Well hello and a merry December to you! I know I missed last week but as I predicted I didn't feel up to it to sit and conjure up a post, although I did have a reasonably decent birthday with gifts I rather like so thank you to those family and friends who sent me things. Anyway, it's about time I shared with you some photos from Paris aye... And what better place to start than with the Eiffel tower!
As you can tell pretty much all of my photos of the tower were at night, aside from these first two, taken on and after going on the big wheel, the Paris Eye if you will. I liked the line up of key rings and focused on one that had "PARIS" written down the side, just in case you forgot where this big triangle is.
After having read a photography book much more recently, I would have liked to try a trick it gave of having a slow shutter speed by a river to get a smooth surface of water, I think the effect would have looked pretty cool with this shot. Unfortunately I didn't have the idea myself so I'll have to experiment with that technique somewhere else.
I love this shot because the buildings and tower point you to the guy with his brolly, which I think is a nice touch. It also made me think of my dad as before I left he reminded me of an artist I had studied at school - which I asked him to print images off for me so I could copy them for the homework - who painted Parisians in the rain, usually with the tower in sight too.
On the first night in Paris we got the metro to the Arc de Triomphe and saw the Tower in the distance and thought "oh that's not too far" *commence the longest walk of my life* - yeah... By the time we got there it began flashing, or as I called it "sparkling"... and then raining intensely.
We didn't stay too long before going to find a cabbie that spoke English to take us back to the warm, dry hostel but with some raindrops on my lens, I got this really beautiful bokeh effect which I love. When we did get back we all sat and gave our cameras some tlc after the rain and thankfully no cameras were harmed - ofcourse I shared my scarf with it before tucking it away in my bag but I gave my lens a good clean once I had changed into dry pjs.
The day after the raining walk to the tower we had Paris Photo, then the day after that we had a free day which consisted of much more exploring, finishing with actually going up le tower...
It was a long wait in the queues but this made for some time to get pictures of the looming structure and more importantly chatting and bonding with Layla and Tayla, who I shared a dorm with (the dorms we well fancy, with a power strip above the headboard including USB and plug sockets and a red curtain just for your bed like a tour bus. It's safe to say I loved those dorms.)
I have been to Paris before with my family when I was younger with both parents and my brother, and although I don't remember my first trip to France very well, I remember my dad trying to get a photo looking up the middle of the tower from the bottom, but the very centre was fenced off, but not on my trip! So I headed to the centre and looked up and thought of my dear papa.
Just before we headed into the lift I spotted the telescope through the structure, and I took the opportunity to hurriedly take the nicely framed shot.
I spent quite a while at the top - until my fingers began to numb and it slowly became harder to use my camera. I remembered me and my mom freaking out over the height and feeling it wobble, standing with our back firmly against the wall inside.
I walked around the top level a few times, taking in the view, photographing different areas with different settings, and of course getting in a bit of bokeh. It was very impressive at night and really showed off this "city of lights"
I have more photos of Paris at night, as well as some of Paris in the day from walking around, which I shall share with you soon. I hope you have liked this post, do let me know which images are your faves.
ALSO I hope you like my new blog layout, which I lovingly worked on instead of writing last week. I attended to every detail, from a little "B" icon for the tab, down to links and a brand spanking new logo - ooh get me! Do let me know if some things don't work so I can fix them if need be but I hope everything runs smoothly for you and it's much less busy for your eyeballs :) I like it very much.
Cheerio loved ones - Beky x
