Here’s the story of what happened …and scroll down to see my best shots.

As I began my third visit to these dramatic fountains in the renown mannerist gardens of Villa D’Este, an unimaginable feat of hydraulic engineering from the 1500s, my mind wandered to how it must have been back then and how great it would be to have a model in period garb with me, right now. For my creative photography, I love to see a human shape added in, not necessarily as the full subject, but as an element of the overall design, a fun exercise to balance in with the shadows and shapes that an interesting scene will give you.

Well my stars must have been in alignment, and for those of you who know me, you can imagine my stunned face when a throng of historically accurate costumed Jane Austen reenactors started filing into the gardens right behind us. I actually felt faint with happiness.

I’ve just seen them coming into the Garden… so excited. Photo by William Wassell

After stalking them around the garden for an hour I flipped thru my images and realized that I had nothing! They were posing for each other with iPads and camera phones, and the light was blistering. It was hard to get one that did not have a selfie stick, modern tourist or cell phone showing up to ruin it.

Then I recalled my favorite spot, one particularly beautiful fountain with dramatic backlighting, and had an idea. I looped back around the gardens, terrified the group had left and that I had missed my chance, but soon I found them. Even with such kind and friendly people who had been happy for me to photograph them, there’s always that moment of shyness that strikes when asking someone to pose for you. In my excitement I’d been hurrying to approach them but then suddenly lagged back, trying hard to think of the best way to ask them in Italian, and in the correct polite way. I must have had that intense brow-furrow of concentration I get, because my intended subject suddenly turned and approached ME and asked, “Are you OK?!!” Yes I said with a smile, I have a “buon idea”! We recruited his friend to join us and headed back to my favorite spot. As we strolled down the paths, I described to them exactly what I wanted, a blending of three things…

#1 – these were not to be portraits, rather, they were truly the characters from Jane Austen’s book, come to life. They enthusiastically said, Si si! Yes that is exactly who we are supposed to be!

#2 – they were also actors as if in a moving film, with an attitude and jaunty posture. POSTURE being the key word here. These two gentlemen had that down!

#3 – be natural and conversational, talk as friends in a true exchange of deep and fascinating information. This is the energy between the two figures that you will see in the images below.

All together this was the perfect mix of direction and they were fantastic! We had a wonderful time and the Italian group is called, From the World of Jane Austen “Nel Mondo di Jane Austen”. Afterwards as we were saying goodbye, they asked how I had known they were going to be there and I replied that it was just my good fortune and such a perfect coincidence for me that we would meet… and that my lucky stars were truly right to give me just exactly what I had asked for!

HOW DO YOU EDIT DOWN TO YOUR FINAL BEST SHOT?

When you are fortunate to get a lot of shots that you really like it is difficult. However, I warn my students that posting too many closely similar images can be fatiguing to the viewer, and even if it is hard, you MUST choose ONE as your best. So I am going to break my CARDINAL RULE of editing here, and show you FOUR similar favorites from this short and unexpected shoot with these very kind and accommodating gentlemen.

There are elements of shadow and light, the tension between shapes, and also the energy of their posture that I found appealing in all of these. However I did finally choose just one that I printed for a recent exhibition.

Which one do you like the best?

Two gentlemen in perfect period costume, part of a group of reenactors called Nel Mondo di Jane Austen, backlit in front of the dramatically spewing “Fountain of the Dragons” at Villa D’Este in Tivoli.

See Robin’s upcoming photography Workshop Schedule in ITALY and Southern FRANCE

Text and Images © Robin Davis, all rights reserved