Riva degli Schiavoni at dawn

The Riva is the long waterfront promenade running east from the Doge's Palace, and its first two hundred metres are where the gondolas moor for the night. That row of black hulls rocking on the bacino, with San Giorgio Maggiore's white church and campanile across the water, is one of the two or three images that mean Venice.

At sunrise the sun comes up almost directly behind San Giorgio, which makes the choice for you: shoot into it for silhouettes and glitter on the water, or turn ninety degrees and use the same light as warm side light on faces, with the moored gondolas as foreground. The stone bridges along the Riva — Ponte della Paglia is the first — give a couple of metres of height and clean the composition up considerably.

It is a public quay and it never closes, but it is also the main east-west walking route along the southern edge of the city, and from mid-morning it carries tour groups end to end. The gondolas bob constantly and the water moves, so keep the shutter faster than the still scene suggests.