In the past when my Rosemary and I traveled abroad we always
had our granddaughter Rebecca in tow. This time around she refused to budge
from her home in Burnaby. Alas! How would I be able to
take photographs in
Venice or in Florence that would be different from the norm?
I found a beautiful young Venetian woman with blue hair who
was going to pose for me. At the last moment she cancelled and I was in Venice
with an efficient portable studio light and no subject to photograph. This problem did not last long as I photographed my friend, period cellist Claudio
Ronco and his wife Emanuela Vozza with that light by a canal right outside
their home. In a soon-to-be blog I will write about them.
In Florence chance brought us in contact with a handsome
rickshaw (electrically assisted) driver. A few days later, and after a haircut
and with his sunglasses he greeted us and I did not recognize him.
I knew that
this was an opportunity that I had to take advantage of. Carlo Eugenio Raffaelli (born in Edinburgh,
Scotland) was a too good of a subject to ignore. I asked him about his plans
and it seems he is studying to be an opera singer at the Conservatorio di musica Luigi Cherubini. He is a tenor. He was willing to pose for me to get a free headshot!
He came to our hotel room (I thought the drapery would make
a good background) and he posed. The chair photos you see here involve a
purposeful camera failure where I drastically underexpose my Fuji X-E3 and use
a magical f-stop, 7.1.
While I was taking his photographs I was nagged by a memory.
When we got back to Vancouver and only a few hours ago I figured he had a
passing resemblance to Austrian actor (The Red Shoes) Anton Walbrook.
I have a feeling that I have photographed a future excellent
, soon-to-be-famous tenor!
