At Hotel de Ville

A summer Saturday evening outside Hotel de Ville. This means that many people will be around. Just like in Halfway back, with the difference that there the people were not very ummm... friendly.

This is where an important scene of the book takes place.

Yes, I know, I should write more information about the pictures. But I feel a bit lazy tonight. And tired. So, I'm just posting some pictures that I like from an area that I like.

Something older from Greece

Today I did a little research in some old pics I took last year, about one month before moving to Paris. The center of attention are some of the neighbour's cats, that used to come to me every now and then and I was glad to feed them.

The cat is balancing and the green bricks on top of the newly built house make an impression.

With the processing, the cat is more visible, the sky more intense and the bricks are greener.

Not all of the cats would come near me. This was one of the not very shy ones.

And here he is again, with better looking gray around him.

A sunny day!

After my appointment at Pole Emploi early today, I took my time to return home. I went through the train station, which gave me the opportunity for some nice shots. This is one of them.

Not the slightest little cloud! That's the Paris we love even more!

And here it is, after the editing. A mass of cement and iron and yet, it looks beautiful.

This is after I left the station, at the stairs leading to the street.

This is after some serious editing. Notice the out of focus leaf at the bottom right corner.

And this is something I just love! Clear lines, only red and cyan are kept and this must be the first photo of which I'm actually proud!

Even if I have many photos to publish, I wanted to give you these fresh ones. I mean, it's barely an hour since I took them and here I present them to you. Both of you!

It was rainy in Paris. Again.

Friday, 21 of June, was quite gloomy and rainy. The big tree that reaches the third floor and hides most of the building on the other side, in combination with the solid clouds, provides an annoying scenery.

Summer in Paris. Get used to it, buddy.

Or at least, make the colours brighter.

Behind the window. At least this disturbing weather makes for some interesting photos.

Let's intensify the colours a bit and see what will happen.

And let's give it a more retro feeling, hoping that soon it will be come but a bad memory.

I don't know if it my remarks make it evident, but I don't like rain very much. It's restraining. And annoying.

Something from Tunisia

The sun comes and goes today. So, instead of something Parisian, I give you some photos I took in Tunisia in February. The weather there, in that period, was a bit better than it is in Paris now, in late June! First, a nice view from the casino of Djerba.

A clearly touristic area on a typical northern african scenery.

By increasing the contrast and a bit the saturation and by playing a bit with the curves, the difference is striking.

Why we were at the casino, you ask? Taking pictures, of course! Now something from the beach at the hotel. A look at the southern Mediterranean sea.

The lighting was perfect. If only I had a better camera, I can't even imagine how much nicer this photo would be.

Once again, processing makes things more interesting.

Enough with Tunisia for now! On the next post, we'll return to Paris.

Yes, I go often to La Defense

Yesterday I had a rehearsal with Natalie, since we play on July 1st at cafe Les 2 Moulins (near Moulin Rouge). Of course, I took advantage of the weather and the scenery and I took a few photos.

The guitar head. I was glad to see that my phone can focus after all.

With some color enhancement, it looks less dull.

The big arch of La Defense. Under an intimidating sky and next to a not so intimidating Samsung ad.

After the processing, not much has changed. But I like the clouds, they look more intense.

And for the classic exaggeration shot, something in black and white.

Behind Notre Dame

On the previous post I said that I had "songs" instead of "photos", right? It seems that old habits are hard to forget. For today I have something sunnier than the previous times. One day in February, I took advantage of the nice weather and went near Notre Dame (translates as Our Lady) where I played a few songs (this time it's the word I wanted to use) next to the Seine river. And I took a few pictures while I was there and the scenery was beautiful.

Very nice light and the clouds give the sky an interesting tone.

Now the colors are quite brighter. I like it more this way.

I turned a bit to the right. Beautiful buildings, lots of people walking around (the majority were tourists) and the river underneath. But it needs more colors.

And, to be precise, I meant that it needed more intense colors. This is a bit better, I'd say.

And how would it look like under a full moon? Well, I guess we'll never know after all.

And that's about it for today.

Another dark day in Paris

A couple of songs from the neighbourhood, in Courbevoie. This is something from Avenue Marcheau. In a quite dark day, once more.

I wanted to make the colors of the buildings a bit brighter, but this cost me the clouds that actually disappeared. You can't have it all, I guess. Especially if you are a beginner.

In the same area, a building is on its way to be constructed. I liked the crane as it was moving.

Due to the nature of the photo, processing didn't make a big difference. It made the sky and the crane a bit brighter and, to be honest, I don't know if this is good.

But the next one is better. Dark, red and threatening. A post-apocalyptic image.

That's all for now. I don't know if I'll post photos every day, although I'd like to. Of course, as I already said once, I'll be more than glad to receive your opinions and advice on anything.

Exposure trouble

So, I was at La Defense the other day and, while I was waiting, I took a few pictures. My Android phone with the 8 MP camera can't do much, but that's all I have for now, until I'm able to buy the Canon 650D I'm drooling over. The first pics were strange. Like this, for example:

Too much light, especially if we have in mind that the sky was completely covered in clouds, following a storm earlier. It made no sense.

The sky looks way too white. Something was wrong. I took a look in the app's settings (Camera360 for Android) and I saw that Exposure was at the maximum of 6. I reset it at 3 and tried again.

Much better, although a bit too exposed.

But after some processing, it looks more intense and clear.

Same thing happened with the other picture. Here's how it looked like with smaller exposure:

Now it looks nicer, but still it needs a tiny bit of processing.

Not a big difference, but not bad.

While experimenting with the contrast and the color balance, I got this too.

So, that's for starters. I hope that some time in the next months I will have a better camera and be able to take much better shots. Until then, I will settle for the Android camera. Any advice is welcome.