it's a catch 22 situation. The best shots I've pulled off on Venus is when it's towards it's great elongation. Or it will be too close to the sun and horizon and thermals to get a clear view. Nov 4th is when this happens. But you should be able to get images well before that date.

Mercury is looking pretty cool at present. I lil cresent shaped moon lol. It will be at it's greatest elongation on the 24th August. But I reackon you could probably image it now. So it wont be long before Venus will be image-able.

The pic below was taken with an LPI. No filter involved, except a medium edge filter was applied during post processing.

Regards