The Great Church of Salute at the mouth of the Grande
What would day 2 bring?… I woke at 6:00.am, showered and collected my cameras together, as although Martin was staying in the same hotel, I knew that he would have already ventured out to St.Marks, and down on the waterside to catch the early morning models, and the quieter time of the day, which is Venice before the day-tourists, who throw themselves into the composition and ruin the shot…lol.
A quiet time on St.Marks…
Early morning at St.Mark’s just after the dawn
The superb light at his time of a morning lasts only a couple of hours, before the sun rises too high in the sky, and blows out the highlights and colours, so it is imperative that you know which images you are after, and your flash settings, simply pulls out the details without overexposing the details… such is the aim of all photographers there at this time of the day…
We are all after a good background as the dawn emerges
At the Bridge of ‘Sighs’ the rising sun starts to affect the colour tones…
Time to take refuge under the Doges Palace arches
After a couple of hours on St.Marks, Martin and I walked back to our hotel, to pack our cameras in our rooms, and to meet up for breakfast… After breakfast, I had my own plans on what was beginning to turn into a superb and perfect day, for my own specialist genre of Infrared photography, and I knew exactly where to go in Venice to make the most of this… The Cemetery Island of San Michele.
San Michele… The Isle of the Dead.
There has never been a visit to Venice, which I have not gone over the San Michele. There are many visits over the years, in which I have never visited St.Marks, but San Michele, is ALWAYS on my itinerary, and I gather many images on all visits, both visible and B&W I.R. after buying my 3 day bus/boat tourist pass, I set off from the St.Marks stop, on the #01, to take me to the top end of Venice (St.Elanor) to catch the #42 the back end of the city and onto Murano… alighting at the stop before Murano… San Michele. I try to avoid morning visits here, as this is the time locals visit family interred here… this is also the time most burials take place, so I am very discreet with my photography.
The Church of San Michele
The cloisters and well-head of the church.
Inside the church, the coffins are borne on water
and enter through the door shown at the rear
Inside the catacombs of the church
After visiting the church, its wonders and artwork, I ventured to my favourite sections of the cemetery, areas that were set aside for non-Roman Catholics, from deaths on the Grand Tours, boats/ships visiting the lagoon, to officials from different countries, either living or working in Venice. One of my favourite grave stories are in these sections… you can read it by clicking the image below….
click the image to read about a Venice disaster.
So… walking to the ‘Evangelist’ sections, with famous names such as Brodski, Pound, Rolfe, Stravinski, Nono and Daighilev to name but a few, I can see the light levels are right for a big contrast filter, and so I chose a B+W 830nm… and managed to get some shots I was happy with to add to my others from previous visits for my photography lectures on ‘Hidden Venice’.
When I left the Island, after for some reason, finding myself, this year, guiding many tourists, clutching ‘finding graves’ lists, to where the tick boxes pointed out the famous occupants in the cemetery…. Time to leave !!! So catching the returning bus/boats to San Zacheria… I joined Martin & Bert, for their afternoon shoot, and a welcomed cup of coffee at a cafe on the square… before walking to our respective hotels for a rest and to get ready for our evening meal…
2 mask models at San. Z.
This evening we made our way, to a small Chinese restaurant we frequent when visiting Venice… situated not far from the Rialto Bridge, and by the ‘market’ area of the city… the restaurant, does a really good meal… and they sell a really decent cellar-door Chianti… for not a lot…
Bert, Myself & Martin.
Bert led me astray… 4 litres of Chianti later… (Martin was on the beer)… we managed to pour Bert out of the restaurant… and along to our respective hotels. we did go back to this Chinese on our last night… but Bert made me have just 2 litres to myself…lol