Taking the slow boat.

[jb747]

Back to the bridge at dawn.

 

[jb747]

A tale of tours. We've booked three tours on this trip. All with the same company, and directly booked, not via a third party.
The first was a walking tour at the Coliseum and Forum in Rome. Crowded venue, but well managed, and worked out well. The second was to the Vatican. Unfortunately King Charles and the Pope decided to have a BBQ in the Sistine, and that threw all of the tours into disarray.
The third was a bus tour from Rome to Pompeii and the coast.
I wandered down to the meeting point at 6am, and was soon met by a young South African lady who was organising everyone. But the meeting time came and went, and I was the only one who turned up. Apparently the others had all booked via a third party, and had the wrong start time. Sadly for them, bookings down the line were fixed, so I ended up being the only customer and I had a wonderful tour, just for me. So, if you were supposed to be there, and weren't, I had a good day for you.
Arriving at opening time, Pompeii wasn't at all crowded. Normally, I edit everyone out of my pictures, but this time I've left them in, to give you an idea of what it was like. Amazing place.

 

[jb747]

After yesterday's trip to Pompeii, I'm now back in the churches of Rome.

 

[ellen10]

Really enjoying your great photos

 

[OZDUCK]

Pompeii looks amazingly quiet. I guess most of the other tourists who intended to be there that day must have also booked tours through a third party.

And I agree, great photos.

 

[jb747]

Pompeii looks amazingly quiet. I guess most of the other tourists who intended to be there that day must have also booked tours through a third party.

There were some groups who were obviously from cruise ships, but as it was only me and my guide (a lovely lady BTW), we just skipped ahead of them. Very pleasant.

And I agree, great photos.

For those interested, they're all shot on a Nikon D850, using either a 16-35 or 24-70 mm lens. In the trickier light conditions, I HDR the shots. Churches are generally very dark and that means using extremely high ISO (up to 25,000). That makes the shots noisy, so I'll either shoot three identical shots and stack them for the average (which reduces noise), or use Lightroom's denoise function.. Or both. Many of the apparent wide angle shots are actually done by making up a panorama with the longer lens. Some of the church interior shots are made up of up to 40 images. And if you haven't discovered it, and use a DSLR, one of the most useful modes is MANUAL, but with automatic ISO.

 

[TheRealTMA]

Don’t forget the Caravaggi in Rome!

 

[Quickstatus]

one of the most useful modes is MANUAL

Even one of semiauto modes work better than auto. Basically f stop, exposure, ISO. Manual one or more, auto the rest

 

[jb747]

Even one of semiauto modes work better than auto. Basically f stop, exposure, ISO. Manual one or more, auto the rest

That's what I expect most people use, and I'm suggesting yet another mode, which most people never consider. It allows me to ensure that I get a shutter speed AND f stop that is appropriate to what I'm doing, without having to worry about the shutter becoming too slow, or the depth of field to narrow. The indoor shots are all at about 1/100th of a second, and the f stop around f10. ISO varies from around 2,000 to 25,000. It's much easier to deal with noise than it is to handle motion blur.