Venice revisited and revamped

I found a gorgeous book on Venice and its food in a discount book store today ("Venezia - food & dreams" by Tessa Kiros). In all honesty it's doubtful that I'll cook any of the recipes in it but it brought a whole raft of memories tumbling back and I just had to have it. In 2007 Nic and I went to Venice to celebrate a landmark birthday (his not mine!) and our wedding anniversary. In some ways it wasn't the perfect time of year to go - mid January - but it did mean that it wasn't swamped with tourists and the damp cold weather was preferable to unrelenting heat and its accompanying eau de sewage. It was a truly magical weekend - if you've been you'll know exactly what I mean and if you haven't make sure you add it to your bucket list. There really is no where else like it on earth.

I was a keen amateur photographer back in those days and took oodles of very average pictures whilst we were in Venice. I was pleased with a handful of them (I've even sold one or two!) but had relegated the rest to a sub folder somewhere in the bowels of my computer hard drive. Today's book purchase inspired me to unearth and reappraise my Venice "snapshots", with the knowledge that these days I am more of a dab hand at editing images.

And I was very pleasantly surprised! With a little cropping, tweaking of exposure, levels and brightness I found I had around 20 very nice images. They're not of a professional standard and I'd hope that nowadays I'd produce much better, but I've been able to create a very attractive collage of memories that will eventually adorn the walls of our downstairs loo!

This is the final collage - I'm going to get it printed at around 30cm x 30cm. I've stolen the quotes from Tessa Kiros' book - I hope she doesn't mind as it's only for our loo - but they epitomise our weekend in Venice, especially the part about getting lost but it not being a problem. We set off from our lovely hotel each morning and just walked and walked. We stopped to eat when we were hungry, whiling away a few hours in cosy little bars serving prosecco and cicchetti (delicious bites!). We usually didn't have a clue where we were and only consulted a map when it was time to find our way back.

Just as a comparison I've created a collage of the images before any editing, to show just what a few simple tweaks can achieve. It makes an OK collage, but the final version (above) is much more vibrant and punchy, I like the occasional use of black and white and I love the addition of the quotes.

If you'd like to learn how to create very simple but really impactful and personal pictoral memories of special events in your life just get in touch. I run one to one tuition sessions at very reasonable prices. http://www.picture-it-big.co.uk/Onetoone.html. Even better get someone to treat you to it - I have gift vouchers too. All those photos should not be languishing hidden on your computer when they could be bringing back nice memories every day!

By Jane Burkinshaw. Share this post by clicking on one of the Share buttons on the right hand side. I'd love to hear your comments too!