No matter where I am I'm always looking for a photo opportunity. Sometimes opportunities come along quickly and all the pieces of the image fall in to place perfectly, no mess, no fuss, just compose and shoot. This was not one of those days!
I was on holiday with my wife in Rapallo in Italy. We took the train along the coast stopping off at stations along the Cinque Terra region. It’s a stunning location with beautiful harbour villages which have houses built down the hillside to the sea.
Whilst waiting for the train to take us to our next destination I saw this great scene. The sun was quite high in the sky and I was shooting contre jour. The light was strong which created silhouettes and a deep contrasty scene. Standing on the 3rd platform I looked across the tracks to the other platforms, I loved the light pouring through the buildings and I especially liked the square which had a view to the sea.
I had a few elements which would go together to make a pleasing image, however I knew that I wanted something else to elevate the scene, a figure in the light square section would be perfect and so I waited. Unfortunately the area was very quiet, nobody was around, i knew that I only had a few minutes of waiting before the train came and we would be off on our way. I stood there eagerly wishing for someone to walk onto the platform.
The announcement came up for our train, I thought at this point I was going to miss the shot, luckily for me a couple of people walked into the scene, at this point I knew what I wanted. I was set up ready to take the photo, I just needed someone to be in the right place.
One of the people drifted off into the shadowed area leaving the woman stood exactly where I wanted, I took the photo. My train pulled in only a minute or two later.
Technical Data:
Camera: Panasonic G1
Lens: 14mm (35mm equivalent 28mm)
Aperture: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/2000th sec
ISO: 160
Sometimes it pays off to view a scene and to wait for things to fall in to place. On this occasion I knew a human element would lift this scene and give it added interest and context, it can be quite difficult sometimes to wait around for a shot and I have missed many opportunities as things haven’t worked out, but when It does work I find it well worth the wait.