The first is always special
17/01/2026
I still have a long wait until Spring, but here in the foothills of the central Italian Apennines, the very first flowers are appearing and the new season is slowly getting underway.
Through other eyes
Through other eyes... recent posts
Thank goodness for pigeons
11/01/2026
When temperatures plummet and the snow piles up, then I’m thankful for whatever I can glimpse (and photograph) through my window. And what’s not to like about a pigeon a day!
When the sun came out to play
09/01/2026
January can be a pretty bleak time of year and finding the enthusiasm to get out takes a lot of effort. But then the sun comes fleetingly out to play and it all seems worth it.
A new year, a new dawn
01/01/2026
A new year, a new dawn, a new adventure. Happy New Year to planet Earth… just keep on rolling. Please.
Majestic… but with questionable habits
28/12/2025
A stroke of luck and my first half-decent image of a majestic European griffon vulture.
The shortest day… we’ve made it!
21/12/2025
So we’ve done it for another year! The shortest day has been and gone and now the sun will slowly, very slowly come back to us. And to mark the day, an encounter with the very first crocus flowers. Spring is almost around the corner!
Previous posts
17/01/2026
The first is always special
Here in the foothills of the central Italian Apennines, spring is still a very long way away. But every year this species of endemic crocus (Crocus variegatus) is always the first to break the spell of winter, defying the frost and icy wind to push its delicate way through the tangle of dead and dormant vegetation. So each year from early January onwards, I go on regular pilgrimages to a nearby site where experience tells me I’m most likely to find the first flowers… and today I struck lucky. There were very few and most of these were the worse for wear after the snow of just a few days ago, but merely finding them is enough to put a smile on my face. Let the new season commence! Impossible to get a decent clean image without literally mowing the meadow to get rid of all the tangled unsightly vegetation, but for me the important was to document this turning point in the seasons.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
11/01/2026
Thank goodness for pigeons!
I had been planning to get out and about in my local woodland. It was not to be. The temperature dropped by a degree or so below the expected and what should have been rain came down as snow. To go slithering and sliding down our steep hill in the car didn’t seem such a great idea, so there I was, camera in hand and nose metaphorically pressed against the window, hoping something would come along. And it did. Yes, I know, it’s “just” a pigeon, but you’ve got to work with what you’ve got and… well, I’ve got pigeons.
I’m not complaining. Look at it, I mean really look at it. Those amazing shades of grey, the beautiful muted greens and purples around the neck. Just think… if pigeons were few and far between, a rare exotic visitor, then you’d wax lyrical about their subtle beauty, wouldn’t you? Well today, that’s what I’m going to do. So thank you pigeon, you’re very welcome.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
09/01/2026
When the sun came out to play
We’re in a run of no-no days hereabouts, the sort of unexceptional, unremarkable days that pretty well sum up my idea of bleak… no colour, no light, no snow, no contrast, no drama, no atmosphere, not even any real rain, just drizzle. As I said, bleak. But the other day, the sun came out, just for a moment, and it so happened that I was there to greet it, fleetingly of course, because it must have had something else important to illuminate elsewhere, as it only hung around long enough for two quick images, one to the left, one to the right, more or less. Pity it didn’t stay around a bit longer to play. We’d have had some fun. But it’ll be back and so will I.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
01/01/2026
A new year, a new dawn
So here we are, a new year dawns. 2025 wasn’t the best year of my life, but neither was it the worst, so I’ll go with that, for now. Above all it brought me clarity, and clarity at the very least makes a good solid base for looking ahead. So with freezing temperatures keeping me safely but restlessly blocked in front of the computer (or is it behind the screen?), that’s what I’ll be doing in the next few days. A new road. A new adventure, but then, so is every new day that dawns with me still here on this crazy wobbling sphere of rock we call home. Happy New Year Earth… just keep on rolling!
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
28/12/2025
Majestic, but with questionable habits
Just look at that for majesty! When I braved the icy wind to go for a walk with my relatively new 100-400 mm, I was thinking more about blue tits and redstarts, but instead I hit it lucky. I just happened to find myself under a group of griffon vultures heading back home after a morning’s carrion hunt. I’m still very new to bird photography with a long lens and in my agitation I successfully messed up 95% of the shots, but this one turned out more or less OK, even though it was almost directly into the sun and pretty high in the sky. Griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus) had been extinct in the central Italian Apennines for several centuries, then about 30 years ago they were reintroduced in the Monte Velino State Nature Reserve right opposite where I live. There are now about 60 breeding pairs and seeing them pass by overhead is quite a common occurrence. With their massive 2.5 m wingspan, they’re always a thrilling sight. An excellent way to bring 2025 to an end (and actually MUCH easier than blue tits and redstarts!).
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
21/12/2025
The shortest day... we've made it!
