Showing posts with label Travel photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Travel photography. Show all posts
Monday, August 29, 2016
Ahhh Venice, Part 3
As you can see from the lede photo, people need a place to tie up their boats. Cars aren't allowed on the islands and neither are scooters, it's walking or nothing. Most people have boats instead of cars. I'm pretty sure I saw a few teenagers using the family boat for a date and I also saw a few families going out in the family boat for some "road trip" to who know's where.
Some places had a ring bolted into a wall where you could tie your painter off and moor your vessel. Look at me with all my nautical talk. Pretty soon I'll be tying sheep shanks and clamoring up the mizzenmast to luff the main royal like a boss; not really I don't think I like heights on a boat. Anyway, in Venice you can moor to a ring or one of the myriad posts sunk into a canal or where ever. Like this:
I'm going to assume that this is "reserved mooring" a "slip" as it were, because why else would someone tie a chair to a post like this. There was essentially zero space to put the chair on the "dock" which consisted of a 1x12 board (2.54x30.48 for you metric folks). This does look like as good a place as any to tie up your boat. I imagine you sit in the chair in the boat and hang out drinking prosecco with your friends.
There are more places to moor your boat by the Arsenal. I really wish I could have gone in and taken a tour, or more for me poked around, at the Arsenal because it looked impressive. There just wasn't a way to do that. Near where I took the above photo there was a shipwright shop and I was too shy to ask some people I'm convinced didn't speak English if I could photograph them working. I was quite far from any tourist areas.
There is an art museum near the Arsenal and it has large windows where you can get a peek into the huge space where they used to, or maybe still, hoisted ships out of the water for repairs. The museum is in some sort of old manufacturing or repair facility. One room had a bunch of old forges along the walls. Mostly it was some giant, empty rooms.
See, giant and empty. There were a few rooms like this and in one of them the glass door was broken and the light was beautiful and I had just been looking at a lot of art, so I got creative.
Tempered glass is neato. Speaking of getting creative and mooring boats, remember I was talking about that, I did see a superbly-impressive mooring job by someone who perhaps couldn't afford the best boat in the world.
I for sure would be hesitant to ride the canals of Venice in this thing, so I'm guessing it is for kids. You can toss them in here and pull them behind your boat when they get annoying maybe. I really liked how many doors just seemed to open right into the canal. Many of them had steps, making it look like perhaps there was just a good flood happening.
Others didn't have steps as if the people who built the building realized that steps into the water might be a bit silly. It could also be that the doors without steps were set back further into the buildings. What do I look like, an architect?
It's pretty damned difficult to take a bad photograph in Venice. I'm sure some people can, I did take a few bad ones but I'm not going to show them to you here. Almost every door is interesting and there are so many beautiful things to see.
Look, another gorgeous doorway. That's almost the end of it as far as door photos go in this post. There is just one more, I promise. Don't misunderstand buildings kind of have doors, so you will see some more, but not as the focus. This next one combines some things I'm working on and a door.
All over Prague, and to a lesser extent Europe, I see randomly discarded shoes. At least in this photo there is a reason for it. Venetians just put their garbage out the front door to the building on collection day and the trash man (yes, I'm suuuuper sexist) collects it. In Prague, I see discarded shoes in totally random places. At times I also see discarded garments. Just the other day I saw a pair of women's jean shorts on the side walk and I can only think, "what is the story here" every time I see things like that.
I got a little framing and layering on in the photo up there. I thought it was a fun take on the usual gondola photo. Why not, right?
The above photo is also neat the Arsenal. in fact the only way to get into the giant ship maintenance area of the Arsenal I talked about earlier is via boat. I suppose you could figure out a way to break in to the Italian military garrison that blocks the land entrance, but I wouldn't try it. You can also see how the lagoon looks gross. The water doesn't even look very enticing at night.
The smaller canals anyway look pretty yucky, The grand canal looks fine at night. Probably because there isn't as much light on it. I was told by some people that Venice smells bad too, thanks to the canals. It doesn't, so don't worry about that at all. They actually do a good job of dredging them to make sure the place doesn't reek.
See, with some reflection action the water starts to look a little better at night in the smaller canals.
