Venice in the rain
Fujifilm GFX100S II, GF20-35mmF4 R WR @ 20mm, f4 @ 1/4 second, ISO 400

Wandering Venice at any time is a lot of fun, unless you're a Venetian I guess. The crowds in Venice can be overwhelming and even in shoulder and off-seasons, there are lots of people walking around town.

But early in the morning, the streets are (relatively) deserted and in the evening, after the day-trippers have gone home, it's possible to find a little space, especially when it's raining.

Professional travel photographers would lament overcast and rainy weather because invariably their clients wanted blue skies and bright sunshine. Grey skies and inclement weather were not acceptable. But there was a solution.

So if there's nothing much happening in dull daylight, the solution was to hope for rain and wait until nightfall: if nothing else, you could capture the warm lights of your location reflected off damp streets and puddles. And if your luck was so bad it didn't rain, you could carry a bottle of water and create your own reflections.

There was no lack of rain and drizzle on my visit to Venice last year, but while night photography might indicate taking a tripod, with high ISO settings and image stabilisation, there really is no need. Look at the exposure settings - 1/4 second at only ISO 400. Simply no trouble to hand hold and it means you really can wander the streets freely.

For this photo, it was just a matter of recognising the warm lights and the reflections on the pavement as I walked around the corner. No doubt some viewers might query the red fire hydrant on the left, but in funny way, I like it. Perhaps it's because in this potential world of AI perfection, a small flaw here and there seems like a good thing.

In terms of post-production, I first set the overall exposure (concentrating on the highlights) and then opened up the darker areas with the shadow slider.

There's so much that can be done to interpret our photos in post-production, even if it's just a simple exposure adjustment. If you're interested, I've just released a new series of tutorial movies where I run through 10 travel photos, showing step by step how they were processed in Lightroom. If you're interested, you can see more on the Better Photography Education website. 

And Tony Hewitt and I have our Italian road trip in October this year, which you can also find on the Better Photography website under the Photo Tours menu. If you're interested, we need to know very soon!