Colour
Vivid colour photography showcasing light, detail and atmosphere to capture life’s moments with depth, energy and emotion.
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The Kiev 60 and a fix for the frame spacing issue
There are several fixes for the Kiev 60‘s frame spacing problem, from taping the film spool to making it thicker to fine-tuning the film transport mechanism. However, while these solutions may work well, they are not guaranteed to work all the time.Master Adriano Lolli found the Columbus egg in one of his masterstrokes: he drilled a hole in the back of the camera in the exact position where the frame number appears and applied a red filter, just in case. In this way, after the first full exposure, the shutter could be cocked in tiny increments until the film number appeared in the hole. The only drawback of this solutions…
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Questioning the Referee
Sports photography is all about the moment. Freezing the moments of success – a win, a comeback or a try – as well as failure – a miss, a fall or an injury – is what usually attracts photographers’ attention. But there are many other stories to be told during a competition, and the complex relationship between coaches and referees is one of the most interesting – and overlooked. In this picture, taken during a national judo tournament, I captured the moment when a referee decided to stop talking to a complaining coach. Technical note: I took this picture with a Pentax K-3 II and a Pentax DA* 80-200/2.8. Maybe…
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Sailing Home
The quality of the Viltrox 56 1/4 XF never ceases to amaze me.This image was taken with an X-T4 at ISO1600, so the quality of the sensor plays a significant role in the overall result. However, as the lens is not supported in Affinity Photo 2, the image is wysiwyg in the sense that no profile-based corrections have been applied.
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Serva padrona @ Teatro Marrucino
LED banding is a major problem when using electronic shutters, and the Fuji X-T4 and X-T5 are no exception. In the specific conditions of this piece, I found that setting the shutter speed below 1/100s tamed the problem. However, there is one major drawback: the number of ruined shots increases. This is particularly true of the moments when the actors are waving their limbs or moving randomly. In this case, the slower parts of the body remain in focus, while the peripheral parts do not. Unfortunately, there is still no post-production technique that can eliminate this problem, which makes it difficult to achieve usable results. Of course, using a mechanical…
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On Composition. Or: the eye sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend
This shot, taken during the Italian Road Running National Championships, is a fair application of the French philosopher Henri Bergson aphorism to composition: the eye sees what the mind is prepared to comprehend. In fact, although there is not a direct, cause-and-effect relationship between this image and renaissance painting, the learned observer may find some connection with works such as, for instance, Michelangelo’s Battaglia di Cascina. The connection between present and past may be loose, but this does not affect the principle. When I framed the shot I something ‘clicked’ in my mind and I instinctively decided to press the button. Photography (at least in all its variations, such as…
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Fujifilm XF 18-120 just snapped in two
Everything breaks down eventually, but there are different kinds of breakdowns and different kinds of reasons for them.On the one hand, you cannot expect a product to be indestructible and you must take proper care to maintain its efficiency. As I said, it will break eventually, but probably not in an unexpected way.On the other hand, when you buy a ‘professional’ or simply an expensive product, you expect the overall quality of the build to match the price.Enter the Fuji XF 18-120. It costs around 900 Euros. Not a steep price compared to Leica, Zeiss or even Canon lenses, and far more expensive than Chinese brands such as Viltrox (which…
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The Expired Film Series – Episode 4 – Ferrania Solaris 100 – Dec. 2006 shot in August 2023
This is the fourth episode in a series documenting the use of expired film in various contexts. Episode 4 features a Ferrania Solaris 100 shot with a Voigtländer Vitoret DR and a Color Lanthar 50/2,8 in the vicinity of the sea of the city of Pescara (Abruzzi) .The film was overexposed by one stop as it is customary with expired film to allow more light to impress it.The results are just subpar, however the pictures have some sort of ‘individual’ trait.
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Red Moon at the end of August
Shot handheld (no tripod) with an X-T5 and a Fuji XF 150-600. Image stabilisation worked very well.
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HeadButt
Sometimes the difference between a pleasant result and just a plain wrong, missed photo may be challenging to tell.I took this picture years ago, during an MMA fight and, to be honest, I can not even remember framing and setting the camera accordingly for this shot. In other words, it happened almost by accident.The outcome is blurry and shaky, however, the overall result has a ‘painterly’ feel, almost like an ink sketch.
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Coffee at Caffè Nero
On the technical side, this photo was a test of the X-T5 capability to handle scenes with both strong highlights and shadows without increasing the standard dynamic range. As per the quality, despite the similarity of the name, definitely no, it has nothing ado with the ‘Nero’ one can taste in Trieste which —unbeknownst to many — is the Italian capital of coffee.
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A Maserati GranTurismo
Another piece of Italy in Boston…
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A Ferrari 812 GTS in Boston
Amid the urban thrum of a bustling boulevard in Boston, a Ferrari 812 GTS rests with theatrical poise, like a tenor waiting for the curtain to rise. Its rosso corsa bodywork catches the sun like a blade, slicing through the cluttered backdrop of imitation, of diluted Italian flair printed onto shirts, menus, slogans. But here—here is the real thing. This image captures more than automotive power. It embodies the burden and brilliance of authenticity in a world obsessed with mimicry. The Ferrari’s uncompromising lines, forged in Maranello, don’t shout. They assert. In contrast to the busy street and distracted passers-by, the car is still, composed, sovereign. It doesn’t need motion…
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Justice measured as the distance between Words and Facts
This photo, in itself, is nothing special. Bur it carries an implicit message about law and rights: the level of democracy in a country is measured by the distance between bold statements and the daily courtroom’s reality.
