Photographing Venice at dawn
Getting up for dawn and sunrise in summer is always hard because it’s so early. But on a recent trip to Venice in Italy, getting up wasn’t the problem.
After a recent scouting trip around Dorset for my upcoming workshops, I then headed off to London Gatwick for my evening flight to Venice.
Storms return
I headed home briefly before starting my drive to Gatwick. It wasn’t long before I was engulfed once again in torrential rain. I made it to the airport though with plenty of time to spare.
Late arrival at Venice Marco Polo
Unfortunately, those storms it seemed had caused all sorts of delays and my 8pm flight finally left after 10.
Despite leaving late, we still made good time to Venice and breezed through passport control. The downside was, the bus I had booked had already stopped running as it was after midnight.
While standing at the bus station scratching my head, a man approached asking if I needed a taxi.
“How much?”, I enquired. “
“60 euros!”
I walked away.
He chased me and came down to 40, so I then reluctantly agreed, not know what else to do at the time.
He led me to a nearby car and opened the boot, gesturing me to put in my bags. He then opened the passenger door and told me to get in, while he goes and looks for others to take.
Inside the car, my suspicions where immediately aroused. There was no meter, and I began to look for a license or card. Nothing!
Pictures started appearing in my head of me waking up tied to a chair in a dark room, spotlights and guns pointed at my head, card in hand and being ordered to look into the camera and read the card!
Back in reality, I soon realised that he would get more money by selling my photography equipment than from a ransom demand.
More likely, he was just hustling for some money by pretending to be a taxi driver. Either way, it was certainly looking very dodgy, So I got straight back out, grabbed my bags and walked back towards to airport entrance.
Standing outside was a small group of people also looking for a taxi. The other so-called taxi driver was asking them too, and looked at me in dismay as I approached with my bags! “You wait in car!”, he exclaimed.
“No chance,” I said. “You don’t have a taxi license”
He quietly slumped away and went in search of others!
Soon after two proper licensed taxis pulled up, and we all split into groups and got in. 30 minutes later and 20 euros lighter, I was in Venice.
Getting to the hotel
The fun didn’t send there, though. I still had to get to the hotel. As we approached the embarkation point for the night water taxi, a seemingly helpful man gestured us towards the gate, inserting a ticket and letting us in. He then held out his hand for 8 euros!
“Do you take cards?” I asked.
He nodded, “no”
It seemed Venice by night is full of hustlers.
We climbed under the gates to get back out and then found a payment machine for actual tickets.
We thought it would be faster by water taxi, but it still took more than half an hour to Piazza San Marco.
I had booked a night in a budget room at the hotel Diana, which was just a stone’s throw from San Marco. The room cost £70 for the night. Not bad given it was July and also right next to San Marco Square. When I arrived, the night reception was very kind and friendly.
I threw down my stuff in the room and looked at the time. It was 4am! Not much point in going to sleep now.
A building site!
On the walk from the water taxi to the hotel through Piazza San Marco I had been horrified to see that the whole place was pretty much a building site. On my one and only opportunity to capture Venice at dawn and sunrise, they had to be doing all this.
I had planned in my head to capture the whole of this beautiful square and the basilica during the blue hour, but now there was no chance. Most of the square had been dug up and was surrounded by construction fencing. Much of the front of the basilica was under renovation too, along with a large section along the waterfront!
I had to plan my compositions very carefully.
I unpacked my camera equipment, freshened up a bit and then headed straight back out to the waterfront. This was not my first visit to Venice, although the last one had been on New Year’s Eve back in 2006. I had an old Canon 300D back then, but got some of my favourite photos, a sunset shot of the Gondolas moored at the waterfront close to San Marco.
One of these photos, shot with just a budget DSLR at just 6.3 megapixels, has sold several times, even as 1-metre tall canvas print. So it just goes to show how it’s not always about having the best equipment.
The Blue Hour
When shooting the blue hour, the worst thing you can have is a clear blue sky. Ideally, you need cloud to add some texture to the sky.
Thankfully there was some light cloud, so I headed straight back to the waterfront to capture this iconic view of the gondolas and the church of San Giorgio Maggiore over the Grand Canal during blue hour. The sweet spot of blue hour is fleeting, so I had to work fast to capture what I could, especially as I only had one morning here. I captured a few, then turned around to try and get some of the San Marco bell tower, and the lovely architecture there.
As I could not get any wider shots without including the construction and building materials all lying around, I had to compose shots carefully.
The Famous Bridges of Venice
Venice, obviously being an intricate network of canals, is famous for its bridges. There are approximately 435 bridges in Venice. This impressive number is necessary to connect the city’s 121 islands. Among the most famous bridges are the Rialto Bridge, the Accademia Bridge, and the Bridge of Sighs. Each bridge offers a unique perspective on the city’s canals and architecture.
Not much colour at sunrise
Sadly, the golden hour was not filled with much colour, so I moved quickly over to the Bridge of Sighs.
The Bridge of Sighs is a stunning enclosed limestone bridge, connecting Doge’s Palace to the historic prison. Built in the 17th century, its name comes from the sighs of prisoners catching their last glimpse of Venice’s beauty before imprisonment. An emblem of Venetian history and romance, it remains one of the city’s most captivating landmarks.
The night lights on the bridge were still on, so I grabbed a few shots before they got turned off.
Rialto Bridge
Rialto Bridge is one of the most iconic landmarks in Venice. It is a stone footbridge that spans the Grand Canal at its widest point. Built in the 16th century, it replaced an earlier wooden bridge and is a masterpiece of Renaissance architecture.
I checked the orientation of the rising sun and saw that this would be a good place to maybe catch a bit of colour as it gets higher. So I quickly headed off to find a good viewpoint.
As I said, this was my first time back in Venice for more than 15 years, so I had a vague memory of Rialto Bridge. Time was not on my side. One of the reasons for shooting here in the morning is to capture these scenes without hoards of tourists.
Finding a clear perspective of the bridge proved difficult. On one side, the main embarkation point for the water taxi obscured the view. I walked further back until I could get a reasonably clear view from the end of one of the narrow jetties. Even then, there were lots of wooden posts and boats in the way, but by moving further back, I was able to get enough clearance between the boats and bridge itself.
On the other side was a lovely line of gondolas all moored ready for the day. I managed to find a couple of nice compositions without falling into the canal.
I was just in time, as the sun was getting higher and thankfully a nice bit of cloud had drifted over the bridge and was catching some of the colour.
Other perspectives
Once the brief moment of colour had dissipated, I headed down and crossed the bridge to the other side to see if I could find a composition from there. But it was so packed with gondolas there wasn’t a single accessible viewpoint.
I shot a few from the bridge itself before heading back down to find a close view.
Basilica San Marco (Saint Mark's Church)
I headed back to Piazza San Marco once again. The whole of the centre of this plaza was a building site, along with much of the facade of the main basilica. However, the sun was higher in the sky now and rising right behind the towers. Perfect opportunity for a sun star!
Back to the Bridge of Sighs
I was completely exhausted by this time, but just had to make one more return to this interesting bridge. Who knows when I would next be able to photograph Venice in the morning? With the sun higher, some nice light was streaming down this narrow canal, giving me a different shot than earlier.
The streets were getting more crowded now and making it much harder to photograph, so I finally decided to quit and go back to the hotel for breakfast and a very short nap before heading off to catch my Go-opti shuttle bus and sleep all the way to Ljubljana.
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