I know I’ve been MIA on this thing since being back in the States…. buuuuut I just came across a photoshoot I did last semester and figured I’d share these gems with the world. Enjoy!
Author Archives: Nicole Rosa
Photography Final Project
I can’t believe I’m already posting my FINAL project for fashion photography. All I have left of this semester is a weekend in Florence and a week of finals. I’ll be back in America in TEN DAYS. Soooo bittersweet. I’ve had the best 3 months of my life and it’s killing me that I have to leave so soon but I can’t wait to get back home at the same time. Well, here’s my fashion photography final project. I’m pretty excited about it. It’s my first photoshoot that I produced by myself start to finish- from concept to setting up equipment to editing. I had a model sent to me from an Italian model agency which was awesome. She didn’t speak any English, and (although I try) I don’t understand much Italian so it was definitely an interesting shoot. Here it is! HOPE YA LIKE IT!
Ceri Vintage Photoshoot
My fashion photography class shot our midterm project at an awesome vintage store in Florence called Ceri Vintage. This was my first time ever shooting in the studio with a real model. These are the photographs that I took during the shoot:
Florence Street Style
My fashion photography class weekly assignment is to roam around Florence, scouting the streets for impeccable style. The first week I was too nervous to approach people so I stuck with snapping some creeper shots. Last week I finally brought myself to ask a fabulously dressed woman if I could take her picture. She was flattered and happily accepted. After taking her picture I was on a roll. My first day of shooting street style not one single person declined. Many did not understand me at first but once they heard “fashion photography” they all understand my inquiry. I had so much fun with my photoshoot last week I could not wait to shoot again this week. It’s so much fun meeting new people and communicating with people who speak very little English. Here are some of my favorite shots from my first two Street Style photoshoots:
I hope to be half as fabulous as this lady some day.
“Fashion? oh MODA! Si Si”
And cutest couple award goes to……
How to rock sweatpants
“Can I take your picture for my fashion photog—-” “F*CK YES YOU CAN”
A much trendier take on the classic JT/Britney Spears denim on denim couples look
Yup, his eyes are definitely closed.
There’s a good chance she’s actually a model
“Does it count as Florence Street Style if I’m actually from America?”
She agreed to pose for a picture but wouldn’t look at the camera haha
Mother Daughter shopping trip
MY FAB WEEKND IN THE AMALFI COA$T!!!!
Okay, so I’ve been meaning to write about my fabulous weekend in Amalfi for the past few days but I’ve literally had no time!! I have so many stories to tell but I have no time to compose them all into a well written blog. SO I decided I’m just gonna bullet them on here. AAaaaaand here we go:
Day 1: Bus Ride
-Left Florence around 6PM
-Ate gas station pasta for dinner…..attention fellow study abroad students: I do not advise doing this unless you’ve come prepared with Tums
-Arrived in Sorrento at like 2am
-Our hotel was kinda sketch but whatever we in AMALFI YOOOO
Day 2: Capri
-Woke up bright and early
-Had our breakfast at the hotel. They served us a croisant and a dinner roll. Have some carbs with your carbs!
-Before we left I realized I forgot my camera in the room. *gasp*
-I BROKE MY KEY IN HALF IN THE LOCK SO I COULD NOT GET IN THE DOOR. I ran upstairs to try and get another key but the guy didnt understand me and gave me the bathroom key. So yeah, no pretty pictures of Capri–sorry Facebook!
-We took a ferry to the island of Capri. Then we hopped on another boat when we got there and took a tour around the entire island.
-I saw Armani’s beach villa/my future villa.
-We were supposed to go in the blue gratto (something that’s been on my bucket list since highschool Italian when thats all Mrs Martha would talk about in class) buuuut because of the wicked high tide, they couldn’t fit a boat inside, therefore we could only drive past.
-After the boat tour we hiked across the island to the beach.
-I ate delicious gnochhi.
-Then I swam and got a tan (lol jk im a ginger)
-The beach didnt have sand- it had giant pebbles. So different but shockingly way more comfortable then i anticipated. Plus you dont get sand in and on every part of your body.
-Unfortunately, I was having too much fun taking pictures and GOT MY PHONE WET. EVEN THOUGH I HAVE A LIFEPROOF CASE!!!! SO LADIES AND GENTLEMEN DO NOT TRUST LIFE PROOF CASES!!!!!!!!! My phone is still in rice. Pray for it plz.
-We had a limoncello tasting before we left Capri. The cream limoncello was my fave. There was also a meloncello that was delishhh.
-Capri was GORGEOUS!!!!! I NEED to go back.
-That night we went out to an outdoor bar in Sorrento. It was awesome
-The walk back from the bar was hilarious. Lex and I were with our tour leader, Jon. He picked a giant cactus branch off of a cactus just for fun. He later dropped it on Alexas head. Lex has a new nickname. ~*CaCtUsSss*~
DAY 3: MY FAVORITE DAY/PLACE; POSITANO
-Again, we had our croisant and roll breakfast to start our day
-Then, we traveled to POSITANO
-omg omg omg omg POSITANO
-It was a dream. We walked through the cutest town ever to a black sand beach.
