Perfecting the Long-Exposure

For about a year now, I've been reading my couples with a question in my mind:
how will they feel about posing for a long-exposure?
Some have been better than others.
Tonight's couple looked great and had such a terrific attitude that I knew the photos would be good.

Like so many before, they held the standard pose perfectly:

Then I took a chance and asked my couple to try something new - kiss.
Sure, my couples kiss all the time on the gondola.
They're practically required to.
But asking a couple to kiss as you pass under a bridge is one thing, challenging them to hold a smooch perfectly still for a long time with your shutter open - that's different.

But I think they did a pretty great job.
Funny thing though; after the shutter closed, and I told them so, they kept kissing!
I guess having to hold that posed kiss for the photo got them in the mood for the real thing.

To say I'm a sucker for a long-exposure would be an understatement.
I'm still working on it as a discipline.
But tonight I took it a small step further and the rich, dramatic images were a nice reward.