Washing day, Montalcino, Italy

Another favourite image from last year's trip to Italy and the third that I plan on entering for the TPS MOS. This was shot hand held, walking around the town of Montalcino. Washing hangs out of windows like this all over Tuscany. I'd taken a few shots of just washing lines and buildings, but it never seemed to come together. Lots of interesting sets, just waiting for the actors to come along. This time I got lucky. The woman was looking out of her balcony in the shadow and I quickly ran up the hillside to frame her against the much lighter wall behind, to throw her mostly into silhouette and stop her head merging with the tiles of the roof behind. In many ways this sums up how the hill top towns in Italy felt. Tourists swarm all over them every day, but people live there, watching the world go by, doing their washing and getting on with their lives.

Lost in the crowd, Siena, Italy

This is the second image I plan on submitting to the TPS MOS for 2006. This image was taken in Siena, Italy during a week long holiday to Tuscany. I'd been walking around the city of Siena taking fairly typical tourist shots. We'd been challenged to take some images from the perspective of children. The one thing I realised about this was the difference in eye level - particularly on a narrow crowded street. I crouched down in a doorway and was amazed at the number of legs I saw. Everything suddenly felt very claustrophobic and threatening. I started trying to take pictures that captured some of that emotion. Occasionally I'd see breaks in the sea of adult legs, catch a glimpse of another child in the distance - someone on the same scale as me. This image best expressed those feelings for me - the cut off adults that exist up there in a different world. The young girl appearing through the gap in the legs, her hand attaching her to some unknown adult. The other child's foot breaking into the foreground frame adds to that feeling I think - the only identifiable things in the scene are children or belong to children - yet it is clear that adults are all around. The processing makes this very dark. I've burned down a lot of the legs and the black and white treatment I've used further emphasises the brooding and enclosing feeling, but with the gap leading out to the girl. I find the very off centered crop of the girl's head, right at the very edge of the frame works because she is looking back into the frame. Her downward gaze brings your eyes back into the picture, holding my attention. This, coupled with the fact that she is the brightest part of the scene and the area of highest contrast keeps the attention squarely where I wanted it - with her.