Shehab Hossain and I wrapped up our Venetial light painting workshop recently and while we we weren’t there to to shoot for ourselves we were able to take some of the educational moments and capture some of that magic. We felt like the people coming to this workshop also wanted opportunities to find their own personal magic and reserved the time between lunch and dinner for everyone to explore the city at their leisure.

First up: Venice from above! After arriving via water taxi we started our first Saturday evening on a rooftop above the Rialto bridge and worked into the evening captuing the existing light and light trails before finding a dark corner to create some light orbs with a light wand.

An early morning shoot at the basin and during our class time we checked the tide levels to discover that Piazza San Marco met our expectations of acqua alta during October and we took a break to get some crystal ball shots to play with those watery reflections. with some of the locals Later in the day we got back on schedule with light orbs and rainbow waves in the quieter Cannaregio neighborhood.

Mondays are always manic and starting at the busy Accademia bridge set the pace for the day. Classroom time was spent going into depth with some techniques and working with students to have them create orbs of their own. The evening started with an after hours trip with unbelivable views in the breathless Basilica San Marco. This is truly a remarkable space and the construction over hundreds of years is magnificent, if you are ever in Venice I would recommend.

Afterward we came outside and continued into the later hours at a nearby basin filled with gondolas and wrapped up the day creating some little planets in the piazza with the towering buildings popping up from the horizon.

Everyone was hitting their stride after three amazing days and four fantastic nights and so we threw the students into the deep and gave them all the tools from our bags and set them loose into the Venetian night. More light orbs, rainbow light trails, and just taking time to talk through locations we were able to provide, hopefully, some great feedback and help through some of the specific tricky issues and questions.

I didn’t get as many photos as I wanted to this night as I was more often acting as the model or describing things in front of the camera.

Our last day in town the weather caught up with us and it was rainier than expected and we all agreed the night before to skip the morning shoot due to the lack of sun. Some people hopped a train to the mainland for a winery tour where it was a bit drier, and we all met up to have dinner together before going out to dodge the storms as best as possible.

Shehab and I ended up getting very few shots that night because we were so busy helping and demonstrating techniques. We worked on helping people create their own light orbs and brought out some light stencils to explore layering those in the field. It helped to have a laptop along to quickly show some of the options available and the creative ideas once can create in post.

Overall, this workshop was a delight, exactly what we thought it would be: an incredible opportunity to demonstrate a variety of light painting techniques in a staggeringly beautiful location. October turned out to be a great time to visit, much less crowded than the summer and certainly less hot. The high tides worked well to bring some reflections to San Marco for the acqua alta but they weren’t too high to cause issues getting around. And the hotel was excellent both in location and services, the breakfast was superb and the elevator was exactly what was needed after the end of a long evening when a hike up the stairs was too much.

Would we do it again? Absolutely, it was the perfect location to get amazing reflections from light painting and to have the opportunity to steep ourselves in that history was astonishing. We’d love to do some smaller, more localized workshops both around New York and Boston so add your email below to hear about upcoming events!