Our good friend JoAnn Loctov of Dream of Venice fame is hosting a photography submissions contest of sorts, one I have no illusions about standing any chance in…but submit some black and whites I must.  It was impossible choosing which of my favorites to submit, but I tried to capture the feel of Venice’s buildings and timelessness without doing the generic shots of San Giorgio Maggiore and the Rialto and San Marco that a million other folks have shot.

Photos I didn’t end up submitting but that I like:

The older fellow by the boat is none other than Doug Sassi himself, taking in the sunset on Burano and watching the boats go by.  It’s a sentimental shot and you can recognize the Buranese buildings if you look closely, but it didn’t scream “Dreaming of Venice” to me, so I left it out. The clouds and sunset as the boat goes by is more typically Venetian, but the 35mm lens I had at the time leaves the Venice skyline too distant to really drive the point home.  The 50mm prime I traded it for would have been better.

Burano’s acqua alta shot was one of my favorites, but I found the people in the shot distracting and selected a less populated version of that shot on Murano that has a similar feel to send in.

If by some chance one of my shots is included, it’ll be a high honor to say the least.  In the meantime, I think I’m liking this B&W thing.  Look for more playing around with it in the future!