Ciao!

The course began today. But the day did not start well for me. Everyone had left by the time I came down at 6 am. We had already agreed I should take the Vaporetto to St Mark's whereas everyone else should walk to get to the Riva before dawn. I already knew from 3 days there that I'd injure my knee unnecessarily if I walked. 

I wasn't quite sure where the Ca d'Oro stop was and went first to the Gondola stand. Wrong. A passing lady showed me where to go down a nearby passage. I'd just missed a boat. By the time another one came, streaks of dawn were already apparent in the sky. It took 25 minutes to reach my destination.

When I described to one of the course leaders that it was like 'a slow boat to China,' he reproved me with the comment that I must have taken the long way round. Which just goes to show that he hadn't timed it himself.

I found some gondolas bobbing at the bank and got out my tripod. I had a love-hate relationship with this tripod all week. It was a tripod that kept the camera reasonably steady, it was compact and light to carry, but it was a monster for getting set up.

I attached the filter holder to the lens and inserted a 0.9 soft nd grad. It fell through the holder! Resorted to the 0.6 + 0.3 and added a stopper (of some sort). I have a photo, but it's not the photo I would have wanted, and it would be slated in competition because of the bright sun on the left hand side.

Back on the boat to the hotel for breakfast in high dudgeon.

Things looked up after breakfast when we went out with Matt Hart to do some street photography. It's easy to think you could take pictures of anything in the street that would count as street photography. How wrong you would be! It's all about composition, lighting, shadow, colour and positioning. Genuine street photography is entirely candid AND is virtually straight out of camera. You are allowed to adjust for verticals and to crop, but that's all.

Matt showed us the settings to use on our cameras. Totally different from what we would use for landscape. This was a revelation.

The photo above is probably my first acceptable piece of street. I'd spotted the young man in the green coat heading towards the sunlit spot, when he stopped to chat with a friend. I waited for ten minutes until he finally moved, and then he had his eyes closed. Matt had to come and find me!

To the Accademia bridge in the afternoon for the Canaletto views of the Grand Canal. I blew it since I dismantled my tripod shortly before the afternoon light changed. Although I have photos, they're not as good as they should have been.

Took night shots of the gondolas at Ca d'Oro on the way back and then one of a night reflection in the canal just outside the hotel. Probably one of my best shots all week.

The extra is of the early morning light on the cloisters of the Doge's Palace. Very early morning is really the best time to view Venice as there are no tourists about. I did spot some South Korean photographers shooting wedding shots. I muscled in and took a couple myself.