Category: family

We’ve been to Paris this week. And of course we took all the photos of all the monuments and famous places like everyone else does. Here are three of mine:

City of Love, Paris 2018

Kunst or just Kitsch – what do you think? I thought of a double take on the “love” theme, showing “love birds” in front of a famous monument in the “city of love”, as we Germans often call Paris. And because I also thought of “street art”, it had to be converted into black & white of course, together with an “artsy” frame 😉 You can buy drawings like this everywhere, but ok, I’ve been there, I’ve taken this shot, so why shouldn’t I show it?

Ok; here’s another one:

Zuleikha, Paris 2018

One of the reasons Zuleikha wanted to see Paris was to visit the Louvre, which we did of course (and that wasn’t the only museum we visited). Of course you don’t see much in just a couple of hours; someone calculated that you’d need 6 weeks if you stay 30 seconds in front of each exhibit shown in the Louvre. And after looking at lots and lots of art, I asked Zuleikha to stand at a window of the Denon wing of Louvre – a window to the North. That usually means good and soft light because each photon is reflected at least once before entering and falling onto your subject, which makes light from a North-facing window very flattering for portraiture. I also explained this to another woman and mum, who thanked me and then took photos of her daughter. Looking at art the whole day is nice, making your own is even better 😉

Here’s another image:

Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre as seen from Musée d’Orsay, Paris 2018

As its title says already, you see a famous church (which was actually the very first place we visited) through one of the two giant clocks of another nice museum. Theoretically you could put your camera on a tripod there, with interval timer, and each photo would be different because of the people in the foreground. Of the few I took I liked this one best.

The highlight of the trip, for me? Without any doubt, that is the two (or rather, eight in two installments) Nymphéas in the oval rooms of Musée de l’Orangerie, by Claude Monet. Breath-taking. Cannot be shown in photos, you have to go there to see them. If you can’t, see Paris, France: Monet’s Dreamy Water Lilies for a first and short impression. It’s part of a longer version called “Paris: Embracing Life and Art” from Rick Steve’s Europe series of videos, so if you really cannot go and still get a glimpse of why Paris is a must see, then spend around 25 minutes to see it. But for water lilies? You have to go, and you have to sit there to really get it.

How nice to re-visit the City of Light after some 40 years or so.

Thanks for reading.

Yesterday Zuleikha officially joined the “teenie” club. I took a photo of her in mixed light while she received some greetings and wishes on the phone:

Birthday wishes on the phone
Zuleikha, December 2017
(just turned 13)

Since it was impossible to correct the colour cast of the mixed (warm) LED and the daylight from outdoors, I tried several options in Nik’s Silver Efex Pro2 software. But in the end, the in-camera black and white conversion worked best.

Thanks for viewing.