Mdina, Malta

Walking around the walled city of Mdina… is this one of the prettiest doorways you’ve ever seen?

Tags:   Malta Mdina Città Vecchia Old City Città Notabile Notable City fortified city street photography doorways doors Andy Rouse AndyRousePhotography Canon 5DMkIII EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

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Saluting Battery, Valletta, Malta

We were just passing through on our way to the Upper Barrakka Gardens which is located above the Battery. It was 15:54pm and the only way through was via the Saluting Battery. The man on the gate said if you buy a ticket you can still make the 16:00pm salute.

Just made it… no time to review the composition as I muscled my way in amongst the tourists but manged to capture the salute - right on the B of the Bang!

The history bit…
The Saluting Battery (Maltese: Batterija tas-Salut) is an artillery battery in Valletta, Malta. It was constructed in the 16th century by the Order of Saint John, on or near the site of an Ottoman battery from the Great Siege of Malta. The battery forms the lower tier of St. Peter & Paul Bastion of the Valletta Land Front, located below the Upper Barrakka Gardens and overlooking Fort St. Angelo and the rest of the Grand Harbour.

The Saluting Battery was mainly used for firing ceremonial gun salutes and signals, but it also saw military use during the blockade of 1798–1800 and World War II. The battery remained an active military installation until its guns were removed by the British in 1954. It was restored and opened to the public in the early 21st century, and it is now equipped with eight working replicas of SBBL 32-pounders which fire gun signals daily, Mon - Sat, at 1200 and 1600.

Tags:   Malta Valletta Saluting Battery cannons noon 16:00pm gun salute fort historic World Heritage Site UNESCO European Capital of Culture 2018 Grand Harbour Marsamxett Harbour B of the Bang sculpture Thomas Heatherwick Andy Rouse AndyRousePhotography Canon 5DMkIII EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

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Valletta, Malta

Just got back from a short break in Malta having missed all the bad weather back home. This was a relaxing break after our last two holidays to Norway and Australia, which were non-stop touring. However, I always find it criminal to stay within the confines of a hotel complex without seeing something so we jumped in one of the hotel’s taxis and had a day in the capital – Valletta.

For such a small island with only a population of approximately 530,000 there is an unbelievable number of vehicles – almost 425,000 licenced vehicles of which 317,000 are cars, hence, I’ve not taken many city/street shots. However, the back streets have plenty of character and detail to capture.

This is taken from Fort St Elmo from one of the roof tops looking across towards Fort Tigné and all the new hotels and apartment blocks. I can only assume the out-of-bounds courtyard are the old barracks, which have yet to be preserved/renovated.

Tags:   Malta Valletta Fort St Elmo fort historic World Heritage Site UNESCO European Capital of Culture 2018 Grand Harbour Marsamxett Harbour Andy Rouse AndyRousePhotography Canon 5DMkIII EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

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Mdina, Malta

I don’t know how you all process your images but I always keep the master raw in an image library and duplicate individual images and work on them in a WIP folder (belt and braces approach). I seem to have an eclectic selective of unfinished images languishing in said folder so have gone back to them to complete the processing.

I’ve only uploaded this particularly one because I spent a lot of time removing objects from it. In the old days you would have to clone things out, cut and paste over from other areas and a whole lot of clever manipulation to clean up the image (which I’m not particularly good at).

I now use the AI generative fill function all the time, but still have no idea how it does it or how it knows what lies behind the obstruction. In the original raw image, I have removed 3 cars parked kerbside, 2 men walking into the frame on the left, a man operating a mini road sweeper on the right, a woman pushing a pram just behind him. And just before I converted it to a jpeg, I spotted a woman hiding around the alleyway but clearly visible. The generative fill option also assumed there was some sort of a square stone block behind one of the cars, which I have also removed.

Would you have known unless I told you or can you spot a glitch in the matrix?

Tags:   Malta Mdina Città Vecchia Old City Città Notabile Notable City fortified city street photography doorways doors AI generative fill cheating is nothing real Andy Rouse AndyRousePhotography Canon 5DMkIII EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM

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