Pani with the Ricoh GR IIIx

Written By Priamo Puschiasis

On a warm June Sunday morning we took a stroll through one of the most enchanting corners of my home region. Conca di Pani is a plateau hidden in the mountains, immersed in nature and stillness, with traditional stavoli (the local mountain barns) scattered across open fields and gentle slopes.

The plan for the day, though, wasn't really these photographs. I wanted to shoot some film again, to recover from the somewhat disappointing experience of using the Hasselblad 500 C/M to capture the beauty of the Duino Castle along the Adriatic coast .

I don't currently own a light meter and I'm not too keen on using my phone for the job. Luckily the Ricoh GR IIIx has almost exactly the same field of view as the 80mm Zeiss mounted on the Hasselblad, so I brought it along to take a few simple shots and double as a meter.

Some of the stavoli in the valley have been converted into small cabins.

Small house with a red roof and flowered balcony tucked against the forest edge, a paved lane curving through a tall summer meadow toward it

Others are beautifully renovated, keeping the traditional structure of a stone ground floor and a wooden upper level.

Restored stone and timber stavolo with a lattice window and stone steps climbing the grassy slope beside it

While others still show the passage of time in their darkened beams and weathered stone walls.

Old stone and timber stavolo with a weathered wooden gable, an empty dark window, and a rough wooden fence in the foreground

The surroundings were stunning, a balanced combination of open meadows and dense forest patches.

Small stone stavolo with a tiled roof sitting at the edge of a dense green forest, a wide meadow of tall summer grass stretching across the foreground

The undergrowth also offered interesting elements, especially the ferns and their mesmerizing shapes.

But also with some nicely backlit fresh grass.

Blades of grass glowing where backlight catches them, set against a dark forest floor with soft green bokeh from sunlit leaves behind

Some stavoli were tucked away in cozier corners but still got to enjoy the sunshine.

After some more walking we reached one of the higher openings on the plateau, where the peaks start to tower above the valley below.

Wide green valley with a lone tree and a stone-and-timber house on the slope, forested hillsides rising on either side and cloud spilling over the rocky peaks behind
Priamo Puschiasis
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