463 steps later...

 On July 1st our group went on an exhausting adventure.  We tackled the Duomo.  We climbed the 463 steps (yes you read that right 463!) to the top of the Cupola.  Even though it was very exhausting and scary at times it was well worth it, especially after what we went through to make it to the Duomo.

      The day before we had attempted to go to the Duomo for our Dante class, but as we were walking to the Duomo it began to down pour. Let me say it rarely rains in Florence but when it does it is no joke, and I had my camera with me so I was freaking out a little.  The wind was so strong and the rain was so hard we had to stop walking and huddle in the rain under useless umbrellas on a street corner.  at this time there were only five of us, everyone else was at the Duomo but still outside. We found our way to the covered courtyard of a museum and waited out the rain.  We called our professor to hear that the event had been delayed 90 minutes, so we called the people of the closest apartment and headed that way.  Once we got to the apartment we realized all 15 of us were there soaking wet. We called Molly to kindly ask for the event to be moved because we didn't want to climb all soaking wet and miserable since it was the event we had most looked forward too.  She agreed and it was moved.

      On the next day after a rough night (two people had wallets stolen when we went out) we were not sure if any of us had the energy to make the 463 steps up to the cupola. It was also questionable because it was very cloudy and windy, it looked like it was going to pour again any minute. Molly said we had to do the climb today and by the time we got to the top the cool weather would be welcomed, which was true.

      The climb was long and cramped. the walls were close and the people were closer.  it was an adventure I will never forget and would gladly do again, which I might before I leave!

The Duomo peaking out behind the baptisty 

Duomo from Piazza di Michalangelo, we climbed to the top of the red dome

Another picture of the Duomo

My friend playing a violin while waiting to climb the Duomo

Line to get to climb to Duomo

 

Inside the Duomo

While climbing to the top we got a close up look at the painting on the ceiling of the Duomo

The scary Devil. For one of my classes in Italia we are reading Dante's Divina Commedia . We are currently in the seventh circle of hell and we continuously hear about Lusifer (In the picture above) and how scary he is. That is why he is here in my blog. He is the scariest devil I have seen so far.

Roommates and I at the top of the Duomo

     

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Venezia!

        Over the weekend (June 17-18) our group went to Venezia.  Here are some photographs I took while there.  The first few hours we were in Venice it was pouring and we all thought the trip was going to be a disaster.  The rain finally ended after lunch and we headed o Saint Mark's Cathedral where we had the opportunity to climb to the top and see a beautiful view of Venice.  We went to a small island where there was a church and bell tower we were going to climb, but during the rain the tower had been struck by lightening so we never had the chance to climb to the top due to time restraints.  The next of our adventure were had a load of free time after visiting two churches. My roommates and I somehow got lost for over and hour in the felt like the worlds largest maze of canals and small alleys.  We finally found our way back to the area around our hotel where I bought a Venetian mask.  I cannot wait for my parents to come over to Italy to visit and go back to Venezia.
        I am slowly learning the italian language and I can now somewhat order food in Italian.  Every time I get to use my new italian skills I get super excited.  I have learned a lot of information so far and it has only been one week.  I am here for seven more weeks and have a ton of information to learn and many new adventures to experience.  I have already had a blast and I'm not sure if it has really hit me yet that I will be here for another seven weeks.

Gondolas! 

Inside Saint Mark's cathedral the walls and ceilings are covered in gold

View from the top of Saint Mark's Cathedral

Venezia is where Carnival originated and masks are a big part of the Venetian culture.

The whole Ohio University group!

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Why am I going to Italy?

     Tomorrow at 5pm I will be on a plane leaving for what may be the biggest adventure of my life so far. I will be learning a years worth of Italian in one summer and I will be reading Dante's Divine Comedy. I have cried so much realizing I'm leaving my family for 2 months, to be on my own, in a unfamiliar country, with people I just meet in class. This terrifies me, but I took on this adventure to prove to myself that I can be independent and survive without my family by my side all the time. This adventure forces me to rely on myself.  I cannot come home whenever I get frustrated and scared. I hope by the end of this experience I will be changed for the better. I'm sorry this I such a deep wordy post, and in case you haven't caught on this blog will be devoted to Italy for the next few months. This is the next big step in my life and I hope you follow me through it and give me some support during my times of struggle.

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Final Series

My final project of the quarter was an open topic.  It had to be three images all tied together with one idea.  I chose the idea of color.  Here are the photos I chose for my final and so I really liked.

This is Image 1 of my series.

Image 2

Image 3

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Found Object

So this week was the Found Object assignment.   A found object is anything not new and anything that will never be out dated for example like an Ipod.  I decided to challenge myself this week so I shot tools.  It may have backfired on my because I found it difficult.  Tell me what you think.

I really liked this photo because it was simple but I didn't use it because some people didn't know what it was.

This is the photo I used for class. I really liked it because of the dramatic lighting and the composition causes the eye to move around the photo.

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Studio Still Life

I had to do a still life photography assignment for my commercial photography class.  I realized I had a lot of old cameras and film.  I also found a bunch of family pictures which were older or black and white so I did still life of my camera materials.  Here is what I came up with. I really like these pictures and I hope you do to!

This is the photo I used for my class.

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Portraits

I had to do a portrait of a classmate as well as a business portrait.

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Location Fashion

One of my assignments for my Vico class was a location fashion shoot. Here is what I came up with.

Hope you enjoyed my photos. Please leave comments, or suggestions of photos you want to see posted as well as ideas for photos I can take. Thank You.

Aruba!

I went to Aruba for spring Break, and I know this is late but here are a lot of pictures from my vacation.

The day we arrived this umbrella was on the beach with people sitting under it. The next day the tide had eroded the part of beach this umbrella was sitting on and the thing fell into the ocean. it was tied to a tree so it would not go anywhere.

This was my lizard friend who I stalked to get this picture

Downtown Aruba

The jeep we rode in for the Jeep Safari tour. I was convinced I was going to die because our driver really enjoyed the "look no hands" approach.

This was actually a cave and this was all natural light. I do not know what made the light this color but i thought it was really pretty and interesting.

Guess what animal this is.

Sunset sail

This was a sad day, I was flying back home to Cincinnati where it was snowing.