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Walking along the side of a canal in Venice in the height of the tourist season can be quite a struggle. Trying to take a meaningful photo even more so as the big, crowd filled, picture is hardly evocative of the quiet mystery and weight of history that I feel Venice stands for.
So, when faced with a situation like this I normally revert to photographing isolated details. Detail photographs are a great way to convey the underlying ambiance of a location, when the actual scene in front of your lens is just chaos, tourists and poor lighting.
Everyone associates gondolas with Venice, so I though that an image of just part of a gondola would convey a sense of place just as well, if not better, than a photo of a crowded walkway and logjammed canal.
This particular gondola caught my eye, standing out from the plethora of rivals due to the beautiful gold ornaments and finely detailed trim. Obviously this was a much loved gondola (others weren't so well cared for) and I spent a few minutes photographing the various aspects of the craft that made interesting images.
This view had the best blend of colours and composition of those that I took at the time, and speaks to me of a timeless opulence and historical significance that is part of the Venetian ambiance.
Filename - venice gondolas 03.jpg
Camera - Nikon D3100
Lens - 18-55mm zoom @52mm
Exposure - 1/60sec @ f11, ISO400
Location - Venice, Italy
This image - 800x545px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - -0.7 stop exposure compensation used to preserve highlight details on gondola.
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