11/23/20

A Coffee in Italy… in a Real Cup!

A Coffee in Italy... in a Real Cup!
If I could have a cup of coffee anywhere in the world, it would be in Italy.
It’s the first thing I do when I arrive, and my last necessity just before I leave.

Before departing from the Rome airport is when The Incident happened!
See my story at the end…

A quick ritual in the rhythm of Italian Life


If an Italian invites you for a caffé, it will be a quick affair and you will stand at the bar. Don’t expect to sit down at the tables for long conversation.

This is something you do while on the way to do something else, not lounge around like it’s a coffee shop, camped out with laptops and time to kill.

Assortment of Italian Coffee Cups Demi Tasse
That Pristine Moment Before the First Sip!
What do all of these have in common?
Something necessary for the full experience to be enjoyed !

On our Photo Workshops we pop into the bar and stand at the counter with the Italians for this little cup of perfection, then go… fortified to find and capture our very best photographs.

This habit is something I miss when I am back home. Yes I enjoy my morning coffee, and there are many wonderful coffee spots everywhere, but it’s just not the same for me.

the Cafe Experience in Italy
Ballerinas at the Bar
inside the wonderful Teatro Signorelli, Cortona Italy

The sounds, the aromas, the PLACE… The things that we remember are often the simplest of pleasures: a smell, a color, a fleeting feeling of being in sync with time. With coffee it’s all there in the moment.

So here’s the story, and this is what happened…


The very first thing I do when I arrive in Italy is get a coffee.

It is also the very last, and I was in the Rome airport terminal waiting for my flight, in anticipation of my last cup of the trip. There’s a particular bar where all the Italians go, and it is a frantically busy spot. You line up to pay the cashier first, then take your ticket over to the bar to place your order. With much excitement I waited my turn at the counter and asked the barista for a Caffé Macchiato. As I looked down the crowded bar there’s the familiar clink of cups on saucers and a musical overlapping of voices. I happily waited with anticipation to what would be my last cup of Italian coffee for a while.

Imagine my horror when he spun around and handed me a PAPER CUP!

What sacrilege is this!? I thought, Oh NO!

I physically recoiled. I could not reach out to take it. Struggling for the polite and correct words, I said “Preferisco una coppa reale!” – I would prefer a real cup!

With a slight smile and twinkle of respect in his eye, he quickly spun back around and plopped the offending paper cup into the trash, as he yelled loudly over the packed and busy crowd, “She would prefer a coppa reale!” and a ripple of laughter followed, all down the bar.

While “coppa” does mean cup, and “reale” means real, this is something you would never say. As my friend Daniela later told me, I SHOULD have said, “Preferisco una tazza vera” or “il caffé per favore nella tazzina di ceramica” to mean a demi tasse espresso cup and saucer. My word “coppa” goes back to Medieval Italian, describing a goblet-like cup that you would see illustrated on old Italian playing cards.

However, they knew exactly what I meant and a few moments later I had my real cup & saucer of Italian coffee in front of me, a tradition I hope will never change.



All images and text ©Robin Davis – Robin Davis Photography, Inc.

07/27/19

The Power of REFLECTIONS in Creative Photography

Ideas on the PHOTO COMPETITION THEME of REFLECTIONS, and a few images to illustrate some diverse ways of creatively approaching this assignment.

I want you to have fun with this one!

Part of the Convergence series – first exhibited in 2014 at Mason Murer Fine Art.
The rippled water surface created a painterly brush stroke effect…
entirely in camera with no post production needed.

Here is a special message to the ROSWELL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY from Robin:

“Soon I will be judging your Photo Competition and the Theme is one of my favorites… REFLECTIONS!

When I last spoke to your group, I talked about “Dream Assignments” that we can give to ourselves, and the creative use of REFLECTIONS in photography is a great SELF-ASSIGNMENT and one that I’ve given to myself …MANY times!

Here below I’ve shared some images from my past exhibitions, where REFLECTIONS are a major element. In creating these SERIES of images, I first formulated a defined visual plan to follow.”

If you would like to create your own personal SELF-ASSIGNMENT, I am happy to offer you my half price PERSONAL SESSION to envision and complete your own Dream Project. From these fun and helpful sessions, my students have created meaningful photographs that they really love.

Five ideas to consider for your upcoming themed competition on REFLECTIONS:

#1 – Titles are important, and sometimes even a short one-line description of your intent can clue-in your viewer, to engage them, and give them a deeper understanding of the purpose of your image, or perhaps some of the photographic decisions you made while creating the image.

Just a few words can go a long way to make your photograph more meaningful to the viewer, who was not there when you made the shot.

The Series Title: AQUA AVIA – Birds in their natural elements of both air and water

Wild Bird Images were combined with Patterns of Water REFLECTIONS and printed on Silk

#2 – When we think of Reflections in photography, the first thing that pops into our mind are images of nature reflected in water. With this subject, it is deeply satisfying to practice our COMPOSE in CAMERA technique that we talked about!

Get closer and closer AS you a photographing your subject and do NOT after-crop. This is the way we discover fascinating shapes, hypnotic patterns, and abstractions that dynamically FILL our FRAMES edge to edge! These are the photos you will really love.

