P#24: Capturing a Shot of Three Gondoliers at Carnival in Italy

Three's Company

Scott Stulberg: This photograph was taken of Carnival in Italy in Venice, where I'm going back in February. Carnival in Italy is a very, very special place on the planet.

I had my 70-200mm lens on my camera and I was sitting with my friend having coffee on the side of the canal right there. All of a sudden I see three gondoliers in a row going out. This doesn't happen often, three in a row. One goes by no problem, but not three. I ran to the edge of the pier where the gondolas are kept. These three gondolas on the right of the image were just stationary there. (click the image for a larger version)

I threw my 70-200mm up to my eye without my tripod, I focused on them. I knew I wanted to blur the gondoliers so I was probably shooting around f5.6 or something like that. I framed it vertically and made sure that I got this front gondola sharp and I knew the other ones would be out of focus along with the gondoliers.

I just waited until they were in the right position. It was really quick. The minute I got there, they were almost in the right position. I am literally running to the end of the pier as I'm changing my aperture, boom, boom, boom, boom; I would say the whole thing was over within about six seconds.

This was another one of those 'right place, right time' moments. I was not even thinking about taking a picture. We were just sitting there. I had a hot chocolate, he had a coffee. We're sitting there and all of a sudden I see these guys go by. "I got to go," and I ran. He's sitting there, "Where you going?"

You could also sit there and wait for gondoliers going by too so you could sit there on a tripod and be all set up, but I had three of them in a row. The shot would've looked great with just one guy, but it was even more impressive with the three.

In Conclusion

Sometimes it's not just a matter of being in a great location (and Venice is definitely one of those), the right shot also has to do with the right timing and a bit of luck. When that happens, you've got to be quick on your feet, as Scott Stulberg shows in this picture of three Gondoliers at Carnival in Italy.