palazzo vecchio, florence, 1998

This is actually a picture of the sky.

Huh? Well that's because of how I compose pictures. I try to strike a balance and create interesting shapes with the positive AND negative areas. The sky here is the negative area and I spent almost all my time before the blue in the sky disappeared, on trying to create an interesting negative shape first, and trusting the positive area would take care of itself.

Footnote for photographers: The other challenge was just trying to see! It was very dark and the camera was on the ground. I used my Nikon F3 and removed the prism to use the focusing screen as a viewfinder, otherwise I would have had to lie flat on the ground to see through it. The F3 has allowed me take photos reliably in many difficult situations where more "advanced" cameras wouldn't have allowed me to. Lens: 24mm.