Anywhere but here

[RBSinTo]

Taken a few years ago at Edwards Gardens here in Toronto.
I noticed a couple sitting on a bench, engaged in what seemed to be a one-sided conversation, and the man's expression provided me with a title for the photo.
motorized Nikon F2AS
Tokina ATX 80-200 2.8 AIS manual focus
Fuji 100 ISO colour slide
probably 2.8 @ 1/500th

[DanK]

Hmm. It looks to me as though he might simply be listening intently.

Regardless, while this is an interesting capture, I think it could do with some work. The shadows are badly underexposed, and unfortunately, that includes the faces, which should be the point of interest. In addition, the negative space on the left doesn't contribute. Just lightening the shadows and cropping a bit (I think it needs more careful tweaking than I did) gives this:

[RBSinTo]

Dan,
Thanks for commenting.
I struggled with the crop and in the end decided I liked having the entire bench in the composition, but agree that your crop works well. I'm not so sure about lightening the shadows (or at least to the extent that you did) as it gives the shot a washed out look that I don't like. I'll play with that and see if I can strike a balance that I like.
Robert

[lovelife65]

Agree with Dan. To me, it looks like he is just engaged in listening. She is very animated which is cute. The edits work, but the photograph is still very noisy to me and looks almost as if taken in poor lighting with a cell phone.

[FootLoose]

Interesting body language. The fellow's eyes might be staring at her but his mind is possibly elsewhere.

I agree with Dan the darks need to be selectively lightened, and there seems to me to be a magenta cast in the image