Paris - best photo ops

Old Feb 8th, 2002, 08:47 AM
  #21  
jill
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Thanks for everyone's responses and ideas - keep 'em coming! Thanks to Dan and Dina for including their websites - I had visited Dan's site before and enjoyed it.
 
Old Feb 8th, 2002, 09:44 AM
  #22  
dan woodlief
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Thanks. The Eiffel Tower is one of my favorites too. There really isn't anything extraordinary about it because it is a highly used viewpoint. However, I love it because of the fountains and mostly the dramatic sky. The skies were awesome that week, except for a couple of cloudy days. It was my first day in Paris, and rain had given way to partly cloudy conditions (this was less than two hours before sunset). I just wish my photo manipulation skills were better because the 8x10 I have on my wall at home is much better than the photo I have online. I kept taking it back until the lab got it right. I said "you must get the sky right; that is the key." I took the Orsay photo on a Thursday night, when the museum is open late.

You can find lots more Paris photos at www.jimtardio.com, www.danheller.com, and www.photo.net (type "Paris" into the photo gallery page search box). I think if I recommend those three anymore, they are going to have to start paying me.

If you really want to be inspired about Paris, look at the black and white work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Eugene Atget, and Robert Doisneau.
 
Old Feb 8th, 2002, 12:58 PM
  #23  
ttt
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ttt
 
Old Feb 8th, 2002, 01:27 PM
  #24  
Capo
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Jill, I took that composition of my last trip to Paris, the Thinker in the foreground (along with some gorgeous rose bushes) and the Eiffel Tower in the background.

Speaking of the Eiffel Tower...the photos on the covers of these two albums are two of my favorites of the Eiffel Tower. I especially like soft focus and composition of the Pink Martini cover.

Pink Martini's "Sympathique"
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Apx7tk60xwkrw

Malcolm McLaren's "Paris"
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Akmmyxdsbool0

The Rue Montorgueil street market (spanning the 1st and 2nd, Mº Etienne Marcel) and some side streets, are paved with white cobblestones that glow after a rain. One of my favorite photos in Paris was of a solitary woman walking down one of the side streets, a dark figure set against the shimmering glow of the cobblestones.
 
Old Feb 8th, 2002, 04:04 PM
  #25  
c
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Dan, I was just showing my husband your photos and I wanted to tell you~this past fall, we were supposed to go to Florence and Rome.In light of the events here at home, we didn't take that trip.I want to tell you how we really enjoyed looking at your photos from Florence and seeing the sights that we missed,and being more determined than ever to travel there and see them soon! Thanks Candice
 
Old Feb 8th, 2002, 07:04 PM
  #26  
dan woodlief
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Do go soon, c. You are certain to love it. We thought for a while about not going too. We went in mid-October, and it was hard to leave our little girl at home.
 
Old Feb 8th, 2002, 10:38 PM
  #27  
Sue
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Dan, I love the head/hand statue by St. Eustache church. And your other photos are stunning! They are so sharp on your website--what camera do you use? Do you just scan them? (I'm a computer picture idiot)

Jill, you can also take some great photos of Notre Dame from the garden behind St. Julien le pauvre church on the left bank.
 
Old Feb 10th, 2002, 02:32 PM
  #28  
top
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to the top!
 
Old Feb 11th, 2002, 06:26 AM
  #29  
dan woodlief
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Sue,

The bio page of my site offers some of the info you asked about. I use two cameras now - Canon EOS-A2 and Canon EOS-5 (the European version of the A2E - bought graymarket from B&H). I think lenses are more important than the camera though. I mostly use lighter zooms, rather than the pro models which are just too big for a lot of travel shots and a lot of money too. However, a lot of the zooms that are often packaged with the bodies are very cheap and not so good. It is always good to look at reviews before making that decision. The zooms I use are Canon's 28-105/3.5-4.5, 70-210/3.5-4.5, and beginning with Italy in October of 2001 - a 20-35/3.5-4.5. The first lens accounts for about 80% of my shots now. The Paris shots, and all other Europe photos but Italy, were taken with a Canon Z-115 point and shoot. This camera is pretty good on sunny days. My only real problem with it is red-eye. I refuse to use that camera inside with flash anymore. That is just a problem with direct flash in general. It lens is also not as sharp as my other lenses, and doesn't offer aperture control for portrait shots with nice blurred backgrounds. Now, I usually use an accessory flash that I can tilt and bounce off the ceiling for softer, more natural lighting or use faster film.

In regards to scanning, I use an HP S20 photo scanner. It handles negatives, slides, and prints. It is a great deal at about $500 and takes up very little room. I always scan negatives or slides, instead of prints, because more information is available on the scan by doing that (higher quality and closer to the original). I do crop some of my shots but for the most part try very hard to only manipulate to make the final images appear as I remember. I have used Adobe PhotoDeluxe in the past. Then I used JPG Explorer, which I downloaded free from the Internet to get smaller jpgs than I could get from PhotoDeluxe. It is amazingly simple, extremely fast, and you can see the resulting file size and image quality change as you work. I wish I could afford Kodak scanning, but not right now.

I have now picked up Ulead PhotoImpact for image manipulation and Web design. It is a lot more complicated but also much more sophisticated than PhotoDeluxe. PhotoImpact provides a whole lot for about $100. My image manipulation skills are still fairly rudimentary though. It is hard to find time to learn much with a very active 3-year old.

My Web site is undergoing a lot of changes right now - offline. I am completely redesigning it with a new program I bought and expect to have it online by mid-summer. The photos will be centered with captions, and there will be all kinds of other improvements. I will also probably change the address too.
 
Old Feb 11th, 2002, 06:57 AM
  #30  
John
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Hi Jill,

Paris is a photo bonanza.

The two that I really, really like are:

1. Me painting a Wallace fountain snapped by my wife (while the painting crew stand bent over laughing hysterically as the crazy American does their work)

2. My wife gazing at the Eiffel Tower from a bridge over the Seine at late dusk, just as the Tower is lite up.

Priceless
 
Old Feb 11th, 2002, 07:04 AM
  #31  
c
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I wish we could all see these photos!
I want to laugh at John painting the fountain too!
 
Old Feb 11th, 2002, 07:27 AM
  #32  
Kathleen
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I loved Paris for the photography. ONe of my favorites shots is of the Eiffel Tower, taken from the east. I placed the tower behind the glass 'Peace' display at the end of the park. The English word 'Peace' was centered across the lower arch of the Tower. The top of the tower doesn't make it into the picture, but I love the composition.

Also, I got some great shots of Notre Dame in unsual close-ups--the gargoyles & statues against the different toned walls....
 
Old Aug 16th, 2004, 07:56 AM
  #33  
dln
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topping for myself for Paris reference next month! (Also too good not to share this old post.)
 
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