Postcards from Rome ~ Reflecting

I’m in Roma!

Valerie street hunter by ©Karen Hutton-1

Me, street hunting in Rome on arrival day with my Fuji X100T Photo by Karen Hutton.

While on the long flight over, I had the time to reflect on the amazing journey I embarked on about 5 years ago when I decided to quit commercial photography to spend my time and energy sharing my passion and vision with the world.

Making a living as an artist is never easy, especially if you want to do it your own way and with your heart. The road was incredibly challenging, with many moments of doubts and fear. There were many sleepless night and lots of tears. But, if you know me, you know that I NEVER give up! With determination and a lot of hard work, the rewards have been incredible and well worth every obstacle I encountered along the way. Today I have the incredible chance to travel anywhere in the world I want to go, share my passion for photography while making amazing new friends along the way. I also have the luxury to make pictures just for me and to satisfy my own vision. I still work very hard to make this happen every day but I am living my dream!

So here I am… In Roma! It’s only been a year since my last visit and I’m excited to be back. It is one of those cities that get under your skin and draws you back, especially if you are a street photographer 🙂

The original plan was to fly with my good friend Karen Hutton but the weather in NYC decided otherwise and we met up at Leonardo Da Vinci – Fiumicino airport instead. The trip was particularly long and eventful with no sleep, long delays, flights cancelled, mad run through CDG to catch a connecting flight, etc. But once I arrived, all was forgotten and I was ready to hit the streets.

Rome reveals its amazing colors and textures as soon as you start wandering its streets. I really love the Classic Chrome look on my Fuji camera. The colors are much more muted than I used on my last visit but I find it more fitting and timeless. I’m a B&W girl so it’s no surprise that Classic Chrome would be my choice for color.

I really liked the symmetry in this building and, of course, the color. I waited only a few minutes for a local to walk through. I chose to catch him walking out of the frame in order to break the visual flow and create more tension in the composition. Et voila!