Uploads from Maoli Photographies, tagged 816mm

Ponte Sant'Angelo

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:48:10 -0700

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Here is the Bridge of Sant'Angelo in Rome.This is very nice point of view of the bridge and the famous Castel Sant'Angelo, where takes place the last scene of the movie "Angels and Daemons" (I did not read the book).

The access of this dock is supposed to be forbidden and barriers prevent you to go there. But I finally found out a stair without any barrier, so I guess I had the right to use it. ;)
This was not exactly a nice place, because of the strong pee odor... But once you are on the docks, you have one of the nicest spot of Rome.

I have seen some photos of this place, and I can tell that you can have many ways to show the bridge and the castle.
The current result suits my own expectations, but I think I should have waited the blue hour for having better colors.

Olreans cathedral

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:47:10 -0700

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As promised, here is a view inside the great cathedral of Orleans.

When you get inside, you feel very tiny. I rarely feel that way inside a church, but here the ceiling is very high.

There was nobody there, so I took all my time to walk everywhere and take the shoots I wanted.

Orleans sunset

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 13:35:26 -0700

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Hi everyone!

My last photo has been published a few months ago. I have to admit that I have slowed down a bit with photography, but I did not stopped the activity.

The photo you see has been taken along "La Loire", the river that cross Orleans in France. I have been there for 3 days, so I mainly focused my visit around the down town.

It's a pretty nice old city in the south of Paris. The place is well known thanks to Joan of Arc, who won a major military victory against English army in the 15th century.
As many european cities, there are many churches and religious places. But the most impressive was undoubtedly the great cathedral. The pictures are coming soon.

If you come nearby, take a day or two for visiting the city, relaxing in the parcs, visiting the ex-townhall, and exploring the catacombs if you can (very interesting places by the way).
Moreover, there are plenty of little restaurant, don't miss them they are so tasty!

Church of Saint-Savinien #2

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 04:29:28 -0800

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Probably the last photo of my last vacations at Saintes, in France. This photo has been shot in a small town nearby.

The board games were in the cellar

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 03:19:12 -0800

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Ok it seems creepy, but this place is not a torture room or something as dark. This cellar is just a place to play. Located right under the castle of "La Roche Courbon" in France, this room is one of the lasts you see after the visit.

Unfortunately photos were not allowed into the castle, so I couldn't show more picture of the luxuous rooms and corridors we had visited above.

I'll try to return back one day with the sun, in order to proceed to some garden photography.

Eiffel Tower

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 11:00:37 -0800

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Happy new year!

I know I'm a *bit* late for that, but I wanted to start the new year with a photo I really like. This one has been taken in my first walk of 2013. I came on a point of view that I have already seen on some photos on flickr, but I decided to make it different, with a night shot.
While I was setting up my gear, the hour arrived on 8pm, when the lights flashed everywhere on the tower. It was the best effect I could hope!

About the processing, it is a HDR photography processed with photomatix. I did a lot of tries to get rid of the ghot lights on the bridge. Finally, I also used the selective deghosting tool to get the best shape of the river.

Back to lightroom, I processed my photo to get a better exposure, increase the contrast and calibrate it a bit. Then I worked on the river to give more peps to the lights and the colors. Next I focused on the pavement on the foreground, increasing the clarty and the sharpness, but also tweaking the white balance to fit it with what I expected.

Finally, I also "burned" the lights in order to get more intensity.

Here is one of the RAW files : pic1
And photmotix output : pic2

Copyright Eiffel tower : Tour Eiffel-Illuminations Pierre Bideau

Church of Saint-Savinien

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:44:55 -0800

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This photo has been taken in a small church, into a small town. I woke up early in the morning to have a low sun and a good contrast.

After several minutes of walking, I arrived in front of this church. No one inside, but a bunch of details: the place was just gorgeous. It was just what I needed to deploy my tripod and take all the shots I wanted.

My favourite views were this transept and the other side, that I'm going to show you later.

About the processing, I used 3 exposures and merged them with the tonemapping method. Then I used lightroom to do many improvements. Finally I used photoshop in order to add the light beam.

Mysterious alley

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 06:10:19 -0800

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I was walking in my childhood city "Saintes", looking for subjects, when I found this little street between two buildings.

Those who know me know that I like to sneak into small passages with the hope to find some secret places. Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it works.

Here I found out a nice atmosphere. I took all the time needed to find the right angle and do some tries, et voila!

The processing was more delicat. I had to get rid of the blue/purple colors on metals. Also the light was colder and greeny. I had to test several white settings in order to find the more appropriate.

The last but not least was the awful flare I had with the light. I took me ages to find how I could remove it with lightroom or photoshop. Finally I used a lot the stamp tool of photoshop.

If you want to compare, you may find the original here (the middle exposure shot) : farm9.staticflickr.com/8228/8354343788_71353c5d7c_o.jpg

Saintes train station

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:06:25 -0800

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Saintes is a little city in France where I go sometimes each year. I have already shown you the the secret garden or the station platform.

Today I'm going to show you the main gate of the station.

This station is typical of the french station architectures. Of course I'm talking about the stations built in 19th century, with their big clock on the top, the stones and the glass roof.
Since then, more recent adjustments have been realized to keep it nice and comfortable. But it keeps this classy atmosphere.

The most important thing in this place is not the station itself, but the huge facilities that stand behind the station. With over 400 employees, this place is one of the biggest employer of the city. There is plenty of trades related to conception, maintenance, renovation and modernization of trains.

I have been able to visit the open days a few years ago and it was very instructive. I'm not sure that there has been open days since. But if it happens again, I will try to go there and gather some valuable picture of this great place of technicity.

