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Pictures by Camera FujiFilm FinePix 1600 HTC Touch Pro 2 JVC Everio GZ-MS100 Lomo Fisheye Minolta X500 Nikon D5000 Nikon F3 T Nisis DV5 Pentax Optio 50 QTEK 9100 Rollei 35b Sony Ericsson K700i TYTN II |
Venice's Pictures
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Well you can tell it's soon time to leave because it's a more nondescript picture here at Zamyatin. The toll of beautiful buildings and baking sun has taken its toll. Plus the fact that I spent most of the time taking pictures with the Nikon and using the JVC to take video on a free trip to Murano which was free from the hotel, the weird thing initially was that the water taxi was paid for by the glass gallery especially since there was a demo and a personal tour thrown in free. Of course this was weird until it became patently clear that this was a sales trip trying to sell us hundreds of Euros of glassware. What's actually odd about it was that last time we came to Venice we paid our fare to get to Murano and when we tried to see if we could have a tour (which we would be happy to pay for) we were all but escorted off the premises but this time since they were more than happy to pay the water taxi and give us a personal tour. By way of thanks we bought EUR25 of glass, that should go some way to paying for some of the taxi fares.
Anyway lets get back to the picture. On the way to find something to eat we stopped near the Teatro Restaurant and this image looked quite nice so I took and snap. The end.
| 0 comments have been left | 17:49 27 Aug 2010 | Tags: venice italy windows |
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The largest and the only bridge over the Grand Canal in Venice until they built the one until 1854. The first one was wooden but the stone structure now supports shops on either side similar to a larger bridge in Florence, however the one in Florence contains shops with expensive jewellery instead of the souvenirs as with this on.
Near here there are restaurants and Gondoliers lining the sides of the canal. We at last gave in to the calls of the Gondoliers and went for the longest trip which included the Small Canal and the Grand Canal, the Grand Canal trip alone was expensive but adding the Small Canal was only EUR20 extra so why not. It was indeed enjoyable but at the end of 30 minutes (5 of which was on the Grand Canal) we did wonder what little we would have got for the (not much) cheaper trip. Of course during the whole negotiation process of price I couldn't help thinking we were paying for an investigation into the ear or the gut what with the phrases Small and Grand Canal. Perhaps that's just me.
| 0 comments have been left | 15:24 26 Aug 2010 | Tags: bridge rialto italy venice |
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Oh yes I start with a really rubbish pun. For those who have not guessed this is St Marks Square. The trip from Bologna was simple but tiring with a a one hour water bus journey from the airport. At least the one and a half hour trip to the airport was in an air-conditioned car.
This pic was taken during a much needed rest stop after the rigours of shopping for jewellery took their toll. Not much sightseeing today just a lot of travelling and shopping so this opportunity caused a flurry of shots from my Nikon. Needless to say this was not one of those.
| 0 comments have been left | 19:42 25 Aug 2010 | Tags: venice italy st marks square |
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As promised in this post here's a scanned picture of the Venice Carnival. Standing back from the scrum I got my Minolta out with it's zoom to it's full extent and snapped this jewel. Probably not to everyone's taste I might guess. As I have probably mentioned to those of a more photographic bent the zoom crops the depth of field massively so that the focusing is really tight, which is another reason why I lake standing back from the scene and zooming in.
It would have been better if I had have got the whole of the left guys face in focus but it's quite difficult because of the tight focus and human targets and the fact that I'm such an amateur. Of course that then reminds me of the other picture like this which is of the Carrera Cup. Again a good picture for me but not something you'll real photographer showing about.
| 0 comments have been left | 23:25 13 May 2009 | Tags: venice italy carnival mask |
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Simple pic of a Gondola in Carnival season. I like the reflection from the water personally, it almost looks like it's reflecting off his hull which I think for me makes this picture. So as usual a complete chance causes a good picture. Well I say It's good. As in the (new) old tradition of Big Brother “You Decide”. Hmmm... perhaps I should put a voting thing on this site... on the other hand since comments didn't work then perhaps not.
| 0 comments have been left | 23:48 28 Mar 2009 | Tags: italy gondola boat venice |
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When all the frock wearing is quite wearing this is what to do in Carnival Season in Venice. I snapped this chap from afar. I assume that he'd only got his head down as his dog was still quite alert and I do think that it was his dog but I could be wrong. Of course I didn't snap this is his face which is one of the many great things of a zoom lens. The other great thing is that (and it helps if you're tall like me) you can step back from the scrum as you get in Venice at Carnival time and take a picture at your leisure. Whilst the scrum are all trying to get as close and get the right picture, you can step back and zoom in and take it or leave it. Of course the worst thing about a zoom lens is the fact that you might be over 10-20 feet from a shot so no-one actually knows what you're looking at so people walk right in front of you. Of course being a little patient is a must. For the camera lovers out there then you'll also know that if you zoom in then the depth of field closes up so you do end up with a sharp picture of the subject with the background out of focus with a zoom lens. I have some pictures of this with the Minolta that I am waiting for so these may be scanned in at some point.
