Category: Robin’s Workshops

01/17/16

On a Walk with Anna Maria

Cortona Center of Photography Italy Tuscany Photo Workshop, Cortona Friends

 

My mind has returned again and again to this particular day… and this is what keeps nagging at my brain. For the entire time on our walk, we were surrounded by beautiful roiling rain clouds in every shade of grey, with dark and purplish bottoms, heavy laden and pouring across the Tuscan countryside. We could see them encircled all around us. Yet on the walk, we did not get more than an occasional light feeling of mist. I kept waiting for us to get hit with the downpours we were seeing from our ever rising and expanding vantage point as we got higher and higher up the mountain road, and farther away from the shelter of the church below where we had parked.

 

Cortona Center of Photography Italy Tuscany photo workshop, a walk to the top mysterious view of church santuary.

 

At the top, I kept suggesting that we wait and try to find some cover before we headed down into it, but the air felt electric and we kept on. Above is a view up to the Sanctuary at the top – with a purplish sky vibrating against the shadowed mossy greens and grey serene stone that has an otherworldish effect.

 

Cortona Center of Photography Italy Tuscany Photo Workshop, walk in the countryside, two white horses in a field

 

We continued to find some more photographs on the way back down as well and it was not until we approached the car that the raindrops started to fall. As we quickly hopped in the bottom fell out. We were all laughing hysterically as the water hit the windshield with a force like a fireman’s hose and it was then that I realized we had been in some type of protective bubble the entire way!

 

photograph

Maybe it was our collective happy energy, but I suspect that it was one of these three that held the power… Who do you vote for??!

 

 

 

All of the images in this post were taken on our walk.

For more Italy Photography Workshop info go to www.cortonacenter.com

 

All of the text and images © 2015 Robin Davis, all rights reserved.

 

10/13/15

Spirits of Macon GA

During our last spooky photoshoot with The Third Eye Photo Adventures and Workshops, we were visited by 6 local spirits among the gravestones of Riverside Cemetery… the apparitions of some of Macon’s most notable and notorious spirits were roaming the grounds as twilight approached and we were fortunate to capture some images and hear their tales.

Riverside Cemetery Reenactor portrays Anjette Lyles, Macon GA

Anjette Lyles, played by actress Angelia Hoomes, was a well known Macon restauranteur and notorious poisoner rumored to practice voodoo, but everyone ate her fried chicken anyway because it was so good! Although convicted for the fatal poisoning of 4 family members for their insurance money and sentenced for execution, it was not a proper fate for Southern ladies of the 1950’s, so she was deemed to be insane and institutionalized in Milledgeville’s Central State Hospital… where she worked as the cook.

Chester Burge played by Phil Comer at Riverside Cemetery Macon Georgia

Accused murderer Chester Burge, was believed to be behind his wife’s strangulation, even though he was recovering in the hospital at the time. Although wealthy and descended from an elite family, he was reviled by society for his shady business dealings and depraved personal life. Chester’s twisted story is brought vividly back to life by actor Phil Comer, who will also be appearing in an upcoming film as a commentator about this bizarre tale.

Here are more images from the 2015 Spring Spirit Stroll at Riverside Cemetery in Macon, Georgia:

Nun in Cemetery Macon Georgia

Sister Mary Edward, nun and principal of Catholic Schools in Macon, appears by the Sisters of Mercy Cross.

Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon, GA

The young Ella Lee DeHaven, reads love letters from her future Yankee husband whom she met as he marched through Georgia with Sherman. He later came back to live in Macon, where they were married.

Reenactors at Riverside Cemetery Macon, GA

Anne Royall, a journalist from Washington DC visited Macon in the 1830s where she met and interviewed Solomon Humphries, also known as “Free Sol,” a former slave who became a prosperous local businessman.

Special thanks to these reenactors who made pages from Macon’s history come vividly to life for us!

All photos and text ©2015 Robin Davis

09/5/15

What do Medieval Musicians look like?

Medieval Musicians have the jaunty authenticity of traveling minstrels, wandering from town to town, never stopping, but at home everywhere.

Robin Davis Photography, Cortona Center of Photography, Italy, musician, pipe, smoking, man, medieval, Medieval Musicians, reinactment, festival, italian, italia, Cortona,

They are on a quest to deliver something of great musical importance, a message of wilder notes and harmonies of the past that were originally learned from listening to nature. These are carved wooden sounds from instruments made by people who are still in on the ancient secrets, and these players have the authority to take us back into a much older time.

Robin Davis Photography, Cortona Center of Photography, Medival Music, Medieval Musicians, Italy, Italian, bagpipes, bagpipers, Cortona, Arcidado, Tuscany

These Medieval Musicians are always in Character, and happy to pose of us. Our assignment is not just about photographing our subjects alone, and we are always on the lookout for harmonious shapes and forms, using Cortona’s ancient streets and buildings to add pleasing geometries, tension, and visual interest to the entire image.

For Robin’s photography workshops in Cortona Italy: www.cortonacenter.com

AND WHAT DO THEY SOUND LIKE?…

 

 

all text and images ©2015 Robin Davis