This is the P&O liner Arcadia, docked at Venice.
Normally the ship would dock and leave port in daylight, but at Venice we had a midnight sailing so I was able to take this photo as we were boarding just prior to departure.
I wanted the image to be as 'in your face' as possible, so I composed the shot from a low position, looking up through a wide angle lens to emphasise the sweep of the ships prow, with the mooring lines providing foreground interest.
It took me a few goes to get the exposure right, as the white painted hull was very bright against the dark surroundings and I had to dial back the exposure significantly from what my camera thought it out to be to prevent the white from overexposing.
Well worth the extra effort, even though I had to run to catch up to my wife Liz, disappearing up the gangway as I was busy taking yet more photos!
Filename - ship arcadia 02.jpg
Camera - Canon 5D
Lens - 17-40mm zoom @ 20mm
Exposure - 5secs @ f16, ISO200
Location - Venice, taly
This image - 800x533px JPEG
Conversion - ACR & PS-CS2
Comments - Tripod, cable release and mirror lock up used to prevent camera shake.
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