Day 2: 4-5 hours of nothing but Rome!

Well, I'm glad I packed some comfy shoes.
But regardless of that my feet and legs still hurt.  Whether it is the still getting acclimated to being six hours ahead of the east coast or how much time I spent perusing the streets of Rome, I'm glad that I am actually getting tired around an appropriate time.

Today I figured out how to use the metrobus system!  Now I know that figuring out the public transit system might not seem like a big deal, but in Rome it is a bit more complicated than back in the states.  The metrebus system is comprised of both buses and metro trains.  Here it isn't free and you have to buy tickets which vary in type depending on what you plan to do, and you have to validate the ticket when you get on the bus.  Well, I say have to, but the ticket validation part works on the honor system.  Lemme esplain.

So to buy a ticket you have to visit the tobacco shops and purchase one in there.  You can also find tickets at a ticket machine, but I don't know what those look like, and can't read the Italian anyways.  Luckily there is a tabacchi right across the street from where I'm staying, so that made things easy.  You have a couple of choices.  From what I understand, one option is a single-trip ticket, another is a daily ticket.  The first costs €1,50 and the other costs €6,00 euro.  There are also other tickets available for purchase which last a few days, a week and a month, but I wasn't interested in these, as soon I will be traveling with my study abroad group.  Although the single-trip ticket sounds pretty straightforward, you can get multiple uses out of this type of ticket.  Once you validate this ticket on the bus you are cleared to use the metrebus for the next 100 minutes, regardless of how many transfers to other buses you make.  However, it is only good for one metro trip only.  So to get the most out of your ticket, it is best to use the buses first to get to a metro that will take you to your destination, after which you ticket is invalid.  Stefano was very helpful explaining this system to me, but I still had to look up some of this stuff online.  The daily ticket lets you ride the bus or metro up until midnight of the date you purchased it on.  Since I planned on going into Rome and back again, I saved €3,00 and just bought two single-trip tickets.

The whole thing works on the honor system.  The driver doesn't check to make sure your ticket is valid or that you even have one.  Rome is much too busy and so many people use the metrebus that checking every single person is impractical and wastes too much time.  However, from reading about this online, there are ticket checkers which sometimes will be on the bus and if they suspect that you haven't the proper validation will demand to see you ticket.  The fine is either €50,00 on the spot or about €100,00 if you chose to pay later.  I think I stand out being American, so I wasn't going to risk it.  Once on the bus you pop your ticket into the validation machine, which are bright yellow and located in two places on most buses, and it time stamps it and spits it back to you.  From there the clock is ticking.

But single-trip tickets do usually work for a single trip.  To get into Rome it took me nearly 15-20 minutes, but leaving at around 5:00 it took upwards to 30-40 minutes.  Rome is a bustling city and tourist center, so traffic does slow things down.

After I arrived at Piazza Venezia, a huge piazza where most all buses passed through one way or another, as it is pretty much in the heart of Rome, I went into to shutter-bug mode.  The first thing I shot getting off the bus was the obvious one, the Altare della Patria, or Alter of the Fatherland.  It is a huge, monumentally enormous, beautiful pure white marble structure which was built in 40 years (1885-1925) to honor King Victor Emmanuel II, who was unified Italy's first king.  It is 440' across and 230' high, not including the statues atop it, which are also beautiful.  After I was down gawking in awe and taking photos, I ventured around the beast and walked south along Via dei Fori Imperiali, along a route that Stefano suggested I take.  The Colosseum lies along this route, but I wasn't interested in visiting it quite yet, as I know it is very, very, very packed with tourists pretty much all the time and I know my study abroad group will be making an excursion there at some point.  Instead I ventured around Foro Romano and Piazza del Campidoglio and took photos of all the old Roman architecture and structures.

Alteare della Patria "The Wedding Cake," Piazza Venezia.

Statues on Alteare della Patria.

Panorama of Foro Romano (Roman Forum).

