Uploads from Zeb Andrews, tagged paris

J'ai laissé un peu de moi ici

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:15:16 -0700

Happy Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day! In celebration I am deciding it is about time we had an "official" verb to describe what we do, so my starting contribution to the day is going to be just that. So, I give you the verb meaning "to pinhole", conjugated in a few different languages (might as well cover a few bases). Enjoy pinholing today everyone. ;-)

to pinhole: the act of using a pinhole camera, generally in a haphazard or fun fashion.

English:
I pinhole
you pinhole
he/she/it pinholes
we pinhole
they pinhole

I will pinhole this sunny day after I eat a waffle breakfast.

Francais:
je sténope
tu sténopes
il/elle sténope
nous sténopons
vous sténopez
ils/elles sténopent

Elle sténope la Tour Eiffel avec trois caméras différentes. -- She pinholes the Eiffel Tower with three different cameras.

Español:
yo pinholio
tú pinholes
él/ella pinhole
nosotros pinomos
ellos/ellas pinholen

Pinholio todos los días. -- I pinhole every day.

Deutsch:
ich pinhole
du pinholst
er pinholt
wir pinholen
ihr pinholt
sie/Sie pinholen

Pinholen Sie meine Familie jetzt! -- Make a pinhole photo of my family now!

Imagining my way into bigger worlds

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:41:29 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

Know what I like about photography? It isn't limited by what you can see. Or even by perception. It is imagination. That's the key to it all. There has to be some spark of an idea in your head, or you cannot make a photo. And the bigger that spark, the bigger the world you can find. Stoke that spark into a fire, and that fire into a conflagration of photographic inspiration. And then always remember that your photography is not limited by the light. It is not limited by the weather. It is certainly not limited by where you are. Ha. Because with a good enough imagination after all, you can be anywhere. Your photography then is only limited by your ability to dream.

So, dream on.

Au revoir, Eiffel

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 09:40:27 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

And that's it. My last image from Paris. I figured it appropriate to end where I began, with the Eiffel Tower. Sure, I have even more images of Paris, and even some of them that I will post eventually, but now feels like a good time to wrap it up and move on. I have months worth of photos from around the Northwest to share. Rain and snow storms have come and gone since I started posting my Paris images, so have the cherry blossoms and the tulip festival. I have been to the UK and back as well (have barely even begun scanning those images), to the Palouse and now the Olympic Peninsula.

So thank you, to all of you who followed along on this little sojourn. I hope for some it brought back good memories of your own trips to Paris, for others it showed you your hometown from a new perspective, and for those who have yet to travel there, I hope it has reinforced your desire to do so. The city of Paris truly is magical in so many ways, with or without a camera in hand.

And I hope that my manner of posting these images, more or less as one big series, with an agenda and coherency of sorts. As I said when I first began posting these images, my desire was to make the experience as immersive as possible, rather than just skimming the surface and posting the highlights. I didn't want to impress you with my photographic prowess, I wanted you to learn the things I learned, and I wanted you to get as much of a feel for the city as you could. To these ends, I think I was at least somewhat successful. But even if not, it was fun to go through them all.

Bon voyage

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 08:01:26 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

A pinhole image out the plane window, I believe as I was leaving Charles de Gaulle, or arriving, or leaving PDX... or maybe Boston. I have had a long weekend of traveling, so I figured this would be a good complementary piece (and song).

♫

Grand bleu

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 07:23:24 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

I posted the half version of this scene already some time ago. That image concentrated more on the bridge, the base of the tower and that wonderful color to the evening, but as taken as I am by the panoramic format, I exposed two Hasselblad frames with just the intention of stitching them together at some point. Perhaps oddly, I still like the cropped version. Maybe because that composition is not as obvious (cropping the tower in half as it does), perhaps I am just so taken by bridges, or perhaps because the square format is subverting my previous love of the rectangle. Regardless, I figured the full pano was well worth showing in its own right before this voyage of images concludes.

Tout dans le quartier

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 10:05:58 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

A neighborhood in Paris, or at least that is what I think it is, always a bit hard to tell when you are in a foreign city. I was on my way to the Eiffel Tower this morning when I passed a schoolyard. Someone had left the gate invitingly wide open, so I ventured in for a few minutes making both this image and the one of the foosball table I already posted. It can be difficult when you are somewhere such as Paris to not overlook the little details of what can make a place interesting, in your quest to photograph all the big, grand details.

