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: