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Breaking Through
This is one of the photos I took while courtside at a women’s handball match between the Italian and Bosnian national teams. I was there as part of the sports photography seminar I run at the university where I also teach sports law. This is why I had to produce teaching materials using a number of pieces of equipment and techniques, ranging from prefocusing with full manual lenses to fast target acquisition and single shot.
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Professional Courtesy
Chasing news lies at the core of any journalist’s work. The professionals who walk the streets instead of enjoying the comfortable seats on talk shows, discussing ‘life, the universe and everything’ (cit. Douglas Adams), are like sharks with a sense of blood. They can smell news from a distance or are part of an ‘intelligence’ network that tells them what and where. Indeed, photojournalists experience a particular challenge: reclaiming a vantage point from which to take the shot. This necessity often ends up in being ‘assertive’ when entering a scene or ‘elbowing’ those nearby to make room. Sometimes, though, there is also a show of professional courtesy, like in this photo…
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Misfocused Photo’s Quick Fix with ChatGPT and Nano Banana
When on an assigment I often take with me a second camera with a vintage lens. This is a way to test old glasses along modern ones, without risking failure. Every now and then, therefore, I switch from the work gear to the personal one to give it a try. Sometimes I get good results, some other times I don’t, like in this shot taken during the 2026 Italian Skating Championship. As it is apparent, I misfocused the skater trying to get up, so the photo turned out as an egregious miss. As they say, however, I exploited the mistake to turn a problem into an opportunity. So I decided to…
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Carl Zeiss Ultron 50/1,8 and Pentax K1 – An Empirical Field Test
Across this set, the Ultron performs as expected: good microcontrast and local separation, reasonably crisp edge definition where focus is placed, and a generally “clean” drawing that still keeps tonal roundness in mid-tones.
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Zeiss ZK Planar T* 50mm F/1.4 – Test Shots and an Unpleasant Incident
I am a huge fan of Zeiss lenses, and I have made sure to own at least one of them for each camera system I have used over the years. To be honest, my only regret when switching to Pentax and ditching Leica, Nikon and Canon was that Zeiss lenses in K mount weren’t as widely available as they are for other platforms. Sure, eBay has plenty of them, but I didn’t want to risk the consequences of overseas shipping. Eventually, however, I managed to get a Planar T* 50 mm f/1.4, and last night I went out for the first time to try it with a Pentax K-1.
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Shooting Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing) Bouts
These photographs were taken during the 2025 Italian Sanda Championships as part of the sports photography course that I teach at the University of Chieti-Pescara in Italy. Initially published by 35mmc.com How the game works Sanda is a Chinese martial art belonging to the kickboxing family. As in kickboxing, fighters trade punches and kicks, but unlike in Thai boxing, they are not allowed to use their elbows or knees. A limited number of throws are permitted, including leg sweeps, reaps and souplexes. Each bout consists of three rounds, and winning two of them is sufficient for victory. However, this is easier said than done: the action is fast-paced, the fighters…
