Venice Gondolas, a photo from Vicenza, Veneto

Photographer's Note

"Eleven metres in length, 600 kilos in weight, made with eight different kinds of wood in 280 pieces (the only elements in metal are the iron of the head and the "risso" of the stern, the gondola is asymmetric; the left side is larger than the right by 24 cm. The asymmetry makes it inclined on one side. The bottom is flat, so that the gondola can navigate in shallow water, only a few cms, deep.

The iron of the gondola head, used to gain stability by counter-balancing the gondolier's weight, is a mini-map of Venice."
---- Venice World.com

JudyR, JudyR, kastanaras, No_One trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

Jonathan_Tree (0) 2009-12-27 8:47

Howdy Ray!
Nice BW art work. Nice shadows and reflections. Good contrast. Original take.
Cordially!

fadingstar78 (420) 2009-12-28 9:13

Beautiful picture of this gondolas. I love the wide tonal range of this black and white and the composition, though the picture is not very sharp.

ps I see you put the picture in the wrong location: Vicenza is not Venice (Venezia) but another city.

JudyR (1671) 2009-12-28 10:36

You BW makes this photo totally uniques and an interesting abstract. Just lovely! Judy

coco (30439) 2009-12-28 15:00

Hi Ray.

Black and white was a good choice and the whole composition looks a very interesting one.

Regards.

kastanaras (1160) 2009-12-28 15:36

An interesting picture from the enchanting Venice.
Great reflection. Very good choice of B & W.
Dimitris
PS: The new year to bring the world more and true love,
health and well smile, to beautify our lives.

rikko77 (10861) 2009-12-30 4:10

Hi Ray...hmmmm....this looks more Venice in Vegas...these bridges look too new to be in true Venice...anyway it is a good monochrome, and this comment is my way of wishing you a happy new year!!
Regards
Rikk

EstudioChispa (2182) 2013-11-01 7:05

What a cool rendering, Ray! I'm very curious about its origins! If the "Date Taken" you give is correct, this obviously wasn't shot with the Sigma. And 1999 is pretty early for digital -- so was this a film image?

None of that ultimately matters, of course, as the composition and presentation holds its own against all comers. Only at the point-sources of the lights are the highlights blown out, and the fantastic shadow detail more than compensates for that. As wonderfully colorful as Venice can be (at least it appears that way in the pictures; I've never been there), you made the right decision to go monochrome here!

Best regards,

Russ
Austin, Texas

No_One (4) 2014-09-06 9:22

Hi Ray,
I have never seen these bats portrayed in such an original way, the back and white converse is inspired and creates such an interesting and unusual abstract. The calm waters reflecting the lamps above makes this scene almost feel as if it is indoors. Very original, thanks for sharing.
Cheers
Noel

cdmonson (5304) 2016-04-27 21:18

This is a great composition with wonderful light and so much potential. I love the diagonal of those gondola prows combined with the three poles, the bridge spanning the background, and the lovely light all around. Just marvelous.

There are just three things I would change to make this a superb photo. First thing I would do is correct the right-leaning tilt, which we can see in the columns of the bridge. Second thing I would do is apply some sort of B&W filter to give it a bit more pop--a colored, high-contrast filter, such as a red filter (though try others) would go a long way to give it more vibrance. The third thing I would do is give it some post-resizing sharpening. Do those things, and you'll have one heck of a lovely photo.

Great capture. Thank you for sharing.

Clark