More Tuscany

It seems like every where you look in Tuscany there's another beautiful scene to behold, not to mention take a photograph of.  This was another of many taken along the dirt road leading to Il Rigo.

Il Rigo

This is the main house of the agriturismo where we stayed.  It's called Il Rigo.  Where I was standing to take this picture is where the house was that we actually stayed (see photo below).  We would go down to the main house for a wonderful breakfast in the mornings.  We also went down a couple of times to enjoy some gourmet dinners that were prepared by the owner of the villa.  We were treated to such things as red wine and sausage risotto, rabbit cacciatore and tomato bisque.

Our room was there in the middle with the open shutters

Tuscany Road

Where we stayed in the Pienza area of Tuscany, there are numerous agriturismo's, or farm houses that have been converted into bed and breakfast villas.  Found this dirt road leading to yet another agriturismo.

Tuscany Poppies

On our recent trip to Italy, we spent 3 wonderful days in Tuscany.  One of the things I wanted to photograph were the beautiful red poppies.  Unfortunately, the picture above shows the only field of poppies we saw.  We came to learn that we were about 2 to 3 weeks early for the height of the poppy season.  Oh well, it was still very nice in Tuscany.

Botany Bay Revisited

My first attempt to apply a texture to an otherwise blah looking photo, using Totally Rad Dirty Pictures that my lovely daughter gave me for Christmas!  I'm looking forward to trying it out on other photos that need some more interest added to them.  

Below is the original photo taken at Botany Bay in South Carolina so you can see the difference the texture layer adds.

Lake Louise

Sunrise at Lake Louise during the week we were up there pretty much looked like the above, very cloudy and overcast like skies.  So I tried to crop the sky out as much as possible and focus on the foreground and glacier water of the lake.  What a wonderful place to be at the break of day!

Vermillion Lakes

This was a beautiful reflecting lake just outside of Banff.  We spent most of one evening just hanging out here enjoying the scenery.  The only negative were the mosquitoes that also loved to hang around this spot. But trading a few bites for a few pics seemed worth it to me.