Positano in the low season is marked by low numbers of tourists, and with many of the hotel, restaurant and retail workers being employed seasonally, the township is very quiet. There are many opportunities to explore the streets, alleys and stairways without the crowds, and much of the time there are opportunities to make photos without any people at all—let alone crowds. This image was made walking back up from the beach after sunrise photos. This is one of the main alleyways between the Piazza dei Mulini and the beach. We walked up and down this alley each day, and most of the time had it to ourselves.
Apart from the lack of crowds, one of the distinctive things about low season in Positano is that the days are quite short. As the late great photographer, Galen Rowell, once said that "You only get one sunrise and one sunset a day, and you only get so many days on the planet. A good photographer does the math and doesn't waste either." But it does make it easier when the sunrises and sunsets are at pleasant hours of the day. There are no excuses! Standing on the western end of the main Positano beach, you look eastward down the Amalfi Coast to catch the sunrise. The clouds only accentuate the beautiful colours of the sky in the sunrise. A 3 stop GND and a relatively slow shutter speed meant that a tripod was an important part of ensuring a sharp image.
Like the other towns on Italy's Amalfi Coast Positano stretches from its beautiful coastline up into the surrounding mountains. Standing on the beach, the signature dome of the church of Santa Maria Assunta is framed between an enclave in the ridge-line of the mountains. Buildings stretch much of the way up. This image was made a few minutes after sunset, giving a love even colour across the buildings and hills. A tripod is an important tool in this type of imagery, as the relatively low shutter speed (0.4 of a second) would make a sharp image difficult to achieve if handholding.