Still not the best-looking water in the world.
The Grand Canal looks fine at night though. I give myself bonus points for the neato reflection on the ripply water of the running lights of the passing boat that you can't see because the exposure was so long. It's a bit like a mini aquatic Pink Floyd show.
No such laser-light luck with the photo above, but hey. You can't hit it out of the park every time. I mentioned that I stretched my street-photography legs while I was in Italy. I am still using them too, but I don't post a ton of those. I may make a post of my favorites at some point. From this trip my second-favorite street-style photo is this one below.
I suppose if I were to give it a name it would be "Boy on Bridge in Venice" or something like that. To me it's just a great moment between friends with some nice layering and it comes together pretty well.
I liked this one a lot too mainly because of the subject matter. You're growing up in Venice and you want to play soccer, where do you go? There aren't really a lot of parks and I don't know if people would really appreciate a soccer match in the ones that do exist. This is one of the cooler pickup games I've seen with the old buildings in the background etc.
This one above too. You don't have a car on the islands in Venice, but if you travel you need to walk to the train station or wherever. It also have the obligatory hanging laundry action going on. Honestly photos don't get much more stereotypically Venice than this. I will close with a concept that I really enjoyed, having had to come up with a different solution to this same problem. When you have a street light this close to your window, you really do need to do something. I've been there. I waited until the 4th of July and shot the light out with a gun. This solution was is much more diplomatic.
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Wednesday, August 17, 2016
Ahhh, Venice Part 2
Thanks for coming back for part two of Ahhh, Venice. If you somehow missed Ahhh, Venice Part 1 you can get to it by clicking here. I'm not really to sure were part two is going to go. To be completely honest, I have a whole lot of photos and I think I might just see where the stream of consciousness takes me and work it all out after that. I'm reasonably certain that I talked about how Venice is an expensive city last time. That is the truth, but it is, of course, known for being romantic. Romantic to the point that it's even pretty romantic when you're alone too.
Now, the lady you see above was not alone but I get the impression that she is really feeling the romance here. Just sitting, staring out into the lagoon watching the boats. This is a pretty excellent way to spend an hour, or more. I also sat at a few different places and watched boats. It's difficult not to, they are everywhere since cars aren't allowed. For some reason it is a whole lot more peaceful to watch boats go by than it is to watch cars.
Speaking of boats, I discussed the Vaporetti last time. They are the water buses. You will need them if you want to get to any of the other islands. Check my last post for prices. I forgot to mention that you can buy the passes for them as soon as you arrive in Venice. There are a few stands, actual official stands, where you can buy the passes. They are by the largest foot bridge that leads from the mainland to the main island. There is also a large Vaporetto stop quite near the ticket stands, funny that.
So I made it to Murano on the first day. It's the home of Venetian glass blowing. I'm pretty sure glass is also made elsewhere around Venice, but Murano really famous for it. If you forget that Murano is the glass capital of Venice you'll remember extremely quickly when you get close on the boat. There are giant glass works everywhere. Because this was really my first day, I hadn't even taken the time to wander around the main island so my first impressions of Venice were from Murano.
Everywhere you look online and in travel magazines, not like I read those, you see the standard images of Venice with laundry hanging from every window. Open a new window and do a quick Google Image search for Venice, I'll wait. Thousands of photos of laundry. I told you. I'll only make you suffer three of those in this entire series. The first one I took was on Murano and here it is:
I did see the lady putting this out, but I decided not to photograph her. A lot of Venetians look a little grumpy when they see a camera pointed their way. I can't blame them. I assume they are a little tired of people photographing them while they hang their undergarments etc. At the same time, if you don't want people to see you hang your laundry maybe you'll find space inside? The outdoor laundry hanging was like Florence times 1000.
The other thing that was very similar to Florence and really the rest of the places I visited were the nicos in random places. As I said in my posts about Florence, which you can read if you click here, I really like this. When you're wandering down some new little street and you see a quiet little piece of wall or a corner where people have been saying a little prayer for generations it makes you feel good. I found this one on Murano also.