Sous les nuages

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:54:41 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

Another iconic portion of Paris that is relatively incredibly young. The Louvre Pyramid has been standing for less than 30 years but has already begun to make its mark on the city thanks to a combination of its architectural beauty, its appearance in popular fiction and conspiracies involving its construction. The most popular conspiracy theory is that French president Mitterand commissioned the pyramid to be built with exactly 666 panes of glass because he apparently worshipped Satan or such. The actual number has been attributed higher than 670 or 680 depending on your sources, though debate still pops up here and there. The biggest debate comes from how the newer architecture clashes with the older classical architecture of the Louvre. Personally, I appreciated it. The contrast helps emphasize both styles, even if for this image I concentrated on just the pyramid itself.

Scènes de films muets

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Sat, 16 Jun 2012 08:27:27 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

A pinhole exposure made with my Zero Image of a street performer in the plaza of the Trocadero. I love what long pinhole exposures do to crowds of people, perhaps my favorite thing to photograph long like this.

Les belles nuits d'ombres errantes

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 09:58:08 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

Wandering around the Louvre at night, we encountered this couple and their shadows. Thankfully I had my Nikon and its 50mm f1.4 with me, the only camera I had that was fast enough to respond to fleeting moments like this one. I don't know where the four of them went after this, but for a 1/60th of a second our paths crossed at least.

Carrés au sein de carrés

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 10:04:42 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

A pinhole image I made of the Grand Arch. I made a Hasselbad and a Holga WPC image here as well. I do that sometimes, but try not to do it too often. It is a conflict between a photographer should be moderately deliberate and decisive or rather a photographer shouldn't rely on their equipment to show or prove the image to them, and the notion that film is cheap so might as well make an extra image or three. ;-) Of course, then a photographer has to develop some good editing skills on the back end. The ability to edit one's work is an incredibly underrated skill in photography.

On a tangentially related note, this past trip to Scotland and London I noticed that all the images I made were either square (Holga, Hasselblad or Zero 2000) or they were the product of two squares (Holga Pan 6x12 and Holga WPC 6x12). Squares within squares indeed.

Comment se promener

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:03:49 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

And I'm done with Paris! ....

.....

But wait a minute, you ask, then why are you still posting images? ;-) Ok, so I have a few left over. The clippings from the cutting room floor so to speak. Images that didn't quite fit in with the mini-series that came before, but that I still like. At least enough to not let them pass into the digital closet of my archives without at least a brief showing. Some of the images I quite like, standing well on their own, but for some reason or another I just chose other, usually similar, images to post in their stead.

So here you go, we are almost to the end of our "short" trip together. I hope you enjoy these last few selections from Paris. I do. ;-)

Donnant sur une journée d'un autre rêve

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 09:41:55 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

One beautiful evening where the end of the day found me on a bridge over the Seine, watching the city of Paris slip into a dream of dusky twilight. Most of my days end well, but few of them in quite such exquisite fashion. I am already formulating vague plans to return to this city, possibly as early as next fall to go looking for that piece of my heart that was scattered in moments like this.

Image title inspired by: ♫

Ce que vous voyez est ce que vous obtenez

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 09:15:22 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

An image combining two ideas that came to fascinate me and that I hope to one year get to continue to explore: incidental occurrences of the Eiffel Tower and photographing tourists in action.

Ensemble

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 10:00:26 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

Not the last time you will see this little tower. ;-) I had originally lined this little figurine up with the original tower out of focus in the background. I was so obviously concentrating on making a photo that this couple decided what I needed was for two people to wander into my frame and stand in front of my camera. So they became part of the photo, willing or not. :-) This one was all put together inside the Wall for Peace memorial.

Et un jour, je peux dire que je m'en souviens.

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 22:08:29 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

It is a surprising fine line we photographers walk between using our photography to heighten our experience of a place and allowing our drive to photograph a place interfere with our ability to enjoy it. I got in to photography because I already liked to go out hiking. I spent lots of time in forests, on mountains and underground in caves. It only seemed natural after a fashion to start carrying a camera to photograph those places. But before long the drive to photograph those places resulted in me being led around with a noose in the form of a camera strap around my neck. I would finish one photo to immediately turn my thoughts to what the next photo I planned on making was going to be. Getting a pinhole certainly helped break this cycle. I had a camera that had no viewfinder, there was no need to hunker behind it, putting a wall between me and where I was. In addition, I had a camera that had to take long amounts of time to make images. It would hog my tripod for minutes on end, forcing me to do little else but sit there and enjoy the scene around me. I made a five minute exposure once at Lost Lake with my pinhole camera. One of the comments I received asked me how I could be so patient to wait through a five minute exposure. I was like, "really? Is it that difficult to pass five minutes doing nothing on a brilliant sunny day at a beautiful lake in an alpine wildnerness?" Sadly the answer is so often, yes it is. We are so driven to make images so that we will have something to show us afterward what we just experienced.

