Ahh, Venice… The city of… pigeons… I still get shivers thinking about the people that let them perch atop their head and pick bread from their lips. Umm… yeah, on to happier thoughts.

When we were on the ferry going into Venice, we were greeted with this wonderful and, no doubt, most famous sight. The area surrounding St. Mark’s Square and its Basilica is known as the Piazza. From here, the most prominent object is the giant Campanile which towers above the city. We did not have a chance (read: too tired!!!) to climb to the top, but perhaps we can next time we are in town. Flanking the Square is also the Library and the Doge’s Palace, which is where Casanova was once held.

Too bad we only had 1 full day there. I think we could have easily spent a week there, exploring all the little alley ways and catching up on all the sights we missed out on. For being such a relatively small place, there are so many things to see, do, and take pictures of.

Piazzetta San Marco, Venice, Italy, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

You can’t go to Italy and not see the Leaning Tower.

We of course stopped there, took some pictures of each of us holding it up, and had some pasta for lunch. Dude, seriously, the Italians don’t mess around with their eating. Lunch can easily turn into a half-day affair, and let not even talk about dinner…

When heading back to the coach from lunch, we were heading toward the tower when I came upon the tower, but from a nice angle that shows the statue in the foreground. Framed by the clouds, I thought the composure would be great since a lot of the scaffolding was hidden.

This also an HDR, which turned out nice considering we were rushing back to our coach, but it didn’t come out with the bold, dynamic textures and colors that are usually indicative of HDR shots. Never the less, it did add a lot of nice contrast from the individual pre-processed photos and has a bit more character than just showing the Tower itself.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

This is the Baptistry that is dedicated to St. John the Baptist. It is located at the entrance to the Piazza dei Miracoli, or “Square of Miracles,” in the center of the Tuscan city of Pisa. Of course Pisa is known more for the Leaning Tower than anything else, but I found this building to be quite intriguing as well. Looking at it, you just notice that something is off with it. Upon further examination when I got home, I found that just like the Leaning Tower, the Baptistry also sits on a lean. Because of the unstable sand that all the structures in the Piazza are built on, the Baptistry leans 0.6 degrees toward the cathedral behind it.

Overall, I think a lean of that magnitude is pretty good considering architect Diotisalvi started construction of the Baptistry in 1152. It has stood the test of over 800 years after all.

This shot is a true HDR, taken with exposure bracketing of +/-1 stop. I had to also do a little touch up work in the lower right corner due to a random lady’s head that was really distracting.

Baptistry of St. John, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

Do you remember the first time you visited Disneyland? There is such a buildup; you hear and see such great things about it. You build an anticipation in your mind that is like a tea kettle whistling. That was Venice, or Venezia as the Italians call it, for me.

We woke up early on June 13, 2008 and loaded up on our Italian coach that took us to the port. We boarded the ferry for the short ride to the docks that neighbor St. Marks Square. I was constantly snapping away at every little building or detail that caught my eye. Images of the Italian Job kept creeping into my brain. “Wow, Donald Sutherland and Mark Wahlberg stood here…” You would think a more prophetic thought could enter me wee thinkin box, but sadly, no… That was it.

We passed the Bridge of Sighs, Cassanova’s last hoorah, and into St. Marks Square. What a sight. The Basilica was being renovated at the time, which is nice to see, but we were still able to go in and admire the grandeur of it all.

I just couldn’t believe that Joan and I were in this very place. It was wonderfully surreal. So there we passed over countless bridge after bridge, walking down alleyways, trying to get lost, but not too lost. Just exploring this menagerie of coastal islands. We stopped for lunch at a whole in the wall and enjoyed some paninis.

We crossed over another bridge and saw our first gondolas. The mythic subject of countless romantic tales. I of course had to get a shot. The flowers along the balconies were a nice touch that I felt gave a little balance to the scene. Seeing these canal captains master the treacherous waters is a sight to truly behold.

Our day ended with a lot more exploring, taking a gondola ride ourselves, and enjoying a nice Venetian dinner; but I look forward to possibly returning one day to capture some of the more nuanced aspects of this wonderful collective of islands.

Venetian Gondolas, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

As we walked through the narrow and twisting streets of Venice on our way to the Academia, we just happened to stumble upon The Grand Canal. This is a water way that meanders through the city and is one of the most recognizable areas in Venice.

Now Venice is relatively small, but when you have to walk from one part of the city to another, over bridge after bridge, and then realize that you have gone in circles and must double back, you sometimes need a break. We decided to take one on the Ponte dell’Accademia.

Now the bridge itself is not anything majestic, but the views that surround it are pretty amazing. You can see on coming boats and water taxis coming from the south entrance to the canal, and all along the banks are buildings brimming with amazing character and architecture.

The colors of the buildings facing north especially caught my eye. Peeking out from behind these wonderful trees along the canal was this brightly colored house which popped against the neutral background colors.

Venetian Grand Canal, originally uploaded by jasolutions.

San Gimignano is a small medieval town in the Tuscany region of north-central Italy. Joan and I were on our honeymoon when we stopped here with the tour group we were on.

Our tour guide, Matt, claimed they had the best gelato in the world. Judging from the line they had out the door of the gelateria, my skepticism was lowered.

So there we sat, beside the fountain in the main courtyard, with the soft Tuscan sun beaming down on us, eating the best gelato in the world. Well, to be honest, the gelato was good, but maybe my taste buds were off that day, because it tasted about the same as the rest.

Nevertheless, Joan and I enjoyed this cool little place. All the brickwork in the walls and towers is amazing. On our way out of the town, back to the tour bus, this door caught my eye. Something about doors really intrigues me. Maybe it is because they can have so much character built in. They almost are able to tell a little story about whats behind them and who has been through them.

In any case, this little door was in a unique place in the city, the light was bouncing off the surrounding walls and pooling on this one point. Because I had just got my Canon 40D before we left for Europe, I was still playing with all the settings and trying to find the sweet spot of the killer lens that came with it. I had it on auto-bracketing, so I got a nice +/-2 exposure shot of this door. My images were coming out a bit dark, so I thought of the three, I was bound to get one good shot, which I did. Although, it is not this shot you see here…

I have been following Trey Ratcliff for some time now. I find his HDR shots to be absolutely astounding. Please take a look at his awesome blog Stuck in Customs (http://www.stuckincustoms.com). For those not familiar with it, HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Basically, it is a compilation of photos of a single scene, which when brought together using special software, brings such life to what might be otherwise boring photographs.

The tones of color and detail in the photo explode because you are essentially pulling the best qualities out of these different pictures and melding them into this final product.

Using this technique, I applied it to the different exposed shots of this wonderful door. The result is one which i think is interesting. Maybe not the best, but I am anxious to get out and snap some new shots to see what i can come up with in post production.