Hi, Jim Patterson here from Phoenix, Arizona. I’m a college professor and photographer. This is a target rich state for photographers. This is a story about my visit to Venice and the Greek Islands with the Texas School of Photography gang.
It was in Venice, Italy where we picked up the Royal Caribbean “Splendor of the Seas” for our trip to Split, Croatia; Corfu, Greece; Athens, Greece; Mykonos, Greece; and finally Katakolon, Greece. Being with high-speed professionals put the heat on me to produce some photos of value. And that’s a good thing and I reminded myself this was about FUN first. And fun is what we got.
I used my Canon 7D with my Tamron all-purpose 18-270mm lens carried in a ThinkTank 50 holster case. It’s a big holster case, but gives more than adequate protection. When I travel overseas, given how security is, I use the Tamron lens exclusively. I do post production editing with Lightroom (about 90% or more) and Photoshop. You can simulate painting with Photoshop, but I prefer using the Topaz plugin called “simplify” to do that job. I also have the OnOne Plugin Suite that I use for color correction and more. I use Photoshop, but I also talked with pro photographers who only use Photoshop Elements and get by. With plugins, I think I could probably live with PS Elements over Photoshop.
We had two and a half days to explore Venice on our own. Venice is, as you might guess, all about being on and around water. AND, being that it is July it was HOT and HUMID. Now I’m a confirmed desert rat from Arizona, so the humidity did take its toll. But hey, THIS IS VENICE! We stayed at the Hotel Marconi, right on a canal. The one thing I liked about it was it was a few feet from the Rialto Bridge, perfect for photography, and there were cafes right outside our door! One of the things I played with was making paintings out of photos.
We had two and a half days to explore Venice on our own. Venice is, as you might guess, all about being on and around water. AND, being that it is July it was HOT and HUMID. Now I’m a confirmed desert rat from Arizona, so the humidity did take its toll. But hey, THIS IS VENICE! We stayed at the Hotel Marconi, right on a canal. The one thing I liked about it was it was a few feet from the Rialto Bridge, perfect for photography, and there were cafes right outside our door! One of the things I played with was making paintings out of photos.
Then it was on to Split, Croatia, Corfu, Athens, Mykonos, and Katakonos. Hot, hot, hot and strikes in Katakonos. I asked about a strike in Athens and a local told me, “No worries, you will be here on Wednesday; we strike on Thursday. OK, good to know. Ask ahead of time.
And I met very friendly people. Just be nice, ask politely, try to say something in the native language, and I bet you will get happy people willing to pose for you. That’s been my experience.
Jim Patterson (you can find me here or write me at cogent@cox.net)