Venice

A pickup point for Gondolas in Venice 

In this post, I thought I would concentrate on some of the things that we first noticed while wandering around the floating city - not so much the things that one thinks of as quintessentially Venetian, such as gondolas and Carnevale masks, which I will look at in more detail in later posts.

The image above is of the main Gondola "pickup point" at St Marks square. A 5.30am start was required to photograph the area around St Marks square without tourists walking into the frame. This area is unbelievably busy during "normal" hours of the day. The church in the background is San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of San Giorgio.

Read on for more info and images.

A Vaporetto navigates the Grand Canal

Venice consists of two main islands, which are divided by the Grand Canal, and a number of smaller islands. The Grand Canal, as the name suggests, is the main waterway used to get around. It starts in the Venetian lagoon and ends in St Marks Basin. The areas along the two banks of the Grand Canal are very touristy and full of restaurants and souvenir shops.

A Gondola glides along the Grand Canal

There are 4 bridges which span the Grand Canal. Of these the Rialto is the best known and the oldest - in fact, until the middle of the 19th century, this was the only bridge to span the Grand Canal. The Rialto is named after the market on eastern bank of the canal. It was initially a pontoon bridge built in 1181 by Nicolo Barettieri. Due to increased traffic the bridge was replaced by wooden bridge in 1255.  The wooden bridge burnt once and collapsed on two separate occasions, the last of which was in 1524. The stone bridge which stands today was built in 1591. It is constantly packed with tourists, either taking pictures, looking out over the Grand Canal or browsing around the two rows of shops which span the length of the bridge.

The Rialto Bridge

The Ponte dell' Academia is a relatively new wooden bridge across the Grand Canal. It is also the closest crossing to St Marks square. The entrance to the Gallerie dell' Academia is at the foot of this bridge on the eastern bank. The bridge offers two of the best views of Venice.

The Grand Canal photographed form the Academia Bridge

The islands of Venice are home to around 80 churches. Walking into most of these is like walking into small museums, as a number of them contain paintings and sculptures of the great Venetian artists including Tintoretto, Veronese and Titian.

Santa Maria della Salute photographed from a Vaporetto

All these images were captured using a Canon 7D and a Canon 24-105mm Lens. I also had a circular polariser on the lens.

The Louvre - Exteriors

The Louvre - Paris, France

I can't believe a month has already passed since we left on our trip. We got back this morning after nearly 24 hours spent on planes and in transit and needless to say, I feel like I've been hit over the head.

I'm not sure how to start processing and blogging about all the images from our trip. I'm leaning towards randomly picking a location for each post with the aim of keeping the blog a bit more interesting. If anyone has a better idea please let me know. Now I've got around a 110 GB worth of RAW files to go through... At least I'll have something to do in my spare time for the next year or so!

I think the Louvre Museum in Paris is an appropriate place to kick things off. In this post I've decided to only cover the exterior of the Louvre. I'll go through the interior (Yep, photography is allowed inside as long as the flash is not used) in another post at a later date.

The panorama above was created by stitching 10 separate images.  I used the tripod and a remote shutter release to minimise camera shake.

Read on for more images and info.

The forecourt of the Louvre - Paris, France

This image is of the Sully Pavilion with part of the glass pyramid, designed by I.M. Pei, in the foreground. I wanted to capture the exterior of the museum in the night as, like most of the monuments in Paris, it is very well lit. It was a short stroll to the museum from our apartment in Le Marais, which was convenient. The entrance to the Museum, for those who have not pre-purchased their tickets, is through the pyramid.

The Glass Pyramid at the Louvre - Paris, France

The queue for tickets can be quite long, especially at the start on the day. It starts at the pyramid (middle of the panoramic shot above) and extends out to the Denon pavilion (this includes a section of the queue which doubles up on itself about four or five times). It then extends along the Denon pavilion, through the Sully pavilion and into a second enclosed court yard, the Cour Carree. We bought our tickets online and sauntered into the museum from a separate entrance without standing in any queues. Buying tickets online is slightly more expensive but it is worth it as you save a lot of time once there.

The Sully Pavilion at the Louvre - Paris, France

This shot of the Sully pavillion was taken from near the pyramid. The main doors, which are closed in this shot, lead on to the second courtyard mentioned above. The forecourt of the Louvre is accessible at all hours of the day to anyone. We even rode through it on a night bike tour.

The Pyramid at the Louvre - Paris, France

This shot was taken from the steps of the Sully pavilion. Walking straight from this point takes you through the Tuileries gardens to the Champs-Elysees and the Arc du Triomphe. The Denon pavilion is on the left of the image and the Richelieu pavilion is on the right.