Venice

You can buy pearls on Rialto Bridge

Nice Pearl Shop on top of the Rialto Bridge in Venice.

We didn’t buy any pearls when we were on Rialto Bridge. We were far too busy shooting photos. Half the bridge was under reconstruction, but we still managed to get some great shots. One of the things I like, about shooting in Italy at famous locations, is that there usually is a band playing some music. People are in general friendly and happy, and moving around with selfie sticks, trying to shoot themselves with their loved ones. I wouldn’t dare to put any of my cameras on a selfie stick though!

These are a couple of my favorites from same evening:

Rialto bridge reflected in the roof of a taxi boat

A quite unique reflection of the Rialto Bridge in Venice

Scaffoldings covered half of Rialto Bridge when I visited Venice. This, of course, was a great disappointment, as I had planned to shoot it. I call it Scaffolding Disease, and I seem to suffer from this disease.

The good thing about such situations is that you are forced to look for alternative compositions. In this case, I had half of the Rialto Bridge to work with, and only from this side. On the other side, houses on both sides were completely covered in scaffoldings too.

I walked around, and suddenly I saw this reflection in the roof. The Taxi boat had been lying there for ages. We had been at Rialto bridge since before the city lights were turned on, and the taxi had been there most of that time, but I hadn’t thought of using it as a reflection surface.

I am not sure I would have shot this shot, had it not been for the search for a unique composition, using only half the bridge. The reflection in the roof is a bonus, but it is the final touch, I think.

Gotta Love Venice

Palazzo Ducale or Doge’s Palace in Venice is a huge and incredibly beautiful building.

I really love Venice, even if there are heaps of tourists. The city is something out of the ordinary, and its magic just captures me. We got up early enough, to be able to see Piazza San Marco (almost) without any people (and of course to capture it in the right light). I think we got lucky with the weather.

About this photo

This is a 7 shot HDR, ranging from -4 to +2. I shot it using my Nikon D800 and my Nikkor 16-35mm f/4.

Venice Doge's palace

Why did I shoot from -4? They are almost completely black. One of the hard parts in shooting night shots, or blue hour photos like this one, is that street lamps are incredibly bright, compared to the rest of the photo. And often you end up, having completely blown out lamps. Sometimes, blown up lamps, can look great, at other times, lamps with full details can look great.

By shooting, and making sure, that I have all information, I have the artistic freedom, to choose if I want one or the other. A blown out lamp or a lamp with details. In the case of this photo, I went in the middle.

You could argue, that from -2 to +2 would have been enough, but if I had wanted to do something different when I got home, I couldn’t have changed my mind. So I made sure, when I shot the shot.

Long exposure view from the Rialto Bridge

A long exposure from a classic block buster photo location in Venice. From the top of the Rialto Bridge.

The view from Rialto Bridge is world famous, and not without reason. It is stunning. I tried to capture a slightly different scene than the classic Canal-Grande seen-from-the-Rialto-Bridge photo (though I shot that one too). I love that Mahony taxi boat in front of Hotel Rialto, and that restaurant with the golden light.

I shot this HDR photo using a 6 stop filter, to increase the shutter time. The longest exposure was 30 seconds, which explains the smooth water. The Mahony taxi was kind enough to stay still long enough to be sharp. Some things you can’t control as a photographer, and needs to rely on luck for. I got lucky this time.

I was waiting for the city lights to be turned on. I had an idea that the three armed lamp would look awesome. What I hadn’t noticed, at this time, was that the large spotlight to light up the Rialto bridge was placed there too.

A large spotlight ruined the intentions I had with this frame. I am glad I shot this before it was turned on.

While shooting from the Rialto Bridge there was live music.

Warm light on Piazza san Marco

A passage leading into the Piazza San Marco in Venice. You can see the Palace of the Doge in the far distance.

On our way back to our hotel, after a long morning of photography in Venice, we had to cross Piazza San Marco to get back to our hotel. Just before we entered the Piazza, the most wonderful golden light met us. And even though I had stopped shooting, I put up my tripod once more.

The dynamic range is incredibly high in a photo like this, because of the dark passage and the sunrise exploding on Piazza San Marco. It requires shooting some extra stops to cover all light. I shot this both from -4 to +2 and from -5 to +1. As I got home, I can see, that the correct thing to do, would have been to shoot from -5 to +3, that would have been nine shots using my Nikon D800. But, as you can see I managed with a little bit less.

Photo by: Jacob Surland, www.caughtinpixels.com Licensed creative commons non-commercial v4.0. No derivative Work. Protected by Pixsy.com.

The Famous View from Rialto Bridge

The famous view of Canal Grande seen from the Rialto Bridge.

Crossing the Rialto Bridge is a must do experience when visiting Venice. And if you have the option to plan it, try to do it at sunset. The houses along Canal Grande look just awesome with the lights and colors. Stay and watch the traffic for a while. Gondolas, Varporettos, taxi boats, and ordinary people cruising in their small speed boats. It’s a very busy area, the bridge itself included.

This photo I shot using my 24-70mm Sony Zeiss lens attached to my Sony A7R. As you can see, the light is fading quickly, but I really didn’t want a long exposure. Opened the lens to it’s maximum, which is ‘only’ f/4, and then I cranked up the ISO to 2500. I got a shutter speed fast enough to freeze the three gondolas navigating.

I shot it as a 3 shot HDR photo, but the gondolas and for the water and boats, I only used the one exposure, the middle one. The bright exposure is too long, and the boats get blurry, and the dark was, well too dark.

Lamp posts at Piazza San Marco

I ran around Piazza San Marco to capture as many shots as possible with this georgeous light.

I just love Piazza San Marco, even during the crowded daytime hours. Photography, of course, is difficult when there are many people, but it is a very beautiful place. And in the morning, it’s just stunning, and the people have almost disappeared. Believe it or not, I did not clone any people out of this one. I did have to clone out a number of dust bins and garbage. However, the Venezians put a lot of pride in keeping their large piazzas clean.

Caught In Pixels