Some more random photos...

Bubblegum twins (they dispense bubblegum to the public, kind of like a modern corporate robin hood for the bad of breath (haha...ehh):

He looked up just as I was about to take a picture, I was originally trying to catch him him sitting at the bus top reading his paper, but I prefer his look of surprise so much more

A little metro action, I had to push it wide open to get the appropriate amount of light.

That's all for now, I'm working on another roll on my X-GM, I'll probably finish it off later this week.

running around town

We had Wednesday off class, and decided to head over to Musee Rodin to check out some statues. This guy must of been loaded b/c nobody has a house this big in central Paris, even if he lived 150 years ago. The current house/mansion has been turned into a museum for his work and there's a little park attached to his property with more of his artwork displayed. I'm not really into statues, but the gardens were nice and the light was excellent. More CLE fun:

Taking the RER to meet my friends, it's more like a train than anything else

Waiting outside Jardin du Luxembourg for my friends to arrive. I saw her setting up her little cart, it's funny how many ppl seemed to know her.

Heading over to la musee underground. Gotta love the 1970's era french post-modernist architecture...

Rodin's "Le Penseur"

I love the eye-contact in this photo...

Ilir, Cristina, Mariana

We asked her to take a group photo of us, she gave us a stern "no" and told us to leave her alone...however she didn't move, but just stood in this position for a couple of moments then hurried off, but not before I took her picture ;)

Class

I borrowed a Minolta CLE rangefinder for the week to take some photos, and since I spend 6 hours a day in and around my french class, I might as well start there. The camera itself is excellent. Minolta teamed up with Leica in the early 80's to produce this rangefinder (as well as an older version in the 70's) as well as three lenses (90mm, 40mm, 28mm). I'm currently using the 40mm. I took about two rolls of film (ASA200) this week, and then had to pay 30 Euros to get them developed and put on a CD, which is pretty much equivalent to armed robbery...time to pull out the scanner I guess...

1030am

Phonetics class...you can tell I wasn't paying attention

Mariana drinks tea

Everybody's watching someone else...

I was waiting for a friend to meet me at this station; I was early and decided to look around. I came out at the top of a long vertical tunnel, with this escalator rising up through the center which people were taking to the surface, all in complete silence. I stood at the balcony and raised the camera to my eye just as I saw an opportunity, this guy seemed to know I was there and turned to face me just as I took the picture. I prefer this result so much more, it's as if I'm intruding upon something sacred, that I'm not supposed to be there. I actually imagined the picture would turn out a lot differently but the CLE's light sensor can be iffy at times...the results are interesting, even if unintended

Patrick representin' Germany.

If you don't know what this is, you really need to check out http://www.space-invaders.com/ This guy travels all around the world putting up "space invaders" in obscure places in major cities, some kind of huge street art project. I was fairly surprised to see this in some alley while walking back to class from lunch.

Mohammad Ali (Yemen) and Ilir (Albania). Ilir: that picture's gonna be worth a million dollars. Me: why? Ilir: 'cause I'm in it ;)

September

Alex + cameras + paris = PHOTOBLOG

These were taken with a small Canon digital:

(La Motte-Picquet, above ground stations rock)

St. Cloud, (west side Paris).

La Defense, I'm coming back armed with a wide angle lens. (I had to stand like half a mile away to make this happen)