Category Archives for night photography

Paris France, the City of Light

Paris France, City of Light

Paris France, City of Light; the Louve and The Arc de Triomphe

Paris was nicknamed the “City of Light” (not City of Lights) originally because it was a vast center of education and ideas during the Age of Enlightenment. In 1828, Paris began lighting the Champs-Elysées with gas lamps. It was the first city in Europe to do so, and so earned the nickname “La Ville-Lumière” or The City of Light.

One of my favourite things to do in Paris is take a river cruise down the Seine River just before sunset, the city lights start to come on and it is the most beautiful romantic time of day. For more  stories photos of Paris from this blog.

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shooting star christmas tree

 

 

 

christmas tree and star_MG_7432

   shooting star/ christmas tree

Planning and decorating for the holidays have been on my mind this weekend, rather than actually doing anything to get ready for Christmas I decided to procrastinate and go through some previously taken holiday photos.  This photo of a large outdoor Christmas tree actually looked more like a shooting star, especially when photographed close up and from an angle. It is one of my favorite holiday pictures.  Are you getting ready for the holidays, or are you, like me, still in the planning stage?

 

 

Ile de cite, Paris France and the image that inspired it

Ile de la cite, Paris France, and the evening river cruises

I am a big fan of Henri Cartier-Bresson, there is so much to be learned from studying the work of someone you admire. While most of us do not want to just copy someone else’s work, there are lessons to be learned by walking through the process the photographer  might have used to capture an image.  I believe that as much as you might try to copy someone’s work that our equipment, the processes that are available to us, our skill level and our personalities will all show in the images and separate your work from the original.

Take this image for example, the original inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson taken in 1952 would be difficult to copy today, yes with Photoshop it could be accomplished, but what is to be gained by that, except well, to improve or show off your Photoshop skills.  I have my own memories of Paris.  Memories of  Paris of today, with the river cruises, the grey skies, the yellow and orange leaves of autumn. This is the Paris I want to capture in my images. But I did pick this spot to take picture not just because it was beautiful but because I had seen Henri Cartier-Bresson’s images, and loved it. I purposefully choose early evening because I wanted to show some of the city lights, and I choose a slow shutter speed to show how the River Seine is now a very busy place.

So while my image was inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson it is quite different, and meets my objectives for the images.

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Hola, from Santo Domingo de la Calzada Spain,

Just before Sunrise, Sept 20, 2012, Santa Maria de Real, Najera Spain

We left our hostel this morning just before 7 am, and were looking for a breakfast place before we left town, one of the bar’s opened it’s door and gentleman said “cafe con leche?”(coffee with steamed milk) “desayumo?” (breakfast) we thought we would try our luck. He also gave us fresh squeezed orange juice and gilled buttered croissants.  Probably the best breakfast we have had the entire trip so far, and a great way to start the day!  After leaving the bar, we headed out of town, the camino took us past the Santa Maria de Real, it was all lit up, and sky just beginning to lighten in the morning light and looked lovely.  We had visited the cathedral the day before. The monastery is build in to the side of the mountain, quite spectacular to visit it you get the chance.

Bill watching the sun crest the hill, 1 k west of Najera, on the Camino de Santiago.

We had walked about 15 minutes out of Najera Spain, when we happened to look back, the sun was cresting the hill, all in all it was a beautiful way to start the day.

Today we walked from Najera to Santa Domingo de la Calzada, about  21k, hilly, but nothing extreme like the hills that have challenged us before! We stopped in the middle of a field and laid down one of the rain poncho’s for a 10 minute juice and snack break about 10 am.  We arrived in Santa Domingo de la Calzada about 1 pm, we found our accommodations, and had a nap! all in all a good day, soon we will be headed out for dinner.

We hope your day was as lovely as ours. Buen Camino.

Venice at night, bridge to Rialto

Italy is a dream that keeps returning for the rest of your life.” –Anna Akhmatova

I took a quick look at some of my images taken on my trip to Venice, it is a place I could return to again and again.  If  you get away from the busy tourist area and St. Mark’s Square there are many quiet streets, and squares, wonderful coffee and pastry shop, and for the photographer great light.

this weeks photo challenge on photofriday.com  is day’s end,  I like the warm light in the restaurants at the end of the bridge, and can’t image a better place for a glass a wine at the end of the day.  I would recommend you drop by the photo friday site and check out some of the other great photos. Other great photo challenge sites PhotoSunday this weekend’s word “evening” and Lensday challelnge for Peaceful!

More photography of Venice;  this photo and others by the photographer are available at jmeyersforeman photography

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Misty Moon overy Calgary

Friday night I as late leaving work when I noticed the moon in the sky, knowing how fast the clouds can change, or even disappear I could hardly get home fast enough.  While I usually carry a camera with me, I didn’t have a big enough lens to do this justice.  I not only needed my 70 – 200, I needed my teleconverter, and my tripod for this photo.

So there I was dressed in my word clothes, not dressed for the winter weather; no gloves, no hat, flats instead of boots, standing in the middle of my neighbor’s front yard, mumbling to myself, I am sure I was quite the sight, but given the temperatures I wasn’t out there long! I don’t think the neighbors even noticed.  I had no time to waste.  It wasn’t until after I downloaded the images that I noticed the lens fare, lets face it, it was cold out there my fingers were getting numb and I wasn’t spending a lot of time examining the screen on the back of my camera, but I like the lens flare and I’m kinda glad it showed up!

enter in UE’s weekend Challenge for nature, check out the other photographers great work.

calgary – winter storm warning!

A winter storm warning has been issued for our area, read further and you will see that the meteorologist are suggesting that we might get between 2 – 4 cm of snow.  I am not sure if 2 – 4 cm of snow is so much snow that we need a “storm warning”  after all it is winter in Calgary, and part of our lifestyle, sweeping snow off the car.

It will be a great day for pictures if I can find time from work to get out there!

san francisco in motion, abstract landscape photography

yesterday was a big day of the always exciting bookeeping chore that needs to be done, let me tell you this isn’t my favorite way to spend an evening after work!   I have been experimenting with abstract landscapes, here is san fransisco, as sunset.  It had been a cool and cloudy day in November and there wasn’t much of a sunset, the lights were starting to come on in the buildings and we had been wandering around for a few hours seeing th sites. I knew this was the best light I was going to get over the city, we were getting cold, and hungry, so I took a few frames and carried on.

It is a little difficult to see, but you can make out the sign for Ghirardelli Square, after dinner we went there and had the greatest ice cream sundaes ever, it is the best place to blow your diet, and splurge on something amazing!!!!!!

Dubrovnik at Sunset

Don’t picture fool you there are lots of great beaches, this is a little bar where you can sit among the rocks and watch the sunset.  There are not more that a table or two on each rock and the rope light shows you were to walk, the view is spectacular.

this image is available for purchase at jmeyersforeman photography

 

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