This was originally titled Where Am I ? I’ve updated it and given it a new title, because the accompanying photo of the boat doc was recently the topic of a mini photography lesson. I’ve included that information here as well as a couple of other photographs I took at Vizcaya that day.
I recently showed this photograph to a professional photographer, a friend, and the only comment was “Well you can tell it’s not Venice because there are no tourists and the exposure is a mess.” Yes the exposure is off it’s true but that’s how I learn. It’s how I think most of us learn. Trial and error.
At the time I didn’t know how to compensate for shooting into the sun. Still I like the photo because the subject is interesting and the dock is exposed properly. My friend did at least offer a possible solution, “Shoot it twice. One shot for the sky and one for the subject.” Of course that means you have to be able to use some kind of photo imaging software. I have recently purchased Lightroom 3 but I think I’d need something more professional like Photoshop to accomplish what he’s talking about? My comment back was I want to learn to create photographs that don’t need a lot of photoshop.
I also learned how to adjust my ISO which probably would have helped a lot with these photos. Anyone out there want to offer their opinion, professional or otherwise?
Many Americans, returning from their travels in Italy wanted to recreate what they’d seen there. In this case a boat dock in the shape of a ship inspired by the boat docs and canals of Venice, Italy. There are many copies of Italian villas scattered across the U.S. This dock was built around the 1920’s and is part of the former home of John Deering. It’s called Vizcaya and is now a museum in Miami, Florida.
Adventures of a Carry-on 
Love the history you shared, along with the insight to your learning process. I personally can see the beauty in the dock photo with too much highlight. It looks lomo! Not sure what type of camera you have but on most there’s a way to set up automatic bracketing, doing this would allow you to take multiple shots with different exposures at once. Combining the exposures doesn’t have to produce an HDR image, a simple fusion could help considerably. That being said I really love the look of the photo and am not sure if you’ve got filter on there but the ambience looks fantastic.
I’ve been wanting to hit up vizcaya myself as I’ve also got a Deering Estate set that would love some company.
Yes I had a look at your Deering fotos. I was thinking you needed to make a trip to Vizcaya too. 🙂
Thanks for the feedback. Much appreciated!