Birds, flowers and insects

A few more photos from previous week, when we went near to the park behind Notre Dame. There are some more, we're not done yet!

In other news, hopefully tomorrow (Aug 21), the 18-55 mm lens will be here, which means that I'll be able to take other kinds of photos as well as portraits, which I'm planning on starting quite soon. Off to today's photos now.

The pigeons were around the people, waiting, almost forcing for some pieces of bread. This little guy came, took the remains of an ice-cream cone and left. Kind of a lonely eater, I suppose.

Nice brown colour that looks better after the editing.

Now for the hardcore stuff. Bees, wasps, hairy or bald, there's enough yellow dust for everyone in the garden!

Let's lighten up the colours a bit, shall we? Yeah, much better now.

Various representatives of the bee-like insect family (And I'm not even an entomologist!) are keeping two flowers busy. The shallow depth of field makes the image look almost like fake.

Some colour enhancing and the result looks even nicer. Great stuff. Just great stuff. Remember to click on the photos in order to see them bigger and in more detail.

Back to Notre Dame, equipped like a boss

After almost two weeks, we found ourselves back to Notre Dame. More specifically, in the little park behind the church, where the pigeons are all overweight have almost no fear of humans, since they eat the weight of one sandwich in breadcrumbs every day, each. And the flowers were full of bees. All those nice places were there, but this time we had the 650D with us! Here, let me show you a small sample of what I managed to take today!

I remind you that I haven't yet received the 18-55mm lens. Every picture so far is with the 55-250mm telephoto lens and sometimes this makes my life a bit hard. But some other times, it makes it so freaking cool! Like in the cases you're about to witness!

Yeah, the telephoto magnifies as well. And look at the detail in this photo. And this cute, fluffy... ummm... bee? A fluffy bee? I don't know if I'm comfortable with this!

The editing makes almost no difference. The hair is still there!

This one is beautiful. The bee is more like a wasp and it's not that hairy, while there is a small bee about to land on the flower. Anyway, there is enough for everyone!

Here the editing makes a difference. Slight, but it does. Don't forget to click on the photos, to see them bigger and more glorious!

The beach volley doesn't stop. As long as the weather helps, there are teams to play and spectators to watch. Here I took a nice snapshot of a spike. As long as these people aren't professionals, sports are fine.

Editing, editing, editing. Better colours, sharper image. Because we're awesome!

Back to Notre Dame

...or, to be precise, back to the park behind Notre Dame. Some pictures that I didn't publish on Saturday are today's post. It was very nice, I was just standing there checking the birds bathing and sitting on the grass. If only I had a better camera! But, hopefully, this will change soon. Until then, check this.

Lots of sun. Great colours. Maybe a bit too bright? No problem.

Editing to the rescue. Now the flowers look much better and separated from each other.

This guy was huge. When I saw him going to the fountain I thought he was a duck or something.

But he's too small to be a duck, even if he's a bit too big for a pigeon. Anyway, I managed to take some photos of him.

A long day out

Friends came today. And there was a long walk. I mean, really long. From Notre Dame to Concorde and back. That's like five or six metro stations. And with all the sun, my head was killing me. After about two hours of sleep and it's still messed up. I will continue as soon as I finish with the post.

While I was waiting for them, I took a walk around the area of Hotel de Ville. First of all, they have installed sand and beach volley nets in front of the Hotel de Ville. Paris has no sea, but who cares! Lack of sea doesn't mean lack of creativity!

Yes. In the middle of the city. This place changes every week. Once they install tennis courts and a big screen to watch Roland Garros, another time they have a whole garden with flowers and chairs, they had a music festival about a week ago, now this. We can't say that the people responsible for making the area great are lazy.

What I said earlier, but with more intense colours.

Near Notre Dame there is a park. All the benches were taken, at least the once in the shade. And I was there, taking photos of the pigeons bathing in the fountain and sitting around on the grass. A very nice image overall.

Of course, there were many tourists and most of them were interested in taking photos of the back side of the church.

Did I take any picture of the church? Well, no.

Boat on the river

Some more practice next to the river today, only this time not very near Notre Dame. On a nice spot with a nice view, we saw also three cruisers with cabins and everything, where people actually sleep at night. I had no idea that these things exist in rivers as well!

This looks away from Notre Dame. There are interesting things to see even if they are not widely known.

Editing didn't make a big difference after all. I like the colour of the sky here.

This is not a cruiser. It's just a restaurant. Much longer ones exist and they are used also for some touring of the city.

Kind of looks better now, I believe.

Above the river

Once again I found myself at the area near Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame. This time the pictures were taken from one of the bridges of the area.

Just a few of the famous locks. I don't know if there's any space left for new ones. If you get there and want to add yours, maybe you will have to put it through one of the existing locks.

With such beautiful colours, who wouldn't want to contribute?

I've always wondered, do the people living in these houses consider themselves lucky? I mean, it's a very nice area but, do they see it this way?

Well, I guess that we all have our reasons to see what we see.

That's all for today. In a few hours, we're welcoming you at cafe Le 2 Moulins, in Paris (Metro 2, Blanche), with many awesome songs and a few great ones!

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.