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Since arriving to northern Italy this midsummer for work I've been dying to make a trip to Venice but kept putting it back until a time when the hordes of summer/early autumn tourists which pack the place start to thin out. 3 weeks back I finally bit the bullet and on a gorgeous late autumn Sunday break I set off at the crack of dawn on a 2 hr train ride to arrive in Venice at around 9 am. I then spent almost 10 hours walking around the place, often crisscrossing the same paths, to seek out not only the major tourist attractions but also parts of Venice which are usually reserved for the locals. I also managed to pull in a quick trip to the nearby island of Murano, home to Venetian glass makers.
I took a load of photos on the way with my new camera but when it came to sorting them out I was disappointed with the results. The winter sunlight was dazzlingly strong and made for some really difficult high contrast scenes which I failed miserably to capture to my liking. The following week I took time out to experiment with the camera and decided to pay another visit the follow Saturday to see if I could do a better job.
The day started off with very hard frost but cloudless dawn sky but to my surprise, about 20 miles outside of Venice a thick fog closed in and when I arrived at the train station a white stick and a guide dog would have been more appropriate traveling accessories!
The fog partially lifted off and on throughout the day but the sun never broke through. The weather was decidedly fresh but as I was continually walking around I kept warm enough. I'd planned to visit Murano again but with not too much time available in the late afternoon and a thick haze reducing the amount of daylight I opted instead for a lightening fast visit to the nearby island of Burano, which proved to be a good decision. This small island was known in the past for lace making activities but these days the attraction to tourists is more in the colourful residential homes which adorn the place.
Back to Venice with the daylight gone, the temperature dropping sharply and with 8 hours of walking behind me it was time to take the train back to Verona. At home, reviewing my new batch of photos, I certainly didn't get the better quality sunny shots I was originally looking for but I did end up with what I think is a more interesting collection of subdued images of this fascinating city. As for those sunny shots, well maybe I'll improve on them later on when I will definitely go back for a third visit. For now though, I bought a very nice illustrated guide book packed full of beautiful photos taken by professional photographers who obviously know what they are doing!!
Rather than bundle my photos into a presentation as I've done in the past I'm now in the process of building a web gallery to document my trips. This is still very much a work in progress but please feel free to take a look by clicking on the following image
Note the gallery albums contain two built in slide shows. To see the best one click on any large size image in the default slide show in any album to maximise its size then hover your mouse to the centre left or right edge of the image to show a small blue arrow which will advance or go back through the album photos.
Enjoy!
I took a load of photos on the way with my new camera but when it came to sorting them out I was disappointed with the results. The winter sunlight was dazzlingly strong and made for some really difficult high contrast scenes which I failed miserably to capture to my liking. The following week I took time out to experiment with the camera and decided to pay another visit the follow Saturday to see if I could do a better job.
The day started off with very hard frost but cloudless dawn sky but to my surprise, about 20 miles outside of Venice a thick fog closed in and when I arrived at the train station a white stick and a guide dog would have been more appropriate traveling accessories!
The fog partially lifted off and on throughout the day but the sun never broke through. The weather was decidedly fresh but as I was continually walking around I kept warm enough. I'd planned to visit Murano again but with not too much time available in the late afternoon and a thick haze reducing the amount of daylight I opted instead for a lightening fast visit to the nearby island of Burano, which proved to be a good decision. This small island was known in the past for lace making activities but these days the attraction to tourists is more in the colourful residential homes which adorn the place.
Back to Venice with the daylight gone, the temperature dropping sharply and with 8 hours of walking behind me it was time to take the train back to Verona. At home, reviewing my new batch of photos, I certainly didn't get the better quality sunny shots I was originally looking for but I did end up with what I think is a more interesting collection of subdued images of this fascinating city. As for those sunny shots, well maybe I'll improve on them later on when I will definitely go back for a third visit. For now though, I bought a very nice illustrated guide book packed full of beautiful photos taken by professional photographers who obviously know what they are doing!!
Rather than bundle my photos into a presentation as I've done in the past I'm now in the process of building a web gallery to document my trips. This is still very much a work in progress but please feel free to take a look by clicking on the following image
Note the gallery albums contain two built in slide shows. To see the best one click on any large size image in the default slide show in any album to maximise its size then hover your mouse to the centre left or right edge of the image to show a small blue arrow which will advance or go back through the album photos.
Enjoy!
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