Description:

This image was taken at Volterra in Italy. It was a pageant day; the whole of the hill-top town was closed off for a living history spectacle. I had decided that this was going to be a day for candid shots so, in the main, I used my Olympus XA shooting from the hip. This was one such image.

As I walked towards the scene, I focused at about 6ft/2m on the range-finder scale and set the aperture to something quite small. Just as I walked by I lifted the camera to my chest and clicked the shutter release. This method is always hit and miss as to whether the image is framed/focussed/steady enough. Luckily all three were perfect with only one minor failure; the feet and bow of soldier at the front are slightly out of depth of field.

I would argue that if these were in focus then the faces of the rear soldiers would have been out. The prime focus of the image are the heads and bodies of the three men and the composition is an inverse triangle. The original image of this showed that the faces and sleeves were too washed out, so when getting this printed I asked for it to be printed darker. The sleeve of the guard in front now shows a little detail and the colour in the faces shows just enough saturation.