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EOS-M. Tips and Results For Street-Photography
In the quest for an acceptable use of my Canon EOS-M I think I’ve finally found a way to exploit my M-mount lenses after the poor experience with the LCD focus. The last two exposures posted, this and this, have been shot with a Carl Zeiss T* Biogon 35/2,8 through zone-focusing, while the picture of this post has been manually focused using the EOS-M’s 5x magnification feature. In both cases the results are more than acceptable, giving a new life to this severely limited camera. All I can say is that is true what seasoned photographers use to say about the cameras: as soon as you get acquainted with your…
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The Sprint Before the Ride
I caught this frame in a fleeting, almost comic moment: a man mid-stride, pushing his bike rather than riding it, as if caught in the space between two intentions. It’s not quite cycling, not quite running — a transitional gesture that tells a story of motion, effort, and perhaps urgency. The shot was taken low and close, which immediately exaggerates the presence of the subject and the bicycle. That choice, whether conscious or instinctive, works well here; it places the viewer almost on the ground, in the thick of the action, where the geometry of the paving stones converges towards the vanishing point in the distance. Technically, it’s not a…
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Smile!
Smile! It’s contagious!
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Early Morning Shaving on The Beach
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Aficionados
Shot at an hour when most are just negotiating their first coffee, this photograph captures what, for these men, seems like the golden hour of routine. The scene is lit by a low, uncompromising sun that slices across the facade with sharp clarity—rendering the textures of worn plaster, metal shutters, and red plastic chairs with the honesty of an observational sketch. I was drawn to this configuration because it needed no orchestration. It was already a tableau: three men, frontally exposed, anchored by Peroni-branded chairs, embodying a choreography of idleness. The fourth, half-turned with one leg outstretched and a cap shielding his gaze, punctuates the composition with a visual counter-rhythm.…
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Carl Zeiss T* 50 1,5 Sonnar and EOS EF-M 18-55
Gear time again. Notwithstanding its quirks I can’t get rid of this EOS-M camera and still try to find a reason not to dispose of it. This time I wanted to see how does the camera performs with Zeiss ZM lenses (namely, the Carl Zeiss T* 50 1,5 Sonnar) thanks to the – again brilliant – EOS-M to Leica M lens adapter by Master Adriano Lolli. As everybody can see the results are of a poor quality compared to the (not stellar) performance of the Canon EF-M 18-55. The Zeiss is not faulty (I use it on a Leica M6 and it works like a charm) so I came to…
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A Little Of Thailand In Rome
Walking through Rome, it’s always the unexpected juxtapositions that stop me in my tracks. This small corner, framed by a weathered marble wall on one side and the muted sheen of a modern doorway on the other, holds a Thai welcome — a statue draped in marigold garlands, hands pressed together in the wai greeting, a silent gesture of hospitality transplanted far from its native home. From a compositional standpoint, I went for a straightforward, vertical framing to preserve the integrity of the statue’s posture. The side table in the lower right, with its offering of flowers and folded leaf packages, gives a cultural context that anchors the image. The…
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The Actor’s Nightmare
The light was soft, early evening. A lounge in perfect order—chairs aligned, menus standing, ashtrays clean. Everything ready for guests who haven’t arrived. Or maybe they already left. On the wall, a screen glows dimly. A face caught in grainy black and white, paused mid-thought. An actor from some old film, eyes fixed just off-centre. And here’s the strange thing: it looks like he’s watching the room. Looking straight at the empty chairs. That was the moment I took the frame. Not because the interior was elegant, though it was. Not because the light was dramatic, though it helped. But because the whole space felt like a stage no one…
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Is The Sky Falling On Their Heads?
The photograph wasn’t planned. It was simply observed — a pocket of time, mid-afternoon, Abruzzo heat bearing down, the kind that slows everything to a stubborn crawl. I stood facing this kiosk-bar, the kind you find near campsites and old swimming pools, and pressed the shutter as the two men crossed paths. It wasn’t about them, specifically. It was about the echo — the posture, the bellies, the slightly arched backs, the shared suspicion of something overhead. The title is a nod, of course — Uderzo and Goscinny’s Asterix stories, and that primal fear of the sky falling on our heads. These men could have walked straight off a panel…
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A few shots from a Paco de Lucia live performance
A few shots from a Live Report I did for Rockol.it, an online music magazine
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An Evening Chat
The heat is unbearable in the evening of summer, but it doesn’t stop people from enjoying the outdoor nightlife.
