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November 15, 2017

Night Scene of St Marks Square

This is another night scene of St Marks Square. There were a lot of people here and I wanted to capture the energy of it. There are so many different perspectives you could take of this place, but this time I chose to include the crowds. The architecture makes the scene but I find it more interesting with people.

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High-resolution photography creates an opportunity to go back and people-watch. Often when I’m reviewing photos I’ll zoom in to observe some detail that was lost on me at the time. When taking photos I’m composing so even though I’m recording a scene I’ll miss a lot of details. Through the image I can go back and revisit much more of what was going on at the time.

architecture photography

In that respect photography is a little like time travel; it takes us back to an event in a vivid way. Reviewing photos is not for our memory, but it fills in details we may not have been aware of at the time. In the end I’m left with a richer experience altogether.

September 18, 2017

Reflections in St Marks Square

We had just passed this way a few hours earlier and it was dry, now it was filled with puddles. I like taking pictures in the rain but in this case there was no rain in the forecast. From a photographic perspective it was a nice surprise so I stopped to take pictures of the reflections in St Marks Square.

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Reflections in St Marks Square in Venice Italy

Before visiting here I never knew that Venice was actually sinking. But it’s true and the rate is about a tenth of an inch per year. Basically the soil that the city is built upon is slowly compacting. When we walked through the central square at night the tides had risen up through the square to form puddles.

At this time of year Venice is super busy with visitors. I thought about that when approaching the city and I decided to include the crowds, making them part of the scenes I was capturing. There is a fun kind of energy late at night when so many people are walking around within the ancient lamp lit architecture.

more images with reflections

I was only here for about a day and a half; if I had been here longer I might have walked around in the early morning hours to get images without people. But that’s okay; I can save that idea for another day. Hopefully that day will be sometime soon before Venice goes the way of Atlantis.

September 2, 2017

Sigh of Relief at Trevi Fountain

In one sense the day we spent in Rome was anything but typical. Our first stop was at Trevi Fountain where there was no water running. I figured that on account of the five-month drought the water had been turned off. I was wrong, it was under maintenance and within a few minutes the water was flowing again. Amongst many of the tourists there was a sigh of relief at Trevi Fountain.

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Sigh of Relief at Trevi Fountain in Rome

There were hundreds of tourists, many standing with their backs to the fountain taking selfies. After I took this picture I switched to a normal lens so I could take pictures of people taking pictures of themselves. It was surreal, I’m pretty sure I was the only one doing that. However I took this with an ultra-wide angle lens. The unusual effect of the distortion adds to the drama of the scene.

One look at the clouds and it was apparent we were about to get hit with a deluge. I’m familiar with this from Florida, but it hadn’t rained in Rome for nearly a half a year so there was a real sense of anticipation by the locals. When it started raining the tourists scattered but among the locals there was a big sigh of relief.

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As for me I’m not that keen on taking pictures of monuments, it’s been done countless times and I don’t think I have much to add to the public record. However, once it started raining I knew it would be a good day. The even light, reflections on the pavement and all the umbrellas make for good photography. At the thought that I didn’t have to take yet more pictures of monuments, I too breathed a big sigh of relief.