Where to next?

I’ve written previously about Rome being a photographer’s city.  It’s also a great place for a spot of people watching, especially around the Spanish Steps, where tourists take a break from their walking tours of the city and locals take the opportunity to try to sell them stuff.

This photograph was actually one of my first forays into street photography.  My attention had earlier been focused on a bride and groom that were having some wedding photographs taken at the bottom of the steps.  As they moved on I saw this couple flicking through their guidebook, wondering where to go next.  I could relate.  We were doing much the same. 

For an instant they were sitting alone on the steps with no one around them, allowing me to frame the shot with some negative space to the right.  I’m a fan of offsetting subjects to the left or the right of the frame like this and leaving the other side free of anything that will draw the eye – this negative space can highlight the subject and gives it some room to breathe in the photo, so to speak.

Being one of my first street photography shots, I just grabbed one quick shot of this couple and hoped I had captured a good pose. I like to think that I did, and consequently the photograph has performed well in club competition and in the IPF National Finals where it scored a respectable score. 

I wonder where they did decide to go to next.