The chamois is a a goat-antelope native to the mountains of Europe. I photographed this one in Gran Paradiso National Park in the Alps of northwest Italy. I believe this to be a male. The more pronounced curve to the horns and especially those cinnamon colored patches to the inner side of the eyes are characteristics absent in female chamois. And yes, the chamois cloth gets its name from the chamois’ soft leather hide. Nikon D300 with Nikkor 70-200mm lens (at 150mm) ISO 800, f/4 at 1/200th of a second.

As the snow continues to fall outside (at least here in the northeast) I thought I’d brighten the day with this one I took in Italy back in May of 2010. Hang in there people, the flowers will be blooming again here soon. For this shot, I was lying on my back in a field of poppies somewhere along the side of the road in Tuscany. Oh to be lying on my back in a field of poppies somewhere along the side of the road in Tuscany right now.
Nikon D700 with Nikkor 17-35mm lens (at 17mm) ISO 200, f/18 at 1/400th of a second

This one was taken late in the afternoon in a valley beneath the Tuscan hill town of Montalcino.

This chamois, high in the Italain Alps, was giving me his best Zoolander look. The name chamois obviously raises a few questions, so a bit of history is in order. The words shammy and chamois were commonly used in the south of France in the late 1600’s to describe a soft leather specially prepared from any goat-like creature, and in particular the European antelope. The leather was of premium quality and used primarily in the making of gloves. In a nearby town, the leather was tanned in cod oil, which is when it was discovered to have incredible absorbency qualities. This was perfect for the soft white gloves worn by carriage footmen, who were responsible for the care and polishing of carriages. Later on, chauffeurs in the early 1900s used chamois gloves to dry windshields for better visibility. Today, of course, the common chamois is not leather at all, but a synthetic material with a high absorbency rating. As always, I aim to educate.

Nothing much to say here, just a young ibex somewhere high in the Italian Alps.

Seems an awful lot of friends have been traveling to the Cinque Terre region of the Italian Riviera lately so I thought I’d post a shot. I was recently there for the third time when I got this early morning photo of Vernazza, my favorite of the five small fishing villages that make up the Cinque Terre.

Alpine ibex are a form of wild goat that live in the Alps. This one is a male, photographed in a captive situation on my recent trip to Italy. Both males and females have horns, but the males are substantially longer, growing more than 3 feet in length. The horns are mainly used for defense against predators like wolves, lynxes, bears and foxes.

We stumbled upon this landscape while driving from Montalcino to Montepulciano in southern Tuscany. In several of the Tuscan hill towns, we had seen postcards depicting this exact view. I would have liked to have photographed it either earlier or later in the day when the light was more dramatic, but those low clouds provided an interesting sky and just enough cover to diffuse the sun a bit.

Volterra is a classic Tuscan hill town, sitting high above the farmland below and encircled by a 13th century stone wall. Just below the wall in this particular shot you can see the old Roman Theater, which was built in about 10 BC but cut off from the city by the wall and soon forgotten. Eventually it would be covered in garbage, serving as the town dump, until being rediscovered in the 1950s.

Despite the fact that I hate the crowds, this was my third time back to Venice. Finally, however, I figured out the perfect way to visit; show up at 4 PM after all the day trippers and cruise shippers have gone for the day and then get out by noon the next day before they’ve all returned. It really is a great place at night when the buildings along the canals light up and you have room to move and really enjoy it. This shot was taken from the most famous of all the bridges, the Rialto Bridge, peering through its railings at the Grand Canal below.