I was more interested in simply walking around and seeing everything I could, and I didn't realize that I was standing in Piazza del Campidoglio when I was today.  In fact, I didn't even notice the huge plaza with it's symmetrical design and only got photos of some of the sculptures in front of one of the Palazzo Senatorio.  I realize where I was now that I am looking up info on all these places, and am sad I missed out on truly appreciating where I was standing.  Tomorrow I will have to plan better and do research beforehand, but today was a great day just wandering around, the only thing to guide me being a crudely drawn path. After about 45-60 minutes of walking around I finally found where I was on the map near Cicro Massimo and continued my route to someplace near Piazza Cavalieri di Malta, which Stefano had marked on my map.  He told me that in that spot I could see clear over Rome to St. Peter's Basilica.  The path led away from the bustling part of Rome and soon it was very quiet.  It was a nice contrast from how many people were in central Rome.  I don't think I quite found the place Stefano marked though, but I was able to see St. Peter's Basilica from wherever I ended up, so I considered it a success.  I'm sure had I found Piazza Cavalieri di Malta, or if I noticed it as I most likely walked right by it, I would have gotten a better view.

A sculpture outside Palazzo Senatorio in Piazza del Campidoglio.

The view of St. Peter's Basilica from where I was standing.

And here I got lost again, trying to find a bridge called Ponte Sublicio to cross the river which runs right through Rome, the Fuime Tevere.  Since I was on higher ground to see the Basilica, I had to walk quite a distance before I found the water and then I followed that to the bridge.  After I crossed, I got lost again... and wandered in what I thought was the way to Ponte Garibaldi.  I eventually recognized an intersection on my map and was back on track to the next bridge to bring me back to the heart of Rome.

Fuime Tevere.

It was when I found my way again I began to pass a great many people as the sidewalks I traversed turned into streets of their own which no cars drove on. This was near Piazza Sidney Sonnino, but not quite there.  I stopped here for lunch at a small pizza parlor.  It's simplicity and small size lured me in, a contrast to mostly restaurants or busy cafes I had passed up to this point.  Lucky for me the clerk, server, I don't know what to call them, spoke English well, and I chose a pizza which I thought only had tomatoes and olives on it.  I began eating to discover that there was a distinct fishy taste and smell, which I assumed was anchovies.  It wasn't half bad, however I chose not to keep them on for what pizza I had left.  It was too strong of a taste for me to keep them on.  I have never had anchovies on pizza before, but if there was any place in the world to try it for the first time, I would think it would be Italy.

Afterwards I continued across Ponte Garibaldi.  As I looked at my map I noticed that the Pantheon was nearby and decided I wanted to go there.  Yet somehow I managed to get lost again, and before I knew it I was staring at Piazza Venezia again.  From here the Pantheon seemed much too far to travel after the four hours I spent walking and getting lost again and again, I simply didn't have it in me to make the journey or figure out the metrebus to get there more quickly.  I decided to call it for today.

I went to the place the bus originally dropped me off in the piazza.  After waiting about 10 minutes it arrived, and I traveled a whole 50 yards before it stopped and everyone got off.  What I thought was a bus that ran a single route in circles all day wasn't so.  Turns out that when this bus finishes it route at the piazza, you have to board another bus, with the same number, to run the route back the way I came.  Heheh, I feel like such an idiot, I sat in a seat near the back for a good 15 seconds with the bus driver looking at me the whole time before he motioned for me to get off the bus.  Good thing I'm a tourist.  I waited at that stop and waited for the next #60 bus to come around.

This bus got packed, fast.  I chose not to take a seat, which was a horrid mistake.  After the first two stop I didn't think we could fit any more people on it.  People were so close to the door that they were moving just barely out of the way for it to close before pressing themselves up against it.  We were shoulder to shoulder the whole ride back, and I was paranoid that someone would pickpocket me and I kept checking my pockets to make sure everything was where it should be.  I didn't carry my money in my wallet, but I still had my ID in it and was not looking forward to having that replaced later.  When what I thought was my stop arrived (turned out to be 2 stops too early, my aching legs!) I didn't think I would make it to the door before they shut again, but somehow I managed to squeeze on out.  I carried my tired self to my room, began the photo transfer, and then passed out for a hour.

