A travel into Venice

About 6 weeks ago, for our xx wedding anniversary, my wife and I decided to go to Venice (the one in Italy). We love Italy (and Italians!).
Usually, when travelling for pleasure (I do a lot for work) I don't bring my gear, just a snap camera or even none.

For this time I felt I had to bring the 1Ds2. Marine, my wife, told me "you want to go to Venice with me with all your gear? it's gonna be a nightmare, you'll be always scared that it could be stolen, we'll have not a quiet minute!"
Of course she was right, so I said, "Ok, I'll bring only one lens, so I'll carry my cam like every tourist!"
We agreed on that…

Then came the very difficult decision for the choice of THE lens to bring.
Normally I should have chosen a "standard lens" anyone around 35 to 50mm.

But I'm not normal.

I like the extremes… so it will be a very wide or a very long…
The very long (in my case the Canon 500mm IS) was obviously impossible for such "quiet" travel.
So my choice went on the Sigma 12-24. The challenge to shoot into a city with a 12-24 is real… but I love this lens. The other challenge was to avoid postcard like pics…

We had the very good luck in November to have a marvelous weather and even a strike of the Vaporetos crews!

The 6 pics after the 1st one are from the Biennale. #2 to 5 are the Czeck pavillion, artist is Irena Juzova, very amazing atmosphere created there…

When in Venice I did remind the excellent article (worth the read or the reread: here) that Asher wrote about photos (excellent too!) made by Rainer Viertlböck in Venice. Two very different visions…

C'mon OPFers let's write your thougths or your own photos of Venice…

Well the context is set, here the first picture as a teaser, night of arrival, 1st vision…




The other pics are there.
Of course every pics are handheld and uncropped…

Nicolas:

You will just have to teach your wife to shoot with you which is what my husband now regrets having done with me (not really) since he is now paying dearly for my new studio opening in about a month!

Anyway, I am madly in love with your Venice photos. I think that wide is the best way to capture the flavor of that magnificent place. That 12-24 and your artistic eye are a perfect match. I love the canal at night that you posted the link to OPF and the images of the Vaporetto.....

Ah, if only I could taste the Branzino Dinner from the Hotel Daneli again where we celebrated my 50th birthday..I will have to put a few up on my website from my trip to Venice.....

Thanks Kathy for the kind words…
Marine, my wife is a talented (Asher may confirm!) Art Director, but she doesn't even know where is the lens on a camera! (I'm joking but not that much!)

Please do post here your photos of Venice, let's make this place dedicated to this wonderfull city…

BTW, tomorrow, I'll add this pic (the uncropped version) as I forgot it, it adds to the Venitian luxury, IMHO:

Nicolas - wait until you see my version of this window...

Nicolas,

I couldn't agree more about the magic of Venice. Here's one from a few years ago.
D60 and 16-35 mm L, hand held. Hope you like

More Venice....

Gee, I was there two years ago - I have changed cameras, lenses and my style has really changed - ALOT


But first - For Nicolas....taken at 18mm with the Canon 20d and the Tamron 18-200di

Great shot Nathaniel

Ah! Venice at sunset… better for me not to sing…

Kathy Rappaport said:

Gee, I was there two years ago - I have changed cameras, lenses and my style has really changed - ALOT


But first - For Nicolas....taken at 18mm with the Canon 20d and the Tamron 18-200di

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Funny how a different angle shows the same but differently, your framing is very nice too!

Amazing also that we did stand by the same vitrine… among hundreds

The second shot is more postal card like, but it helps well to remind the drink we had exactly there (not so nice waiter though…)

Kathy Rappaport said:

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Last time I was there, I stayed in that Hotel with the Orange Canopy!

Nicolas,

A couple of more contributions from the magic city ...

Nicolas,

Thanks for bringing us back to this so memorable great City. As your first picture shows, approaching from the water at night, probably on your water Taxi, one finds a sparking jewel in the sky. It's a deceptively simple picture, but has Nicolas' signature wide perspective, gathering the reflections in the dark water. Much of Nicolas' artwork, which I have had and have the privilege of enjoying deals with elements of light and nature. Here it is a fitting first picture for the Venice thread.

The challenge here is being able to accurately print such a dark image and elicit the nuances of tone and not getting just flat black over large areas. However, I've been with him as he bends over prints discussing with the CMYK technician specific instructions for getting the colors he needed. It's easy to print a bright saturated image. I'd lose a lot of money trying to do justice to such an image. For example, there's a spot of light in the right mid field with detail around it. I'm sure there is much more, but beyond the capabilities of my wife's Apple imac 20" monitor. I doubt that the Eizo would do much better. For sure, that water is not black black but has a lot of texture and tone.

Nicolas referred to Rainer's B&W pictures of Venice. What fascinates me is that each of Rainer's photographs were disassembling a tourists view of the city to deliver a soulful aspect that only a few might admit, yet we can understand if we contemplate from this point of view..

The pictures here are not anything like that. Nicolas, Kathy, John and Nathaniel each have a different full color perspective. It's tough to pick another picture out of this collection, but let me dare to do so, and I'd grab Nathaniel's awe inspiring view of that turn in the Grand Canal. The view is from high up so I wonder how it was taken?

Asher Kelman said:

I'd grab Nathaniel's awe inspiring view of that turn in the Grand Canal. The view is from high up so I wonder how it was taken?

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From ?

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Asher,

Our cruise shipped entered the lagoon at dawn. We rushed on deck to watch the sunrise.
This is one of many memorable shots from that morning.

That was my guess that it was from a cruise ship....the views of Venice from water are wonderful. You can shoot land views from the ships, because of their size and distance, with great perspective that you cannot get otherwise. They also move slowly enough that you can even get night shots that are acceptable. Beautiful work, Nathaniel. What ship were you on? My husband and I love to cruise.

Kathy Rappaport said:

That was my guess that it was from a cruise ship....the views of Venice from water are wonderful. You can shoot land views from the ships, because of their size and distance, with great perspective that you cannot get otherwise. They also move slowly enough that you can even get night shots that are acceptable. Beautiful work, Nathaniel. What ship were you on? My husband and I love to cruise.

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Here' another favorite. Shot from the Oceania Regatta at dawn. This is Plaza San Marko, shot from an unusual angle. Hope you like.

Well, you obviously picked the right lens, a nice sharp 12-24. Very nice images. i especially like images 3359 and 3361, two views of the same subject.

Hi Steve
thanks for the kind words…

Yes I got a good copy of this lens, however at this resolution it has been a pity not to be sharp…

But it looks good too with full 1Ds2 resolution.

Now with the 1Ds3 I feel that the limits of the lens are shown and I'm awaiting Canon to send the new 14mm lens to my dealer for me test it. If it's better than the Sigma, it's gonna be mine!

Have a nice day

Bonjour Nathaniel

That's a neat view!

However it shows a lot of pixellisation… is it an extensive crop or just a downsizing problem?
framing and colors are gogeous ( Though not shot @ 12mm ;-)

Nicolas Claris said:

Bonjour Nathaniel

That's a neat view!

However it shows a lot of pixellisation… is it an extensive crop or just a downsizing problem?
framing and colors are gogeous ( Though not shot @ 12mm ;-)

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Sorry, but it is a jpg that has been rewritten a couple of times, so the quality suffers a bit. The original is fine.

Here's my version from 2 years ago:



Cheers,