So we’ve done it again! Today was the (northern hemisphere) shortest day and here we still are. We’ve turned the corner, we’re the survivors! Now it’s just a matter of time and the sun will slowly come back to us. Very slowly at first, imperceptibly, but it’s all about the mindset, and my heartfelt thanks to the sun for all those extra seconds, then minutes, then hours of light. And to celebrate, I officially declare open the hunt for those seasonal firsts, with the totally unexpected encounter of the very first crocuses, the silvery crocus (Crocus biflorus), discovered on a walk with my husband in the neighbouring region of Lazio not far from Rome. The price paid? Dodging battalions of wild boar hunters, cattle farmers with caveman bellows to summon their errant herds, tree fellers and off-road enduro bikers. Was it worth it? Well, I suppose so, but…
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
11/12/2025
When photography becomes "photography"
I am not in any way a Luddite. New technologies have always fascinated me… and this extends up to and including artificial intelligence, with all the fully justified doubts and disclaimers that entails. But there is a point beyond which I feel I am just not prepared to go. In a word… hands off photography please! Now I imagine everyone here will agree that, right from the very beginning, photographers have always manipulated the truth to a certain extent. First those darkroom tricks, then basic fiddling with PhotoShop, removing a distraction here, blurring a background there, modifying colours… we’ve all been there, done that. But up till now, the basis has always been, well, a photograph, and processing has been a skilled and laborious task. Now just a few words are enough to completely change (or create) an image. I tried it for the first (and last?) time the other day with Nano Banana just to see what could be done. As this was the free trial, I only had one go at it and had to screen capture the final image, but the result is extraordinarily realistic. And it made me VERY uneasy.
Up until now, photography has always required three basic things: a subject, a camera (in whatever form) and light. If one of those things is lacking, the result may be absolutely legitimate as an art form, but can it still be considered photography? I suppose I have always had a disproportionate respect for photographs as a means of documenting reality, even though that reality may be more or less “distorted” by the photographer’s creative abilities. Now just a few words are enough to CREATE a reality. Perhaps I’m just getting old, but this worries me.
There’s no going back, but am I right to fret so much about all this?
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
08/12/2025
Clarity isn't always the best option
Down there, under that, there’s a hotchpotch of highways, roads, supermarkets, shopping centres, scattered urbanisation, a quarry or two, the odd factory here and there. It’s noisy. A constant, restless, oppressive growling, edgy and unsettling. Impossible to escape, even up here in my hilltop village. It’s not somewhere I want to be. Then on some mornings, particularly in autumn and winter, the fog hunkers down on the valley floor, taking the place of the long-since dried up paleolakes. And just for a few hours, while the rumbling and grumbling of productivity continues relentlessly, temperature inversion at least allows my eyes to evade the double-edged sword of clarity.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
04/12/2025
Not all of us are weather-sealed
My oak woods are getting ever darker and colder. The colour palette is becoming more subtle, more sombre, earth browns with flashes of vivid green where the moss has soaked up the rain. It was long overdue, but now, well, maybe enough is enough. At least for long enough for me to get out there and take a few shots. Yes, of course, my OM System kit is weather-sealed, but I sadly am not and, although I hate to admit it, I’m something of a fair weather photographer. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time, I adore the images I get taking photographs in so-called “bad” weather, they’re some of my favourites. But I just don’t, can’t, really feel comfortable battling with layers of clothing. I miss not being able to roll happily around on the forest floor or just sit there and lose myself watching my mini-world flow past without always being pulled back to the here-and-now by cold hands and feet, or the chilly dampness seeping up through my eternally inadequate winter wear. But it is what it is and this winter I have taken a vow to myself to go out with my camera, whatever the weather, however strong my yearning for hibernation. And then, when back home in the comparative warmth of my home, looking at my images, I’m so pleased I did. So roll on winter, do your worst! But make it quick… please.
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.
28/11/2025
A winter's challenge
Now this is not my usual sort of image. Not at all. But with the neighbourhood vegetation reduced to a tangled, unsightly mat of dead stems and leaves and most of my beloved critters safely overwintering out of sight in one state or another, what is a girl to do. Here in the central Italian Apennines, winter lasts from November right through March and well into April, so to stave off the seasonal onset of arthropod withdrawal symptoms, I decided to turn my hand and my lens to other less sporadic life forms, in other words, birds and mammals. That isn’t something I’ve ever really tackled before, in fact, I’ve always found it tough to photograph anything larger than a dragonfly. But it’s definitely time for a new challenge, so these last few days have seen me wandering through my oak woods burdened down with a nifty new telephoto lens, the OM 100-400mm F5.0-6.3 MKII. Yes, it is a bit heavier than I’m used to, but actually nowhere near as much as I’d feared and it’s worth it for a chance to see the world through yet another different perspective.
That’s all well and good, but the results? Well, I have to admit that so far, there haven’t been any worthy of the name. Usually when I’m out on a macro or landscape hunt, I cross paths with more than a few birds here and there, but now that I’m actively looking for them, all is silence and stillness. It’s quite restful actually, but not at all what I hoped for. I’ve been snapping away nevertheless… leaves, trees, moss, bark, a landscape or two, but nothing that has even remotely resembled wildlife. So here’s a couple of images I shot from my window (a male and female black redstart, Phoenicurus ochruros), certainly not brilliant photos, but enough to confirm that the lens performs pretty well, even with the OM MC-14 teleconverter attached. For now, I’m satisfied, but I can’t wait to test my patience again out in the woods. I have a feeling this is going to be a really steep learning curve!
For my Italian-speaking friends (or anyone wanting to translate into another language), I recommend DeepL translator available clicking here or also as a browser extension for Google Chrome.
Per i miei amici di lingua italiana (o chiunque voglia tradurre in un’altra lingua), consiglio DeepL translator disponibile cliccando qui o anche come estensione per il browser Google Chrome.