Welcome to a site specialising in the things that interest me – travel, history and photography in Italy.
About twenty years ago, while posted to England for two years by my Australian employer, I started a website to share my photographs with family and friends. The website was first created in hand-rolled HTML on a text editor (on an Amiga computer!) and although I later used various website authoring tools, it retained a fairly basic “Web 1.0” look.
On return to Australia, I migrated the website to my new ISP, but work got busier and busier and after a few years I stopped updating the website. Eventually I changed my ISP plan, the free web hosting stopped, and the website disappeared.
In more recent years, while travelling for work or pleasure, I would send e-mails, often with pictures attached, to my late parents, to whom were then added my wife’s parents, then our respective siblings, and so on.
I have now entered a phase of life where I will be working much less, and only on things that interest me. I have therefore decided to start again, combining the two aims of sharing my photography and my writing about travel and history, this time using more contemporary web technology to create a site about history and photography in Italy.
My photography has evolved over time as well. The earliest pictures I posted were taken on a Minolta X-300 35mm SLR film camera. That was replaced by a Canon EOS-50e, then by a Canon EOS-3. Then, at about the time when digital was really starting to take off, I had a long think about my photography, and decided to go in the other direction – back to basics. I bought a Hasselblad 500 C/M camera, with no electronics or built-in metering, and started learning to take photographs without artificial assistance.
But I was on a slippery slope, and as more and more professionals got out of film, like many amateurs I was tempted by the newly-affordable second-hand professional film gear that was coming on the market. A series of medium-format rangefinder cameras complemented the Hasselblad, and then I saw an advertisement for a Horseman 45FA large-format camera that took 4×5 inch sheet film images. For several years after that I was of the view that the only real cameras were ones with bellows on the front, and on which one composed upside-down and back-to-front on a ground glass screen. In bright light, one had the additional pleasure of doing it under a cloth, to the embarrassment of one’s wife.
Recently, and ironically just as film started its resurgence, I finally used my impending retirement as an excuse to indulge myself with a 50 MP digital back for my Hasselblad system.
My current (active) photographic gear consists of:
- Hasselblad 501 C/M medium format camera, with A12 and A24 film backs, a CFV-50c digital back, and 40, 60, 80, 150 and 250mm lenses.
- Horseman 45FA large format camera, with 4×5-inch sheet film back, and 6x12cm and 6x17cm roll film backs, and 90, 125, 150, 180 and 210mm lenses by Schneider-Kreuznach, Rodenstock, Fuji and Nikon..
- Nikon Coolscan 9000 and Imacon Flextight II film scanners.
Update: 18 March 2022: Yesterday I took a big step and traded in all my large format gear for a Fujifilm GFX 50R mirrorless medium format digital camera and 32-64mm zoom lens.
Update: March 2023: I found myself using the Fujifilm GFX 50R far more than I did the Hasselblad, so I sold the Hasselblad gear after almost 20 years and bought a Fujifilm X-Pro3 rangefinder and several lenses.
You can find a post about my large format system here.
And the blog name? It isn’t a direct reference to the Homeric hero. The Patroclus was a ship of the Blue Funnel Line that made the run between Liverpool and Hong Kong in the early 1960s. I travelled on it as a small child.
Tnx. Loving your blogs during our 7 weeks driving from nth of Italy to sth. Arrived Cefalu tonight via Monreale this arvo and Segesta this am.
Thank you! For me, a bit of history adds a great deal to the pleasure of visiting a new place. Glad there are some kindred spirits out there.
Świetny blog! Jestem pod wrażeniem Twojej wiedzy i sposobu, w jaki ją przekazujesz. Tak jak Ty jestem miłośniczką Włoch i historii, a na tego bloga trafiłam, gdyż poszukiwałam informacji o Perugii i rodzie Baglioni. Z przyjemnością przeczytałam artykuł , który uzupełnił to co napisał Paweł Muratow i swoich “Obrazach Włoch”. Prywatnie jestem Polką, przez dziesięć lat mieszkałam i pracowałam w Lombardii, co dało mi okazję do odbycia wielu wspaniałych wycieczek po północnych Włoszech. Też połknęłam bakcyla fotografii i blogowania, ponieważ chciałam utrwalić te cudne, lecz ulotne momenty, jakie były moim udziałem. Co prawda zaprzestałam pisania, ale teraz podobnie jak Ty jestem na emeryturze, więc być może wrócę do tego, bo jest jeszcze sporo do opisania… Zaskoczyła mnie historia niezwykłego tytułu Twego bloga, gdyż mój także nazywa się dziwnie i zaskakująco, co podobnie jak u Ciebie ma jednak głębokie uzasadnienie, więc widzę tu bratnią duszę. Serdecznie pozdrawiam i życzę wielu ciekawych wycieczek!
P.S. Niestety, mój angielski jest słaby, więc korzystam z automatycznego tłumacza, co zapewne odejmuje nieco uroku temu, co piszesz, ale jak sądzę, nie najgorzej oddaje treść postów.
Great blog! I am in awe of your site and the way you communicate. Just like you, I am a lover of Italy and history, and I found this blog, I was looking for information about Perugia and the Baglioni family. I was pleased to read the article to whom Paweł Muratow wrote and his “Pictures of Italy”. Privately Polish, for many years I have lived and worked in Lombardy, I have given me many wonderful services in Italy, Italy. I also got hooked on photography and blogging because I wanted to capture these wonderful but fleeting moments that were my present. It’s true that I started writing, but now I’m retired just like you, so now I’m going back to maybe I’ll come back to … I was surprised by the history of this title of your blog, because mine is also called strange and you so now i see a soul mate here. I cordially greet you and wish you many interesting trips!
PS Unfortunately, my English is poor, so I used an automatic translator, which I remember described a bit of charm, you write, but I think not too bad the content of the content of the posts.
Dear Elżbieta, your English is better than my Polish! I am pleased that you liked my blog. If the COVID regulations permit I will be back in Italy from April and I hope to write more posts. I hope you will like them.