A Dry Period

writer: russell j.t. dyer; posted: feb 2011; revised: mar 2018; readers past month: 964

A couple of times a year the canals in Milan (in the Naviglio neighborhood) are dry because the locks are closed upstream to drain them so that the city can clean the trash out of the canals. For a few years now I’ve thought it would be interesting to climb down into one of the canals to take pictures of the restaurant barges stuck in the mud. Today, I finally did it. These are some of the photos I took with a Lumix GF1 camera and a Zeiss 35mm f/2 Biogon ZM lens.

It didn’t smell too good down there. It was a pain trying to climb back out. The wall is over three meters high. I tried squeezing my foot into some openings and grabbing the bricks, but they started coming loose. I eventually found a cinder block and moved it to where there was a drain pipe a few feet up. The two of them gave me a couple steps up to be able to pull myself up without dropping my camera. It was a bit unpleasant of a task taking these shots, but I’m glad I finally took them — rather than be irritated with myself every time I put it off and then miss the chance.