Photography. New Zealand, Rome, and now, World War II Aviation.

[DSJ™]

Awesome pics Rob. 

Yeah, that creature looks like some sort of mutant prehistoric beaver.  

[Ryan]

I think I've actually heard of that animal before, is it by chance a naked mole-rat?

[Rob]

Italy, 2003 - taken on a really crappy old canon point-and-shoot.  I finally got around to cropping them down and fixing them up a little bit:.  Enjoy:

Left:  St. Peter - Right:  St. Peter's Basillica


From St. Peter's Square in front of the cathedral


Miscellaneous carvings/statues


Miscellaneous carvings/statues


Left:  The Forum - Right:  Don't remember where


Left:  The Colosseum - Right:  The Arch of Janus, detail


Left:  The Colosseum - Right:  Ceiling of some cathedral or other


Left:  Temple to I-Forget-Who - Right:  Some crazy dude jogging in the Circus Maximus


Miscellanous graffiti and text


Left:  Some church - Right:  Statue in the Campo Dei Fiori


Pantheon - interior


Pantheon - exterior


Left:  Pantheon, exterior - Right:  Trajan's Market


Left:  Elephant Statue outside one of the very few gothic cathedrals in Rome - Right:  The Monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II


Monument to Vittorio Emmanuel II


More from Trajan's Market


Left:  The Spanish Steps - Right:  Some Monastery


Left:  Vatican Museum, The Laocoon - Right:  Staircase


Vatican Museum - Miscellaneous Statues


Vatican Museum - Miscellaneous Statues


I forget the name of the Church, but the Right image is of the interior - Dante's Tomb, but he's not really buried there, they just wish he was.


Miscellaneous Statuary, Florence


Miscellaneous Artwork


Left:  Il Duomo - Right:  Church near the trainstation


Left:  Ponte Vecchio (means old bridge I think) - Right:  Interior of the Baptistry at the Duomo


Left:  Some Statue - Right:  The same shop that carved the statues and ornamentation of the Duomo, still carves, by hand, replacements for damaged and eroding pieces.  This was one of the coolest things I thought.


Left:  Duomo (side) - Right:  Duomo (Interior, Dome)


Left:  Nun, Duomo Interior - Right:  Florence, from atop the dome


Florence, from atop the dome


Florence, from atop the dome


Left:  Florence, from atop the dome - Right:  In the movie Hannibal, this is the balcony he hangs that dude from


Left:  The first picture of me you guys have ever seen I think - Right:  Boboli Gardens


Left:  River Shot - Right:  The Story goes that Michaelangelo carved this into the wall in the main piazza one night, drunk off his ass


Left:  Another picture from the Boboli Gardens - Right:  Cinque Terra, train tracks


Cinque Terra - Miscellaneous


Cinque Terra - Miscellaneous


Cinque Terra - Miscellaneous


Airport

[Jediknight760071]

I love Rome...from pictures at least. I should be going there this summer, but money is tight and I don't know if I'll have to save for a move instead. Great shots, although I feel sorry for that turtle. I especially like the photo of the town overshadowed by a cathedral...I assume it's a cathedral and not the basilica.

[Rob]

It's the Duomo overshadowing Florence - taken from the top of said Duomo.

You can see it popping up behind some other buildings in one of the other shots.

As for Rome, I absolutely love Italy - it's a sort of a second home.  I lived there for 2 months and I wish it had been 2 decades.

I hope to buy property there someday.


I have lots more pictures from my first trip there (the 2 month one) that I'll scan someday and share - back then I was shooting with real film and developing everything myself.

[JesseVader08]

Absolutely beautiful.  That architecture looks great with B&W photography. 



This is my favourite pic.  The hustle and bustle oblivious to the most amazing building in the world.  I really hope to see the Colosseum myself someday.

[Matt_Fury]

Beautiful pictures.  My fiance went to Italy around labor day with her mom and took a lot of similar pictures.  Someday, I hope to go there.

[john todd]

i think everyone is happy that wrestlers now wear some clothes.  even if it is just man panties.

[Rob]

Back in April I went down to our local Flight Museum because they had some WWII Bombers in town.  Since I'm a total geek about that stuff, I took some pictures, and finally got around to cleaning up the ones I liked... So, I thought I'd share them here, mostly for Jesse and Paul - probably Chris too... anyone who's into this stuff.

They're coming back in April, and I'm planning on shelling out for a ride in the B-17 (and Paul I expect too).  I can't wait.

For most of these I tried to crop or paint the people out of them and then strip out some of the color to give them a more vintage feel... in any event:













































































Thanks for lookin'

[Matt_Fury]

Sweet!  I think I have pictures of that very same B-17!  I remember the nose art from the B-17 on display in Loveland, Co back in 2004.

[Chris M]

Rob, were you referring to me?

Awesome looking stuff you've got there.  Next weekend in FW there is an air show.  I won't be able to make it due to parents being in town and we will be shopping for baby stuff, but it has always been a great show.  My reserve unit used to pull security out there, not sure if they still do though.

[Rob]

Yeah, I figured you'd get a kick out of that - and I should have been smart enough to mention Matt by name too (duh). 

Is there a website for that air show?  I've never gone to one and have wanted to for some time.

Matt, that B-17 (and the rest of them) belong to the Collings Foundation and apparently go on tour every Summer.  The airport here that they were flying out of is a mile or three away from where I work out and over the course of two weeks I spent a lot of time using the track outside so that I could be running around on the track and bleachers watching the planes fly right over my head on the paid flights.  So awesome.

The B-17 flights were $450, and the P-51 will run you $2300 for a half hour.   

But it's all tax deductible.    

[Chris M]

http://www.allianceairshow.com/

There you go.  One of my best friend's dad owns an old Stearman that he keeps out at Possum Kingdom airport.  It was the predecessor to the AT6 Texan that was used for pilot training.  The same guy helps manage The David Nicklas foundation, a charity for heart disease and a donor support group (this guy had a heart transplant and is going on 16 years now).  His foundation used to own an F86 Sabre and an F4U Corsair that they used to fly around to various air shows and for a donation to the foundation you could get some time in the plane. 

Sadly I never got the chance to fly in either of the high performance fighters, but I did get to actually fly the Stearman this summer when we were out at the lake.

On the photography note, those are fantastic pics.  I wish I could find the pics from when I went to Bastogne.  My grandfather fought there as part of the relief force in the M18 Tank Destroyer and later the upgraded M36.  Matter of fact, I'll be getting his unit patch tattooed on my back or shoulder sometime soon.  At some point when I complete his ribbon rack I'm going to post the pic over in the WWII memorabilia thread.

[Jesse James]

Paul's gonna buy one of the planes, you watch.

Great pics Rob, thanks for sharing!  Airshows with vintage craft aren't often around me.  Wish I could go up in that B-17 with you guys.

[Rob]

Thanks Jesse.

Now I just need to make sure Paul sees this.