One from Florence and one from Rome.
The soft petals of a rose and some "Wild" flowers
Rust never sleeps but sometimes the color makes me see things. Can you see the dragon too?
So many subjects! The glory of digital photography is being able to shoot 1,000s of shots and be able to sort and select only the ones that come to life or capture a "moment" to print, publish and/or save. Capturing the sunrise silhouetting the Ponte Veccio Bridge while rushing to cross the Arno River to catch a bus was such a "moment."
I had decided not to take my DSLR with me on our recent trip to Italy. There was the risk of damage or loss along with my not wanting to drag that hefty gear bag around with me everywhere. I picked up a compact 19 megapixel Sony A5000 mirrorless camera along with the kit and a telephoto lense, both of which allowed me to cover a span of 16-200MM (lenses for APS-C sensors spec out at 1.5X the 35MM focal length so I actually covered a range of 24-300MM). It still allowed me to shoot wide angle though not as good as the 16MM, but increased my distance capabilities. Of course you have to give up something in order to gain something so it reduced the field of view of the 200MM in order to achieve the extra 100 mm distance. The fact that the A5000 has an APS-C sensor (a very large number of DSLR's use Sony APS-C sensors), shoots in Raw format and is very good in low light made it a no brainer. The focus is a bit softer than I like but in all other non DSLR categories it really beat the pants off my Nikon Coolpix S9100 and won the job of recording our European adventure.
In the end I liked the results and didn't feel strapped in any of the shooting conditions I encountered inside or out, in day or night. I could also carry the entire rig with charger, two extra batteries and SD cards in a small camera bag which fit in my carry-on sized backpack along with everything else.
The A5000 is the base model of the Sony mirrorless interchangeable lense camera products. They go all the way up from the A5100, A6000 to the new Alpha A7RII mirrorless DSLR. Sony is an innovator in the technology.
Might be worth a look if you are considering making a purchase but don't feel comfortable with spending the money or messing with the learning curve of a full size DSLR. There are advantages and disadvantages to using the mirrorless cameras, but they're worth a look.
I just wanted to reiterate I AM a fan of Pentax (a lifelong Pentaxian), but my brand abandoned their mirrorless system a year or two ago. I am including the link to see the promo pic for Pentax's first full frame DSLR of the Ricoh era. Click and drag the cursor to highlight the link. Right click and choose "go to http://petapixel...".
http://petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/pentaxffteaserpage.jpg
Software is another vital component of digital photography. Pros use Adobe Photoshop along with other programs designed to assist with workflow. There are versions of Photoshop designed for non-professional users such as Elements and Lightroom as well as a myriad of other less expensive programs including the free ones offered by the brand of camera you use, but we can save that conversation for next time.
MDSr
