By: Thorsten Overgaard. August 3, 2016.
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Always wear a camera. That's the rule for me, and I never question if I should bring a camera or not. I just do it.
So when I walked one floor down at the Hotel Internazionale in Bologna, Italy to have breakfast, I had my camera with me.
This type of hotel is nice to sleep in but boring to stay in. It's the type that bought solid furniture that will last 30 years and it all looks 4-star. But it's been looking that way for 25 years and everybody is performing a routine under energy-saving light bulbs and with the same five-year-old plastic flowers standing in strategic decorative locations.
The breakfast routine was no different. I got it over with quickly with a view upon two sleepy-eyed couples, the only others in the restaurant that morning.
I still had time before we were planning to leave. Joy was over at the gym, at the sister hotel, doing her daily three hours of training for her upcoming bikini fitness competition.
I turned around to look out the low-sitting window behind me to check how the weather and light looked outside. This type of hotel always throws in an extra floor when possible, so I was basically sitting under the ceiling of what used to be a lofty high ceiling building, now divided into two low-ceiling floors.
Morning commuting in Bologna, Italia, May 2016. Leica M9 with Leica 50mm APO-Summicron-M ASPH f/2.0. © 2016 Thorsten Overgaard.
I recognize a picture when I see one, so I took a series of 8 photos of this scenery through the window. I wasn't dedicated enough to move out of my chair or try to open the window. I was just sort of training with the light and already knew I had to go outside for a while.
I stayed in my seat. I prepared the focus and waited for the people to move, or someone coming into the frame.
If you photograph when you see it, it's too late. You have to press the shutter for a series of 2-3 photos when you sense something is happening. A bicycle enters from the left and you shoot 2-3 pictures without knowing at that point if he moves up vertical in the frame, goes across or stops in the middle of it. You see him coming, and you take 2-3 photos.
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Compose and wait
In this case I picked a stage and made sure to have the focus where the action should be. I had the shadow in the top and the pillar to the left working as a frame.
Don't move the camera to follow anything. No matter what, just stay with it and capture what is offered within that frame. That's my rule.
I did this for a short while; after all shooting from a chair through a window is not considered the way to do it.
But the low morning light had made me enthusiastic and I wanted to go outside and get more of it.
The contact sheet of the six pictures I took out through the window in Bologna. © 2016 Thorsten Overgaard.
I walked through the streets and through a park for 40 minutes and then to the sister hotel where Joy was training. I trawled through that hotel for pictures as well, then coffee for another half hour. Not much luck despite promising low sunlight and approaching thunderclouds.
When I later imported and edited the photographs, this first photo of the day was the best one.
Nobody could tell it was taken from sitting on a chair, photographing down at the street through a window. If it works for you, it works for everybody.
Always wear a camera; also even if you are just having breakfast one floor down.
I hope you enjoyed today's article. I will be returning to Italy in May 2016 to do workshops in Milano and Rome. As always, feel free to mail me at thorsten@overgaard.dk for suggestions, ideas and corrections.
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