It's not often that I post two shots side-by-side but in this case I couldn't decide between the two and didn't think it was worth posting them as separate images. Both were taken during our photo tour to the Venice Carnival earlier this year.

In other news ...

I'm really pleased to announce that we're launching a new course today: The Art of Black and White Photography: ASSIGNMENTS, designed to follow on from The Art of Black and White Photography on Udemy.

It's a four week, online, assignment-based course, and if you think you might be interested, just click the link below.

The Art of Black and White Photography: ASSIGNMENTS

We've scheduled two occurrences so far – May and June – and while there are quite a few places available for June there are only for (from 25) left for May: so sign up soon if you want to take part! Oh, and if you haven't signed up for the Udemy course yet (which you'll need to do before you can work through the new course), we're offering it at half-price for anyone who signs up for The Art of Black and White Photography: ASSIGNMENTS.

And if you're interested, Antony Northcutt has posted a great article on his blog about why he's going to be taking the course in May. Thanks Antony :-)

I spotted this 'clock' during our recent trip to Venice, in the glass blowing factory we visited on Murano, and while I messed up the exposure – it's almost two stops underexposed – I am pleased with the final result.

On the basis that my last couple of shots were rather unattractive – an abandoned microwave oven and a pile of goat's legs – I thought I'd post something a bit prettier today: one of the fabulous models we worked with during our 2013 Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

Here's another shot from our Venice Carnival Photo Tour earlier this year, and I was going to post this one on Monday – to coincide with the public launch of our 2014 tour – but I'm putting it up today because we've almost sold out: there are just two places left out of a maximum of 12!

So if you think you might be interested in coming along, please take a look at the page linked below, and sign up asap. I suspect we're probably going to sell out very soon!

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events/venice_2_14.php

"Do not fear death so much but rather the inadequate life."

Bertolt Brecht

I spent quite a bit of time working on a colour version of this one, but the more I worked on it the less I liked it, mostly I think because it was the structure and detail I found interesting rather than the contrast between the yellows and whites. Either way though, this was definitely another very interesting carnival costume.

I'm not quite sure why there was a pigeon sitting on this young woman's shoulder, but as she seemed so happy about it it was definitely worth a shot :)

Of all the costumed people I came across at this year's Carnival, this one was one of the strangest, mostly I think because the mask seemed more like something you'd find in an episode of Doctor Who or Torchwood than you'd expect at the Venice Carnival. Whatever the reason though, I do like the final result.

A somewhat more flattering portrait of guy I photographed in my previous entry.

One of the many interesting characters we stumbled across in San Marco during our Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

One of the things I say to all my students is that as soon as they think they've nailed a shot they should start over and shoot the same thing again, but do something different: maybe switch from landscape to portrait, change the exposure, lens, depth of field, and so on. There are an infinite number of ways to shoot the same thing and it's unlikely that you'll hit upon the very best shot with your first frame.

And normally, this is advice that I follow myself. In this case though, I didn't. What I had in mind was a silhouette - this guy was wearing a fantastic costume, which I tried to offset against the early morning light on the bank of the Grand Canal - but I couldn't quite get the angle I wanted. I shot 60+ frames, but none of them were quite right, so I gave up.

What I should have done was try something different. I could have lit him (I had my flash and Rogue FlashBender with me), or I could have upped the exposure to capture the intricate details of his costume. I ended up doing neither.

Once I looked through the RAW files though I really wished I had - the silhouettes didn't work - so I decided to see if I could process it as though it had been lit. It took about three hours to get to the final image - a shot that could have been produced in around 1/200th of a second if I'd got the lighting right - but I think it was worth the effort.

Let me know what you think.

Possibly my least processed shot, ever, but a definite favourite: taken during our gondola tour of Venice.

I'll be writing a detailed blog post about our 2013 Venice Carnival Photo Tour soon – I'm just waiting till I get some of the truly great images from our students so I can put a gallery together – but in the meanwhile I'll post some of my shots here. This one was taken early on Saturday morning down at Saint Mark's square. It was freezing cold, windy, and I forgot to take my gloves, but I'm really glad we went: there were some fabulous costumes, more of which I'll post over the coming days.

Here's another one from our 2012 Venice Carnival Photo Tour.

In just over seven weeks I'll be heading off to Venice for our 2013 Venice Carnival Photo Tour. We now have nine people signed up – so there's just three places left – and I'm really looking forward to getting back there, it's a fabulous place to shoot.

As for this one: it was taken last year on the 'colourful island' of Burano, one of the many locations we'll be visiting again this year.

captured camera lens focal length aperture shutter speed shooting mode exposure bias metering mode ISO flash image quality RAW converter image editor plugins (etc) cropped?

9.33am on 15/2/12 Canon 5D Mark II EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II USM 23mm f/11.0 1/60 aperture priority +0.7 evaluative 100 no RAW Camera Raw Photoshop CS5 none minor

I was chatting to someone a few days ago about out upcoming trip to the Venice Carnival so decided to browse through my RAW files from our last photo tour to see if I'd missed any that were worth processing. There weren't many, but I did come across this one, and while their costumes aren't quite as elaborate as some of the other people I photographed, I did think it was worth sharing.

Let me know what you think.

I've sat on this one for a while - I'm not sure why - but decided that I needed to post something tranquil today as it's been a hectic few weeks, and will be again soon. Last month was pretty much taken up with developing my new course on Udemy. This month I've been catching up with all the stuff I should have done last month, and next month is going to be extremely hectic ... for a whole variety of reasons.

The main reason is that we're heading back to the UK for the winter. Our two eldest, and Rhowan, are flying back later this week, Libby's flying with the four youngest at the start of October, and I'm driving back shortly afterwards. We've spent the last three winters in Bulgaria, and while they're great fun - in a harsh and very cold sort of way - we just don't get enough work done. So it's back to Blighty for a seriously productive end of this year and start of the next.

On which note, I'll be starting work on my next two courses for Udemy (one free, one paid for). I'm not going to publish any details yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to cover and am looking forward to getting started.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, this was shot in the Venice lagoon on the way to either Murano or Burano (I forget which).

This was snapped in Venice during our recent photo tour to the Venice Carnival.

This is a companion shot to this one, taken during our photo tour to the Venice Carnival back in February. If you're interested we'll be heading back there again next February for another five day photo tour. If you think you'd be interested in joining us take a look at this page for further details. Oh, and let me know what you think of this shot too :)

It's rare that I post a set of images – normally I either post them sequentially, or just post the one I like best – but I really couldn't decide what to do with these three: they're not sufficiently different to be worth putting up as separate entries, but nor could I pick a firm favourite.

All three were taken during one of my favourite bits of our recent Venice Carnival Photo Tour: an early morning shoot at St. Mark's Square. We'd left the hotel at around 6.00am, caught a waterbus to the square, then shot a whole variety of people until around 9.30am. What made it such a great trip was the light – it was a beautifully clear day and the warm, dawn light was perfect for portraits – and the fact that all the people in the square were there to take photographs, or be photographed. In other words, all the point-and-shoot tourists were either eating breakfast or still in bed. That said, it was still busy – there were probably at least a dozen photographers for each model of pair of models – but it did mean that you could get some good shots if you were patient.

As these are probably the last costume shots I'll be posting from the 2012 carnival I'd also like to mention that Bobbi and I will be running another Carnival Photo Tour in 2013 (February 5th-10th). If you think you might be interested in coming along take a look at the following page:

http://www.chromasia.com/training/events/venice_2_13.php

Even if you don't think you'll be able to make it, check out the gallery of images about a quarter of the way down the page: there's some great shots.