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A Cornhole Board – Independence Day Edition
I took this photograph in Boston on July 4th, and for me, it captures a small but telling fragment of the day’s celebrations. No fireworks, no parade—just a simple cornhole board dressed in the American flag, surrounded by scattered red and blue beanbags on a sunlit brick pavement. It’s an image that speaks to the quieter, more tactile traditions that sit alongside the grand spectacle. Compositionally, I let the board occupy the upper right of the frame, its diagonal placement adding a sense of movement and inviting the viewer’s eye from the legs toward the target hole. The wooden box in the foreground balances the frame and anchors the bottom…
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Elishéva live@Faneuil Hall
Boston is an incredibly vibrant city and hosts many live events in theatres and outdoor venues. At Boston’s Faneuil Hall, I took some pictures of Elishéva, a soulful jazz singer, while she was rehearsing. Boston in summer has its own rhythm—a blend of footsteps, street chatter, and, if you’re lucky, the pulse of live music spilling into the air. I took this photograph during one of those moments when the city seems to pause and listen. The singer, shaded under her cap and oversized sunglasses, leans into the microphone with an intimacy that draws you in, while her guitarist locks eyes with her, an unspoken conversation carried through chords. From a…
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Tesla Coils@Boston Science Museum
Capturing a Tesla coil mid-discharge is less about speed and more about timing. The arcs of electricity, chaotic and brief, demand an intuitive trigger finger and a dose of luck. I didn’t want the image to become a science illustration; I wanted it to hold some tension between spectacle and control, between the purity of mathematics and the danger of raw power. The coils themselves form a natural anchor in the bottom third of the frame, giving structure to what would otherwise be an abstract burst of energy. I shot through a safety mesh, letting it subtly ghost across the image, a reminder of the physical danger involved in what…
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Helios 40-2 85/1,5 and Fuji X-T5: a sample
Shooting with the Helios 40-2 is always a slightly unpredictable experience, and that’s part of the charm. Mounted on the Fuji X-T5, the combination produces a character you simply don’t get from clinically perfect modern glass — here, the swirly background bokeh and slightly dreamlike rendering are as much a statement as the subject itself. This fishing boat sat in just the right light to make the most of the lens’ quirks. The midday sun was still high, harsh enough to create deep shadows but angled enough to give the hull and rigging a degree of texture. The exposure leaned toward protecting highlights on the water and white paint, which…
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FUJIFILM X-T5 RAF have problems with Affinity Photo 2.1
As this video shows, when opened in Affinity Photo 2.1, an RAF generated by a Fujifilm X-T5 shows a vertical stripe and a slightly higher resolution. The problem does not occur if the file is pre-processed with Iridient Transformer and converted to DNG, or if the file is processed with Pixelmator Pro 3, Lightroom Classic or the latest version of Capture One.
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A pouch for the Fuji XF 150-600
The JJC Deluxe Lens Pouch model 811 fits perfectly with the Fuji XF 150-600 with the handle mounted and the lens hood reversd. It also leaves some room for filters, SD cards or small accessories.
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Niccolò Fabi – Meno Per Meno Tour 2023 – Live@Teatro Massimo, Pescara
Covering Niccolò Fabi’s concert for Rockol, gave me the opportunity to test an X-T4 with an XF 150-600. The image quality is on a par with the X-T3. This was to be expected. However, I have some reservations about the autofocus. The lens also needs to be examined in more detail before I can form an informed opinion.
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Backstage, Before the Downbeat
Shot on Kodak Portra 400 with a Canon EOS 1V and the humble yet reliable 50mm f/1.8, this frame captures the unspoken moments before the music begins. No spectacle, no spotlight, just the quiet mechanics of musicianship. I focused on the baritone saxophonist, half-turned, reading the score with that blend of tension and calm that precedes performance. Portra’s muted tones did exactly what I hoped they would—warm but never too rich, soft on contrast without washing out the mood. Skin tones stay honest. Brass textures from the saxophone register with depth, neither overly polished nor artificially gritty. The background instruments bleed into shadows, helped by the lens wide open at…
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Moonshot with a handheld Fuji XF150-600 and a Fuji X-T3
The moon doesn’t forgive technical sloppiness. Any softness in focus, hint of motion blur, or weakness in exposure shows up instantly. This crescent was taken handheld with the Fuji XF150-600 on an X-T3 — a combination that, on paper, might not seem ideal for lunar work without a tripod. Yet, that challenge was the point. The compression of 600mm brought the surface’s rugged texture into relief, and the X-T3’s sensor resolved the fine gradations between illuminated craters and the shadowed terminator with satisfying clarity. The key here was managing shutter speed — 1/1000s gave me enough to counteract handshake, but I kept the ISO just high enough to hold detail…
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Editing a photo taken with a Carl Zeiss Jena 135/4 Sonnar and a Fuji X-T3
A vintage Carl Zeiss Jena 135/4 Sonnar whose RF mount has been replaced with a Fuji X mount by Adriano Lolli (https://www.adrianololli.com).Coupled with a Fuji X-T3, it delivers pleasant results. Post production is highly subjective, so the final outcome might no be ‘acceptable’ to some taste. Still, the lens is very good.
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A sample of the Carl Zeiss Jena 135/F4 Sonnar and a Fuji X-T3
This photo was taken with an old Carl Zeiss Jena 135/4 Sonnar whose Contax RF mount was replaced by a Fuji X mount by Master Adriano Lolli.
