So, here it is - my first real blog post (of any kind, ever). I am calling this my Photo Focus. The idea is that I can take a chance to highlight a favorite photo of mine (or yours) and talk a bit about it. There might be some story behind it that gives more meaning, or I might just talk about why I took it or what I had in mind or how I achieved the shot.

For my first entry, I am pulling a favorite of mine from Belgium - the couple on the bridge. This was taken on the 2nd full day we had spent in the town of Ghent. We were familiar with the area at this point and knew some places that we still wanted to shoot. The streets in the city were these amazing paver stones (see here http://www.focusfortworth.com/p11090080/h4339262a#h4339262a). The bridges there are simple but beautiful, and I really wanted to get a shot of these buildings from the bridge with the road in the foreground.

DSC_3000 This bridge is actually used by vehicles (mostly delivery trucks and commercial traffic), so that presented some challenges. I would move to the center of the street and sit down only to hear a bus coming and have to jump up out of the way. I tried this a few times without getting anything I liked. I finally got out there with no traffic coming and got a good spot, but there were tourists on both sides of the bridge and a big, white delivery truck just over the hill. I was sitting cross-legged in the middle of the road, leaned over with my camera almost on the ground to keep from seeing the truck. I had seen this couple walking up the bridge before I got into place. In fact, right as they came into view, they stopped and kissed. I was disappointed that I missed it, but they would have been much smaller in the shot and wouldn't have had as much impact. I was able to catch them as they were looking at each other and got this shot right before another group walked right in front of them.

So, here is the "before" shot (underwhelming, I know). Obviously, it's crooked (I was sitting in a road and dodging buses, what would you expect?), but that is an easy fix. So, I straightened it and cropped out the tourists on the left. This made the couple a larger part of the photo and the obvious subject. I felt like the green tree and green umbrella were distractions. There is also a blue sign that is visible at the top of the hill, so the color needed to go. I went with the sepia tone since it worked well with the buildings and gave a nice romantic, older feel to the shot. There are some more things in the photo that I feel should be fixed still, but I'll handle that the next time someone buys a print of it.

Before

For some context, below is where I was for the picture.

PhotoLocation So, there you have it. There was some adventure in getting this shot, some thought and some being in the right place at the right time.