What blog post about Murano would be complete without a photo of a glass workshop? A really bad one is the correct answer. So here is the thing, a tour of a glass shop is not free. I hear they used to be in some places, but almost everywhere started charging. I also hear the "salesmen" had some pretty shady tactics where they would entice tourists on the main island with a free glass blowing demonstration and boat ride to Murano. If you didn't buy anything after their ultra-high-pressure sales pitch, you were on your own getting back. So I didn't take any sort of tour, because the cheapest one was 10EUR for 5 minutes. Lucky for me some glass blower nearby left his windows open and went to lunch. I've seen glass blowing at the Corning factory in New York, it's all the same right?
However they didn't have a sculpture like this in New York. It's been a while since I've been there though, so maybe they do now. I doubt it.
Murano is sort of colorful, if a bit run down but the real color is on Burano. Yeah, I know it gets confusing with only the first letter being different, but Burano is a totally different world. It's a fishing village with a hefty paint budget.
Maybe not that hefty, or someone is slacking. The island was peaceful and people seemed to just be working there, like normal people do. Like the man below, attending to his nets. It looks like a beautiful scene with colorful homes to me, but to him it's just another Friday.
As I approached Burano on the Vaporetto I started to notice something a little off. I got the suspicion that perhaps Italy has a tower problem. I couldn't be completely sure until I made landfall.
Yeah, it looks like there is something wrong with this picture. Well, I mean, I took it so there is nothing wrong with the actual picture, but something seems a bit -- off. The houses are beautiful and colorful and a little extra saturated because it's cloudy and there are a lot of shadows because it's cloudy but the tower in the back on the left appears to be listing a bit.
Yes, it is in fact listing. No one seemed to care. There is a school playground right next to it. Everyone when about their business acting like the thing wasn't going to fall down any time soon. I've heard the one is Pizza is way worse, so who cares right? There's cappuccino to drink and laundry to hang.
The last thing I will say about Burano is that the restaurants are extremely expensive. I suggest you eat before you go. Also, I think the place is famous for lace. People where selling handmade lace in shops and at stands all over the central square on Burano. I'm not really a lace kind of guy, so it didn't really matter to me.
Thanks for reading. I have no idea where I'll take this next time but I still have a ton of photos to show you I'm just as clueless about it as you.
Wow, you've made it all the way to the bottom and for that I thank you. If you're so inclined you can consider supporting me here https://www.patreon.com/kocovnik Feel free to share that link with your friends too.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy. Part 3
Welcome to Traveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy part three. Like the title states this will be the third, and final part of my Taveling in Beautiful Rome, Italy series. You can go back to Part 1 and Part 2 buy clicking. Last time I left you with a bridge ad this time I will start with a bridge, just not to one I left you with. Be patient.
In my posts about Florence, which you can read here, I said that Italy was a wonderful place for street photography. It is. When is the last time you saw a sombrero-clad Asian accordion-playing busker? I didn't think so. I honestly don't remember the name of this bridge Ponte Something or Other. There are myriad bridges and they all appear to be important in one way or another.
While I was walking across this particular bridge a man in a top had made of playing cards riding an electric bicycle passed me. Once again, not something you see every day. I photographed him as he passed me, but later discovered the purpose for his getup.
He was a street magician. I didn't catch his show, but the captive audience didn't really seem very impressed by it, so I'm going to assume it was a but dull. I give him an A for effort though.
As I strolled casually around Florence and later Rome I started to discover that Italians don't dry their clothes inside. Nowhere would this be more evident than Venice, which I believe is famous for people airing their laundry in public. It must have something to do with the size of apartments or maybe it's just cultural.
But what happens if you want to hand your clothes outside your window, like all your neighbors, but you just aren't handy enough to string up a line? You get something like what you see above. No offense to Romans, but this is white-trash or redneck ingenuity at its best, hands down. I also highly doubt the creator of this impressive display ever thought that some idiot would photograph it and later write about it. If you're still unclear, the device hanging out the window on the right is designed to be used indoors. Right, back to bridges and stuff.
The bridge here is Ponte Sant'Angelo which happens to lead to Castel Sant'Angelo. To my knowledge Castel Sant'Angelo is the only castle in Rome, surely The Holy See doesn't count as it is a church and a country without any castle that I'm aware of. The Vatican does have its own train station though, so they have that going for them. But I digress.