So today was a good, busy, wonderful, wandering adventure of a day!
If I made it sound like I didn't enjoy it in the text above, it is probably just because I am recounting this now at 12:16 AM and am very tired and want to finish typing this.  In all honesty it was truly a wonderful day, I must have had a stupid grin on my face 90% of the time today.  The weather was perfect, the air was cool, the sun was behind a mild overcast and it didn't rain too!  This city has so much history and the culture is so rich.  I love it here.

I have finished uploading the photos from day 1, and will probably work on the ones from today tomorrow morning before venturing out again.  I want to return to Piazza del Campidoglio and see and photograph it fully tomorrow, as well as visit the Pantheon.  From where I go then I will either figure out tomorrow morning or just venture off like I did today.  It will be another adventure.

Alright, good night everyone.  Once again I am exhausted, but it is a wonderful feeling to finally have again NOT at 3:00 in the morning (as is usually the case back in Florida).

Buonanotte everyone.

Day 1: Flights and getting situated

*On the flight from Orlando to Gatwick Airport*

Well the journey to Italy has begun.
I have never flown over the Atlantic towards the East before, but man is it bizarre.  Time seems to speed up.  I took off around 5:45 and found myself staring at the sunset an hour later.  Night was soon upon us and I felt I should sleep with three hours to go.  When I woke up two hours later, it was day time again.  The night lasted literally 4 whole hours.  Ridiculous!  I woke to the sound of everyone opening their breakfast packs, wrapped in plastic, which sounded like popcorn crawling up the cabin.  So quickly time seems to move, and everyone aboard seemed to operate along with it like it was nothing special.  I can’t keep up with these brits.

I swear I haven’t heard one person with an American accent on my flight so far.  And I love it.

And now tea is being served, at 6:30 AM local time.  How splendid, I love it!  The earl grey smells so incredibly lovely.  Heh, already I am using key words of their vocabulary and I have only been around them for a few hours.  A few seven hours to be precise.  I probably shouldn’t be typing this out with it on my laptop, but what the heck is a warranty for.

We are about an hour out now.  Local time is 6:30 AM, and the time on the east coast of the United States is currently 1:30 AM.  Such a difference, I can’t believe it.  But there have been so many things I can’t believe so far.  Every time I look at the map which routes our journey, I smile at the fact that I can think to myself “I have never been here before.”  Even if it is just ocean, I don’t care.  The fact that I am about to be in Great Britain is still something I can’t quite believe.

Ah!  And the true excitement is setting in.  I literally can’t stop smiling.  Everything is so different and I haven’t even gotten off the plane yet.

So let me go enjoy my tea now.

Snow capped mountains, somewhere over Europe.

*Sitting in my room at the B&B completely exhausted*

It the title didn't tip you off, this isn't going to be a very long post.

The jet lag or whatever has caught up to me.  It is the first time I have been tired at 9:30 at night in a long time.  I was going to go out and see Rome at night and how alive and lit up it is or isn't, but right now sleep is calling my name, as soon as I move these photos over and clear my camera for tomorrow.

Breakfast is at 9:00 AM and the owner of this B&B, Stephano, has been extremely helpful with getting me settled here in Rome.  He said he was going to look into when the museums open at the Vatican tomorrow, because apparently they aren't open all the time or something.  Italy is a very confusing place if you have never been before, and here I am for the first time since I was a baby/toddler setting foot on European soil.  Or rock.  Like how New York is called the concrete jungle, I would call this place the stone jungle.  It is a city, as grand and busy as some in the United States, but Rome has been around waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy longer than anything in the US and is crafted by the Italian and many European cultures.  It truly is a beautiful city.

