Venice was a Blur

I took this image from inside the Aqua Alta bookstore - a totally funky bookstore with a gondola inside filled with books and books stacked outside to make a staircase to look over the wall. There was a gondola going by and I couldn't resist. It was shot at ISO 200, f/6.3, .5 sec. with my new Olympus 4/3 camera.
I'll include the b&w version as well (which is my favorite:S3:)

Here it is in black and white - processed in Nik SEP.

I like them both. And the title. It's hard to know because of seeing the color version first, but I think one advantage of the black & white is that the gondola in it probably attracts less attention. My eye went right to it in the colored one, then to the blur of the pole. Until I finally saw the the gondolier, I had no idea what the thing was that turned out to be the pole. Given the small size of the opening and what I assume was very little notice, you did a great job of capturing the gondola where you did. It's too bad the black pipe is right behind the gondolier. Maybe heal it out? In any case, I do like the image.

Cheryl,

Greetings. Ah, the B&W. Interesting... my eye in the colored one goes to the door and wall while in B&W the blurred pole. Thanks for posting. Happy to see more of Venice.

Cheers,

-Michael-

The colored version appeals to me more because it brings out the romance of Venice. BW and Italy? Not compatible in most cases in my mind. Anyway, I couldn't at first figure out what that big "shard of glass" shape was, but then read the comments and realized it's the oar. Interesting contrast. Again, blows my presuppositions about Venice....a speeding gondola in romantic Venice? All things are possible....

Nicely captured Cheryl. I prefer the b & w version, it's more graphic looking and brings out the details more, and it does draw my eye to the gondola more than the color version. So you got an Oly m4/3? Which one? I love my E-M1.

Judy I am considering going into the 4/3 group. Been reading about them. On the Oly EM1, I found some who said they had trouble with a green dot in the evf and had difficulty getting the company to fix it. Have you had a problem with this?

Here's the b&w with the pole removed. (Thanks, Dennis) Judy, I've got the OM-D Em5 Mk II and I love it. I've sold most of my beloved Canon gear because it was just getting too heavy to lug around when I travel.

The advantage of coming in late is now I get to see the repost. This is good removing that black post. Love the title. However I do like all those blues in the color image. In both images I like the contrast of the curved and moving gondola against all the straight horizontal and vertical lines in the rest of the image. The oar seems to be an exclamation point! I interpret that to mean the water is the emphatic point of Venice!

I enjoy you title! I generally prefer color, but, after going back and forth between them, I think I prefer the last B&W version, with the pipe removed.

I wanted to add to my comments: I wish the oar was not quite such a strong element as it is the first thing my eye goes to.