Andrea Monti

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  • Autumn,  Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo

    The Compelling Power of Photography

    September 22, 2022 /

    This is a picture taken while a storm was coming. The wind was expected to blow at about 80 km-per-hour. It turned the sand into a myriad of micro-bullets, pricking all exposed body parts and filling the lungs. Nonetheless, a man took his chance, went to the shore and shot a picture with his smartphone. He is no professional, nor had a particular reason to do that. He just wanted to freeze a moment. This is the power of photography. p.s. Pentax K II and the DA* 50-135 2,8 went through the sandstorm brilliantly and survived without consequences.

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Seagull And The Sentinel

    October 27, 2014

    Vinyl Never Dies

    September 2, 2013

    A Skateboarder

    November 23, 2021
  • Autumn,  Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Photography

    Not AI-made…

    September 17, 2022 /

    The colour rendition of a photo taken with a Pentax (camera and lens) is unique. Taste is personal, and so is this opinion. One thing, however, is sure: the pictorial look of this photography is not made by an ‘AI’.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Halt!

    December 28, 2017

    Evolution of a Guitar Player

    July 5, 2013

    A Focused (or Sad) Violinist

    December 17, 2016
  • B&W,  Beach&Shores,  Daily photo,  People

    On Photography and Self-Delusion

    September 4, 2022 /

    Only travelling abroad gets exotic photos. No need to travel overseas to get unusual images. Shoot digital is the only way ‘to stay in the moment’. Going retro with film is the only way to stay ‘in the moment’. Get the latest gear you can find. No, use the cheapest stuff because photography is about the man, not the machine. Do not post process, do post process. Shoot colour; no shoot B&W. Use Midformat, no full-frame, no APS-C, no smartphone-size sensors… The list of advice coming from (self-professed) experts, journalists (most often, web content editors with no editorial clearance), and ‘seasoned’ (wannabe) photographers could grow forever.More often than not, these…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Alex Britti – Live@Cinema teatro Massimo – Pescara

    April 3, 2016

    Arrested Behind the Door

    March 29, 2015

    The Empty Stage

    November 25, 2013
  • B&W,  Beach&Shores,  Daily photo,  Winter

    Beach Party

    January 22, 2022 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Romeo’s Hideout

    December 16, 2015

    LP – Live@Anfiteatro La Civitella

    July 22, 2022

    Shooting Kite Surfing

    September 22, 2024
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Sun Worshipers

    January 3, 2022 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Ottica Boncompagni

    November 7, 2014

    Portraits in Skating

    November 30, 2024

    Life is a bitch

    May 22, 2013
  • B&W,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    Dark Omen

    December 31, 2021 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    An unusual flowers’ field

    June 30, 2013

    Watching the Eiffel Tower

    October 14, 2013

    Overexposed?

    March 14, 2013
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Seasons,  Winter

    Gliding Away

    December 21, 2021 /

    I caught this shot as the gull moved past me, wings stretched in an elegant curve, pulling away from the frame almost as quickly as I brought the camera to my eye. Tracking birds in flight with the DA* 50-135 on the K-3 II is always a test of reflexes and technique, especially when the background is a shifting plane of textured water. The lens handled the contrast well, keeping the bird distinct enough from the muted greens and greys of the sea, though the fine detail in the wingtips fell just short of crisp — a reminder that a fractionally faster shutter speed might have been the better choice.…

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Google Experiment

    February 1, 2014

    Shade of Berlin

    April 23, 2013

    Billiard On The Field

    November 2, 2014
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Seasons,  Winter

    Waiting for the Fish

    December 18, 2021 /

    There’s a particular kind of pleasure in using the Pentax K-3 II paired with the DA* 50-135mm f/2.8—a combination that rewards patience much like the fisherman in this frame. The lens’s rendering and microcontrast gave me exactly what I wanted here: a clean separation between subject and background without the look feeling forced. The weather was brooding, the horizon hazy, and the colours naturally muted, so the camera’s sensor, with its well-known dynamic range, had plenty of tonal nuance to work with. The man in the red hoodie became my obvious focal point—a striking colour contrast against the cooler palette of sea and sky. His posture, hands clasped behind his…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Das Feuerwehr

    April 17, 2018

    Alive Or Not?

    February 16, 2013

    Footprints

    March 27, 2021
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Seasons,  Winter

    Should I Seat?