On this first day I didn't stray too far from the B&B (I'm just gonna call it a hotel from now on), perhaps an hour walk through the streets and another hour around two different parks.  The first park I visited was one Stephano recommended, called Villa Torlonia.  I perused around for a while longer, got yelled from across the street to stop taking photos of a stoplight (they were in military uniform, so I assume it might have been an embassy of some sort they thought I was photographing), wandered around another beautiful park and then grabbed a authentic Roman panini on my way back.  I'm still getting used to barely hearing any English spoken regularly and buying things with euros.

Photos should be up by tomorrow.  It is my effort to make a blog posting each of the three days I get to have before the study abroad group arrives, but when the summer semester begins I am unsure how frequently I will be able to keep ya'll updated (I've had to remove that word from my vocabulary around here).  Photos will get posted as soon as I finish editing them as I go.

Have fun everyone, I know I am!  Good night Floridians and Bahamians, where the time is currently 3 fricken 30 in the fricken afternoon.  This is gonna take some getting used to.  Good thing I get the time to before everyone else get here, so I'm ahead of the game.

Ciao ciao!

An obelisk in Villa Torlonia.

The museum at Villa Torlonia. 

Villa Torlonia itself.

This was the photo I was taking of the stoplight when I was yelled at to stop by the military.  You can see their camo truck across the street, between the stoplight and streetlight poles.

It followed me here!

The FCC and the "Open Internet" Proposal

I will not pretend to know everything about politics,
or that I am an expert on what is going on in Washington, but you may have heard of something that is going on regarding the FCC and a proposal which they are intending to implement which will put Net Neutrality six feet under.  I've been doing some research into what is going on and why it is important, and it turns out that time is running out.  This Thursday the FCC is unveiling this proposal which will allow internet service providers (ISPs) to charge content providers and internet entities (such as Facebook, Netflix, Youtube, etc.) for a "fast lane" on their Internet connections.

While this might sound good when the politicians talk about it, it is simply a lie, a twisting of the actual concept to make it sound like a good thing.  The difference between labeling something as 75% lean and 25% fat.

In reality, this "fast lane" is the Internet connection as it is already.  The illusion of the "fast lane" is created when those Internet entities which won't pay for this privilege are slowed down by the ISPs.  It is discrimination in an open and neutral Internet, which has been the backbone of all online innovation.  And while the big entities might be able to pay for this privilege, smaller businesses and entities will be at an extreme competitive disadvantage.  What if a service such as Netflix had emerged under these conditions?  If they were unable to pay for this "fast lane" access, video streaming would be so obnoxiously slow that it would not be worth the trouble to use the service, and the business would fail.  It is because of Net Neutrality that online businesses and services have emerged, grown and prospered as they have, because of a open, neutral and indiscriminate Internet.  What the FCC is proposing to do stifles innovation to generate more profits few and the detriment of those of us which rely on or use the Internet every day.

To help explain this a little more
here are some links to some articles and videos which help sum up what is really going on with this "Open Internet" proposal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtt2aSV8wdw  (3:33 mins)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAxMyTwmu_M  (11:02 mins)

Calling the FCC and your representatives in Congress help fight the battle.  A recent reddit blog makes this act simple and easy enough to do, and you don't have add anymore than your stated opinion unless you want to.  I have included a copy of this procedure below.  Their offices close at 5:30 PM, so if you cannot reach someone, press 1 at the end of step two to leave a message.  I recommend saying it once or twice to yourself before making the call.

Call FCC - *please be courteous
1.  Dial 888-225-5322
2.  Push 1, 4, 0
3.  A person will answer
4.  They will ask for your name and address.  You can just give them a zip code if you want.
5.  "I'm calling to ask the FCC to reclassify Internet Service Providers as Title Two Common Carriers."
6.  They'll ask if there is anything else you would like to add.
7.  "No, thank you for your time."
8.  Hang up.

You can also send a message to your representatives in Congress here.

I urge you to take action.
There may be another battle around the corner about the same issue, phrased in another way, hiding in another proposal or bill, but doing nothing is surely to admit defeat.  If you believe in democracy, then you have to participate in democracy.  Otherwise they will walk all over you and twist this world with money and greed until the image of what America is and is meant to be is nothing but a chapter in the history books.