-Oh, and we stopped for paninis on the way. Not just any panini…quite possibly the best panini ever. I’m still conviced Pino’s is better but everyone else I was with said this place was better so idk idk.
-I bought a really cute cover up for like 6 euros so that was rad.
-Then, a group of us rented a boat and boated around the Mediterranean. SO CASUAL.
-We discovered a random cave. We met two guys in a row boat who said they lived nearby and said they swim in that cave all the time. Sooo we jumped off the boat, did a little cliff jumping.. then swam into the cave. (grotto in italian) It was probably the coolest 20 mins of my life.
-SqoyAaAaAaaa
-After the boat ride we did some tanning on the beach. (again jk jk i did some burning #ginglyfe)
-Then we went to a cute little restaurant and got drinks. I got a La Pergola. I cant remeber exactly what was in it but it was a blue slush with limocello! O lord.
-We experienced our first bad italian meal for dinner at this place on the water. We shouldnt have trusted 6 euro pizza I guess.
-Aaaaaand one of the best days ever came to an end.
Day 4: Pompeiii & Mt Vesuvius
-CROISANTS AND A ROLL 4 BREAKFAST AGAIN
-We went to Pompeii. It was cool- a little boring- but still cool. I saw dead people and lots of ancient ruins.
-We had really good pizza for lunch.
-Then, we climbed Mt Vesuvius which was AMAZING.
-THE VIEEEEWWWS. OHGOD THE VIEWWWWWS!
-Oh, if your wondering why the pictures are crappy its because i forgot to tell you, my camera screen broke in Positano bc I dropped it in wet sand. I was nervous to use it/I didnt feel like carrying it around with me. It’s back to normal now though so dont worrry!!
-Alexa’s hat blew off and over the roped off section of the volcano. LOL.
-Something interesting: People of Pompeii/ Mt Vesuvuis are OBSESSED with sex and genitalia. The statues, postcards and gifts and stuff are so graphic. It’s pretty funny.
-So yeah after climbing Vesuvs we headed back to Florence.
-We stopped at the Autogrill again for dinner and I didn’t have pasta. Good choice Nicole. My tomato and buffalo mozz panini was actually delish considering I bought it at a gas station.
……..
Okay so I ended up writing way more than I planned but whatever! In conclusion, THAT IS THE STORY OF MY FAB WEEKEND IN AMALFI.
Stay tuned for next weeks blog about Oktoberfest!!! I leave for Munich tommorow night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did ya miss me??
I havn’t been blogging much on here but dont you worry, I’ll be back tommorow with a nice long recap of my weekend on the Amalfi Coast. Until then please checkout my blog posts that were published on the FlorenceForFun website recently:
Costa Concordia: http://blog.florenceforfun.com/2013/09/23/costa-concordia/
Pizza Hangover: http://blog.florenceforfun.com/2013/09/10/pizza-hangover/
Pair With A Glass of Vino Nobile
On Sunday I traveled outside of the busy city of Florence, to the rolling hills of Tuscany. Our tour guide took us to Salcheto Winery, a vineyard located in Montepulciano. It was a treck to get there, especially in a giant coach bus that barely fit on the winding dirt road leading to the vineyard, but it was completley worth it. Not only did we get an oppurtunity to take in the beautiful scenery, get a tour of the wine cellars, and learn alot about the wine making process, but we also got to sample the final product-alongside a delicious three course meal.
Our meal began with a glass of Rosata di Toscana. It was very fruity and just about everyone at my table agreed that it was the best of the three we drank. We were given a delicious plate of Picci pasta with tomato sauce to accoampy the wine. It was up there on my list of best pasta plates I’ve ever had.
For our main course we had a buffet with an assortment of breads, cheeses and other appetizers. SO GOOD. I thought it was interesting that we had pasta as our appetizers and appetizers as our main course. They do things so differently here!
Our next to glasses were of the same wine, but two seperate years of aging. The wine, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is the vineyards specialty. We were first given a glass of 2009 Vino Nobile. It was a very strong red wine with a very unique after taste. Then we followed it with a glass of 2006 Vino Nobile. It’s amazing seeing the difference three years of aging can make. They both had very different aftertastes. I personally liked the 2006 version of the wine, even though it was very dry which is normally the opposite of what I like wine- the after taste was realllllly good.
During the tour we learned that there are very strict rules in the wine world. In order to call your wine a specific name you have to make sure you follow a list of rules.
For example, with the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano some of the rules include:
-All grapes for the Vino Nobile must be grown within a 1 meter radius of Montelpulciano. If they are grown outside, they cannot be considered Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
-Only corks can be used on the Vino Nobile. NO screw caps.
