Tag Archives: Paris

Paris Underground

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Paris Underground 001

I took this photo 4 years ago in Paris, France, and I just found this sitting in draft form on my wordpress. (So consider this a #TBT, throwback Thursday.) The composition isn’t superb; the right side is lacking in something interesting, so it makes the image seem a little off-balance. What I really like about it is the timing. I’m impressed I was able to capture the image with with the gap in the train cars framing the fella in the back. I couldn’t tell you exactly what is happening with that dude, but hey, I like it.

I really liked that 20mm lens; it was small and compact, and at f/2.8, pretty dang fast. It does some weird distortions, so it’s not great for architecture or anything with a lot of straight lines, but you can fix some of that in post. But it’s great for discreet photos like this where you want a wide angle without standing out with a huge lens, and you can hand hold these slower shutter speeds without too much visible camera shake.

International Travel: jletookthis Trip to Europe 2011: Poland, France, & England

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My first real trip to Europe, consisted of 5 days in Warsaw, Poland, 3 days in Paris, France, and 5 days in Cambridge, England.

Eurotrip 2011: Poland, France, England from Justin Le on Vimeo.
(Watch it on Vimeo for the HD version…)

I left Detroit, MI on 10/28/11 and returned on 11/11/11. Midway through my trip, as I was scrolling through my pictures on the LCD of my D700, the thought occurred to me that it could be neat to make slideshow out of all the photos. This way, I don’t have to spend hours, days, or weeks going through my photos before I feel like I can show them to people, and can share them immediately.

Obviously, for my fragile ego’s sake, I have to mention these are all un-edited and unprocessed. Therefore, I make no guarantees as to the actual quality or content of these photos individually, but together, it seemed pretty nice. These are all the photos from my memory cards. 1511 photos, which was about 20 GB of space, all crammed into 8 minutes. I imported these photos into Adobe Lightroom 3, converting from .NEF to .DNG, with a basic preset which slightly adjusts the clarity and the tone curve. Once imported, I did a batch export to .jpeg, resizing the image height to 720px (maintaining the 3:2 aspect ratio), and then brought them into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 as numbered stills. Added title screen and credit screen, slowed the speed to 12%, and added music. Song selection was based on what I was listening to on my iPhone while traveling, and has no real relevant meaning, aside from any subconscious reasons that I’m unaware of.

As this was my first time doing anything of this sort, and using Premiere Pro even, please forgive the basic-ness of this vid.

Things you’ll see in this video:

Poland (Warsaw):

– Tenderheart Care Bear, Shark Attack, & Waldo (aka Wally in Europe).  Halloween isn’t celebrated in Europe like it is in the States, so the Americans in Poland celebrated it twice.
– Assistant Coach Katz
– Old Town Market Place
– All Saints Day at the Cemetary

France (Paris):

– The Opera
– St. Germain des Pres area (I guess the French love the rapper, Jermaine Dupree)
– Eiffel Tower (La Tour Eiffel)
– The Champs-Elysees Avenue
– Arc de Triomphe
–  National Residence of the Invalids (Hotel Des Invalides)
– Moulin Rouge
– The Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Le Sacre-Coeur MontMartre)
– Place de la Concorde (including the Fontaines de la Concorde & the Obelisque de Louxor)
– Jardin des Tuileries
–  Love Locks on Pont des Arts
–  Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel
– The Louvre
– The Notre Dame

England (Cambridge):

– Thien & Stephen’s new pad
– Jesus Green
– King’s College
– Clare College
– Saint Catharine’s College
– Great St. Mary’s Church
– Our Lady & The English Martyrs Curch
Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoyed it.

Camera Gear: Nikon D700, Nikon 20mm f/2.8, Nikon 50 mm f/1.4D, Nikon 85mm f/1.4D, Sigma 24-60mm f/2.8. Video created on my Dell XPS 15.

Any other questions, let me know. Thanks!