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One simple question

And the most important photo I've ever taken.

By Life & Muse

June 11^th, 2019

It was a perfect picturesque moment. Her arms casually extended on the balcony railing, one foot stirring behind the other, and the setting sun lightly kissing her shoulders as she looked far out into the horizon past the Positano cliffs.

It was a perfect picturesque moment because I had been composing this exact scene in my head for weeks leading up to this moment. A perfect song-and-dance to have Hanna, my girlfriend at the time, completely stationary with her back to me and with no sense of what was about to unfold. And it was going exactly as planned.

Only four weeks prior, we had booked our hotels for a two week getaway that would take us to Positano and Florence, with a quick stop over in London for a few days first. By that point though, I already had my plan in mind, so it was just a matter of playing my cards right.

The hotel. In our divide-and-conquer approach, the responsibility for booking Positano’s stay mistakenly fell into Hanna’s lap. Not to worry though – I nudged her towards the room with the balcony and made a stealthy maneuver afterwards to contact the hotel directly to verify the view and to make a few other special arrangements.

The tripod. The crucial ingredient to the plan was my camera tripod. I knew I would need it to capture the moment so I started planting seeds as early as possible. A few casual mentions of wanting to take more long exposure shots on our trip helped justify packing the tripod on our travels. Days before departure, I even made her accompany me to Samy’s (a local camera store) to replace the camera mount I had somehow lost.

So away we went. With tripod in tow along with some extremely precious cargo stuffed deep within my backpack, we went off on our trip. I was mentally prepared for my cover to be blown at security, but fortunately my secret remained safe. Crisis averted.

Three quick days in London later, during which my backpack (with aforementioned precious cargo inside) sat unassumingly in the open in our room at the Ace Hotel, we hopped two flights and a car ride and finally arrived in Positano. Weeks of planning would be coming to fruition within the hour, so needless to say, I was feeling a little high strung.

We checked into the room and I B-lined it towards the balcony. View, check. Phew. Also, flowers and champagne, check. Off to a good start.

I walked up half-awkwardly, realizing I had planned nearly everything except the segue from ruse to reveal.

After a quick shower and negotiation to get Hanna into her red dress, the scene was set. We were a tad early for sunset but there was no slowing down now. Without delay, I prompted Hanna to get into position on the balcony and helped her find her pose. If you know me and my photography antics (refer to literally every other post on this site if you don’t), this was nothing out of the ordinary.

And there she was, in all her glory. Gracefully oblivious as ever.

A dozen feet back, just inside the balcony doors and halfway into the room, was my camera and tripod setup. This was far from her first rodeo, so she stood patiently, in pose, facing away, and without question, as I toiled away behind the lens trying to get my settings just right.

“Just adjusting the exposure. Testing a few more things. Hold on, don’t move.” I’d keep saying, deliberately loud, deceivingly busy. Meanwhile, I had started the automatic shutter that would capture a photo once every second until I manually stopped it.

And finally, from my backpack, I took out the little red velvet box and slid it into the back pocket of my jeans. It was time.

“I’m taking an extra long exposure so don’t move.”

I walked up half-awkwardly, realizing I had planned nearly everything except the segue from ruse to reveal. I remember wrapping my arms around her, trying to calm my own nerves as I began reciting the loose spiel I had been mentally drafting for weeks. Realizing this was no ordinary photo shoot, she turned to face me, just as I reached for my back pocket and went down on one knee.