I had no idea it was so close! I am feeling smug enough already enjoying the delights of Milano, so I was happily surprised to discover that Venezia was only a mere two hour train ride away. Being reachable for a day trip, I decided that a completely unscheduled visit and an impromptu day of shooting in Venezia was in order.
Venice is the sort of place that you can feel immediately in love with and then feel very sad to leave behind. It doesn't bear description in words here, which is good because this diary is an ongoing visual journal. Besides Venice has been described, written about, composed about, sung about, painted and . . .photographed to death. The challenge seemed therefore to be to find a fresh way of seeing it. On my rapid visit, I was anxious to not only find my way around this ancient city successfully but also to find interesting subjects or scenes. This would mean reining in that inner headless-chicken-photographer and trying to apply the Five 'Fs' of street photography:
1) Find a subject
2) Figure out why a subject is interesting and where / how to shoot it
3) Frame the subject appropriately
4) Focus upon what you want others to see
5) Fire (the shutter) at the point when your heart tells you to
Blessed with a beautiful sunny day I didn't stop shooting from the moment I reached Milano Stazione Centrale until my train pulled in there again later that evening. It was all too exciting and I have to say it was a challenge not to shoot like crazy. Like I suggested its a hard place to begin to describe adequately in this forum and hopefully my visual diary of a snapshot (if you'll excuse the pun) of it speaks for itself.
