Rome, Sorrento, Amalfi Coast & Irsina

I had the absolute privilege to be able to photograph a wedding in Irsina, Italy this past month. And what made it even better was that my best friend was the maid of honor! Which meant we took that wedding and turned it into a huge Italy extravaganza!

I’ve been to Italy before but it’s pushing about 10 years ago at this point. So this was my third time to Rome but I had never been to the Amalfi Coast. The last time I travelled it was before the pandemic, and I really only started photography at hte beginning of the pandemic in 2020 so I was traveling through Norway and Ireland armed with my iPhone camera and that was it! I was determined to capture this trip in a more intentional and meaningful way. 

I of course brought my Canon R6 for the wedding. But I also brought my G7X for instagram content and then I brought 3 film cameras lol. I’m sure my friends were thrilled by me fumbling through them the entire trip lol. I brought my Olympus XA2, Olympus Mju II and my Contax G1. I brought the Mju II for Meghan to be able to capture whatever she wanted, but in the middle of the trip it crapped out on me! We would take one photo and the film would wind back into the canister, wasting 35 photos. Turns out all it needed was a new battery but in the moment I was so bummed! A vast majority of these photos were taken on the Contax G1 with mostly Kodak Gold and some Portra and Fujifilm sprinkled in. 

Here was our itinerary:

Oct 5 – Fly into Rome

Oct 6 – Fr – Rome – food tour

Oct 7 – Sa – Rome – session with Christina

Oct 8 – Su – Rome to Sorrento

Oct 9 – M – Sorrento – cooking class

Oct 10 – Tu – Sorrento – boat trip to Positano and Amalfi

Oct 11 – W- Sorrento – lemon tour

Oct 12 – Th- Sorrento – boat trip to Capri

Oct 13 – F- Sorrento to Irsina

Oct 14 – Sat – Irsina – Mariah + Jacob’s wedding

Oct 15 – Sun – Irsina to Rome

Oct 16 – M – Fly Home

I love Rome but at the same time it is a big city. So it was packed! A food tour is an absolute must though. My favorite part of Rome was probably my session with Christina and Dakota, Check it out here! Being able to get creative in such a gorgeous city with so much history was almost too much to bear!

Then we took a 5 hour train ride to Naples where we were hoping to catch a second train to Sorrento, but couldn’t figure it out so we ended up just getting a taxi for the 1:15 drive. Going to Sorrento just solidified for me that I need a scenic/nature element involved in my personal travel. Cities are fine but they just don’t impact me the way that these coastal towns do. I realized this when I became obsessed with Norway, these little towns tucked into these larger than life landscapes made me feel so grounded. I felt the exact same way while we were exploring the coast. I took the most film photos on our boat tour around Amalfi and Positano. Our Capri boat tour was a close second. But my god the landscape is better in person than it looks in the photos. 

I’m so glad I brought a million cameras because there is no way an iPhone would have captured the nuance of the scenery. Please enjoy these photos, they were a labor of love. I spent over 25 horus developing, scanning and color correcting 10 rolls of film. I’ve been agonizing over the fact that I can’t pick a favorite! #takemeback lol