My wife and I had toured the Roman ruins around the Colosseum during the day, and then came back at night to take photos. Most of the ruins are lit up at night and are quite beautiful (and romantic).

We stalked around the Colosseum for a while looking for the right view. Finally, we found a little outlook (a small parking lot where the kids come to make out, I suspect). I held the camera firmly against a low stone wall (you can see it in the photo- lower right).

I experimented with a few shots to get the exposure right (thank God for digital!), then I timed the last shot (the one you see here) to begin when the traffic light turned green. A five second exposure caught nice, long tail-light streaks as the vehicles drove away. There are even "ghosts" - blurs of people on the sidewalk below.

My wife's comment on this photo is my favorite. To paraphrase, she said that this photo demonstrates the permanence of the structure and how it has withstood thousands of years of aging. The cars streaking past symbolize modern time rapidly passing by.

In mid-April of 2004, my wife and I took a long vacation to Italy and Switzerland.
We stayed in Rome and Florence for a total of 6 days, and had a wonderful time.

This trip was my first serious outing with the Canon Digital Rebel. I used the kit
lens (18-55mm) about 90% of the time and it did well! I used mostly f/8 for DOF
and sharpness, and I kept it at ISO at 100 for smaller file sizes (shooting JPGs)
and minimum noise.