I recently returned from a long weekend in the St. Tropez / Ramatuelle region of the South of France. Truly magical, and now I am searching endlessly for a house to retire early too...in my dreams.
I shot the whole weekend with my mom’s old Nikon FM2 — My go to travel camera. What I love is that the camera is lightweight, and goes unnoticed.
My sister and I recently spent just over a week exploring Capri and Rome. I shot the whole trip in film, on my mom's old Nikon FM2 with a mix of Fuji Superia and Kodak Portra. I had really been liking the Superia, but now (unfortunately for my wallet) I cannot get enough of the Portra. It lends such a beautiful and timeless quality to the images.
I was a bit hesitant to travel with only a film camera -- How can you check to see if you need to take another shot? What if you want to scroll through your images during a long lunch? Or edit immediately upon your return to reality? However, I found that with limiting myself to one camera, one lens, and one method, I was able to tune out some of the nonsense that comes with constantly being connected to the digital method. I eagerly awaited the processing of the film, like a kid on Christmas day, and it made the present of unwrapping the images that much more special.
My sister and I love to travel together. We rarely plan things completely, letting the trip take its course. With this trip, Lucy flew over to the Netherlands where we spent a few days before heading to Italy. We flew into Rome, and hopped on the train to Naples, where took a ferry out to Capri. I love traveling like this, while for most it my seem like an endless day of logistics, you see so much, and interact with so many people on such a mundane day to day basis, I always find the travel days fun. Once on Capri we found our way to small bed and breakfast, luckily we packed light, as the house was aways down a hill towards Marina Piccola. After four nights on Capri we headed to Sorrento for a night, which was a bustling city in comparison to Capri.
Lucy and I have long been infatuated by Roman culture and history, I think it had to do with the school where we grew up in Virginia which founded a life long appreciation and fascination with ancient Greek and Roman History. We have long wanted to go to Pompeii, and after our evening in Sorrento, caught a train to Pompeii. I cannot even put into words how amazing and special the experience was, and I urge you all to follow on Instagram @pompeii parco archeologico. There you can stay up to date will all of their findings and closely examine the uncovering and display of new art and fresco’s that are found, which is so cool.
After Pompeii, we continued by train back to Rome, where we spend four nights to finish up our trip. I had never been to Rome before this trip, and I cannot wait to return. We wandered endlessly through the tiny streets, poking into shops, and sitting for afternoons drinking coffee and wine outside on the terraces of the city. Such a special trip, and I cannot wait to return.