I urge you, make your voice heard and take action.

Future Plans

Well, the semester is coming to a close.

I already have three of my five classes completed, with A's I believe.  If they come back anything less I will be thoroughly disappointed.  I worked really hard this semester, and I'm not just tooting my own horn.  The online classes were rigorous and thick with material to read, absorb and reflect on, and the classes on campus required a great deal of work outside of class, in solo and group projects.  Finals week wasn't my hell week, it was the final projects in all of my classes which stressed and demanded the most from me.  I am relieved the semester is almost over.

And now I that I have a chance to breathe, I can look forward to everything that is planned for this summer!

Which is quite a lot, actually.

For those of you who don't know, I am spending the first half of my summer in Italy.  From May 17 to June 30 I'll be on a faculty-led study abroad trip, taking a photography and a history course.  The entire itinerary is pretty hectic, they plan a lot for us to do in a month and a half.  So much so that I can't remember exactly where I'll be going, but I do know we will be based out of Rome and travelling to Florence, Tuscany and Pompeii.  I am so fricken excited to get to go be somewhere completely new, I'm looking forward to the culture shock.  And with a camera the whole time!  Imagine the possibilities!  There are new places, new settings, new people, new architecture, new urban scenes, a whole entire culture to photograph.  I'll probably become much more active in my blog once I have something new to talk about every day!

And after Italy I venture off to Norway for a week or so to visit Rikke's country.  I know some about Italy and the famous places there, but I know jack diddly about Norway.  But from what I've seen and from what Rikke has told me of it, Norway is going to be so beautiful.  Thank goodness it will be the middle of summer, I would hate to be frozen the whole visit.  What will be even better is that I will be seeing the country with someone who lives there and can show me the hidden gems only a local would know.  I'm so fricken excited to get to go there too, and with someone as awesome as Rikke!  And I'll be photographing everything about this place too.  It's gonna be awesome amazing.

And then after THAT I fly back to the states for a one day before flying across the country, out to Portland, Oregon.  My dad has invited me to travel with him, my grandpa and possibly my little cousin up and down the west coast, first to attend the World Domination Summit, then visit Puget Sound in Washington, then on down to San Francisco, and everywhere in between.  Now that classes are almost out of the way, I have the opportunity to research where we are traveling and making lists of where to stop along the way.  I have a feeling my favorite ones will be the ones we don't plan, the ones where we branch of the road well-traveled.  And, again all with my camera, and with other photographers to share with and discuss.

It's gonna be an eventful summer, to say the least.

And a special thank you to everyone who helped put it all together.  Thank you to my family for the financial support backing my study abroad trip.  Some money came through in scholarships, but without you guys I wouldn't be going overseas this summer.  Thank you to Dad and Flo for planning the entire west coast adventure, and getting me into the WDS.  And thank you to Dr. Murphy of UNF, for helping with funding and planning the Italy trip.  The kindness you show me I did nothing to deserve and I am truly grateful for your efforts and involvement.  And thank you Rikke, for giving me a place to stay in your home country, which I am dying to see.

I couldn't be where I am today and wouldn't be where I plan to be without all of you, in one way or tons more you all have gotten me to where I am today.  I feel truly special to be given these opportunities.

Keep up with the blog in the coming months, it's most likely going to get a lot busier.

UNF Life Promotional Video

In my production course we were tasked to create a promo video for a hypothetical show about life at UNF.  Other assignments we have done over the semester have been related to this fake show (I'm starting to think the professor is planning on making a legit show out of all the student material!) and so the point of this promo was to bring all the techniques and tools we have learned over the semester to create a 30 second promo.

Our was the only group one with two people, as opposed to three, so we had some technical challenges, but luckily we had an idea, a model to work off of and a really driven group member who knocked out most of the editing process.

So this is kind of the final product of what I learned in the class.  Enjoy!

