eye in discerning what to shoot but also the eye in discerning what to keep or work with.

I initially mentioned the second and third shots but actually meant the third and fourth shots.

Your photos generally have strong compositions with good balance and impact. As an aside I am not big on panoramas either and I am not big on the Colliseum shot but it does what it needs to and that is fine. Anyway...

The third shot is nearly monochromatic yet it isn't black and white. It is a color shot and yet there is little color. It is generally low contrast and muted color so it starts off on a subdued footing. Beyond that, the interest for me is clearly in the tree line at the middle of the photo, yet those trees are so small in scale their interest and impact are diminished. In addition, the strong upper ridge further detracts from the middle ridge which has more interest. Were it to be shot over again, I would suggest getting in tighter on that ridge. I am undecided whether a portrait or landscape orientation would express it best.

The fourth shot has two big issues for me. The first is that while I like high contrast black and white, the image is too high contrast for its subject matter. Deep, detail less inky blacks are fine artistically if the emphasis is the contours and/or lighting, and the image supports it. In this case, the silhouette of the ruins is incomprehensible as ruins unless the detail of the ruins remains, which is almost lost. Otherwise they would be perceived as rock formations which aren't as interesting. Equally, I was unaware the large foreground tree is actually on some sort of walled terrace until I upped the levels to regain some detail. I think that wall is necessary and interesting. Lastly, on the contrast issue, you could possibly get away with the emphasis being the tree silhouettes, though I think the wall/ruins detail is valuable and I'd like to see the tree's foliage detail returned and perhaps the bark of the main tree.

The second issue for me is that the large foreground tree has character and emphasis, and the clouds have good shape/volume/character, and so do the ruins. Together I think there is too much going on and they are competing with one another. Also the ruins and clouds seem to be about detail (or should be) and the tree is about scale, so there are mixed visual messages here. Were the shot to be taken again, I would probably shoot a portrait orientation just barely encompassing the width of the foreground tree, omitting the ruins and clouds (and I'd carefully leave the foliage and wall detail when adjusting the contrast). I'd move in for a separate photo of the ruins and clouds.

Just some thoughts.


All the best,


Jesse Widener
Art and Structure (http://www.artandstructure.com)

[Rickay726]

these are truly awesome shots man!

[igmolinav]

Hi,

Beautiful pictures : ) !!! Thank you for sharing : ) !!!

Did you just got back, is the weather still this beautiful ??

Very kind regards,

Ignacio.

[stagi]

Nice images, really makes me want to go back to italy :)

[svndmvn]

is the weather still this beautiful ??

Very kind regards,

Ignacio.

the weather's quite bad right now, far from perfect for taking pictures.

[leighonigar]

My thoughts are as follows:

#1, (street) a fairly ordinary street, but it looks much too contrasty and saturated for my taste. unconvinced.

#2, (colosseum) a nice picture of the colosseum but again, I don't think it works. The thing about the colosseum is that it's tall when you're in there, your vantage point and use of panorama make it feel like a plate, rather than a bowl. I also don't like the toning, but I think it's probably difficult to get a nice look to this kind of image.

#3, (cloud and hill) this is my favourite. I really like this photograph, because it is somewhat emotive and visually interesting. It's a photograph that I can gaze into. I also appreciate the subtlety of the colour, and believe it benefits from it.

#4, (tree and ruins) Too sharp and contrasty for me. It's all a bit mental, and the bottom of the frame is a bit cluttered and bitty.

#5, (cup) Mostly Harmless.

#6, (canal) as above. I don't like the overcontrasty shadow-highlight look. A fine attempt.

#7, (shore) I like this one. The colours are really very nice, it doesn't matter that it's 'obvious', it's still lovely and in such circumstances it's always easier to take a bad photo than a good one, you took a good one.

#8, (scooter-door) unmoving. Again, I don't think the high-contrast toning helps

#9, Quite decent and a very enjoyable overall pattern. The red is TOO RED for my taste, but you could hardly help that.

#10, (Pantheon), a truly amazing building. But one that is difficult to do justice to in a photograph. The distortion of the ultra-wide has sort of cancelled out the dome a bit, and made it appear flatter. Did you take any straight up, into the dome?

Overall, a very nice set. I particularly enjoyed the cloudy hill and the cliff/seascape. Apologies if I seem hypercritical above, it is simply my inclination, I would be pleased had I taken your photographs.

[mtbdudex]

I just want to add fantastic shots.
You skills and creativity show!

Can't wait until my Europe vacation in 2012, when my 3 kids will be 10/8/6.
Your shots motivate me to get comfortable enough with my camera so it's second hand using and not thinking about the technical issues, just creative ones.

[jbernie]

I have a sudden urge to book a flight and pack my bags and... oh well.. I will just enjoy the photos :)

Loved the photo of the small canal in Venice (?), just has this really relaxing stillness to it.