Part 2

(NOTE: click on photographs to enlarge)

Ilir and I decided to go the Louvre on the first sunday of the month, as it was free that day. I got up a 6am, got ready, and headed over. I was fairly early, I arrived just before 8am and there were like 5 ppl in line waiting for the doors to open, so I walked around and took some pictures to kill the time. Paris is awesome early in the morning, the city is completely empty and the light is great, although on this particular day it was cold as hell:

By the time the doors had opened, it was 9am, and the line was long enough to wrap around the pyramid (probably several hundred people), but Ilir and I finally got inside. The Pyramid is the center of the museum, from which there are entrances to the various exhibits:



If you look closely you can see what looks like a guy taking a picture of me as I take a picture of him (note: all pictures taken w/ a Sigma 21mm..I love wide angle)


Le Louvre has a lot of art, I would even dare to say, it has too much art. Walk through the halls of this museum and you will notice that every corner and wall has some piece of art on it, it's so saturated that it's almost impossible to consider each piece for anything more than a couple of seconds. Paintings are stacked on top of each on the walls, so that one's attention is diffused over the entire gallery rather than piece by piece:



The disappointing thing was that this hallway was the only place in the museum with natural light (which pretty much limited my interior photos to this one place). The Mona Lisa was the big draw of course, it didn't seem that large of a painting, but there are definitely some strange things going if you look closely enough (the dark figure to the left of Mona lisa, the faint number "6" on the top left...Ilir and I have a couple of conspiracy theories but I won't go into those ;) )

Actually the most enjoyable painting was Veronese's "Marriage at Cana" which is probably the largest painting I've ever seen (the characters are quite interesting, several of which stare at the viewer which is uncharacteristic for a renaissance painting). It stands right across from the Mona Lisa, it's as big as a house, but nobody pays it any attention...

This hallway had the best paintings in the museum (tech note: this is where a polarizing filter would be handy, it would eliminate the reflection coming off the painting allowing the viewer to see the details in the painting):



It was a lot of fun, even if you're not into paintings/sculptures/archeology/etc. it's still a great place to see if just for it's amazing architecture (although in all honesty it would take a week to see everything...)

Saturday(s)

(NOTE: click on the photos to enlarge)

So I finally got the film developed in my Minolta X-GM, however I had been running around with it for the last couple of weeks so the pictures are kind of random..

We had wanted to go to the Doisneau exhibition at the Hotel De Ville but it was a holiday and the gallery was closed (booo)...so we decided to walk down Rue de Rivoli for awhile instead:

We stopped at a cafe to grab something to drink because it was so damn cold outside and I felt like acting Parisien...the service was terrible but the tea was good..(50mm lens)


Is it just me or do I look like I'm about 12 years old in this picture? The superior framing and composition is because Cristina took this photo:


We continued down Rue de Rivoli, and proceeded to do some shoe shopping. Actually, Cristina did the shoe shopping, Ilir and I pretty much just stood around awkwardly (you can see Ilir's reflection in the mirror)



Cristina: "look natural!" Ilir smiled, and I continued to do a good job of looking like I was 12 years old (whatever...it was cold)


We went to the Louvre for a photo expo last saturday, and as we were entering we decided to stop by this now famous (DaVinci Code?) pyramid. There was this woman standing in the foreground, who probably didn't know she was in the frame as I was using a wide angle lens. If you look closely in the middle ground you will see a girl laying on the floor face down (click to enlarge), this girl would try climbing the little stone pyramid, and then slide down face first over and over again...it was really hilarious to watch her in the background as the woman in the foreground stood perfectly still. Far in the back is the Virgin store, which oddly enough, has a sign that lines up perfectly with one of the panes of glass in the glass pyramid so that it looks like there is a Virgin logo on the pyramid (talk about a good marketing techique, it has to be intentional...):


Afterwards, we met up with Ilir and M.Ali (who were playing soccer) and headed over towards Opera to get something to eat. M.Ali knew this japanese restaurant which turned out to be a pretty chill end for the day:



Another random photo: I was coming out of the metro stop on my way to class, and I wanted to take a photo as people emerged from underground, so I stood on one side of the wall and waited until I heard footsteps and then took this picture.
Problem #1: I was using the SLR. SLRs are loud. Very loud. (the shutter blind slaps open and shut as you hit the button, which is why rangefinders are so much better for this kind of shot).
Problem #2: I didn't hear the old woman coming up the steps, and so when I turned and took the photo, I surprised her senseless.
Problem #3: People don't like surprises. Needless to say she wasn't happy, and demanded to know what I was taking a photo of. I pointed off into the distance, waited for her to turn to see what I was pointing at, and then promptly walked away...lesson learned.

(I'll publish the other half soon)