Venice Day 2

Apparently, my pessimistic outlook for the weather turned the sunshine gods in my favor because instead of a day of clouds and rain, I had a partly cloudy morning and a really nice afternoon with clear blue skies. So I reshot everything I had done the day before and even managed to get a couple flights with the Inspire in two different locations. Flying in a tightly packed city like Venice is an interesting challenge. Finding a good place to launch was my main concern, but as it turns out, there are lots of little piazzas and campos that are not crowded. The bigger problem is that with such a small open space surrounded by buildings, you have a fairly narrow cone that you can maintain line of sight for the radio control. In other words, you can go up, but you can't travel too far from your origin without losing radio signal. Also, the space directly above you tends to be in a dead "lobe" of your radio signal so eventually you get a low signal even though you aren't that far away. Even pointing the controller straight up only solves half the problem. Note to self: The Inspire really needs Polar Antennas!

The second interesting thing that happened while flying is that as soon as I cleared the rooftops, the local Seagull population totally freaked out and I found myself in the middle of a swarm of them. I didn't really have any close calls, but I was concerned because I didn't want to come down in a cloud of feathers, blood and broken carbon fiber. But the flights were pretty cool and I did collect a group of observers at both locations. The Inspire gets lots of Oohs and Ahas when it's in an eye level hover and raises or lowers the landing gear. I looks pretty space age.

Here are a few sunny day stills from Venice:











When the sun shines, the laundry comes out to dry:




A couple were out posing in their masquerade finery. I'm not sure why, but they were still there when I came by an hour later so I figure they were in season and I shot them:


Lots of Gondolas out:






Ponte Rialto was bustling:



And Ponte Scalzi which was about 100M. from my hotel:


It's difficult to get much of an interesting shot at Piazza San Marco. Too many tourists. There's not even room for the pigeons any more. I guess we've traded one species of pigeon for another.


I really like the Bridge of Sorrows:


This is the same location that I used in B&W for yesterday's post. What a difference a day makes. (I think I still like the B&W better):


If you go out this doorway you better either have a boat waiting or have your JC water walkers on:


Loads of great reflections in the Canals:


I'm still working on my "Great Knockers of Europe" Theme:






I think this sculpture was done by Donnalello Turtello during his "Far Side" period:


I love the signs in Venice. It's really easy to navigate through the twisted maze of tiny alleyways if you know the general direction you want. But then, sometimes, you run into one of these "whatever" signs:


Just don't ask for directions, you might only get the bird: