day thirty-six; july 29th
Final class today! Which means that it’s my second last day in Florence. :( Although I enjoy the beautiful scenery and monuments I pass on my way to school: the Ponte Vecchio, the Uffizi and looking up into the hills, I will not miss the long walk! Today in class we continued to work on the photos we scanned into the computer on Photoshop. Obviously it’s ridiculously easy to get the photos the way I want them with this method, however I have come to appreciate the manual and much longer effort required when in the darkroom. It’s like recreating the photo again and you appreciate the outcome so much more. We then laid out all the photos we had printed from the four weeks and reminisced on the situations we were in when taking them; such as the portrait assignment - a lot of pretending to aim somewhere beyond the person we were actually focusing on, it was quite awkward even if they did not know we were looking at them! I’m really happy with how my photos have turned out and I feel that I have been able to capture the “essence” of Florentine life and culture. I’ve learnt a lot from the course but I am glad I was able to intertwine my self-taught knowledge on the rules (more like guidelines!) of photography so I could further develop my eye. Said goodbye to my professor which was quite sad as he’s been a great help in class and outside of class when I was sick.
When I left the school the sky was very dark and I could tell the rain would be imminent. Sure enough it started to pour and I had no umbrella but not to worry, the street vendors were out like vultures in seconds, yes seconds, after the rain started with ridiculously priced umbrellas. Love it. Nonetheless, I spent my money on a decent one that was sure to have no holes! The sky was so dark that I could have sworn it was late at night and the rain became so heavy that eventually having an umbrella was not enough. I quickly rushed to my school’s main campus to pick up my graduation certificate and headed home. Of course the rain stopped not long after I was inside! Met Serena at 3pm and we headed for a walk around Santo Spirito which is the neighbourhood next to mine and then over to the train station so I could buy my ticket to Rome. It started to rain again as we headed towards San Lorenzo and continued to get heavier as we walked back to my apartment. I had dinner with Emilie, a girl from the group I met on the Cinque Terre trip, at this really traditional restaurant in a small piazza just off my street. We walked to the Ponte Santa Trinita and said our goodbyes as she had to go off to her Italian class. I had the intention of going to get my camera from my apartment so I could take some night photos however it started to rain again, and this time there was thunder and lightning so I had to abandon my plan which I was quite sad about as Florence is really special at night. Finished packing and headed to bed.
