Jorge Quinteros

Pulling into Venice

I couldn’t be the hit and run type of traveler even if I wanted to. The type of traveling most celebrities are put through when they’re promoting a release. The type of travel where the only detail they have to validate they’ve been to a country is the faded stamp on their passport or the endless photographs published thereafter on tabloids highlighting who they were seen with.

The mere thought of traveling to unfamiliar territory instills this curiosity towards certain aspects of a place that most people would deem inconsequential based on their own level of interest. Do I need to know what the local beer is? Do I need to know what specific things characterizes a place or how people live or what they generally think about or what they care about and maybe even uncover things that are typically kept secret by locals? Perhaps you could respond “no” to all those random questions but for me, walking away knowing the answers to at least a few of them makes me feel like I may know a place more than someone who may just care to brag about where they’ve been based on the numbers of refrigerator magnets they’ve collected.

It’s easy to get a superficial handle of a place but it’s something totally different when you’ve chosen to become part of a community and have been granted access and given a better understanding of wherever you’ve chosen to visit. I can’t say I’ve had the privilege of exploring all those questions I’ve mentioned with regard to the cities we’ve been to but just thinking about it sure as heck embarks you on this mental journey of realizing what it make take to truly say that you know a place. I may not know that much about Venice but as long as there remains a level of curiosity towards the place is all that matters.

Venetian Canals

It may seem rather bold to say but when visiting Venice, don’t anticipate taking any photograph that other countless tourist haven’t thought of already. For uncommon photographic opportunities, local ambience and quite frankly even affordable meals, I recommend you wander through the back alleys of neighborhoods that you might have no idea where they’ll ultimately take you but just realize that the ratio of people who have chosen to do something similar is far less and so anything that stems from this excursion is likely to result with a unique experience of the place. It’s what Vanessa and I did during the whole 2 days that we walked aimlessly around the city.

Also, during our honeymoon, as we traveled from one European city to another, I quickly picked up this habit of browsing gift shops for the sake of scrutinizing their collection of postcards and get an idea for the type of shots I wanted to veer from taking. Consider this act as your time for doing research. There’s nothing worse than finding out after the fact that you’ve missed the opportunity to photograph something amazing because you didn’t know what to look for.

A prevalent element of the city that I rarely saw in postcards were photographs highlighting the narrowness of the canals and the intensity of the sun light that seemed to beam everyday. A lot of people talk about all the unnecessary materialist things that would buy if they won the lottery one day and yet actual things would be the last thought on my mind because I rather invest on experiences such as visiting Venice once again.

Venetian Facade

Venice is an outstanding place for any photographer to visit. The city already receives about 20 million tourist annually that the locals have become accustomed to photographic obsessive tourist as much as they have to acqua alta which is the name given to the higher than normal water levels that have invaded the city more frequently the ever in the past years.

I photographed all the major attractions like the Bridge of Sighs, the Rialto Bridge and St. Marks Square but the point to remember is that many other people already have the same idea so you’ll find yourself wrestling through crowds in an effort to capture that one postcard shot.

I managed to obtain some decent ones but my advice for you would be to get those postcard shots out of you system as soon as you arrive so you can focus your photographic efforts on more uniquely beautiful settings.

Venice is the type of city you purposely want to get lost in. After 2 days of endless walking, we found it to be extremely safe and honestly the real gems such as food, local atmosphere and photographic opportunities are best found in the back alleys of the neighborhood and not where everyone else is.

As beautiful as Venice is, it’s easy feeling overwhelmed with the amount of unfamiliar yet attracted scenery that you want to capture and take home. The best advice I received from one of the many photographers armed with a dSLR in St. Marks Square was that “if you see something you like, photograph it immediately because you’ll have a hard time find your way back to it later.” The reason he said that was because Venice is quite big and the streets range from big walkways to narrow lanes intercrossing each other like a maze.

Like many of the colorful Venetian homes we encountered, I felt deeply attracted to the ones with a terra-cotta color scheme.

Lonely Gondola

One of my personal favorite photographs from Europe would have to be among the initial ones I took when arriving in Venice. It’s been a city I’ve yearned to visit and the time there was an occurrence that didn’t fully sink in until I began downloading the photographs on the computer and admiring them in fullscreen.

For a place like this, rather than focusing on just shooting prominent landmarks and scenes, I took more joy in walking along the streets where the locals lived and capturing standard details. I found this approach more challenging because I think it results in more personal and expressive photos. Apart from striving to capture something different, can you imagine the large crowds I avoided.

As a photographer, I was most affected by the vivid colors of the homes and the strong sense of art history that surrounded us. The cobblestone alleys we purposely lost ourselves in reminded me of the centuries of lives we must have been passing and the view of seeing a gondola parked outside homes was priceless.

Angular Perspective

Venice is one of the places where every visit you take seems like the very first. During our honey cruise, we were there for 2 days and on each day ashore, the recommendation we received from fellow travelers was to allow ourselves to purposely get loss in the city because there’s nothing you’ll come across that won’t leave you in awe and they were right.

One of the many mesmerizing sights were the beautiful colors and architecture of the homes. You find yourself walking through populated canals and piazzas all occupied with tourist marveling at the same views that startle you. I took this photograph during our long yet worthwhile walks through Venice.