Meri's Play Place

Summer treat? The one that springs to mind is the marvelous photo workshop I went to last summer in Venice. It pushed me technically in ways I never imagined. Filled my heart (and stomach). And let me find that my love affair with Venice isn't dependent on being there with the someone  I loved  truly, madly, deeply on my first magical Venice visit. My love for Venice is soul deep. 52 Photos Project . 

The blue hour. Those moments when the streets and passages are silent and empty except perhaps for those who focus on the world through a lens. When the world is sleepy and still newly made. . . full of promise. Just one step beyond the land of dreams. 52 Photos Project .

Escape. Sit beneath an awning and eat a leisurely lunch  beside the sparkling waters of the canal. Watch the seagull posing prettily. Watch people settle in to gondola seats and  be propelled along the waterways by a striped-shirted gondolier. Enjoy the view from the bridge. Wander in the marketplace and imagine  what a feast you could prepare,  if only you had access to a kitchen. Okay - I'll admit that I don't have a clue how to cook these or whether I'd like their taste, but they're so pretty! Stop to look in shop windows examine possibilities imagine yourself in costume, pretending to be someone else, escaping who you are if only in play. Watch evening fall and dream of staying in this magical place just a while longer.

Weekend Reflections strolling the narrow passageways engaged in conversation much more engrossing than the frocks showcased in windows of high-end shops

Weekend Reflection The pilings thrust upward toward the sky. The water of the canal mirrors their boldness   but softens it somehow, gives the impression that each upright timber extends downward to the center of the earth and fastens us all securely in place  on the ground, so we won't float untethered into the vast beyond. Walkway lights twinkle upside-down like fireworks displays. Soft amber light rolls across the arch in the center of the slumbering bridge. Small ripples tickle the water's edges. The sky's breath separates the clouds just enough so  the light can peek through. Morning comes softly, illuminating the dark corners of my thoughts. 

Weekend Reflection . Dawn encroaches on the turf so recently claimed by darkness, bringing soft blues, hints of spun-sugar pink, layers of blue-gray clouds that will meander through before allowing the sun full reign. Most of the city still sleeps. Street lamps are still lit and bounce their light off the placid waters of the canal. Grand old buildings admire their reflection another day. A few watercraft chug along, bringing supplies. The vaporettos chuff into the Rialto stops,  largely empty. The narrow passageways and piazzas belong to carriers of cameras and tripods for a few minutes more, before shopkeepers appear with buckets of water and brooms to make ready for business.      

For Mosaic Monday , I thought I'd show you how fun it was to work with models in period costume in Venice. Beautiful sisters in beautiful gowns.

Weekend Reflections. sometimes you don't see what's right in front of your eyes until it's too late  I stopped and admired the lace things in this window on my photo walk that began just as the sun was rising but I never noticed at the time how Venice just insisted on getting in the picture. That camera hog!

"Enigmatic" © 2010 Meri Arnett-Kremian oh spectral image draped in billowing whiteness  you're an enigma

I love reflections,  especially ones where reversed images  of things outside  bounce off windows,  obscuring the view of what's inside but showing us a picture of something else entirely. There's something intriguing about the idea that  transparency  can both reveal and conceal. We usually think of revealing, seeing through to the interior, being an open book, when we think of "transparent." We don't usually think of mirroring, hiding, playing tricks with light. So here are three examples of this phenomenon, all in different parts of the world.  So what's your pleasure? Cathedrals? Narrow Venetian passages? Hot shops and making glass? Your answer may reflect who you are inside. (For more Weekend Reflections, click on the icon on the menu bar to the right). 

With narrow passages and the Sun high in the sky, Venice is a shadow factory.

I know I'm a little behind, but things have been a little hectic. The challenge this week was "Stretch." I'll give you images that show how I'm stretching myself technically with a camera in hand. This shot was a photo first for me -- it was my first time setting up my new tripod and first time using a model in period costume. The next shot was taken in Venice with my newest lens, an 18 - 24 mm wide angle. The lens has a tendency  to stretch and distort. I'd intended to use more examples, but Blogger is being really weird right now. I'm having trouble posting photos from my hard drive. Oh well.

Sit in the shadows at the Café Florian. People watch. Have a glass of wine. Listen to the music. (There's a per-person cover charge for the entertainment.) The desserts are marvelous.  For more Shadow Shot Sunday photos, click on the button on the sidebar.

For some strange reason, I'm not able to leave Venice behind. Bear with me, please. And for more Mosaic Monday blogs, please follow T HIS LINK.

For my favorite shot for this week's Favorite Friday, I'm choosing this one. I took it about a month ago, but it brings back SO many memories of Venice, a place I went back to in June after having experienced it first many years ago with the love of my life. There's a story here, one that has nothing to do with my current single-ness. It does relate, however, to my current affair with my Nikon.  I'm not the world's biggest fan of getting up before sunrise. When the light began to seep in around the edges of the shutters at my windows in a faint blue-gray, I thought I could cheat and snap a few shots leaning  out my 4th story window so I could stay in my nightie  and wake up only a little,  just enough to point and shoot a couple of times and then go back to bed and sleep til 9 or so. Spirit had other ideas. When I saw the light, the stillness of the water, the cloud formations,  the mere handful of people moving along the canals.  a totally unpeopled...