Au Revoir Paris!

So I can almost count my days left in Europe on one hand so I thought I would do a post on my favorite city in Europe: Paris! (This will also be my last Paris Post until I return) I’ve been to Paris now three times and I could return a million more times. From the architecture, to the food, to the plenty Starbucks Coffee shops to the art. I went twice this semester, once over my fall break and once with my sister to visit my cousin and aunt and uncle (who were also visiting my cus.) Both times were great and I took tons of pictures. Here’s a combination of pictures from both trips.

Night Shots

Europe does a really nice job lighting their monuments. I’ve noticed in Florence I always end up near these monuments late at night and they’re always so well lit. It’s made me really focus on improving the steadiness of my hands when taking shots. (Also, using things around me as a temporary tri-pod.) Here are some of my night shots (some with the D 40 and some with my point and shot.)

Details of the Eiffel Tower

So I’m returning briefly to the pictures of my Paris trip with more pictures of the Eiffel Tower. One my favorite thing about the Eiffel Tower was not how it looked from far a way but it’s iron detailing as you approach it. I also love standing over it and turning around and around in circles as I look at every part of it. The tower stand massively over the people standing in the middle and it’s the only way one can really get a sense of it’s massiveness. So here are some pictures I look of the tower when I was standing underneath it.

 

 

A, B, C, it’s easy as 1, 2, 3

So I’m still working on my alphabet, and its slowly (very slowly) still coming together and here I’m focussing on the beginning. I currently have two good “A”s and two good “C”’s but I’m missing any good “B”.

The first “A” was taken in my yard and the second is the Eiffel Tower “A” that I have wanted to have since I began this project.

The first “C” is from some woodwork in my house and the second “C” is from the garden of the people who live across the street.

And if you have any ideas for “B”s (or any other letter) feel free to let me know.

Silence all Around

There are two things that seem to always help me think: 1) music and 2) being a place with fresh air and little noise. One of the places that I seem to always find these qualities are in cemeteries. When I’m in a cemetary I always find myself thinking about how pretty this grave marker looks or how much time and effort must have gone into craving the marble. I walk through them like a museum and then I take out my cameras and start shooting.

While in Paris, my friend, Christine, and I decided we wanted to go to Pere Lachaise to visits some different people’s graves (David, Chopin, Oscar Wilde, and of course Jim Morrison). Like usually my D 40 came out and I took tons of pictures approaching different grave markers from many different angles. Below I am including some of the pictures I took . (I’ve done a pervious post with a similar subject matter when I first began blogging.)

 

 

Not such Disney Movie-esq

I was flipping through the 200+ pictures of my second trip to Paris looking for my pictures I took with my D 40 at Pere Lachaise when I found this picture of the Notre Dame Cathedral. This is one of my favorite pictures I took on this trip because of the way the lighting turned out. The lighting does not look artificial or the picture has not become a lighter color due to the camera’s suggestion of aperture and shutter speed. The pictures feels like you are actually standing at near the entrance of the central nave looking down. There is also this eerie feel because it is still dark and the air looks still, very unlike the depiction of the Cathedral in the Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”  (I love my Disney movies so I had to mention it.)

The 100th Post

I’m not really known for staying with things a long time (for example with 3 and a half semesters left I just dropped my econ minor). Those of you that have been following might have noticed that there are constantly long breaks of posting for me. However I return to post eventually. When I noticed that I was in the 90’s of number of posts in the fall during my first few weeks in Italy I realized that I can have that 100th post be a photograph from my travels so I was determined to reach that 100th post. And so here it is, my 100th post!

In honor of my 100th post, I’m including pictures that I took of the Eiffel Tower during my second trip this semester to Paris. (My cousin is studying this semester in Parigi (Paris) and I have taken advantage of her apartment.) During my second trip, I was traveling with a close friend from Bates and really wanted to take her to see the Eiffel Tower at night. My cousin and I had heard this rumor that there was a light show at night in honor of the Eiffel Tower’s 120th birthday but we thought it was just the hourly flashing of white lights. So we took my friend to the tower for her to see the hourly flashing, watched it and took tons of pictures. Then we heard music and the side opposite of us was lighting up in time with the music. We ran under the tower and watched at the tower lit up with multi colored lights and continued to take pictures (It reminded us of the rainbow road course from Mario Court). It couldn’t have been more magical or perfect for our last night in Paris!