-The Vino Nobile is stored in these wooden barrels before being bottled. There was absolutly no artificial light let into the wine cellars, there were holes of natural light being let into all of the rooms.
The Vino Nobile sold for 70 Euros a bottle. SEVENTY! We did recieve a student discount list where we could purchase it for just 35 euros. But, I went the cheap route and bought a bottle of the Rosata di Tuscana for 7 euros. I liked it waaaay better anyways.
Paparazziiiii
I had my first day of Fashion Photography class today. It’s waaaay more advanced then I thought it would be so it’s definitly going to be a challenging course, but I’m still going to love it. We went out for a test shoot in Piazza Santa Croce which is just down the street from my classroom. We had to test different F Stops and aperatures and speeds. I learned more about my camera today then I have in the 3 years that I’ve had it.
So basically we walked around being paparazzi for an hour…here are some of my favorite shots from today:
Oops, he noticed!
A new friend I made
Ope! Ran into Lexx in the City on the way out of class
Although she didnt include me in her blog about Fashion Photography, here’s a pic of Julie. She’s in my class. Hi Julie.
- My pants kinda rocked today
I think Julie actually took this when she borrowed my camera but whataiiiirrr, I luhhh this
- so strong
those shoessss
stripes & leather
oh how cute
…aaaaand she noticed
The Florence Fifteen
The food here.
Oh lord, the food here.
I finally started to work off my freshman 15 and now I’m tempted with the smell of amazing italian food everywhere i go every single day. Shoooot
After a honey moon period of consuming carbo-loaded meals every day this week, I stepped on the breaks a bit this weekend. I excercised alot and started eating less carbs and more veggies & protein. I’m making it a priority to not let myself go over here! I havn’t gotten a chance to check out the FUA gym yet because they have kind of weird hours but I’m definitly going to be hitting that up daily. I’m not trying to show up to softball in January out of shape!!
This weekend I worked off some pizza, pasta and gelato and explored Firenze at the same time. On Saturday we first took a walk to the produce market and stocked up on fruits, veggies & eggs. Then we went hiking up to Piazzale Michelangelo. The piazza is elevated to provide a breathtaking panoramic view of the beautiful city of Florence! Of course, I lugged my Canon with me to get some pictures of the journey:
Saturday night was lengend-waitforit-dary. We wanted to experience how italians “go out” so we went out with some Florence natives we know. We went to SPACE, the club Jersey Shore frequently hit up when they filmed in Florence. We normally wouldn’t have chose to follow in the footsteps of Snooki & J.Woww, but our friends are VIP there so hey, why not! We got that ~*ViP tR3AtMenT*~ aka didnt have to pay a dime the whole night and got to chill in a seperate glass room above everyone….watching over all the funny drunken people below us. Swag.
After a long night/morning out, I woke up on Sunday and made a tomato and mozz sandwich on a croissant with the fresh ingrediants I had bought at the farmers market. After that I laced my keys into my sneakers and went for a run down the Arno river which is located just a block away from my apartment. I ran all the way down to the Ponte Della Vittoria and then back through the city. It was probably a bad idea to run back through the city because cars and motorcycles drive so fast and unpredictable around here. I also got made fun of/mocked by an obnoxious tourist. It’s so weird because when I run in Boston no one acknowledges me because there are so many runners around….but here in Florence it seems that no one works out. It’s confusing….They live on a diet of carbs carbs and carbs- yet I passed just one jogger on my run! ONE! In Boston I pass about 50 per mile! So strange.
Well, anyways- I ran around sunset so i had a gorgeous view of the Arno as I ran:
Aaaand thats the story of my first weekend in Florence!
xoxoPWAGOR (lol)
Dante Fridays
Last night a group of us ventured to the other side of the Arno River in search of a delicious meal. We got that….plus more, at Pizzeria Dante’s. The food was incredible. However, one of the main reasons we loved Dante’s so much? Three words: FREE UNLIMITED WINE.
The owner (Dante himself) came out as we were getting our food and told us, “After dinner you get free shots of Limoncello with me”. We thought he was kidding….he wasnt. He also brought free t-shirts out to us at the end of our meal. So with all this free stuff you would think it would be way overpriced,right? Not the case. When Dante brought the check out to us he had us all guess the price. “You guess the price exact, I give you free meal.” …..I guessed 70 euros.
70 euros on the dot, HELLO FREE MEAL.
So now let’s move on to the good part…..my meal. I had a delicious Quattro Stagioni pizza. Quattro Stagioni translates to “Four Seasons.” The Quattro Stagioni pizza is topped with mushrooms, olives, and artichokes, and procciutto. Because I live the veglyfe, I ordered mine sans procciutto. Let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS.
We’ve already declared Pizzeria Dante as our Friday night dinner spot. I would highly reccomend this restaurant to any study abroad student in or visiting Florence.
Pair With a Glass of Red 