France, 2014

In the past two years, I've been busy with many things outside photography. In addition, iPernity's blocking over 3,200 of my photos with their new payment policy has left me unsure of what to do with this account. However, I decided this week to return with some more uploads, even if it will lead to some more older material being blocked. Maybe when I run into some more money I can get a paid account in the future, but for the moment this will have to be the way I do things. In any case, this is the Hotel du Louvre in Paris. I had a short vacation in Paris two summers ago, and shot some photos, although not a lot. My Nikon is currently only functional if it's held together with tape, so I took my Zeiss Contina LK and my cameraphone (a new one, actually), and some Tmax 400 film I had received as a gift. I didn't stay at the Hotel du Louvre, but it is actually a tourist attraction in and of itself, as it is billed as Paris's first luxury hotel, opened in the relatively late year of 1887. This surprises me, at least, since Paris has long been a luxury holiday desination, but Britain and the U.S. had luxury hotels far earlier.

I couldn't decide whether to post this shot. The Louvre, being the world's most famous art museum, and home to the world's most famous painting, the Mona Lisa, seems to be a subject that everyone else has done already. In addition, my photo is far from original. Nevertheless, this is now my only photo of the Louvre on iPernity, so why not?

Here's another very common subject, in this case Notre Dame Cathedral. Actually, I've shot photos of Notre Dame before, but at night and in color.

Unlike the photo buildings I photographed in Paris, this one was relatively mysterious to me. I like the way it looks like several buildings jumbled together (which, in fact, is probably what it is), giving a Frank Gehry sort of look. I know nothing about this building otherwise, however, and until I was going through my Paris photos today, I had forgotten I had shot this. Actually, I still don't remember shooting it, although the design of the building was probably why. If anyone has more information, it was be interesting to know.

This is the National Assembly, or parliament, of France. I don't remember the reason I shot this, but most likely I just wanted to photo of the parliament.

I shot this randomly walking in the neighborhood surrounding the Eiffel Tower, which you can see in the distance. The way the city is laid out around the tower is especially impressive, and this shot is unusual in that it appears messier than usual, which is part of the appeal, of course.

During my visit to Paris, I also took a day trip to Versailles, which was my first. The palace was very crowded on the day, and there were long lines in the hot sun, which you can't see here because most of the people were inside the fence. You can see that the lines have been backed out of the fence, though.

Versailles is more than a palace, of course, being surrounded by gardens, plus this pond. This was another random shot that I took, which I though would look good in black and white. In the end, it came out so well (I think), that it is one of the few photos that I haven't post processed at all.