One of the exhibits was of paintings by Fernando Botero, an artist I particularly like. The other exhibit was a photographic one: “Magnum America. The United States“.

Looking at the Magnum exhibits I got more pissed at every image. All the show was pure anti-American propaganda. Not a single picture was showing anything positive about the USA. Zero, nada. All of the images with their captions were just 100% propaganda to show the “dark side” of capitalism, free market and free people.

Check out the video if you want to hear the details.

It’s a fact that I have a soft spot for the USA, I love the Founding Fathers and what they created. I don’t pretend to see only the positive aspects of the USA and the free market culture, but there is not a single exhibits in the last years, specially if by Magnum photographers, that is not pure negativity about the USA.

It’s always some propaganda, anti-American, anti-Israel, promoting the climate change scam or whatever is the propaganda of the moment.

It’s not just sad and wrong, it’s 100% predictable and boring!

Art needs freedom!

Too bad every day we have less and less freedom in the EU.

My generation grew up with the dream of a big hi-fi system and I still have the desire to listen music in the proper way, not out of a cheap radio or, even worse, a smartphone.

I got the new Fosi Audio BT20A Max amplifier to create a desktop system for my computer but when I tested it on my main hi-fi system I was really surprised! The quality of this little amplifier is really good. I lot of dynamic and staging!

Check out the video and visit Fosi Audio official website where you can have 10% discount with the code LUIGIBARBANO

See you next time!

This year my message is very simple: don’t forget the real meaning of Christmas and don’t be afraid to celebrate it properly. Most of all, don’t be afraid to make the right moral choices all year.

Decorations, lunches, dinners, gift and so on are meant to be a celebration for the essence of Christmas but if you forget it, all the lights, food and money will never bring the real joy in your hart.

I wish you all a blessed Christmas full of joy and goodness.

For the technically curious followers this year imaged required:

1 Hi-Fi stereo system

1 Bach’s Christmas Oratorio CD

1 Glass of Lagavulin Scotch while listening

1 8×10 Cambo Legend viewcamera with a Schneider 300mm

1 4×5 Cambo MAsterPlus viewcamera with a Schneider 150mm

1 Hasselblad 503 cx with 80mm and extension tubes.

1 Pentax Mz-s with the 100mm macro

1 6×7 adapter for the 4×5 camera

1 Pentax K1 mkII with a Takumar 55mm 1.8 for the final image

5 film formats Ilford FP4

1l ID-11 developer

200cc Ilford Hypam

5 developing session in the darkroom

2 Broncolor Grafit A generators

3 Broncolor Pulso flah heads

~10 playing of a Christmas Jazz CD while creating the photograph

Going digital I converted a Fujifilm XPro-1 to infrared with a 720nm filter. It was not an easy process to make the conversion but was a lot of fun.
Infrared can convert familiar places in something new and stimulate the brain to get out of the habits and see in a different way.

In this book, Boves, the little Italian town where I live seen in Infrared!

The concept is pretty simple: the camera takes four pictures shifting the sensor 1 px in all directions so it can have an RGB triplet of information for every pixel to avoid the need to invent the values during the dmosaicing of the Bayer pattern as normally happens.

I will have to realize a series of still life of relatively small objects and I was wondering if the use of the Pixel Shift technology of my Pentax K1 MkII was worth or not. Using it means to have a much longer and complex workflow and the need to use continuous lights instead of flash, so the increase in quality must be balanced with the increase of time to realize the photographs.

Sadly most of the software are not capable to manage properly the Pixel Shift feature so often it means to have to change the entire workflow to get the best quality out of it.

In the video I go in detail in what I found in the experiment.

Here you can download the original RAW files in DNG so you can test yourself.

Pixel Shift 200 ISO

No Pixel Shift 200 ISO

Pixel Shift 6400 ISO

No Pixel Shift 6400 ISO

If you find an easy way to post-process the RAW files made with Pixelshift, let me know!

I participated with a series of images dedicated to the Italian life style. I chose to submit images showing the real life style, far from the crowded touristic spots where the landscape had been already modified to accommodate the expectations of the tourists.

I preferred to show real people in places where the soul of Italy is still present. Some places are little paradises, other urban environments affected by the decadence of the last years but all are still genuine.

Obviously the award is for images made with analog technologies. In this case all the images were realized on Ilford FP4 film with a Zeiss Ikonta from the 1930s.

Enjoy the pictures and check the Award page at www.analogsparksawards.com

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You can now, easily from the comfort of your home, buy some of my prints.

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Explore the collection and find the perfect piece to elevate your home or office.

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Merry Christmas and a Wonderful 2025 full of justice, freedom of speech and pruning of the governments’ trees!

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Christmas is the time to give what we have most precious. There was a time when gold, incense, and myrrh were rare, precious and essential in both their practical and spiritual nature. They were used to recognize the essence of Christ and the effort, choices and sacrifices we need to do each day to travel our life toward the Good.

In the modern times, where the world seems dominated by a diffuse evil stupidity, the most rare, precious and essential gifts we need to give are justice, freedom and a fight to limit the growing cancer of totalitarian governments.

The Wise Men showed us the way to make the world a much better place, where each of us is an equal son of the Lord, just by recognizing the daily choice between Good and Evil.

Every day we have to choose if we want to please Herod to have a semblance of power or if we want to honor Christ and have the long term goal of a better world for every human being, ourselves included.

Sometime is not easy to understand the direction we have to take but when on one side there is Herod, a king ready to kill or harm kids to not loose his power, censoring free speech, attempting to kill his opponents and growing exponentially the tentacles of his bureaucratic control, it is easy to see the path we have to take.

We chose the other side, the one representing justice, freedom and limited powers. May the Lord give to our modern Magi the force to pursue the Good in every choice they will have to make!

May the New Year bring us the freedom to produce, the peace needed to trade our products and a bright future of discoveries and great choices!

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If you are curious to see how I created the image, just check the video here!

I’m so good that this year I received the Claus House Seal of Approval for my 29 years of Christmas photographs! In time for the opening of my new Italian studio!

And here as usual my Christmas picture to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2024. I wish you to live in a free world where all the totalitarian dictators, real and in spirit, will be sent out of our way so we can create freely!

Have a great Christmas and see you all in the new year!

Ciao!

In partnership with La Dolce Vita Workshops, I created traveling workshops in Italy.

The workshops are designed for any level of expertise and will teach you to live everyday La Dolce Vita and bring it in your photographs.

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Italy is not just a place, it’s a lifestyle that created the most beautiful art and design. It’s a lifestyle you can live everywhere after you had experienced it in the proper way.

You can check the details of the workshops on www.ladolcevitaworkshops.com

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Book before Christmas 2023 and receive $500 discount.

Hurry up, only ten rooms available and usually fill up quickly!