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Careful With That Bike, Eugene!
Sticks And Stones Can Break My Bones…
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Life, the Universe and Everything
…Told U So!
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Self-Defense
Three against one…
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A Manual-Focus Atteimpt on a Moving Target
I made this photograph at night, when the fairground lights were at their brightest and the air had that electric hum of machinery, music, and laughter. The ride—small spacecraft rising and falling in uneven rhythm—looked as if it were trying to lift free of the noise below. The name Luna Park glowed behind them, an invitation and a declaration all at once.
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While the kids grow-up…
While the kids grow-up, a father waits with patience.
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EOS-M. An Act of Fairness
I’ve been anything but gentle in my assessment of the Canon EOS-M’s street photography credentials. In the chaos of fast-moving urban life, it has always felt a step behind — hesitant where others are decisive. But fairness demands balance, and in the stillness of landscape work, this little mirrorless manages to surprise. This frame, taken with the humble 18-55mm stabilised kit lens, shows the EOS-M in its element. The river’s current twists and glides across the frame, textures shifting from silky blur to glassy detail, the greens of moss and the reddish undertones of the rocks holding their place against the moving water. The stabilisation works in quiet partnership with…
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A useless photo
When I pressed the shutter for this frame, I had that small, smug feeling a photographer gets when the light seems to behave and the histogram looks civilised. The Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan — with its glass-vaulted ceiling, ornate façades, and marble floors — is a location that practically hands you a composition on a silver platter. Symmetry is built into its bones. But then I went home and did the thing every street and travel photographer dreads: I Googled it. The search results were a flood of nearly identical shots, all taken from the same central axis, all with the same forced symmetry, all showing off the…
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Portrait of a Waiter
Another day is going to start, and the ashtrays are ready to filled by the deadly dust…
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Early Morning’s Cleanup
The time goes by, and the song remains the same. Work until late night, clean up early in the morning. Shot handheld, early light bleeding in from camera right. The street’s been emptied of narrative clutter—no cars, no movement, just the woman mid-bend, transferring waste from broom to bag. It’s not staged. She didn’t know I was there. I waited until her back arched into that angle, arms extended, the brush and dustpan forming a triangle at ground level. The framing is offset deliberately. She occupies the lower right quadrant. The left side is held empty—just shuttered shopfronts and a corridor of fading lines. This void gives her effort weight.…
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Never Trust the Autofocus (not only) in Street-Photography
The more I practice the street-photography, the more I find myself more at ease with zone-focusing instead of trusting the camera auto-focus. This is, in my case, particularly true with hip-shooting where I can only “guess” what the camera is actually focusing. Though not a candid, this photo explains what I mean: the idea was to have the flowers and the small lamp in focus, but the actualization has been the exact opposite. My fault, of course, because I would have given a look at the viewfinder, but the point is that I didn’t feel like I had to since the AF will cares. Another skill I need, Kime apart,…
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The Barber’s Routine
The barber and the client had clearly known each other for years; the conversation between them was quiet, unhurried, and occasionally punctuated by comfortable pauses. I didn’t interrupt or ask them to acknowledge the camera. I simply observed.
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The EOS-M just sucks
I made a point of staying clear of gearhead-oriented posts like: “x100s is better than M9” to focus on images and shooting only. In fact this blog only hosts two or three entries that talk about gear while the rest is dedicated to the exposure I catch. I want to break the rule again to provide an absolute subjective while definitive opinion of the Canon EOS-M: in one word (well, two, actually) it sucks. Thank to the ingenuity of Adriano Lolli, a pure genius, I have been able to couple my EOS-M with a Zeiss Sonnar 50 1/5, in the (lost) hope that by doing so I would have obtained…
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The Cameraman
There’s a quiet heroism to the figure of a cameraman mid-shoot. This image captures that intensity — the squint of concentration, the firm but fluid grip on the camera, the slight tilt of his head as if aligning himself with the rhythm of the scene unfolding before him. The bright red of the staircase behind him injects energy into the frame, contrasting sharply with his dark clothing and the muted tones of the camera equipment. The composition works in part because it respects the subject’s craft. The frame is tight enough to convey focus, yet wide enough to hint at context: the scaffolding, the staging, the theatre of production. The…
