Posted by on Wednesday, May 17, 2017 in 2017 Blog post, Blog posts.

Paintings of Cefalù done by a local artist, in the sand at the beach

I see the world in pictures. When my eyes fall on a scene, I immediately frame a photo. I crop edges and play with colors and imagine adjusting the lighting. Our eyes work like cameras, with the power to change aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. I am hyper-aware of this fact. My memories are a stream of photos, often with the edits applied that I imagined when I captured the memory.

I know, this doesn’t sound like an experience blog. But I promise it will soon.

A sailboat on the water one foggy evening (colorized)

I always shoot in manual. And since arriving in Cefalù, I’ve had to adjust my settings. At home, I keep my shutter speed high and my ISO low. Life moves fast, and we don’t have time for anything but the obvious. In Sicily, the composition of life is so different that I must compose my photos differently. Subtle details are the meat of this culture, and the sustenance of my memories here. Slow shutter, high ISO. And aperture (the blurriness of the foreground and background) should always be high. No matter my location, I need to zero in on a unique subject.

Romantic writing on the wall by the sea in Cefalù

Speaking of subjects… they are deeper here. More mysterious, more interesting. Whether the subject is an individual, a building, or the sea herself, it seems to have a hidden story. Ancient history whispers from every corner of Sicily. The people are modern, but their lives are not lived by the modern standard I am familiar with. At home, people rush to be everywhere and do everything. They tell their stories too loudly, leaving nothing to the imagination. The photos and memories both have more mystique here than anywhere else I have been.

A pastoral view from Agrigento

The photos in this blog are not of anything or anyone in particular – they just reflect the experience I have had as a photographer visiting Sicily. I am thoroughly enjoying the differences between shooting here and shooting at home, and I am very thankful to be having this uniquely Italian experience.

Izzy, taking a page out of the Sicilian book by enjoying an afternoon break