Friday morning we met to review everyone’s photographs; Tony had selected 50 each, and put them together in a presentation (he had spent a lot of time scanning from prints for those who had been using non-digital cameras). We gasped in delight at each other’s pictures, and, as always, learned from Tony’s comments on them. In some cases, I had caught things I had not consciously seen, or that I hadn’t quite been aiming at.
My digital camera is very slow on the uptake: there’s a considerable lag between pressing the button and the shutter opening, which makes it nearly impossible to grab the right moment. In Viterbo, I had looked down at this geometry of stairs and cobblestone street and liked it, but, with nobody in it, it wasn’t all that interesting. I had turned off my camera and was sitting back enjoying the sunshine when I saw the above girl and her dog approaching across the square. They were moving fast, so it was a miracle that I caught them at all, and sheer dumb luck that I caught them at exactly the right moment.
Here’s another shot of mine that Tony liked:
I was simply shooting an amusingly mysterious piece of graffiti, but Tony liked the composition; he says the door knocker makes this photo.
Friday afternoon, we all met in Rome’s Trastevere quarter for a snack and final discussion. On the way there, I tried to capture an amusing scene with some typical Italian males.
We wrapped up Friday night with a sumptuous farewell dinner at the rooftop restaurant of the Hotel Forum. We were seated next to the piano, with a talented singer, and near a Singaporean couple celebrating their 31st anniversary. So everyone joined in a rousing chorus of “La donna é mobile,” a fitting end to Tony and Clovis’ week of shepherding around four extremely mobile women and their cameras.
Here’s one of Tony’s shots of me shooting in Viterbo. I spent a lot of time looking up.
Imaging in Italy Day 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 4.5 – 5 – visit the Imaging in Italy site
Complete photo gallery:
Piazza San Pietro was being decorated and filled with chairs for the Pope’s 25th anniversary bash. This was not a problem, as we were avoiding standing in the middle of the circle and taking postcard shots. Instead, we first walked around the colonnade, looking for different ways of seeing and showing what we saw, with Tony offering suggestions, and taking pictures of us taking pictures. I was fascinated with architecture and geometry, so there was plenty to keep me busy.
