Who doesn’t enjoy a romantic gondola ride? Probably no one, right. We always work in a gondola ride whilst we are in Venice, and you can read more about these adventures in the previous article titled appropriately, Your Romantic Gondola Ride.

But today is not about riding in a gondola, but a gondola-ride-captured snapshot and its transform it into a more fine-art photo. The transformed photo was published in the 2014 Black & White Magazine as an award winner. Here’s how I did it…and it will be short and sweet.

Click on an image to see it full-screen

First Sighting

We had just turned a bend in the Rio di San Moise canal when something up ahead caught my eye, that being the small calle up ahead that terminated right into our canal. You see it there on the left.

The Snapshot

As we approached the right turn of our route, I took this photo. I had a vision.

Funny thing about this photo. Do you see it? The blue and white sign says ‘Senso Unico’, or one-way street (or canal in this case). But we are turning right, against the sign. We’ve turned right every time we’ve taken a gondola ride. Go figure.

The Crop

Here I’ve cropped the photo to a 1:1, or square, format.

Black & White Conversion

As I was submitting this photo to a magazine that publishes in black and white, I converted the image to…you guessed…black and white.

Let There Be Dark!

I don’t want it to be day time. I want night time. So, I made it darker. I think it’s much more moody this way.

The Final Image

I like the night-time look, but let’s give it just a bit more drama by making it not just night, but a night with a bit of fog. That’s what I did to get this final photo.

As promised, short and sweet.

A Dangerous Calle

I’ve mentioned acqua alta (high water) in the past. This is an occurrence primarily in the late fall when tides and winds push up water from the Adriatic Sea and Venetians get their feet wet as they go about their day…and their calves, and sometimes their knees and thighs.

There are several places in the labyrinth of Venice where a calle will suddenly stop at a canal, like this one. If one were to be trudging through water and turn to this short calle, and if one were not familiar with this particular situation, a swim might be in one’s future, as you would not realize that the water in front of you is a canal, rather than another flooded calle.

I see the stone post in the photo. I’m guessing that this is a clue as to the fate of this calle, though I don’t remember seeing them at other dead-end calle. At any rate, if caught in the acqua alta situation, be mindful of your route.

I hope you enjoyed today’s transformation from blah, to ahh. Until next time, I say…

Ciao or now,

Steve

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Under the Tuscan Fog

Last weeks article on Banfi was admittedly a bit long...but I hope you enjoyed it.

“Just so you know, the fog did lift and we were able to negotiate the winding Tuscan roads to reach our appointment to tour the Banfi winery”

So this week, primarily a few photos from a dreamy Tuscan morning. It was dreamy because of the layers of fog that blanketed the countryside as we headed toward Montalcino.

Our first hint of the morning atmospherics was at sunrise. We were staying at the beautiful Borgo San Felice (see my past article on staying at Borgo San Felice), and as we strolled the vineyard in the early morning, here is what we experienced.

[please click on an image for a larger view]

As we began our drive for a day in southern Tuscany, we were treated to villas peeking out through the low lying fog.

Just a hint of a Tuscan villa shrouded in fog

Many of the farms have chapels, like the one set off to the right, below.

A villa with its ubiquitous on-property chapel

Our road seemed to be mostly high-and-dry as we drove along the spine of the hills. So, rather than give us angst as we drove, the atmospherics actually lifted our spirits and made our journey more memorable.

It was the month of October, and the hillsides had been recently harvested.

The hillside farms had recently been shorn

After admiring this gorgeous farm estate, if you look closely at the photo below, you can see a hillside village in the distance, as it catches a few morning rays.

We felt fortunate that the fog was not thicker, as we had an important appointment at Castello Banfi winery, just south of Montalcino. On the other hand, the foggy conditions did cause us to drive just a bit more leisurely than we might have driven, giving us more time to admire the scenery...like the cypress-lined drive leading to this magnificent estate.

Tuscan cypress line the drive to this charming farm compound

Sometimes we had a slight, sunny break in the fog as in the photo above, and then once again, we would travel into the enveloping, blue-cool fog as the sun was blotted out.

Vineyards move down the hillside of this grape producing estate

I feel that this last photo somehow captured magic...one moment we saw just a fog bank above a small valley...the next moment two villa-clad hilltops seemed to float up out of the clouds. Magic...His magic, no doubt.

This photo is titled, 'Islands in the Sky'

I am sure that days like this occur often in Tuscany; however, we felt that it was our special day, and that there never had been, nor ever would be, such a day again.

You can see and purchase most of these foggy-morning photos in the 'Print Store' part of my website by clicking right HERE, or by clicking that link in the menu-bar, below.

Just so you know, the fog did lift and we were able to negotiate the winding Tuscan roads to reach our appointment to tour the Banfi winery.

Ciao for now,