This semester, I had the pleasure of taking a black and white film photography class to satisfy my studio course credit for my Art History major. In the class, we not only learned photography fundamentals (composition, choosing a subject, lighting, etc.), but also how to develop our negatives and make our own prints.
I just finished shooting my twentieth roll this weekend, meaning I’ve taken 720 photos this semester! Now that I’ve completed the required number of rolls for the course, I thought I should share some of my favorite photos (thank you digital scanners!):
A sculpture in the Hendrik Christian Anderson Museum.
One of the many photos of my evening gondola ride in Venice.
A table packed with books at the Mercato di Porta Portese.
A view of the Temple of Saturn at the Roman Forum.
Another view of the Roman Forum, this time with the Colosseum.
The Victor Emmanuel II National Monument in Piazza Venezia.
The Colosseum underground.
A very sweet dog I met outside of the Re di Roma metro stop.
I look forward to sharing more photos in another post if anyone is interested! In the meantime, it’s time for me to prepare for the end of the semester! Arrivederci!
The trees along the Tiber have turned a beautiful color!
The chill of fall has fully settled in, and with that all of the rain I was warned about! During this first week of November, I experienced my first serious storm, complete with thunder and lightning.
November, however, is also that month in the fall semester where everything begins to pile up: I’m keeping up with photography, preparing to write my paper for Roman Art & Archaeology, practicing my Italian, and translating Plato, Cicero, and Varro. While constantly putting out my best work for five classes (which is one more than I’ve ever taken in my past four semesters at Holy Cross), I’ve found that I’m struggling to make time for myself. These have largely shaped my goals for November:
Seek recommendations. Ask professors and classmates for their favorite museums, restaurants, shops, and general places to visit. Asking friends and professors for recommendations not only saves me time, but will likely expose me to places I wouldn’t look for on my own! I’ve made a folder on Google Maps of places I want to visit, but many of them are far enough that I would need to save them for a weekend trip. Which leads to my next goal…
Plan at least one weekend trip. Planning a trip is a daunting task, especially if going alone: Buying a train ticket there and back, securing a place to stay, choosing what activities to do… There’s a lot to take into account! Even if I don’t travel this month as the semester wraps up, I at least want to have some trips planned for the spring!
I’ll keep this post short, as my past posts have been quite long! I look forward to seeing what November brings me!
