CAPTIVATING VENICE THE STORIES AND IMAGES FROM MY APRIL 2025 PHOTOGRPAHY WORKSHOP

IT WAS MY SIXTH TRIP TO VENICE…

And one of the best ever. My last workshop here, back in 2018, was my first travel photography workshop ever, and it was a joy to revisit this amazing floating city, with its romance, charm, and another photo opportunity around every corner, over every bridge, and down every canal.

On a previous trip to Venice with my brother Jeff, I was lucky enough to meet one of Venice's premier photographers, the wonderful Mimo Meidany. Since that day, we've become dear friends, and he and I have been working together on workshops ever since (Paris, Rome, Tuscany, Budapest, London, Prague, Lisbon, and more). Mimo is the greatest. Period. Just a joy to be around, with an incredible eye (and an even bigger smile). He's a KelbyOne instructor who is celebrated for his black-and-white photography and unique post-processing style, and he's one of those guys you meet for the first time and feel like you've known him forever. I'm blessed to know him, get to work with him, and be back in the city where he lived for 8 years back when I met him. He now lives in Victoria, Canada with his lovely wife Megan and their super cute little boy Nicholas.

Mimo and I were very fortunate to have a really fun group of photographers with us at this workshop. 10 of the 12 had been on one of our previous workshops, so they knew what to expect (lots of shooting, lots of classroom time, lots of eating incredible food, and little sleep for four solid days), but it was awesome, and they were awesome. Such a wonderful trip from start to finish, and we had pretty decent weather most of the time, which was not exactly what we were expecting.

This is one of my favorite shots from the trip. I took a bunch waiting for the right gondola at the right time without all the other traffic on the busy Grand Canal by the Rialto bridge.
This is a shoot we produced with a local Italian model (more on her and the shoot a little later).
Above: This shot, created using Mimo's classic shooting style and post processing, was taken at dawn from a dock along the Grand Canel, facing the church on the small island of San Giorgio Maggiore.
This was another one of those "wait for the right position of a gondola" shot but that was after waiting 30-minutes for the workman who piled all the stuff in this doorway to load up their workboat and head out. It was worth the wait (and of course, the day before when we scouted this location, there was nothing there. Imagine my and Mimo's surprise when we brought our workshop photo crew here and there was a wheelbarrow there, junk everywhere, wood slats and frames piled up, and more, but it didn't deter us – we just waited them out.

THE LONG-EXPOSURE PHOTOGRAPHER'S DREAM CITY

In a city with this much water, having an ND filter with you (at least a 10-stop) is a must, and if you're with Mimo, you're definitely going to come away from this experience knowing exactly how to create a very long exposure to get that smooth, silky water that simplifies the scene and adds to the romance and charm of the city.

This scene, with the Bridge of Sighs, was just steps from the front door of our hotel. About 30-seconds away.
The famous "Bridge of Signs" connecting the courthouse to the prison. This is a VERY popular spot for photos – luckily tourists don't like to get up as early as we photographers do, so we had the bridge to ourselves.
This was one we look from the steps outside the Musuem.

Portrait Shoots

We designed two portrait shoots for our crew that are themed to Venice. I brought a dress with me to Venice for the shoot – one my wife scouted for me online from Malaysia and then we hired Martina, a local Italian model, and then rented a Gondola for our own private photo shoot. Mimo found a perfect location right near our hotel and arranged everything with the model and gondolier.

I mentioned earlier how I feel the gondola brings a sense of romance to any scene, but the problem is – all the gondolas are filled with tourists, wearing baseball caps and taking selfies the whole time. You lose a lot of the "romance," and your only hope is to find an empty gondola. You will find them occasionally, but rarely on the water. This way, we had the one gondola in Venice that was not full of our tourists, and I could direct the gondolier to where the good light was (it's trickier than it sounds), but I was delighted with how it all came out.

One of my favorites is below – it reminds me of the old Chanel #5 print ads you'd see back in the day, which I thought really captured the romance of Venice. In fact, I did a parody version of the ad below the image so you can get an idea of how those wonderful ads looked.

