Harold Davis's Blog, page 203

Brasserie Stairs

Across the street from the hotel, a modest brasserie offered simple food and seats to watch the world go by. In the back, these narrow and steep stairs, lined with framed etchings, led to the toilet. This iPhone shot is looking back down towards the main floor and good cheer of the brasserie.

Brasserie Stairs © Harold Davis

La Tour Eiffel

At night, the area under the Eiffel Tower turns into an exciting display of lights, colors and people—as you can see in this iPhone shot of this small carousel in the shadow of the Tour Eiffel, the king of all amusement park rides!

La Tour Eiffel © Harold Davis

Harold Davis Photo Workshop at Giverny

Here we are after a very satisfying session photographing Monet’s famous gardens at Giverny. The happy but tired group is shown sitting on the steps of Claude Monet’s house. Thanks to Marianne Glosenger for shooting this group portrait. Our guide Valerie is shown on the lower left.

On the steps at Giverny © Marianne Glosenger

Parc de Sceaux

Andre Le Notre is the Frederick Law Olmsted of France. Like Olmsted, Le Notre is the essential landscape designer of his country. In Olmsted’s case, much of the inspiration came from park-like wilderness such as Yosemite Valley, while Le Notre’s creations—including the gardens at Versaille, Fountainebleau and the Tuilleries—are formal, and involve long vistas with aisles of sight running to the vanishing point, as well as very regular and symmetrical shapes both small and large.

A lesser-known creation of Le Notre’s is the Parc de Sceaux, shown in the photo. The Parc de Sceaux lies on the periphery of Paris near the bedroom community of Bourg-la-Reine. It is one of Le Notre’s masterpieces.

Parc de Sceaux © Harold Davis

San Sulpice

San Sulpice is a marvelous, unfinished baroque church. It’s a few blocks from the Paris hotel the group is staying in. The interior of this church was in an important scene in Dan Brown’s peculiar but popular book, The Da Vinci Code, which is largely set in Paris. The obelisk shown in this iPhoneograph plays a significant role.

San Sulpice © Harold Davis

I shot my image using my iPhone 5, and processed it using the Lo-Mob and Plastic Bullet apps.

Luxembourg Gardens

I am staying around the corner from the Luxembourg Gardens, a fun place to photograph with its harmonious straight lines of trees and flowers in their springtime bloom. This is an example of iphoneography, shot with my iPhone 5, showing one of the aisles of trees.

Luxembourg Gardens by Harold Davis

I processed it through Lo-Mob and Plastic Bullet while waiting for an appointment with a gallerist here in Paris. The good news is that I’ll be having an exhibit next April here in Paris, of my Botanique work and some monochromatic prints as well.

Opera Garnier

The Opera Garnier in Paris is baroque and magnificent. It’s little used for opera any more as they’ve built a modern opera house, but it does host ballet performances. This is a shot of an ornate reception room. Since tripods are not allowed I put the camera with a fisheye lens on the floor, set the self-timer, ran away, and took my chances, coming back to the camera ten seconds later after the exposure!

Opera Garnier © Harold Davis

City of Light

Paris is often called the “City of Light”—perhaps it should also be called the City of Lights. Plural. As in many. You can see in this photo that everything is lit at night, like a giant playground for adults. But wait! There’s more. Every hour on the hour la Tour Eiffel starts giving off sparks like a giant fireworks candle. Stay tuned, many more photos of Paris to follow.

City of Light © Harold Davis

Beside the Seine

Amazing that one can leave San Francisco and in one day be photographing in Paris! This is a view of the Seine River from the Ile St Louis in the center of Paris.

Quai de Bourbon © Harold Davis

Piggyback Waterdrop

The simple pleasures of waterdrop photography can be entrancing, and there is often ample complexity close to home, as in this composition of a waterdrop on a leaf, piggyback on yet another leaf!

Piggyback Waterdrop © Harold Davis