So in thanks to the camera that helped me learn how to slow down and how to spend more time beside the camera, not behind it, I have this pinhole image from Paris, as well as this song, Lenslife, by the band Fanfarlo.

♫

Just don't let it get away

And one day, I can say that I lived it all
And one day, I can say that I remember it
And one day, I can say that I've got hard evidence.

We have a better chance on paper so we catalogue our lives
Our lenses and our eyes are synchronized now anyhow
Prefer reflections, any things that you can fit within a page

Just don't let it get away,
And one day, I can say that I lived it all
And one day, I can say that I remember it

Insérez cliché français ici

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Sun, 17 Jun 2012 10:48:04 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

While I vastly prefer the pinhole version of this photo, the Hasselblad version is not too bad either. Different cameras, slightly different stories. This is the famed clock inside the Musée d'Orsay, a relic of the days when it was a train station.

Also, speaking of museums... perhaps my favorite time spent in any museum in Paris was spent in the Orangerie viewing Monet's Les Nymphéas, giant panoramic murals from his waterlily series. The oval rooms that Les Nymphéas are installed in were built specifically for these paintings, though Monet never lived long enough to see them installed. Their are two rooms, both with four murals stretched along the walls, completely encircling your vision. You can walk right up to the paintings and see the brush strokes, where Monet let the bare canvas show through in a corner or where he heaped paint upon paint. Then you step back and fill your entire seen world with these images.... and well that is what the benches are there for, because suddenly you just want to sit and be lost a while.

Lucky for all of you, the Musée de l'Orangerie has an on-line 3D tour. Check it out. Click the link, then click on Les Nymphéas in the left sidebar then click on one of the rooms in the floor plan that shows up.

And Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there!

Le même endroit, mais deux mondes différents

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 10:05:02 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

The Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero, one of the first rainy nights in Paris. Moments like this make me so glad for waist level finders, much better than laying on your stomach in a half inch of water. ...and I don't really have that much more to say. It's the Eiffel Tower, it is grand and beautiful and amazing on rainy nights where you get not one elegant tower stretching skyward but a mirror image to complement. It is probably impossible to photograph what goes through your heart and mind standing in the heart of Paris on such a night staring at this. So you should just go experience it yourself. ;-)

Les trois Ombres

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Sun, 10 Jun 2012 11:12:07 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

From a day I had to myself, I wandered over to Napolean's tomb and then the Rodin museum, both of which are quite amazing. One can get lost standing in front of Rodin's sculptures, and there is a whole garden full of them. This is The Three Shades, which was originally crowning piece of The Gates of Hell (also in the garden and quite breathtaking). The shades point down to the phrase "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" ("Abandon all hope, ye who enter here"). Many of the sculptures from The Gates of Hell ended up as independent pieces, including The Thinker. Of course, in this garden of artistically wrought metal sculpture, I found a glimpse of another artistically wrought sculpture. ;-)

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 09:02:05 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

"There are no images when I reload." -- Garry Winogrand

Yet another in my series of incidental occurrences of the Eiffel Tower. This is not the image I originally wanted, that had happened a few nights before and I missed it. Which happens. In a sense, we all miss more images than we actually catch. An impossibly high number in fact. But you cannot let the fear of missing a photo steer your hand at photography for that truth will never change. You concentrate on what you can find and can make and try to learn from those missed opportunities. Such as here. That fleeting image from the nights before helped lead me to this, because it showed me to look for it. Kind of circular how all that works.

Metro

nobody@flickr.com (Zeb Andrews) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 09:39:15 -0700

Zeb Andrews posted a photo:

The Eiffel Tower popped up again over by the Arc de Triomphe. A good subway line is something that I miss living in Portland. They can be so incredibly convenient - not that I used the Metro in Paris too often as walking was such an exciting adventure. But still, there were times it came in pretty handy. And maybe this is a misperception on my part, but the Metro in Paris seemed much more affordable than say the tube in London, which surprised me by how expensive it could be. To further compare the two cities, the Metro in Paris could also be quite an adventure. It was not uncommon to see street performers jump onto the Metro and put on impromptu performances, so most rides were accompanied by music. In London everybody got real quiet on the Tube, burying their faces in newspapers and magazines. No music. Barely much talking even. At least that was my experience. It was an interesting comparison.