Our model Martina was very patient, and so easy to work with. The gold color of the gown worked so perfectly with the colors of the gondolas.
There's the example I mocked up – obviously not a real Chanel #5 ad, but a very similar layout to the original.
This one took a little bit of patience as I had to wait for the front of a Gondola to enter the frame, but not enough to where you'd see the tourists inside. Here is our model Martina doing her best Disney Princess immitation. :) Note: Do you see the red poles and landing just behind the bridge? That's the door to our hotel – the All' Angeleo Art Hotel. The location could not have been better.
Our tourist free gondola goes gliding by. :)

A CHANGE OF OUTFITS

Martina brought a second outfit, so after a quick change at the hotel we moved down to San Marco square for these next series of photos.

On location with San Giorgio Maggori as our backdrop.
In the hallway right below the bridge where everybody shoots the Bridge of Sighs.
Another from that same location.

Our Carnival Shoot

Venice's famous annual event, "The Carnival" was already well over by the time we arrived in Venice (it was held from Valentine's Day to March 4th this year), but we still wanted our own Carnival-style shoot, so we visited a local Antelier who creates and rents complete carnival outfits like the one you see below. What was amazing was the owner recognized Mimo and I from the last time we rented one of these outfits from our workshop eight years ago. Pretty incredible memory right there.

Our Model, Emmy, brought a friend to help her get into the outfit and do the last minute tweaking and styling, and that was a great help (those outfits are pretty unwieldy for one person). Here's a shot, and a short video clip, from our shoot with Emmy, far away from the crowds.

This is our model Emmy with a Carnival costume and mask we rented from a local Antelier. The dress is handmade, as is the wig, and Emma did a wonderful job.

An "Almost Perfect" video

Well, it would have been if we had spotted the locals at the very beginning of the clips (taken by Mimo the Magnificent), and cropped them out of the frame when it was shot. Without going into Premiere Pro, there wasn't much we could do, and they kind of kill the timelessness of the short video, but it is what it is (as they say, and I'm not even sure who "they are" but I'm assuming it's "The man").

Classic San Macro Square

It's the heart of the city (It's the "Effiel Tower" of Venice, if you will).), and after around 9:00 am it's the busiest tourist location in Venice, but if you get up early enough, there's lots to photograph at this iconic location and you'll pretty much have the place to yourself.

The view from San Macro across to the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. There's a wonderful obversation tower there I like much better than the famous one in San Marco.

On To A Rainy Day In the Dolomites

They had been forcasting rain for our entire week in Venice, but we got lucky for the most part and had beautiful weather all but one morning (we had to cancel that morning's shoot, but we went the day after to the same locations so at least the folks who stayed in Venice for an extra day got to experience it without a downpour). However, our luck sort of ran out on our day trip to the Dolomites (a gorgeous mountain range in Northern Italy, just 2-1/2 hours from Venice).

We loaded up into two vans, and headed out. We were lucky enough to have a very famous Dolomites photographers, the wonderful Riccardo Fracassi, meet us there to help us find the best locations. When we arrived on the scene below, it was already raining, but we stood in the drizzle and at least got a few shots of this scene with its low-lying clouds. Unfortunatley, it went downhill after that weather-wise as the tops of the mountains we hoped to capture we totally socked in the clouds, and the rain continued and it was just a dreary, raining day.

This was our first stop in the Dolomites – shot with a steady drizzle of rain falling on us, but we still managed to get a shot or two.

At the end of the day, we came to an amazing lake scene – Lago di Braies. Still overcast, and raining (and muddy), but we were lucky to get a few decent shots, but we could all see what a marvel the Dolomites would be on a beautiful day.

My thanks to Riccardo, who was so helpful and patient throughout. If you want the ultimate guide in the Dolomites (or most anywhere in Italy), Riccardo is your guy (his English is excellent and he's a joy to be around. Can't recommend him enough. Follow him on Instagram at: @riccardofracassiphoto or visit his website to book at tour (and see his beautiful images) at riccardofracassi.com

Above: Mimo asked this nice man to pause from his task of gathering up the boats and bringing them to the boathouse, and pose for a portrait for a moment or two. He kindly obliged.