Morning walk

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 03:33:44 -0800

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This parc is a part of the "Château de la Roche Courbon", near Saint-Porchaire in France. This morning we were only two visitors, so I had all the time I needed to take my shots.

Not so far of the castle, there is a vast network of prehistoricals caves that go very deep under a large rock. Beware when you visit it, don't go too far!

This photography was taken on the read between the castle and the caves. The sun was shy but had warm colors.

Frozen landscape

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 11:01:18 -0800

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Once again we go back to frozen landscapes. This is an another view of the river where I stopped nearby.

Taillebourg rampart

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 13:53:53 -0800

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There is this little town, close to my parent's house. A part of this city is built on a rock, over the valley. Sometimes, you can have a very warm light, when the sun is going down and spreads into yellow and orange rays.

The day I went, the sun was very low and hidden by the clouds. I thought I had a fair picture, but not as I imagined it. Finally came the process step. I couldn't imagine that I could get a such result.

This photo inspires me the melancholy. What about you ? ;)

Montparnasse secret clock

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 01:33:52 -0800

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Those who follow me may have seen the not-so-well-known hidden lounge of the train station Montparnasse, at Paris.

Today I would like to show you a closer view of the rear lounge, near the clock.

Usually it is forbidden to take photographies in a french station. But at 6am, who cares? :)

Winter landscape

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:03:04 -0800

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A morning I was driving for visiting a close city. I've glanced on my left and found out a very nice landscape: a river with iced grass all around and a thin mist.
I immediately stopped, took my camera, the tripod, and I went near the water. It was the first time I was photographing at winter landscape, and it was very beautiful.

Unfortunately the mist vanished on the picture. Next year I'll catch it! ;)

Saintes train station

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:55:27 -0800

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When I arrived in my vacation destination, I told myself that I should come back later take a night shot of the train station.

I came back a few days later for the blue hour. I'm pretty glad with the result, a mix of artifical lights and blue colors.

Secret lounge at Montparnasse station

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:57:26 -0800

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Hi friends!

I know some of you are are going soon on vacations. For me, it was last week, and I took a lot of pictures. :)

As for every journey for me, it starts by waiting at the train station Montparnasse at Paris. I'm used to explore the places where I go, and the station is not an exception.

One day, while I was walking on the station platforms, I found out a stair which lead to a secret floor with some groceries store, a book store and above all : an empty and calm lounge!

The main advantage of this place is that not many people know it. So sometimes I come here when there is a crowd waiting for the train the evening. Lucky for me, my last travel started early in the morning, so the place was empty.

Therefore I could not resist to take some pictures of it. Here is the result.

Bridge of Asnières

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 12:07:47 -0800

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The bridge of Asnières is located between Asnières-sur-Seine and Clichy, near Paris. It's a very beautiful bridge with its blue and green paintings.
Recently I noticed the lights under the bridge when the night comes. So I came here with my camera and wanted to take some photos under the bridge.

I often come here to take some photos, but I still not had the photography I want. I'll keep coming here until I have it. :)

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Anyway, I'm going in vacations next week, so I will not publish any photos for a more week! Of course I'm going to take all my photographic toys with me, looking for some interesting sites.

Stay in alert. ;)

Louvre and pyramids

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 14:50:02 -0800

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Here is an another view of the Louvre museum. I tried to find a view which may mix the old museum with the glass pyramid, and here is the result.

For the story, It took me ages to find the right position with the little pyramid on left and big one on right, taking care about lights, etc. When everything went good, I finally had to wait around 10 minutes until tourists and my friends photographers go OUT the frame.

Back home, I've applied my usual workflow: photomatix + lightroom. As usual, it gave me an interesting result in term of exposition. But I had some issues with the lack of sharpness. Finally I tried the 32 bit HDR approach instead of the tonemapping.
With the 32 bit file, the picture remains clean and very sharp.You can also tweak it deeper, a bit like a RAW versus JPG. The tonemaped 16 bit file is more limited this way, but the exposition gets better with this solution.
When you rescale the both files at lower resolutions, these differences tend to be smaller. So about the choice to use one or another solution, it will mostly depend on the situation and your own taste.

The picture above is issued from a 32 bit HDR file.

If you want to compare the different results, you can check it here : right here.

Twin buildings

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 12:46:50 -0800

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The last walk of the weekend. I met up my friend Eric Klasen last sunday afternoon. We wanted to take some images of a pedestrian bridge which has a "wave" design, near the great national library of France.

But finaly I did not found my inspiration there, so we walked in the city until we found this. I immediately loved the metalic structures against the builings. So I took my time to place my tripod where I wanted to have it, calculate the edges for symetry, choosing the right focal, etc.

Later in post-processing I tried to fix the deformation. But the image lost something, so I came back and kept the original shape.

Sorry for the heavy retouching, but I like these colors like this!

Louvre Pyramid

nobody@flickr.com (Maoli Photographies) — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:10:41 -0800

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The last weekend took place the "salon de la photo" at Paris. This is a recurring event once a year in France. Big brands like Nikon, Canon, Sigma, Panasonic, (...) come and show their last products. Smaller brands are also in the party, and you can find a large choice of products like bags, tripods, filters and a lot of other stands related to photography (conferences, magazines, software makers, etc).

It was the first time I came there. Even if I came as observer, I've tried some lenses I want to buy in the future. There was also several exhibitions and I written down a lot of photographer name that I would like to see the work.

This salon was a great place to meet amateur and professionnal photographer, and I have seen an old friend who published his first book.

Then from friday to sunday we organised a serie of parisian walks for friends. I did not had the time to show them the best places in Paris, but we spent good moments.

Here is a view of the Louvre Pyramid I took last saturday.