The Adventure Begins!

Good Morning Everybody,

And welcome to my first installment of our grand European photographic tour series.  I'll do my best to keep this a daily blog post, weekends excluded, for the next several weeks.  All this depends on travel schedules, internet connectivity, and unforeseen circumstances beyond my control. 

As I said yesterday, these postings will be more than just a simple travelogue.  My plan is to have these posts be very photo-centric with emphasis on photography, lighting, color, composition, and gear.  Don't forget, I'll also be conducting my Italy Workshop with fellow wedding photographer, Clay Blackmore beginning October 1, 2012 which will bring the posts back to a more portrait/wedding nature for that week.  I hope you find these next several weeks of reading informative, entertaining, and maybe even a bit inspirational  - please enjoy the posts.  -David

Time For Lift-off and A Nice Surprise!

After more than two weeks of non-stop 18+ hour days, we finally made it to the Greater Cincinnati Northern Kentucky Airport; cleared security, and boarded our big Delta jet. WOW!  What a surprise!  I walked up to the ticket counter and joking asked if we could be upgraded to first class. Heck, it never hurts to ask, right?

The gate agent asked my name, looks at his newly printed boarding passes for several passengers, and says, "You're in luck.  Bad weather in NYC put us in an overbooked situation in Coach and we upgraded our Platinum and Gold flyers to Business Class." I was floored and both LaDawn and I were thrilled.  What a great way to begin our two month journey - very comfortable large fully reclining seats and a glass of champagne, courtesy of Delta Airlines, to begin our adventure. Things were definitely looking up particularly after our grueling two weeks leading up to the trip ;~)

Eight and a half hours later we landed to a beautiful, brisk morning in Paris and two hours later boarded our plane to Florence, (Firenze) Italy. We landed  into a soggy, rainy airport, grabbed our bags, and caught a cab to our hotel.  Even though we were only 4 miles from the hotel, the traffic was bumper to bumper most of the way so it took us about 30 minutes to reach our historic J&J Hotel right in the middle of the city. We were finally checked in at 2:00 p.m. Italy time - that's 6:00 a.m. EST.

It still amazes me that we went from to our front door to our hotel room nearly 5000 miles away in only 13 hours!

After a short nap to help with the jet lag, (and besides it was pouring rain outside) LaDawn and I were out exploring at 6:00pm when the rain clouds finally subsided. What a great walking city to discover!  We had no idea where we were or where we were going and just proceeded to meander our way across the city for several hours.  The thrill for both of us is walking through not just the city but the history of the area as well.  My gosh, Florence was the birthplace of the Renaissance and we were in the middle of it and it showed! 

More to come,  David