Back to Venice For More Shoots

We still had another shoot and some classroom time before we wrapped the workshop for this trip.

Taken before sunrise on our way to shoot the Rialto Bridge at dawn.
The "backside" of the Rialto Bridge, taken right outside the restaurant we enjoyed twice during the week.
Dawn at the Grand Canal – shot from on top the famous Acedemia Bridge. I was surprised we were the only photographer's there. Just us and two artists painting the scene.
My favorite cathedral exterior – Santa Maria della Salute church, taken on my iPhone.
This one, too – using the iPhone's built-in Long Exposure feature, then edited in Lightroom and enhanced the long exposure effect a bit in Photoshop.
Looking back toward San. Marco Square from across the Grand Canal outside the Ponta della Dogana museum.
Where do they park the gondolas at night? Right here!

The Santa Casa of Loreto in the church of San Pantalon

This beautiful claims to the have largest painted canvas ceiling in the world, and I don't doubt it. The church outside is very plain. Couldn't be plainer, so you might easily just walk right by it, but you step inside and wow! I borrowed Mimo's 11-24mm lens to capture these ultra-wide images. Otherwise, I would have just used the .5 magnification on my iPhone, which gives you an approxmiatley 13mm field of view. These three shots were taken while we were scouting before the workshop, and we had planned on visiting this church with the group, but this was a casualty of the morning rain cancellation, so we didn't get there.

A boring exterior, and a fabulous interior.
The ceiling, as seen with an 11mm ultra wide angle.

More Venice

The "Classic" view of the Bridge of Sighs, but with a long exposure.
Two lovers through the light streaming through the front door of the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore. 

A Night At The Opera

Well, it wasn't a night, and the opera wasn't on, but we arranged a private tour of the stunning Teatro La Fenice opera house. The advantage of getting a private tour is that they give you access to more of the theater and in particular, they allow you to get beyond the ropes and get near the front of the stage where you can turn around and get this shot. I like this shot okay, but it was KelbyOne Instructor Kelly Jones who nailed this one by putting his camera down low on a Platypod, and the results were incredible. Incredible! The whole opera house is gorgeous from the lobby to the boxes to the side rooms – each room has it's own personality and historic beauty. We were lucky to experience it with a camera in hand.

Behind The Scenes Shots (courtesy of Mimo Meidany)

Here's a few shots of the 14 of us taking shots pretty much all over, and in the classroom. :)

Group shot of "Photo Crew Venice"

That's our crew (From L to R): Front row (kneeling), Mimo, Craig, and Susan. 2nd Row: Howard, Sherry, Jarle, Jon, Mark, Richard, our model Martina, Kent, Yours Truly, and David.

Mimo and My Day Trip to Rovinj, Croatia

When I mentioned on The Grid that this place was on my travel locations wish list, once of our viewers commented that it was just 2-1/2 hours from Venice where we'd be, so Mimo found an Air Bnb with a beautiful view, and after the workshop we made the drive in our rental car and it was totally worth it. Not photographically so much – it was kind of a one-trick pony – but the town itself was wonderful. The opposite of venice crowd wise – the place was practialy empty, which was a welcome change from the chaos that is Venice after 9:00 am and late into the night.

This is the shot everybody comes for – taken from the Quay at sunset.
I didn't add the blue to this iPhone image – we were walking to dinner on our last night there and it was so wildly blue hour that I had to stop and take a photo of this tiny island that sits just outside the marina. Yes, it was that blue. Crazy, I know.

Thanks for letting me share my trip with you.

All images were taken with a Canon R6 Mark II with a 24-240mm lens, except where noted (as in the handful of iPhone images and the one's in the church with the painted ceiling where I borrowed Mimo's 11-24mm lens).

CREATED BY
Scott Kelby

Credits:

The story and images behind my recent workshop in one of the most photogenic cities in the world.