Jay Lee – Page 29 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

Venice At Night

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Ever since visiting Venice in 2005 I regretted not getting out and doing some night photography. I was going to go out and take some photos on our last night, but sadly it was raining. I swore if we ever made it back I would make up for it. This time around the weather cooperated and I was able to get some good photos.

Venice – The Crowds

To say Venice is crowded would be an understatement. Honestly, I don’t recall it being so jammed packed with tourists like this back in 2005 when we visited the first time. St. Mark’s Square is the worst with lines of tourist queuing up to gain entry to the cathedral and to the Doge’s Palace. Then comes Rialto Bridge lined up with booths selling the worst touristy crap you can imagine and throngs of eager buyers justifying their presence. After that it is the lines of shoppers stopping to look in every window to admire things from tennis shoes to designer handbags. Ugh!

Plus, it was hotter than we expected. The weather sites said 70’s during the day and 50’s at night. When the sun was out it felt much hotter. The evenings were cool, though. And far less crowded.

While we were there, there were at least two gigantic cruise ships that disgorged their load of tourists each morning and collected them each evening.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s an awesome city and we are glad to have visited. Once you got away from the main sites it was very pleasant and picturesque.

The photos below don’t quite capture the magnitude of the crowds, but they give you an idea.

Arrival Venice

We caught our flight from Houston to Frankfort late in the afternoon on Thursday and then caught our connecting flight to Venice the following Friday without much incident. Our short hop to Venice had no gate assigned when we arrived so there was a little frustration there, but not a big deal.

After arriving in Venice and collecting our luggage we found our way to the water taxi stand and caught a ride to San Marco which was a short walking distance from our hotel.

We were happy to pay the fee for the taxi rather than catch the much less expensive water bus. Those things get very crowded and, as a I recall from our previous visit, are not very pleasant if you’re jet-lagged and shlepping a bunch of luggage. Plus the view coming in to Venice was spectacular.

By the time we checked in to the hotel we had been awake for going on 30 hours with only about 40 minutes of sleep on the plane.

Even though we had been awake for an insane amount of time we decided to push through. it was a little after 3:00 pm Venice time when we checked in to the hotel, but the weather was fantastic so we unloaded our gear and set out to explore.

Of course Cynthia immediately started hitting on the Italian men. Gondoliers are everywhere and will abscond with with your woman if you are not paying close attention

Venice is as beautiful as a I remember it from 2005. Simply fantastic. But very crowded. Especially around San Marco. But when the sun starts to set it dies down quite a bit. Plus, if you walk out in to the surrounding areas you can find some less populated scenes.

And you simply can’t turn a corner without seeing something that needs to be photographed.

We explored and ended the day with a nice dinner and then went for some much needed sleep.

Internet is spotty here at the hotel so updates are a little slow. Please bear with us.

Buon viaggio!

We’re off to Italy!

Stresscon 3

We’re in final preparations for the trip to Italy and I am at StressCon 3. Flight and hotels have been booked, rail passes secured, initial packing done as well as sorting out exactly which photo gear I will be taking on this trip.

To complicate things, I have a business trip to Orlando during the days leading up to the flight to Italy. That means I go to Orlando for work and fly back to Houston and turn around the next day to fly to Italy. It’s not all that tight of a schedule, but I have had to pack two separate suitcases so my Italy gear will be mostly ready when I get back from Orlando. This throws my planning and preparation out of kilter because I don’t have the week leading up to the big trip to verify everything on my checklist. I have to do it now and maybe a little the night before I leave.

And in keeping with the tradition of The Maiming of the Nose and Ojo Rojo, Cynthia has had a minor medical issue come up. One of her teeth has disintegrated. Old fillings just don’t hold up, I guess.

She has a temporary crown so we are good to go. Poor Cynthia. She’s being a real trooper, though.

Italy – 2012

I know, I know. This blog has been mostly neglected since our trip to Barcelona and Valencia for Las Fallas in 2011. I’ve been mostly on Facebook as it is a great place to consolidate. You can find me over there at facebook.com/baldheretic. I may not add you as a friend, but you are welcome to subscribe to my public updates which feature my photography and travel updates as well as the occasional funny cat picture. If I actually know you I’ll likely add you as a friend over there.

That being said, it’s time for another trip! Woo-hoo!

This time we’re back to Italy.

For those of you who have been paying attention for any length of time, you may recall that we were there in 2005 as part of our trip across Europe that included Amsterdam, Brugge, Paris, Venice, Florence and Rome.

That was our second major overseas trip and our first non-English speaking country to visit. It was also when I was just getting started in Photography so the pictures were somewhat primitive.

Three things that make this upcoming trip VERY exciting for me.

The first is the fact that we’re going to focus just on Venice, Italy and Rome. On the last trip we were pretty exhausted by the time we hit Florence and by the time we got to Rome I had lost most of my enthusiasm for the trip due to fatigue. This time around we’ll be in great shape and be able to really give Italy the full attention it deserves.

The second is that, in my humble opinion, my photography has gotten much better since that trip. I’ve picked up a few tricks and some skills since 2005 and I have always thought that, given the chance, I could do a MUCH better job than I did last time.

And the third is the food/wine component. Cynthia and I have, in the last few years, become amateur wine enthusiasts. We had some good wine in Spain and are really looking forward to trying various local wines while in Italy.

Once we are in Italy I will be updating here pretty much daily while were are on this trip, so feel free to stop by and check out select photos and anecdotes from our travels.

Merry Christmas!

Odd Balls

For The Love Of Prime

My current prime lens line-up

Sony 16mm Fisheye, Sigma 20mm f/1.8, Minolta 28/2, Minolta 35/2, Minolta 50mm macro, Sony 50mm f/1.4, Sony 85 f/1.4, Sony 100mm macro, Minolta 100/2, Sony 135 f/1.8