Out and About: Sicily

Mrs M and I have just come back from a week in the lovely town of Cefalu in Sicily which we enjoyed immensely. The sun, the food, and the wine were all excellent and although we did have a couple of thunderstorms they didn’t dent the enjoyment, they served to relieve the heat for an hour or so.

I took a camera of course, the X-E2, and two lenses, the XF18-55mm f/2.8-4.0 and the XF27mm F/2.8 pancake. I was there for my first holiday abroad in two years and it wasn’t going to be a photography trip. First and foremost it was going to be a relaxing holiday for Mrs M and I.

Of course I took photographs. But I have to say I didn’t feel the urge to get out there and take lots. I always  (or almost always – more later) had the brilliant Fuji with me, but inspiration was avoiding me I think by hiding up narrow Sicilian alleyways for most of the holiday. Perhaps I had “chilled-out” too much after I arrived. I don’t know. I have got some images and a few of them may be worth working up, we’ll have to wait and see.

A catastrophe was also narrowly avoided whilst I was carrying the X-E2 in my Domke F-5XB bag in Cefalu. I failed to notice the strap of the camera was hanging out and unnoticed by me, it managed to hook itself over the top of an iron bollard as I walked passed and as I turned the X-E2 and attached XF18-55mm lens were pulled straight out of the bag. A heart-stopping clang and a crash occurred and I turned slowly to view the damage. The X-E2 was on the cobbles with the strap still over the bollard. After a rather shaky examination it appeared that the initial impact of the body against the ironwork had only chipped a bit of paint on a corner of the body. It also appeared that the lens was saved by the lens hood on which the camera was resting on the floor. The hood was broken, the lens wasn’t touched. The camera also worked perfectly. So there’s a cautionary tale for you – always use a lens hood. But flipping heck these Fuji cameras can take a lot of punishment (and clumsiness).

The bollard was bent over by its collision with the X-E2. (Joke)

It also says a lot about my “photo block” that Mrs M and I booked a  trip into the Madonie mountains for an evening meal in a village whilst first going high into the mountains to the little town of San Mauro Castelverde and that I didn’t take the Fuji. I know, I know, I should have my photographer’s membership revoked and my cameras confiscated. Castelverde turned out to be a glorious little medieval town with a population of 2000, alleys, old houses, steps, signs and much more. I had to commandeer Mrs M’s fabulous little Nikon P300 to take photos. We didn’t have long there, but I could have spent hours wandering around. I was kicking myself all evening that I didn’t have the X-E2.

It wasn’t until the very last day of our stay, when as I lay on the sunbed thinking about a club project I had yet to fulfil that I peered through the heat haze and suddenly found some inspiration in the architecture of the hotel. Out came the Fuji, and I was away. Perhaps realising it was the end of my holiday photographic inspiration also decided to get back to work.

Here’s a couple of images from the trip, the first the ubiquitous holiday sunset shot from the harbour in Cefalu, the second a photograph taken on Mount Etna.