Venice and gondoliers go together like strawberries and cream, and a photo of a gondolier will immediately evoke an image of romantic evening punts down deserted canals while being serenaded to the strains of 'Oh Sole Mio'.
Unfortunately the experience didn't seem to quite match the hype, at least during daylight hours when gondolas were stacked up like jets over Heathrow trying to squeeze through tiny bridges all at the same time, while being surrounded by hundreds of Coolpix wielding tourists, and not a single singing gondolier to be heard above the chattering crowds.
Having said that, the gondolas and gondoliers were all very smartly turned out in regulation stripy shirts, but no straw hats for some reason.
I spotted the potential for a photo with a bit of intrigue when I saw this reflection of tourists on a bridge in one of the windows lining the canal Liz and I were walking along.
I started by taking a photo of just the window with the reflections, which was OK, but then I spotted this gondola making its way up the canal to where I was standing.
I carefully lined up the shot and waited until the gondolier appeared in just the right spot before pressing the shutter, capturing that desisive moment.
It was a good job I was using a DSLR and not a compact camera, or the shutter lag would have caused me to miss this opportunity.
Filename - venice gondolier 01.jpg
Camera - Nikon D3100
Lens - 18-55mm zoom @50mm
Exposure - 1/400sec @ f8, ISO400
Location - Venice, Italy
This image - 800x640px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Fast shutter speed used to freeze movement.
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