Kayaking in Venice used to be my job, but when that ended, we almost stopped entirely.
Keeping boats in Venice is (absurdly) not easy, but we have found a solution to keeping two kayaks near our home, so we can go paddling for fun and pleasure again.
It is the first time for a long time, that I’ve been paddling just for the pleasure of it, without being responsible for somebody else.
It’s carnival time in Venice again, and one the main events is the procession of the “Twelve Marys”, which starts from San Pietro di Castello and ends at Piazza San Marco.
The Festa delle Marie is a re-enactment of a medieval annual celebration where some of the wealthy families of the city offered the dowry for twelve of the poorest girls of marrying age.
The celebration lasted for two weeks in early February, with processions on boats down the Canal Grande and numerous feasts and events.
In 973 a pirate attack on Venice (which wasn’t yet a powerful state) led to the abduction of the girls, but they were saved and brought back to Venice.
Later, as the rich families resented the expense of clothes and dowries for poor girls, the girls were replaced by statues, and after some time the entire event was discontinued.
The current event is a kind of re-enactment of the medieval celebration. It is part beauty pageant and part historical re-enactment with groups from many places around the Veneto.
The event lasts a few hours. It starts at the ancient church of San Pietro di Castello, then moves down the Via Garibaldi to the shore, and from there to St. Mark’s.
Here are a handful of photos from the procession in 2019.
There’s a lot more going on than the official procession. We also had a group of Austrian musicians on full costume gatecrash our lunch at the local feeding hole:
And there is usually no scarcity of other carnival participants who’ve dressed up for the party, as it should be.
News and programmes for each year’s Venetian carnival is on the official web site.
Venice was born as a harbour, and she has always been a harbour. Venice, the Venetians and boats cannot be separated.
Water is omnipresent in Venice, which offers infinite possibilities to photograph gondolas, vaporettos, working boats, super yachts and even cruise ships up close.
Several of our guides are passionate about traditional Venetian boats. They’ll be happy to teach you the difference between a s-ciopon, a sanpierota and buranello, besides how to photograph they at their best.
Sometimes in autumn and winter Venice becomes enveloped in dense fog, and it becomes a mysterious and haunting place.
To fully enjoy the photo opportunities of the fog, it is necessary to get out early, because the fog lifts as the sun gets stronger during the day.
Winter in Venice rarely includes snow, but we’ve had a few days with snow recently. It doesn’t happen very often. Last time with lots of snow was in 2012.
Photo Walks Venice is here all year, summer and winter, so get in touch and we’ll organise a unique photo experience for you.
The photos below are taken in fifteen minutes, walking about 200m.
This is the definitive book on the Venetian gondola, written by scholar Gilberto Penzo who also runs the website Venice Boats.
The first edition was published in 1999, but it has been out of print for ages, probably for more than ten years. I have never been able to locate a copy for sale, and I’ve ask everywhere. Non even Gilberto had a spare copy to sell.
Fortunately, Gilberto has finally managed to find an editor who’d reprint it, and it’s now available again directly from Gilberto’s site.
The book covers the construction of the gondola in minute detail, and it also tells of the people who’ve built and created the modern gondola, and historical notes on the how the gondola came about and related boat types.
Gilberto Penzo, La gondola, ed. “Leggio Editrice”, Chioggia, 2016. Ill., 205pp. ISBN 978-88-8320-135-6.
Martina and I went and did another photography class with Marc de Tolenaere – this time on black and white photography.
Much of the focus was technical: correct exposure and post production.
We talked about Ansel Adams‘ zone system, and the need to make sure that important areas of the composition aren’t too dark so details are lost, or too bright.
Since our digital cameras have colour sensors, we need to convert the photos to black and white. To make the photos work, Marc taught us to work on the histogram, and restrict it by reducing contrast globally, and then widening it by increasing contrast locally. This will make the photo sharper without having areas go too dark or too bright, so details are lost.
