Venice, Italy
After landing at Milan we rented a car and drove about three hours to the Hotel Tritone located in Mestre, a 30 minute bus ride outside of Venice. There’s many hotels in Venice proper but staying at one means you have to haul you luggage via water taxi or water bus…not something we wanted to do. We purchased a pass which gave us free access to the both the regular buses lines and the Venice water buses for a 24 hour period so we could hop on and off at our discretion. This worked very well and got us in and out of Venice with the least amount of stress.
Piazza San Marco & San Marco Campanile as seen from the back
I’d visited Venice about 30 years ago and found it much the same as I remembered it to be except some of the side canals may actually be cleaner now. We visited the famous Piazza San Marco early in the day before it became too crowded and then began exploring some of the smaller streets and allies looking for a non-tourist impression of Venice.
Back Street and Passages, Venice, Italy
If you venture away from the main canals, back through the narrow streets and alleyways you fine residences, shops and restaurants catering to the locals as much or more then the tourist. You find small hidden doorways, windows with laundry hanging out to dry and small balconies with chairs and potted plants enjoyed on evenings when the temperatures are cooler.
However, you are never far from the canals in Venice and they are constantly used to move both people and goods around the city…
…or far from the wonderful history and amazing architecture.
Santa Maria Formosa, Venice, Italy
So if you have the opportunity it’s certainly worth visiting Venice, but don’t be surprised if you feel you only need one visit. Perhaps in the off season it would be easier to enjoy without fighting the crowds. It’s not easy getting photos which don’t include a lot of people.
Venice, Italy
Earl, this was a near miss! I spent this weekend in Venice, too, as we had decided to show this wonderful place to our daughter’s student exchange partner from Philadelphia. Have you had a chance to see the fireworks for the Redentore festival on Saturday evening?
Markus, we went into Venice early on Saturday morning and spent the day but then left before the fireworks…we didn’t know of the fireworks. I wish we’d seen them. It was a wonderful treat for your daughter’s student exchange partner.
Very nice collection, Earl. I like the street scenes, and especially like the last photo – who says you can’t get shallow depth of field with a small-sensor camera? :)
Thanks, Tom. I’m still working through most of them but pull out this lot so I could at least get something posted. You can get a shallow DOF…but it’s a bit harder to do. :-)
There are some gorgeous photos in this series. I thoroughly enjoyed each one. I have to admit that I was a little concerned that you brought the Oly on the trip and it was still new to you. Obviously I was wrong and these photos are proof.
Ken, thanks! I’ve used an Olympus E-P3 before so the E-m5 wasn’t entirely new to me. It’s actually a very easy camera to feel at ease with and taking 2200 photo in 8 days gets you comfortable in a hurry. :-)
Nice job Earl! I look forward to seeing more.
Thanks, Steve! You’ll probably regret saying you want to see more before I’m done. ;-)
Can’t wait to see more images from the EM-5, Earl (still waiting for mine to arrive). The ones I’ve seen so far look really good. IQ looks great and DR looks very, very good.
I have to ask, though: Did you not take the original battery for a reason? I know I’m going to be very curious about battery life on this thing,
Paul, IMHO the DR is exceptional for a small sensor…almost no blow highlights and still a lot of detail in shadows. It will be worth the wait.
When I purchased three “spare” batteries they came with their own charger. I’d read that the Olympus charger expects Olympus “smart batteries.” I didn’t want to carry two different chargers so I took the three “spare” batteries and their charger. I’m probably going to buy a couple more Olympus smart batteries…however, at the time they were backordered as well.
Great set of images Earl. It is such a unique place. Nice to see some of the “off the beaten path” shots.
Mark, thanks! We’re not “crowd people” especially when we travel — we tend to seek out those “off the beaten path” areas even when in a very touristy location.
I think this was a great place for the E-M5 to shine. It seems like the perfect camera for this city. Man I love the last image of the restaurant. It’s one of those images the normal tourist does not see. And, thats’ not to say your abnormal, Earl. We all know you’re a photographer. :-)
It amazes me that people live on the water like this. Where would you ride your bicycle? And, why would they build such a city?
It was a good environment for the E-M5, although later it proved to be a good all around performer — more photos to come.
I guess it depends upon what you call normal to determine if abnormal is a compliment or an insult, personally I’m okay with being a little abnormal. Perhaps most of us photographers are. ;-)
If doesn’t seem practical but it’s certainly an interesting place to visit…in small doses.