Wednesday, June 13, 2007

John Scalzi's Monday Photo Shoot

Your Monday Photo Shoot: Capture something in flight. Birds, insects, planes, bats, whatever -- if it's getting around in the skies, it's fair game for this photo shoot.
   This is a photo I took during my trip to Italy in 2005. I was trying to get a shot of Via dei Condotti, which runs west from the foot of the Spanish Steps, and is famous for being lined with all the most exclusive, and expensive shops in Rome.* I had no idea I had captured the dove flying across the street until after I got home and was viewing the pictures.



   I had to convince the wife that it really was a dove flying across the street, and not a UFO, or an angel, or something. Sometimes it's not easy being me.


* At least I think that's where this is. If anyone else out there knows different let me know.

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a pretty place. Always nice to be where the roads are made for people instead of cars. --Cin

Anonymous said...

The last time I was in Rome, I think I was scared a little too shitless from the cab rides to really do anything but drink a lot of grappa to ease my tortured nerves.  Lots of fun though.  

By the way, that beastie looks a little too big to be a dove.  It's probably a vulture left over from the hay-days of the Inquisition.  

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/

Anonymous said...

« I had to convince the wife that it really was a dove flying across the street»

Shoulda just sent it to her BlackBerry.......

Anonymous said...

(Durn... I forget that HTML doesn't work here.)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful street.  I agree with wife, can't be a dove.  Some other kind of bird... but not dove.  Too big.

An other worldly being???  Can u prove it isn't?  HA HA!!  GO GET HIM, PAT!!!!

be well,
Dawn


Anonymous said...

Why didn't you get a picture of your heathen feet as they smoldered on your little walk through the streets of Rome?  Or, am I the only one who has that problem?  

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/


Anonymous said...

I agree with you, it's a dove. Love the Italian street. B.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/oddb0dkins/WaffleandWhinge/#Entry1433

Anonymous said...

  Both Dan and Dawn have opined that the bird in the above photograph is too big to be a dove. Well, it might be a pigeon, but it's not anything other than one of those two. I would like to ask the two of them just how big they think the bird in that photo is, and what they base that judgement upon? For all we know, it could be a Giant Roc, a mile up in the sky. Or, it could be a hummingbird less than three feet in front of the camera. Because it does not occlude, nor is not occluded by, any other detail in the picture, we have no clues by which to guess at its distance.
  And Dawn, while I cannot "prove" that it is not an "angel," neither can I "prove" that it is a bird. I can only make a judgement based upon what evidence I have. It goes like this:

1) I walked around the city of Rome for three days. During that time I saw tens of thousands of doves and pigeons. I know that doves and pigeons exist in Rome in great numbers.

2) To date, in the history of the world, no one, anywhere, has ever produced one single piece of evidence to support the existence of angels.

Therefore, based upon the available evidence, I would have to say that the probability that the image is that of a common bird vs. the probability that it is an angel is approximately 100% vs. 0%. Now, those are rough numbers. It could be as much as, say 99.99999999999999999999% to 0.00000000000000000001%.
-Paul

Anonymous said...

Here's my entry.

http://journals.aol.com/midwestvintage/MyPhotoJourney/entries/2007/06/13/monday-morning-photo-shoot./1200

                      Julie

Anonymous said...

Dove, pigeon, or angel, the important question is whether or not it is carrying a coconut.

Nice pic.

Anonymous said...

OMG!!1!  Its teh angles!!1!one!

You're right.  It doesn't occlude, so it's pretty impossible to tell the size and distance of the "object" in your picture.  But, I am trying to gauge its size in relation to the open shutter.  Of course, now that I see an open shutter, I find myself thinking "What the...?  Looks like the Romans have gone back to throwing their babies out the windows."  

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/

Anonymous said...

  But there is no way to tell if the bird is the same distance from the camera as the shutter. It appears to be, but photography is a two dimensional medium. Our binocular vision fails us in this instance.
-Paul

Anonymous said...

Nice shot
d

Anonymous said...

It really does look like a spaceship in Doctor Who.  When I say run, run!

Anonymous said...

Great Pic!

Carolyn

Anonymous said...

OMG...I was just there!!   (Spanish steps and all!)  Been posting pics of the trip lately.  Oh, and isn't that a pigeon??  Just wonderin'

Nancy : )

Anonymous said...

Oh all right, but a)  I still love that Pat tortures you.  Us wives have to stick together, and b) I still think it looks too big!!!  

be well,
Dawn

Anonymous said...

It's a giant Sea Monkey who is very depressed and has jumped out of a window. See:

http://www.virtualsciencefair.org/2004/john4r0/public_html/brineshrimp.jpg

Anonymous said...

It's a face-eating demon spawned from the dark depths beneath St. Peters (they DO have a big basement there, yanno?  Maybe Benedict left the door open or something).  Thank goodness Paul was quick with his camera to snap a picture and steal its soul before it could do any real damage.  

Good work, Paul.  

-Dan
http://journals.aol.com/dpoem/TheWisdomofaDistractedMind/

Anonymous said...

I looked at the pic that Cin put up... and apparently she is right!  lol

Good one Dan... if demons were ever going to show up, probably Rome would be the first stop... LOL

be well,
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/

Anonymous said...

gorgoeus Paul!
natalie