Milan, Manual Mode: Shooting the 2026 Winter Games with a Single Lens

This February I traveled to Milan for the Milan–Cortana Winter Olympics with my sibling and my mother, traveling light with one camera and a single 12–32mm kit lens — and I committed to shooting entirely in manual. With my family constantly on the move, manual shooting was a real challenge, but trips like this force you to learn the exposure triangle and get comfortable changing settings quickly on the fly.

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Locks on a Bridge

Here the road and bridge create a frame within a frame - Only thing that could have made this a stronger composition is if we had a boat coming down the river in the center or distance.

The first two shots I want to share were taken on a bridge covered in locks. I was hoping for a "frame within a frame" — a composition technique that uses doorways or other objects to surround and draw attention to a subject — and the locks made a perfect foreground. By placing elements in both the foreground (the locks) and the background (the river), the technique adds depth and dimension while naturally directing the viewer’s eye to the water beyond.

More Frame within a Frame

Since we’re on the subject, I also used this compositional technique a few more times. Often what you’re looking for is good lighting. Composition can get you so far, but lighting is what makes a photo pop. I went to college at the College of Santa Fe, New Mexico where I took photography classes from Tony O’brien. He always said expose for the bright part of the image and let the rest go dark. Here are some examples of that technique as well.

Here we have a pretty simple image of a long pathway, where in manual I set my exposure to make sure the guy in the hat was exposed correctly, knowing that much of the foreground would go dark. This accompanied with leading lines makes this image of daily life, kind of visually interesting.

Here I’ve properly exposed for the cathedral and let the street go dark. The shiny reflective bike handles grab your attention. It’s an ok shot.

A building we stayed at in Milan.

Here I used a little intentional motion blur to catch the action of the train and the guy walking.

Here exposing for the brightest part of the image practically lead to the entire of the bottom image being completely dark. I do love the yellow color.

Not bad for a Little Lumix 85!

Experiencing Defeat