Thursday, May 17, 2018

Louvre / Below Ground

Everybody has a cell phone which means everybody has a camera which means everybody takes photographs. Cool... especially when there's something to photograph. Photographing yourself with a stick with a landmark in the background and uploading to social media is sorta half cool. Me photographing them photographing themselves and then uploading to a blog is probably only quarter cool. But hey, they were caught in the scene, which in Paris, is inevitable.


 

Paris fast food & fashion

There are hundreds and hundreds of places to get something to eat in/on the Isle de France, not to be confused with the Isle de Citie. A few of those places are American fast food. McDonald's seems to have the most and no I didn't eat in any of them. I did go into one in Oberkampf to check it out. You order and pay at a kiosk and then pick up your order at the counter, so I couldn't just walk up to somebody and say "Un Royale with cheese (avec fromage?) ala Sam Jackson, so what's the point? The menu is not identical to the states, no big surprise. I shot a lot and although all generalizations are false, I 'd have to say Parisiens (large metropolitan areas in general, eh?) seem to care more about their style and appearance and work at looking chic. They also want tasty food and work hard at getting it right and consuming it with style. Which is why McDonald's is something of an outlier. Anyway here's a couple shots of the interior of Mickey D's and a gal getting what looked like some kind of ice cream confection which I would take to be a McFlurry of some kind but who knows? She was tres chic.

 

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Buy mini-Eiffel tower or get your picture drawn / Paris / Louvre gardens area

You can't get far around the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre without being offered a metal replica of the Eiffel Tower in various sizes, the largest of which is quite a weapon. The fellows making the offerings are uniformly African. Falling on one of these could be fatal. Hand drawn portraits are also common.
 

Thursday, May 3, 2018

Livraison Express


Paris Republique candids



Olympus OM-D EM5, 12-50mm, lens flare, Paris Street

Paris streets are clean. You see (& hear) these mini-sweepers everywhere. This is the second shot I took of it, panning right as it passed and of course I got the gal crossing the street from the other direction and liked it better than just the sweeper. I took three cameras with me. They had to fit in a small backpack and I had to be prepared for rain. The OM-D with 12-50mm lens is splash proof and that's why it made the trip as camera #1. For its speed and power, it is also small. I threw in a 20mm f1.7 Lumix pancake for nicer days, such as this one. This shot is from the zoom lens though. I didn't throw in a lens hood to save space and used a haze filter to protect the lens rather than bring the lens cap. Thus the flare you see.



Street shots, Paris




Paris, Creative Parking



Paris, Buses in alleys, #96

So I spent a lot of time working in Public Transit. So I take pictures of buses. Went out on a walk the 2nd day in Paris while Ruth jet-lag recovered. Took camera. Was amazed to see the 96 running in the this alleyway. A couple days later after growing tired of the Metro we began to ride buses. Our favorite became the 96 and yeah rode in this alleyway a lot. Hats off to bus operators in Paris. How they miss the scooters, vans, delivery trucks, etc. that intrude on their space is an amazing thing.

 

Couple candids from the Oberkampf (and a bit south) area.