    December 15, 2021 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    ChitChat in a sunny day

    January 4, 2013

    A Couple of Windows

    January 5, 2018

    The Watchman (Street-Photography Shortcuts)

    January 21, 2016
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People

    Man in Trenchcoat

    November 20, 2021 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Sleep Wins

    August 30, 2013

    The Businessman…

    February 9, 2013

    The Unconvinced Listener

    June 25, 2014
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Lines

    Barbarians At the Beach

    August 30, 2021 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Soldering

    November 8, 2021

    Italian National Skating Championship 2019

    February 8, 2019

    Blob

    January 4, 2014
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Winter

    A ‘Trabocco’ on the Adriatic Sea

    April 20, 2021 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Avvocati. A New Book

    October 11, 2015

    Nice Drink

    July 11, 2015

    Careful With That Bike, Eugene!

    July 29, 2013
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  People,  Technique

    Using a 1960 Leica Elmarit 90/2,8 on a Fuji X-T3

    April 5, 2021 /

    In short The Leica Elmarit 90/2,8 works flawlessly on a Fujifilm X-T3, also with third-party adapters having no electronic connection with the camera. It provides excellent results, notwithstanding its age. Using this lens for street photography requires using focus-peaking or zone focus. In this latter case, proper training is necessary to correctly assess the distance from the subject. Image quality On the X-T3 the lens preserves its unique identity. Its colour rendering gives pictures a distinctive ‘retro’ character. The Elmarit shows an excellent resolving power: thin lines are visible and well defined. Chromatic aberration is visible at F2,8. It disappears from F4 and ahead. Anyway, the lens profile is well…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Mind The Step

    August 28, 2015

    Ten Years Ago

    December 22, 2022

    The Casual Observer

    September 5, 2013
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Gear,  Technique

    In praise of ‘cheap’ lenses for ‘pro’ works

    April 4, 2021 /

    Full disclosure: I have no relationship with Viltrox. I purchased the lenses with my own money and did not receive any request to write this post. I have recently discovered Viltrox, a Chinese manufacturer of lenses for the Fujifilm X-system. I am using the AF 85/1,8 II XF and the AF 56/1,4 XF and I am very satisfied by their performance. They are very good for ‘professional’ sessions, however, there are many online reviews that snobbishly rate these lenses as ‘amateur’, ‘non-professional’ or ‘first time portrait photography enthusiasts’ grade. I think that these reviews are unfair and here is why: What does ‘better’ mean? It is a known fact that…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Red Moon at the end of August

    September 1, 2023

    Al Di Meola, Peo Alfonsi, Sergio Martinez – Live @ Teatro della Villa Comunale – Roseto degli Abruzzi

    July 30, 2025

    All Mobiles But One Book

    June 24, 2017
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Seasons,  Spring

    Footprints

    March 27, 2021 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    The Day of the Zombies

    October 23, 2016

    Out of Focus, again

    October 3, 2013

    Shooting Italian 5 birilli

    May 18, 2025
  • B&W,  Beach&Shores,  Daily photo,  People

    Zombies

    March 4, 2021 /

    It was one of those winter mornings where the fog doesn’t just obscure — it swallows. Standing on the shoreline with the Nikon D610 and my trusty Nikkor 105mm f/2.5, I could barely see ten metres ahead. Figures emerged slowly from the haze, walking towards me in silence, their features lost in the grey void. The effect was unsettling enough that, reviewing the shots later, I couldn’t help but think of a scene from a low-budget horror film — the title wrote itself. Technically, this photograph is a study in embracing limitation. Autofocus in such conditions is almost pointless, and it wasn’t a problem since the lens is full-manual; I…

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    Andrea Monti

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    National Security

    April 4, 2014

    Columns

    November 10, 2014

    Mind The Step

    August 28, 2015
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Uninterested

    March 2, 2021 /

    No glance. No nod. Just two people moving through the same space, as if the other didn’t exist. This was taken on a beach that should have felt wide open, maybe even freeing—but something about the moment made it feel small, enclosed. The boy looks down at his phone. The girl walks past him, eyes fixed forward. Neither slows. Neither turns. They’re metres apart, yet orbiting separate worlds. I didn’t ask for this scene. It unfolded on its own. A brief choreography of disconnection. Their postures say enough: one drawn into a screen, the other into her own stride. There’s no hostility here—just absence. A quiet kind of loneliness, the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A cigarette

    September 28, 2015

    Three Lamposts

    June 11, 2022

    Pre Colombian Artwork

    September 27, 2013
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Pensive

    February 26, 2021 /

    Manual focus needs practice. This photo would have been better if I framed also the top of the cabin and focused better the person.

