You’re all so kind in your comments, encouraging me to post even more bike photos. It’s fun to choose a theme like that, actually; it invites me to observe a bit more attentively than I otherwise might, and perhaps that offers a little freshness.
Aren’t these colours, above, luscious against each other? And surely you want to lean your forehead against that window, peer into the deepest corners of this framing and picture restoration shop….I know I did…and isn’t that the perfect bike to park there, all elegantly cream-coloured against the richly chromatic backdrop?
Love at first sight when I saw this pairing! A room in these colours? Or a garment, or outfit…
This combo also appeals (red and all those wonderful neutrals!) although it’s in a slightly different register–more modern, perhaps, even more cerebral. Or am I just over-thinking now…
Thought I should try a different angle, and I rather liked the way bikes and benches lined up, with those shots of red as links.
And since I’m shifting to a bit of novelty…
And finally, let me close with this cavalcade of motorcycles threatening a renegade riderless run up this alley…
With this post, I may have exhausted our collective patience with bike photos. But I’ve been collecting windows….
So tell me, have you ever tried photographing a series of, well, anything? And you might also tell me if you think these Roman bikes are the most stylishly parked wheels you’ve seen? Don’t they manifest that Italian predilection for la Bella figura, and yes, I’m even including the dusty ones…
Che Bella! Bellissima! (For a twist on my last comment.)
I am enjoying these walks with you greatly. The light and the palette are perfect aren't they? Everything just becomes a soft, soft neutral.
You're right! It's the light that somehow turns these rich, warm colours into neutrals — which you might not otherwise think that orange exemplifies!
The bikes make me want to ride mine except we're dealing with 2 feet of snow! I seem to have a thing photographing doors – wherever I am.
Ugh! 2 feet of snow?! Definitely not cycling weather!
Doors, yes, I've got a little folder of those photos as well — there's something about them as an invitation to imagination other lives, isn't there? Besides their obvious aesthetics…
You ask several questions in this post, and the answer to each is "yes!" – with the exception of the one asking whether I have ever photographed a series of anything (I have, however, stood patiently for what must be hours, maybe even days by now, while a beloved snaps various series of trees, roses, bits of ships . . . ). You are making Rome real to me.
Your partner is very lucky with your patience — and, honestly, I'm lucky mine's not along this trip, and I can just snap at whim, no guilt (and he's lucky, too, to be missing the waiting, although unlucky to be missing so many lovely moments…) So glad you're enjoying seeing Rome through my eyes — I'm so happy to be sharing the city I see!
I am forever photographing doors with the aim of making some kind of collage with them when I get home. I never do.
Too funny! I've just been thinking I must, absolutely must, get some of my photos printed, and I have thought of a collage. Deeply suspicious of whether that will get accomplished in the near future, however…
Every time we've been to Rome my husband has taken many, many photos of drinking water fountains – those are his bikes! :0)
I've already taken a few . . . fountains are everywhere here, and they're not only wonderful as sculptures, but they also display time magnificently in the way the minerals of the way have stained the stone. Trouble is, I've also been trying to get snippets of video, and I'm filling up the phone memory quickly! Fountains=bikes, cute! 😉
Beautiful photos!
Can you imagine how many generations and destinies and people shared the light,the sun,the stone before us? And you perfectly catch this moment,the present and the past (Vittorio de Sicca's for example and his Ladri di Biciclette!)
Dottoressa
Oh, I loved that movie and have been thinking of it as I walk through these streets and see all these bikes. (with your son living in London now, you might enjoy Hanif Kureishi's London Kills Me, a poignant and hilarious tribute to de Sica)
Most of my trips turn out to have a picture "theme" even if I don't see it until afterwards – lichens on rocks for a recent Maine trip, iron gates on a road trip down the Maya Riviera years ago, the amazing outfits sported by kids waiting for school buses in San Francisco once (balancing the potential creepy factor of taking pictures of kids…….always hard), plants in pots outside front doors….in fact there are a lot of bike pictures from a different San Francisco trip, come to think of it. Oh, bars with my name in the title, all over the place. Street addresses that are the same number/street name as our home address, always.
Enjoying your Rome accounts….and revisiting my own pictures in my head.
Ceci
Really? Bars with your names in the title?
I like this idea of finding street addresses that match my home one as well, and I've also been thinking of what themes I might not recognise until I'm back home…
I really enjoy choosing a theme for photos, windows, lighting etc and focusing on that detail. Bikes are so evocative – good choice. Enjoy Rome (and don't come back with a puppy)!
Ha! Marianne, I'm sure you're enjoying your new pup, but I will do my best to resist. Already dreading security and luggag-hefting as it is…
Themes are great. My husband has taken photos of every public fountain in Aix…..every water wheel in Sorgue. We have collections of doors. For us it improves our powers of observation. It is one of the best souvenirs of travel….it's a memory.
Ali
On another solo Europe trip decades ago, I joined a walking tour of The Fountains of Aix — that's a lot to photograph! So beautiful! I absolutely agree with you, Ali, that photos are such a good souvenir (and require no luggage space!)
A lifetime ago I collected windows, developed and printed the pictures myself and wrote my thesis on them.
Windows…perhaps even more evocative than doors…and especially in photographs, and then the liminality of moving from the images to the words. Sounds like a very engaging thesis.
You can never over think in Rome! Love all the many colour schemes…now where's my paint chart, time for a change. I LOVE WINDOWS can't wait for your next post. Look out for any good art exhibitions and add a link to Paint Monthly on my blog if you can. Barbara xx
I'll check out your Paint Monthly feature when I get back home, Barbara. Only managed one quick art ex. visit and that was to Barberini to peek/gawk at some Caravaggio, Raphael….
Hi Frances, great shots! I am truly impressed with your commitment! I have had similar quests with bicycles…I totally get the bike love. Another creative challenge I have had over the years is paths and roads and idea of where they might lead you. I started it a long time ago and always thought that one day I would collect my favourites and hang them together. That 'one day' is still out there. I have lost track of where all those photos are…in a host of computer files spread out between many hard drives. One of these days I just might get around to looking at them again. Thanks for the reminder! 😉
Ah, one day. . . and yes, the many places we've parked our digital memories, and the complexity of retrieving them. . . I love the idea of the paths and roads photographed, such evocative subjects.
Loving the photos! I'm also part of the club that takes lots of pictures with plans for collages, printing on canvas etc. However, wonderful surprise from hubby this Christmas when he enlarged and framed one I'd planned to do and had a selection of 2015 pictures printed in a book for me!! That's inspired me and we're now working on another book together. I enjoy looking at my pictures in book form much more than on the computer!
Thanks for sharing your photos of Rome and your daughter and granddaughter Frances.
Rosie
What a great Christmas present! So very, very thoughtful, and he must have been pleased to have pulled off such a surprise. My GF did a book for each of her kids putting together the best of their "growing up" photographs, and I thought it was such a good idea that I'm determined to go from digital to print with some of mine this year. I hope I also get a book of photos printed from each trip rather than leaving them all on computer. Need to do more than "hope"!