Welcome to our very first “The Story Behind the Image” post. Each Tuesday, we will post one of our favourite images and share the story behind the photo, where it was, what was happening at the time and some technical data.

No matter if you are a photographer, clients or future clients, lovers of art or just plain curious about lenses and boxes called cameras, be sure to come back each Tuesday afternoon to check out the latest story.

“Ladies on a Bench”

Italy is a place that I love to people watch; so much is going on, especially in the cool of the afternoon when locals come out to chat, catch up with friends and watch the world (their local village) go by. Friends congregate, typically in the same place every day.

This image was taken in Siena, one September evening. I am sure these ladies have been sitting on this very bench swapping stories for decades. As I approached them to take their photo, I was wondering what stories these ladies could tell, what binds them together, has life been kind to them?

In my best Italian, I asked if I could take their photo, to which I got much smiling and laughter. Maybe it was my bad Italian, their body language told me they were saying “you don’t want a photo of us surely” A smile from me and all was good, in this image I saw more than just four ladies on a bench. A warm “Grazie miele!”  from me and I left them to enjoy the rest of their evening.

When it was time to edit the image, I preferred the dramatic crop you see above.  The anonymity from the crop, the feet, legs, attire, hands, all these elements make the reader think.

To me, a strong image is one that you can keep coming back to and see something new, it has a story and makes a statement. To me this image does all that, a creative writer could use this image as the catalyst for a short story about friendship, love and loss. This image was one of my images to receive a Silver Award at the 2010 Epson Queensland AIPP Awards.

For those who like tech stuff, the technical details are:

Canon EOS 5D

EF 24-70 2.8L

Manual mode, natural light, ISO 400, 1/60 sec, f 5.0

Please feel free to leave your comments; we look forward to your feedback.

Be sure to come back each Tuesday for the latest installment in “The Story Behind the Image”.