All throughout last night we wandered through the still lively alleyways of the Parione area. The cobbled streets were lit only by the occasional streetlight and the warm glow of the fairy lights that adorned most restaurant entrances. Even though it was late, there were still a fair amount of groups out and about or seated at one of the many restaurants that littered the area. Pictured below is an iphone image of a restaurant I feel aptly represents the general atmosphere of the Parione area.
(For this journal assignment, we were tasked with observing the ways in which people interacted with each other and their environment)
The people who made their way down the narrow Parione streets after sundown often did so in groups of two to six. At this time of night, younger people (both tourists and locals) seemed to dominate the demographic of those who walked the streets while it seemed that older fold were either already eating (on Rome time, so around nine o’clock) or (so I assume) at home for the evening. The dense crowds that sometimes filled the narrow streets during the daytime hours were nowhere to be seen. Many people had on slightly dressier clothes than what I had observed earlier that day during class at the Trevi Fountain.
Throughout the night, I took many photos of people, buildings, and a handful of store windows. This was my first time shooting at night for a prolonged period of time, so I figured I should shoot with my brightest lens: the Fujifilm 35mm f1.4. While I had some minor successes with this lens, the scarcity of people made inconspicuously photographing people extremely difficult with its “standard” focal length. Luckily, I had my Pentax 85mm f2 in my bag and switched to that, which, while I lost a stop of light, gave me the much needed reach I needed to get the shots I like. I was presented with yet another drawback while using this lens, however: because of its age, it is exclusively a manual focus lens. Despite the added challenge of manually focusing at f2, I ended up with some really interesting shots thanks to the longer focal length and odd characteristics the vintage lens brought with it. Some of those images are attached below.