Castel Sant'Angelo was once the Papal fortress. If shit really hit the fan the Pope would hole up here. It was originally constructed by Emperor Hadrian to be a mausoleum for him and his family around 135 AD. It has undergone one or two "upgrades" since then and is now a museum mainly about military history. Regular readers here, is there such a thing, will realize that I couldn't not visit this place.
What you see above is the passage that leads from the castle to the Vatican. Dan Brown put it in some of his books and those books were turned into movies, so if you want to see the inside of it you'll need to enlist the help of Tom Hanks. I have no clue where this passage comes out at the Vatican or if it even actually makes it all the way there anymore, but I believe it does. The need for a Papal fortress is slightly antiquated these days. The delightful Swiss Guards seem to have everything under control.
Ponte Sant'Angleo is festooned with statues of angels. The fort itself features a statue of the Archangel Michael by Bernini sheathing his sword after smiting a plague about the land. The one above is the Angel with the Column by Antonio Raggi and it was my favorite one. At least on the outside of the castle.
This was my favorite statue at the castle. It is the original statue of Archangel Michael that topped the castle and it is a Michelangelo, just, you know, in a courtyard because. Honestly, I won't complain about the placement of this gorgeous masterpiece. When is the last time you went someplace and there was a statue by Michelangelo that you could touch and no one would care? Had I touched any of the Rodins at the National Museum in Washington D.C. I'd probably still be in jail. To me, it appeared that may of the people wandering about the courtyard where this statue was didn't have a clue about it.
Climbing off my artistic high horse and back to the castle, you can see that is has some big walls and it even has a moat in places. The photo above is a bit "streety" as there appears to be a father and son napping on the park bench on the right. You would have to enlarge the photo a lot for it to work, but I still like it.
Inside the castle there are a number of really cool chambers and passageways. Some of them I meant to photograph, but the magical 13:00 hour arrived the the place was suddenly crawling with tourists. Like packed to the rafters crawling with tourists. Like many places in Rome, or Italy for that matter, you can virtually have the place to yourself up until 13:00 then all of a sudden it's like Scotty beamed a bunch of wandering morons with their families directly on top of you.
The route around the castle takes you in a sort of spiral and you get to check out the different upper and inner levels as you go through it. It seriously doesn't look as large as it is from the outside. Add that causeway to the Vatican and it's simply huge. I assume that passage would be the first thing destroyed during an assault.
There are displays of ancient siege weapons and hand hewn cannon balls. In some places there are signs warning you that the uneven floor you are treading on was built by Hadrian so be careful. It turns out marble floors don't stand up to two thousand years of punishment so well. Who would have known?
Each of the bastions at the castle is a little different and they all have names. Some have larger, more "modern" artillery emplacements and others are clearly designed for simpler and less powerful weapons. This is a testament to the nature of construction that is fairly constant over the course of hundreds of years as weapons evolve and you need to create new structures to support them.
See, more awesome old weapons. This is a guard room that stands at the base of a drawbridge inside the castle that leads to the upper chambers. Think about that for a minute, a drawbridge inside a castle. These folks really did think of everything, except maybe how to escape. You weren't going to get choppered out like at Saigon, since choppers didn't exist and all. Maybe the plan was to hold out for reinforcements to come save you? Personally, I think if your attackers have arrived this deeply into your capital, you're screwed.
The views from the castle are breathtaking. There is even a cafe near the top where you can sit and enjoy a snack and cappuccino. If you're in Italy and not drinking cappuccino you are a heretic. You should also be wearing Ray Ban sunglasses. They force you to purchase them at the Italian border. It's just like grills in Texas, you aren't allowed admittance without one. I'm lucky I already had a pair.
Here we have another one of the amazing views from the castle, this one of St. Peter's Basilica. It also shows you how close the Castle Sant'Angelo and Basilica are to one another. It's less than a mile for sure. This wonderful view brings this post to a close, and sets you up from my next post which will be all about The Vatican. See how I've tied it all together? I'm a little impressed with myself, but that will wear off soon.
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