Fine Art Photo Exhibition Poster for Convergence Series by Robin Davis
The TITLE Convergence refers to the focal point
where both the nature reflection + the water’s surface patterns combine as one.
(Poster Design, Typography and Photography by Robin Davis)

#3 – The term REFLECTIONS can mean a lot of different things and is open to your interpretation. Please feel free to explore this to the fullest! While judging, I will be looking for personal creativity in each of your entries. If you feel the call to go beyond the obvious, then I support you!

“BEST FRIENDS, PRIVATE REFLECTIONS”
Street photography from the June Cortona Italy Workshop

Going deeper into the realm of the mind, a reflection could also be illustrated as a pensive or introspective moment. If you like photographing people, or creating dramatic stories, perhaps there is a deeper psychological theme that you would like to tell with your camera. Please note that if you choose to define the word REFLECTION in this way, be sure your photo’s TITLE describes it well, and perhaps include a short blurb or artist’s statement that supports your image’s intent.

This is a preview of a NEW SERIES that I will be exhibiting at pb&j Gallery in October.
The theme of strong archetypal women is one that I return to again and again.
Here my model Morgan, is playing the part of THE SORCERESS who is watching you from her magic mirror!

#4 – You may also consider other reflective surfaces such as mirrors, metal, or glass, and you may choose to show your reflected subject in tandem WITH its reflection to visually entertain us. I know you will find many exiting reflective surfaces to play with, and I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

#5 – One last thing to be sure to AVOID is any elements that do not serve your composition! A foreign or incongruent object (or piece of OFFENSIVE SHRUBBERY as I like to say!), should be consciously composed out of, or if necessary, retouched out of, your full image frame. Just be aware of those pesky branches, or unintentional wires or poles that sneak into the edges of your perfect image area, and be on guard to keep them out!

Here are some more examples below, and thoughts on designing your own photographic series.

Mysterious images with water reflections in classical themes,
with the sphinx, goddess, centaur, and a giant collossus figure.
These images were created in Pompeii and Ravello Italy, and Paris, France.
The final images for exhibition were printed on metal panels to enhance the reflective feel.
With this series the mirrored image was designed to relax & entertain the mind of the viewer.
It also serves to simplify and beautify the FOREGROUND of each shot.
In this series the clouds, forms and backgrounds were all really there
and composed WITHIN the frame of the cellphone camera.
The ADDED reflections were generated by phone APPS to mirror the original scene.
Le Sphinx Egyptienne 2 – ©Robin Davis

And here are two more examples that I will conclude with…

Here’s a CORTONA CENTER of PHOTOGRAPHY example that we created with the workshop class… The assignment? …to light our subject like a Renaissance Painting.
The secret?? …it’s actually the REFLECTION in a very old and spotty mirror.
Some fun on St. Simons Island during the Coastal Georgia Workshop…
Reflections add a beautiful dimension to our photos and we are always on the lookout for ways to use them to support our subjects and complement our overall design.

I hope this has been helpful to you, and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

-ROBIN

03/31/19

A FILM mentality in a DIGITAL world

Here are my thoughts for making each shot count, with a FILM attitude that has kept me on track to creating fewer, and BETTER digital pictures.

Those of us who recall the days of film and processing, or those who’ve done darkroom printing, will know the look I am talking about. That painterly grittiness, the dark border of the film, highlights glowing from the richly saturated emulsion… it was the PROCESS itself that determined the look we would get, and we used that for creative effects.

Different types of film had their own unique tonalities and beautiful textures of grain that could romanticize away the clutter and distractions of everyday reality. Images were simpler, and easy on the eye. Push processing (underexposing film and leaving it in the developer longer) would even enhance this velvety quality. The first time I was able achieve these effects with a Digital Camera was an incredibly happy moment for me!

In the days of buying rolls of film and paying for processing, each shot was precious. You had 36 frames on a roll and just 36 chances at a time, so we made each one count. Often my best, most carefully nuanced shot was… #36! The dance we did with our subjects, whether a person, or a landscape, was a series of little refinements that we made, shot by shot. When we would have to stop and reload the next roll of 36, the energy would drop, and we would start all over again, in a new way, with a new approach to the next series of shots.

When we started shooting with digital, it was as if we had unlimited free film! Woo-Hoo! right?, However the result was way too many mediocre photos, and after hours of editing, it was difficult to make a definitive decision and pick the best one. So I though back to the days of 35 mm film and this is what I decided. I would honor the 36 chances on an imaginary roll to get it right. Each shot became more precious (as IF I were paying for film and processing again) and this awareness made me slow down and direct my intention more fully, and as a result I became a more thoughtful photographer! Soon I was taking fewer, and better pictures, and editing became easier as well. It was no longer such a chore, and my best shot, like the last frame on the roll of 36, would clearly jump out at me.

A recent Lighthouse photo from Robin’s Workshop demonstration, at St. Simons Island Georgia
Robin Davis Photography - creative digital photography
My first digital art photo success story! Low light and a High ISO setting created a grainy film-like effect that I had been missing.