VSP Workshops Blog

Venice Carnival Workshop 2011

The crazy Texan supplementing our models' wages...

Ah yes…that time of year again.  The big question is – how many costumes can a sane person photograph before they start to rock back and forth in the corner of the room, afraid to even look at their laptop for fear of seeing another mask. I think the answer is five days worth…no more and no less!

I was really impressed by the images produced by this year’s participants.  If anyone is ever curious about the value of doing a workshop – well yes it’s what you can gain from your instructor – but equally as valuable, is what you learn from your fellow photographers.  Seeing how others interpret the same scene – and often in so many interesting and original ways – is really very helpful.

Apparently this year saw a record number of visitors to Venice’s Carnival – they say 160,000 people with around 50 million Euro in business taken.  As far as I’m concerned, the critical indicator is how long it takes me to walk across San Marco square with all my kit…  On a busy day it can take 30 minutes to go 300 metres….which is precisely why we like to avoid the m0sh pit as much as we can, and enjoy the quieter areas of the city.

The weather was pretty good to us really.  We had the advantage of Carnival being late in the year this time around – and we’ve had such a shocking winter so far in Venice, that statistically we were due some sunshine!

Without further ado, I’d like to share with you a selection of the images taken by our participants this year.  Great work guys and hope to see you all again soon…Oh and if any of the participants want to share any further links to their images or blogs…just go ahead and drop them into a comment at the bottom of the post…

As always, we’ll be running another Carnival workshop again next year.  We usually have dates and details online by around August time.  Watch this space..

Thanks again to you all…

Image by Barry Wright, USA. Shot with Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 w/ f=4.8mm to 86.4mm (35mm equivalent: 27mm to 486mm)/F2.8- F4.4 Leica lens

Image by Grant McGill, Australia. Shot with Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-70mm f2.8L, 1,6000th at f6.3, ISO 100

Image by Joe Messina, USA. Shot with Canon 50D, Canon 24-70mm f.28, 1.500th, f5.6, ISO 640

Image by John Tebbetts, USA.

Image by Ken Hoyle, UK. Shot with Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 24-70mm f.28L. Shot at 1.250th, f2.8, ISO 400 at 32mm

Image by Margaret Albaugh. Shot with Nikon D90, Nikon 18-105mm, f3.5-5.6. Shot at 2sec, f3.5, ISO 200 at 18mm

Image by Rosa Jansson. Shot with Nikon D300, Nikon 16-85mm f3.5-5.6. Shot at 1/100th, f6.3, ISO 200 at 16mm.

Image by Scott Spagnoli, USA. Shot with Nikon D700, 24-70 f2.8 at 32mm, 1/250th, f11, ISO 1250

Image by Subrata Sen, USA. Shot with Canon 5d Mark II, Canon 70-200mm f2.8 MkII. Shot at 85mm, ISO 100, 1.800th, f7.1