Anyway back to the picture. It's one of those pictures that I think... I'll swap with him... just for a few hours.
| 0 comments have been left | 23:00 27 Feb 2009 | Tags: italy tired dog venice |
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With my luck there will be a film star of blue movies called Venice and now my hits will go through the roof. What is worse is as that when I started writing this wrote "With my luck there will be a" and Word Mobile suggested a word which it seems to wants to do anyway. It's an interesting feature that never works out the right word. In this case it suggested several words and suggested a line of three, in this case it suggested a word that made me chuckle. Top selection was a word that rhymed with plucker and started with an f. What is potty mouthed Word Mobile thinking about. It's got all post watershed.
Well today Murano (Uvavu) was a rather bad choice. If you like glass then perhaps it would be OK for you but after a while it starts getting boring. I got bored from the start. Also whilst there were interesting glass sculptures to snap (only photographically) I had no time to do it. I planned to take photos on the way back but there was no way back as we found a bus stop at the far end. We would have watched some glass blowing but it was a book only event and we were escorted off the premises quite literally. After such nice treatment and the fact the my Wife and I started to feel like we were bobbing about on the water despite being on dry land (no involvement with alcohol at all honest) it appeared time to go.
Back to San Marco and as luck would have it we stumbled upon the Helosphere, one of the performances we saw in the program that we though might be good but we thought we would just never happen to chance upon and here we were chancing upon it.
Now after a cultured day we are in Wylie Coyote territory on TV. In Italian or English it still makes as much sense.
| 0 comments have been left | 19:44 19 Feb 2009 | Tags: boat italy venice |
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From the balcony of the basilica you can get a better view of St Marks Square this time with huge shadows cast. We had to come back here, for a start our boat home leaves quite near here. Also all the pictures I had taken yesterday with the Minolta were all taken at a fixed exposure by accident so I was pretty sure most of them would turn out poor, so I wanted to come back and take more. I always feel that there is a strong relationship between how much you are looking forward to the pictures and the severity of the bungle you have just made during all of them, the worst bungle of all is only finding out afterwards that you had no film in the camera.
Today's jaunt was a trip to the ghetto which resides in the most attractive part of Venice, apparently. The ghetto was where the Venetian Jews lived and so there were a couple of second world memorials and little else of note.
Today the opposite was true than of yesterday. We elected to take the water bus that then stopped frequently whereas the walk back appeared to be shorter. Perhaps we will get it right at some point. The water bus ride would have been more comfortable than the walk but for the fact that I decided to film the whole trip. By the time we got off my hands were frozen. I popped into the train station to warm my hands on a hand dryer which was a painful experience, silly boy.
| 0 comments have been left | 18:12 17 Feb 2009 | Tags: venice basilica square shadows sunset italy |
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After a thoroughly interesting day yesterday the plan was to see what bits of Venice looked liked without so many people. Sure there would still be loads of people but less than yesterday and we might even get a better view of St Marks Square. Unfortunately the amount of clutter still in the square diminished its impressiveness so I still couldn't imagine a sniper in the bell tower gunning down a lone man causing the pidgins to fly away as in an episode of The Saint or perhaps it was something else.
With the only Piazza in Venice complete we embarked on a trip to the Church of Della Salute (Cheisa Della Salute). Why? Well like all good and bad searches and escapades the answer is purely because it is there. Taking the long way around by foot to save the water bus fair and so we could take in Venice we converted a two minute water ride into a slightly arduous and confusing wriggle through cold back streets using nothing more than a tourist map and a GPS and Google Maps. BTW because of the narrowness of the allies the poor old GPS did have it's work cut out but we got there to find... A Church. Hooray now lets get back taking a far shorter route than we took to arrive.
The picture is of the Grand Canal just as it stops at the Cheisa Della Salute on the right. Whilst it was tiring and some of the trip seemed a chore because we went around the long way, if we had have taken the bus we might not have heard an American express an interest in only staying in England for one more year, so they could go somewhere that they could go out when it's February. They did however say this whilst being fully clad in winter wear. I suspect England is no colder at the moment it just doesn't have Gondolas.
| 0 comments have been left | 20:33 16 Feb 2009 | Tags: church canal venice boat italy |
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No self-respecting person should be without a mask at the Venice Carnival. It's just a good job that I lost all my self respect many years ago or I too may have glamed up like Elton John and joined in.
It's definitely an interesting place to be at this time though at some point you do wonder when it will stop what with all the crowds funnelling onto the many bridges. Despite this a happy but tiring day was had by all so back to the hotel for a well earned Nastro and Cigarette. Mind you we saw nothing much as we were always at the back of the crowd but we did see someone descend from the tower in St Marks Square which in the end felt more like an stress position endured by interrogated POWs because of the time the chap took to come down.
| 0 comments have been left | 16:00 15 Feb 2009 | Tags: venice carnival mask symmetry italy |
 
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