October 23, 2017
Venice
(The one here in California.)
In the 1880’s to the early 1900’s there were a series of land booms in Los Angeles, a great many fortunes were made(and some lost). One of these developers was Abbot Kinney, a tobacco millionaire, who decided to recreate Venice, Italy along side the beach south of Santa Monica. This development was opened July 4, 1905 contained a extensive canal system and a lagoon with amusement rides(a roller-coaster and water-slide). Venice was a separate city until 1925 when it was annexed by the City of Los Angeles who promptly filled in all the canals to create roads; except some on the southern edge of the development that were not part of the 1905 canal system. These canals fell into disrepair in the 1950’s and Venice was known as the slum by the sea. In the mid-80’s they restored these remaining canals with new walkways and repaired bridges. The homes face out to the canals with the roads at the back of the houses.
Here is a good piece with historical photos and a map of the original canal system from our local PBS station: https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-lost-canals-of-venice-of-america.
I joined a local photography meetup earlier this year and these pictures are the result of our latest outing.
Technical Note: Most of these photos were produced using a process called “blending”. I normally(with astro-photography being an exception) have my camera set to exposure bracketing so it takes 3 shots(normal, brighter and darker) each time I press the shutter. One of the advantages to this approach is that I can capture color that would be lost with a single exposure(like skies getting washed out). After the normal processing in Lightroom, I’ll open two of the exposures in Photoshop and create a mask to blend elements of the two photos.
Read More(The one here in California.)
In the 1880’s to the early 1900’s there were a series of land booms in Los Angeles, a great many fortunes were made(and some lost). One of these developers was Abbot Kinney, a tobacco millionaire, who decided to recreate Venice, Italy along side the beach south of Santa Monica. This development was opened July 4, 1905 contained a extensive canal system and a lagoon with amusement rides(a roller-coaster and water-slide). Venice was a separate city until 1925 when it was annexed by the City of Los Angeles who promptly filled in all the canals to create roads; except some on the southern edge of the development that were not part of the 1905 canal system. These canals fell into disrepair in the 1950’s and Venice was known as the slum by the sea. In the mid-80’s they restored these remaining canals with new walkways and repaired bridges. The homes face out to the canals with the roads at the back of the houses.
Here is a good piece with historical photos and a map of the original canal system from our local PBS station: https://www.kcet.org/shows/lost-la/the-lost-canals-of-venice-of-america.
I joined a local photography meetup earlier this year and these pictures are the result of our latest outing.
Technical Note: Most of these photos were produced using a process called “blending”. I normally(with astro-photography being an exception) have my camera set to exposure bracketing so it takes 3 shots(normal, brighter and darker) each time I press the shutter. One of the advantages to this approach is that I can capture color that would be lost with a single exposure(like skies getting washed out). After the normal processing in Lightroom, I’ll open two of the exposures in Photoshop and create a mask to blend elements of the two photos.
Venice canal in IR.
I got to the shoot a bit early(though not early enough to get shots at the Venice Boardwalk) and had sufficient light to get a few infrared pictures. The canals are really a good location to shoot IR since there’s lots of foliage and water.