UNF Life Promo Project by Kyle Dodd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Wiz Khalifa Concert at UNF

So this might come as a surprise to some of my viewers, or maybe not, but I actually like rap and hip-hop music now.  Yeah, crazy, if you knew me way back when, the kid who hated anything on the radio for the sheer fact it was on the radio.

But times change, friends change and people change, and I change too.

So in the spirit of doing something I never have before, I'm taking the opportunity to go see a rap concert, or show, whatever they are called hosted by UNF.  Wiz Khalifa!

I've attended concerts and other kinds of musical performances, but never a rap concert.  This will be interesting to say the least!

Photo Montage

The name of my latest assignment in photography had to do with photo montages.  I'm not sure if this just what my professor calls this idea or if this is the technical term, but the assignment was to take photos I shot myself and combine them into one or two compositions in such a way that they look realistic, as if I took that photo with my camera in real life.  The point of the assignment was to work with perspective and use Photoshop to ensure it appeared natural, keeping in mind proportions, lighting, shadows, focus, ISO etc. in terms of one-point perspective.  It had to look real and convincing.

My first idea explored the paradox of progress as it relates to technology, handheld devices specifically.  We all know how we can get absorbed into our phones and become so distant from others or what is going on around us.  I'm not going to go into the social or societal impact or give my two cents on the matter; we all know how alienating these devices can be.  I wanted to illustrate this idea by setting up social scenarios or settings in which social interaction are usually going on, but with everyone on their devices, and use a photo of them being social over the first photo.  I would use this as the base photo and desaturate it flatten the colors and make it look quite dull, and then cutout the people from the "social" photo, drop the opacity to 30-40%, and keep the original color to emphasize the vibrance and happiness of everyone interacting.

The idea sounded good in my head, but I didn't quite like my results.  Here is one of them:

Family Dinner by Kyle Dodd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

It conveys the point, but I only if it is explained beforehand, I think.  Another reason I was dissatisfied with this was because I felt that it didn't meet the criteria of the project.  I didn't appropriate other photos into it and adjust them to match a certain perspective, I didn't need to focus on keeping lighting, focus, focal length or perspective across images because I basically took the same one twice, just having the models do something different.  I did have to use multiple images for the "social" side of it, since movement was a problem in the low light and lack of a real tripod, but I didn't have to transform the content at all to match the base photo, because it already did.  The only thing I did to keep a realistic perspective was add in the shadow under the woman's arm on the right as she passes the man something.  Another key disappointment was that it didn't appear realistic, as if I had taken the shot in real life like that.  When in real life is there two of a person, much less doing two different things?

So I got my brain cranking on another idea.  Mom was there to help brainstorm ideas and soon I was able to piece together an idea that would be elegantly simple and meet the criteria perfectly.  We got on the subject of games centered around this idea of replacing parts or players of the game with people.  In this way I could show how people are a part of a game, for better or worse, and pawns in the game of chess came to mind. So my new idea became this one about how we may just be pawns in someone's game.

I was much more satisfied with these results as far as composition goes and meeting the project criteria:

Just Pawns in a Game by Kyle Dodd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

I used the studio to shoot the chess board with what lighting I wanted, and then took full portraits of the models with the same lighting and Photoshopped them in where the pawns would go.  Editing in shadows, transforming the people to the correct sizes, and white balancing each photo to keep consistent color was easy enough.  I didn't even have to worry about one-point perspective changes between photos (I didn't have to worry about objects which were closer to the camera being in sharper focus than objects further away) since they were at the same depth of field as the rest of the chess pieces.

Some criticisms included the fact that come chess pieces seem to reflect onto the board and I neglected to create reflections for the people and that the people looked a bit blurry (except for the right most person).  I did think the people were too sharp for the background and did blur them a bit, and I must have too much.

Overall the critique was positive and I was given compliments for the work by my peers, even for the first image (I submitted both).  Thanks to Mom for helping me come up with this idea, hope you enjoy what you helped create.