Randall Romano
Photographing on the streets of Toronto, I enjoy positioning myself in the urban alleyways that pass thru the tall buildings of the financial district. On a bright sunny day these alleyways are characterized by distinct and changing areas of bright sun and deep, dark shadows.
Standing in one of those alleyways, I noticed a lady in bright sunlight smoking a cigarette behind the corner of a building. Coming out of the deep alleyway from the shadows emerged a group of people walking towards the lady that was smoking behind the building corner. She was unaware of them walking on the sidewalk, as they were hidden from her view. The first lady coming out of the shadows had a heavy fur coat on and wore pink crocs as shoes. Her attire of a buttoned up warm coat, contrasted with the others, who were wearing lighter clothing. Two other people emerged from the shadows creating a straight line of people walking out of the alley.
In order to achieve this photograph, I had to dip my camera to the right, creating a slight tilt, so as to get the line of people walking towards me. It was a gut instinct to make the tilt, with little thought I wanted to get the line of people. To make successful street photographs you can’t overthink images because things happen in a split second. I was able to make two quick frames of the scene before people were aware of my presence.
Looking back at this photo, I was pleased with the content from which was in the front to back with a nice line of people, leading towards the background. I find my eyes bouncing back and forth between the two ladies faces in the foreground. I love the way the one lady is bundled up in her fur coat. I feel the image captures a distinct moment, and I was pleased that I was able to fill the frame with interesting subject matter.