Da Ivo Window Sequence 1 - gondola

photos by Isabella Mohr

Give your camera to your 8 year old daughter and you might be surprised what happens next.
Sure, she could break it, drop it in the water, or take a bunch of blurred or nonsensical photos, but there's always the chance that she might give it back to you with something good.

Sitting for lunch at Ristorante Da Ivo in 2009, I was much more interested in the present company of Bepi Suste and his wife, along with Nereo Zane and his family.  This was the first time we'd shared a meal since our expedition down the Hudson River two years earlier, and I was eager to spend some time with them.  When Isabella asked me for my camera, I handed it to her more to make her happy than to get great photos.

I've said it several times:
It's hard to take bad photos in a place like Venice, and when Bella stationed herself at the window of one of my favorite restarants, she found a "target-rich environment", with beautiful boats gliding by at regular intervals.
Here's a sequence she shot of a gorgeous wedding gondola that I've admired many times.

The bow glides under the Ponte dei Fuseri.

The gondolier ducks to avoid serious head injury.

He continues to row from the hunched postion.

Passengers in the boat notice the eight-year-old with the camera

and smile for the picture (well, most of them do).

As the gondolier emerges from under the bridge,

he points in the direction of something worth talking about. 

Maybe Marco Polo lived in that apartment.

As the boat continues on her way, we see her beautiful carved deck

and pristine condition.