This photo was the result of a short stopover in Florence. I was on my way from Venice to photograph villages, and the rolling hills of Tuscany and the “Cradle of the Renaissance” were on the route. Needless to say, I wanted to stop at least for a bit and try to see and photograph some of the most iconic places.
As I was rushing through, I had only one night and the first stop was the Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, or simply the Duomo. I am not a big fan of overcrowded places, so after a quick visit to the cathedral, I started my walk to Piazza Michelangelo, from where I could photograph the Duomo and its impressive, commanding structure above the city.
Piazza Michelangelo is just uphill across the Arno, a great place with panoramic views of Florence. Beyond being a fabulous vantage point for photos, it is also a wonderful place to spend the afternoon and watch the sun go down as the town lights up. I got there just in time for sunset and stayed well past blue hour.
It is pretty common in places like this to feel tempted to go for the pano shot, and try to take it all. But I also tend to scan mentally through the scene trying to find pieces that can work on their own as well. So there I was, looking for a composition that could work, when I saw the tower of the massive Palazzo Il Vecchio and decided to work on it. The tower is the principal enhancement of the architecture of the building, so I zoomed in, trying to isolate it, and composed the image with the structure on the left side of the image using the rule of thirds. The colors of blue hills contrasting with the color of the sky and the illumination of the buildings complete the photo.
This image was shot with the Fuji X-T1 and the Fujinon XF 55-200mm F 3.5-4.8 R LM OIS. I also had a two-stop neutral density filter to compensate for the exposure difference of the sky. Post was done entirely in Lightroom.
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