The First Cut

Under the Pyramid, Paris

I was lining this up in the entrance to the Louvre, almost as an abstract, when these two people appeared, exactly in the right position.

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Paris

Louvre

pyramid

Eavesdropping, Paris

I love the way the statue and the pigeon seem to be listening in on the two women.

Shot against the light, the contrast is currently defeating me.

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Man on the Metro, Paris

If I got the focus in the wrong place in the last photograph, I got it bang right this time!

I saw the guy in a gap between the carriages out of the corner of my eye, turned round, focused and caught him in a split second. Thankfully I wasn't relying on an autofocus camera.

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Hotel front, Paris

I got so carried away hiding my own reflection and making sure the main points of interest were reflected clearly in good places in the window that I forgot to watch the depth of field (such as you can on a rangefinder), and I think, got the plane of focus wrong.

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Government building, Paris

We walked and got lost.

There were embassies and government buildings in the area. Perhaps this is one.

You can also see some of the softening and vignetting suffered by the XA in the corners of the frame. It doesn't really bother me, though. The strength is in the complete package.

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Candles, Notre Dame

Inside the Notre Dame. So many candles.

I took quite a few, in between the jostling sightseers and worshippers. I like this one best, as far as it goes.

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Notre Dame

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Bear, Paris

I took my wife to Paris in October to celebrate her birthday.

It wasn't a photographic trip, so I kept the gear to a minimum, just my trusty Olympus XA, bought secondhand in Birmingham in about 1980. It's only recently that I've come to really fall in love with the camera. It's small, inconspicuous (it's black, unlike most shiny digital P&Ss, and you don't have to wave it about at the end of your arm to see the screen), and the lens is pretty good if you stop it down.

I also love this picture of a window display, although I do have a slight problem with this kind of photography. The real creativity lies with the person who dressed the window, setting up the idea in the first place, but I'll argue I found some nice diagonals and did some subtle digital manipulation :-)

I hope it makes you smile.

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Worthing Pier, late afternoon

Another of my informal project to document around the sea front where I live. It's tough trying to see familiar things in a new way. This time, I've split-toned the image.

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Chichester doorways

The first pic here from the digital point and shoot camera that I bought for taking pictures for my food blog (www.mealsonblogs.com).

The quality is fine for the Web, but the lens isn't up to using for A4 prints.

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Brighton Summer 2006 #4

They tell me that the little electric train running east from the pier to the marina is the world's oldest. Here's the station.

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Brighton Summer 2006 #3

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Brighton Summer 2006 #2

A little further along the pier, people were queueing up to lose their money :-)

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Brighton Summer 2006 #1

This guy was asleep in his chair, and life was just going on around him. I was fortunate to capture the seagull in the opposite corner, too.

This photo - like the other pix in the sequence - is gently duotoned to warm up the image. As a process, it really comes into its own when output to my inkjet printer, when any colour casts are controlled by, in effect, choosing my own one!