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    Andrea Monti

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    Inside The Palace of Power

    September 17, 2015

    High Heels Ghost

    August 20, 2013

    Helping the Elders

    July 10, 2019
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Travels,  Winter

    Hope after the Storm

    January 8, 2020 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Rectangles

    March 12, 2015

    Urban Totem

    April 29, 2014

    A Fix for the Wikipedia Photos’ Copyright Scams?

    December 19, 2020
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Summer

    Learning to Fly

    August 23, 2018 /

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    Andrea Monti

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    Visual

    January 18, 2013

    A Green Patch

    August 26, 2014

    The Bystander

    February 5, 2018
  • Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Moon,  Spring

    Full Moon

    May 9, 2017 /

    Photographing the moon is a deceptively simple task — at least until you try it. What I wanted was the cold, silvery sharpness of our nearest celestial neighbour, etched against a black void. What I ended up with was something quite different, but not without merit: a moody study of the moon as seen through a gauzy veil of fast-moving clouds. The composition is almost entirely dictated by nature. The moon sits dead-centre, surrounded by concentric ripples of light refracted through water vapour. The clouds swirl and twist in soft greys, catching the pale light and turning it into a painterly texture. In the very heart, there’s a thin halo…

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    Andrea Monti

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    An update on the poor Canon EOS-M autofocus

    March 30, 2013

    A Special Dress for a Special Party

    July 6, 2016

    A Curious Bystander

    December 24, 2013
  • B&W,  Beach&Shores,  Daily photo,  Winter

    The Flying Dutchman… a sort of

    March 19, 2017 /

    I made this shot standing at the edge of a small harbour after midnight, the kind of hour where everything becomes abstract unless it’s lit. The boat, isolated and slightly listing, sat in complete stillness, half-moored, half-abandoned. It wasn’t moving, but it didn’t feel settled either. That in-betweenness is what caught my attention. The frame leaned heavily on underexposure—on purpose. I wanted the boat to emerge from the blackness like a memory, not an object. I metered for the faintest highlights and let the rest fall into noise and void. What the image lacks in tonal range, it gains in atmosphere. The blacks are thick, the shadows granular, and the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    MMA Fighters

    July 7, 2019

    Italian Boxing Amateur Championship 2018. The Reportage

    December 18, 2018

    Staring At The Infinite (While Waiting For The Fishes)

    August 1, 2014
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  Landscape,  Winter

    Settled in the wrong place

    January 11, 2017 /

    There’s a jolt in seeing something so deeply tied to heat and aridity draped in snow. The prickly pear cactus, its fleshy paddles dusted white, looks almost embarrassed – as if caught wearing the wrong clothes for the season. This is a photograph about displacement, but not in a melodramatic sense; rather, it’s a quiet document of the absurdities nature sometimes hands us. From a compositional standpoint, the image benefits from its layered structure. The cactus dominates the foreground on the left, its irregular shapes and textures pulling the viewer in. Mid-ground, a smaller shrub offers a softer counterpoint, while the horizon – faint and blurred – separates the white…

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    Andrea Monti

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    Guess who’s happier?

    May 27, 2013

    The AfterTide

    December 12, 2013

    Sleep Wins

    August 30, 2013
  • Beach&Shores,  Colour,  Daily photo,  People,  Winter

    Where Are Skilifts Supposed to Be?

    January 7, 2017 /

    I took this photograph on a surreal winter morning when the Adriatic coastline had been transformed into something closer to the Alps than a seaside promenade. The skier, moving steadily away from me, became the anchor for the scene — his posture calm, almost resigned, as though he knew full well there would be no skilifts waiting for him ahead. From a compositional standpoint, I wanted the perspective lines to work hard here. The lamp posts, the pavement edges, even the faint ski tracks converge toward the centre, guiding the eye deeper into the image. The figure is positioned just off-centre, allowing the street to breathe while still holding the…

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    Andrea Monti

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    A London’s Skyline

    September 13, 2016

    Upcoming Call

    June 3, 2013

    Bless or Curse?

    August 12, 2014
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