October 30th, 2008
Ah, Venice
So I’m sitting in St. Mark’s Square, the famous site of where Vesper was supposed to meet James after she wired the Casino Royale winnings back to the Imperial Treasury Office. Of course this never happened thanks to Mr. White and his cohorts, but that’s another story.
I’m starting to think I could make a decent living just taking people’s pictures here. I’ve already been asked three times. It must be the 5D. The 24mm end of the lens brings out the beauty of plaza’s graceful columns, but I think I’m already sick of it. One of the problems of shooting a subject with such arresting natural beauty is that’s all that it is. It’s virtually impossible to mess up, and when people compliment you on the photograph, it’s not you, it’s the subject that’s due the credit. But I suppose it’s about purposes. I’m not here shooting all of this architecture to define myself as an artist, I’m simply a representative set of eyes for everyone who couldn’t be here. Actually, if you think about it, shooting in places like this is in some ways more difficult than someplace mundane. Everyone has an idea of what Venetian architecture looks like, and that image in their mind is what they want to see. It’s very hard for me to create an original way of viewing it and make the representation unique. Overstated, but it’s true that professional photographers are paid not for what they see, but how they see it.
It has grown overcast and the blissful morning sun has been replaced with increasingly cloudy skies. But at least it’s not raining. Oh, by the way, it’s my birthday.
