Venice - The City of Canals & Bridges by Martin Agius
I have wanted to visit Venice for a long time, so I can practice my favourite genre, ‘Street Photography.’
In 2019, I booked a trip to this magnificent city for February 2020, being our 20th wedding anniversary. We all know what happened then. Covid-19 came along and blocked everything in the world. So, I had to cancel but did not recuperate the flight and hotel expenses, which was quite a blow.
In 2023, my wife, Therese, eventually joined me on this trip. When we arrived after an hour and a half flight, an hour’s bus ride to Venice central station, and fifteen minutes by boat, we finally got to the hotel where we were staying. As soon as we checked in, we explored the vicinity, and luckily, we were five minutes away from Piazza San Marco. I was astonished by the number of people visiting Venice at the time. At first, I was disappointed, as I couldn’t photograph what I had in mind. But I slowed down, took a long breath, and said to myself, “You can still get some good photographs.”
I started seeing and scanning the places and decided where and what to shoot. Now, I started to enjoy myself, but it was still very difficult to shoot because of the many people that were visiting the place.
I started capturing some good photos, while also enjoying myself with my wife, as I was also having a break. This holiday wasn’t going to be just photography.
On the first day, we walked around, about fourteen kilometers, and we saw a lot.
When I planned this trip, I had hoped to get some fog. So, after researching and planning, I found that November would be a very good month for the possibility of fog. There was some fog on the third day of our stay, and I was over the moon. On this day, we also planned to visit Burano, another must-visit island. This place is full of colours, the houses are painted with bright colours. Legend has it that the fishermen painted their houses with bright colours, so that when they went out fishing and it was foggy, they would find their way back to their homes.
Burano was fantastic to visit, seeing this magnificent place, and even the possibility of capturing great photos. This was the best day for my photography, and I was really happy with what I had captured. It was like living a dream with the bright houses and some fog. My favourite photos of the trip were made here.
On the last day, we went to explore another part that we hadn’t been to yet. I found this area fantastic too. The facades of the houses were painted bright colours, and in some side streets, clothes were hanging out to dry. I managed to capture some great images here as well. There weren’t many people around, which made life a lot easier to shoot.