Venice Canals
Los Angeles, CA
A surviving grid of residential canals built in 1905 to evoke Venice, Italy, now lined with eclectic houses, gardens, and arched pedestrian bridges a few blocks from the boardwalk. Ducks paddle past kayaks and the still water doubles the bridges and palms. It is a quiet, walkable pocket that feels nothing like the rest of Los Angeles.
Photography Guide
- Best Time
- morning
- Crowds
- Moderate
- Shot Types
- reflectionstreetdetail
- Best Seasons
- springsummerfallwinter
Is it a good day to go?
7-day outlookMild, dry days with light winds are the most comfortable for a visit.
Forecast by Open-Meteo. Verdicts weigh the forecast against the conditions that suit this spot.
Author's Comments
Two blocks from the boardwalk and you would never know. That is the thing about the canals. You walk down from Washington, cross Dell, and the sound drops away almost immediately. The skateboards and the crowds and the general Venice hum stay behind you at the beach, and what you step into instead is a grid of still water and arched footbridges and houses that seem to have grown up in whatever style their owners felt like on the day. I come in the early morning, usually in spring, before the neighborhood is fully awake. The water is at its stillest then, and the bridges double themselves in the reflection so cleanly that you have to look twice to find the seam. Palms lean in from the private gardens. A duck moves through and the whole composition shivers and reassembles. It is a residential place, and I try to photograph it that way. Small frames. Details. The curve of a wrought iron rail against a painted wall. A kayak tied to a dock that someone actually lives on. The long view down a single canal with a bridge at the far end and nothing else in it. This is not a wide-lens location. It is a place that asks you to slow down and look at one thing at a time. Park on Dell. Walk quietly. The people who live here are generous about the visitors but the canals only stay what they are if you treat them like the neighborhood they still are.
Gallery
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