gallery days

Alright, yesterday Brandice and I went to the Musée D'Orsay. The Musée D'Orsay holds pieces from 1849 to 1914. For the first time I really enjoyed walking around a large building looking at art on the walls and sculptures on columns. I have decided that I like Van Gogh, Manet, Jean-Leon Gérome, Caillebotte and Pissarro... I also realised that I really enjoy landscapes and do not enjoy portraits at all. Basically take what Brandice likes and dislikes and just reverse it... she has bad taste... Not really but sort of

After we went to the D'Orsay we made our way down the river to Napoleon's tomb. It's what you would expect a great leader to have as his tomb; large ceilings, beautiful stained glass and large marble everything. We went there after the sun had set so everything was slightly eery. Apparently it's illegal to either take photos or use a tripod in the tomb because the security guard came up to me and told me to put my tripod away and said I could get a 300 euro fine if the Gendarmerie were to pass by... this was after I took a bunch of photos using the tripod, strange. I think there might actually be a law against using a tripod in there because right after visiting Napoleon we went into the army museum which is in the same building and we were told not to use the tripod in the museum... Does that mean it's illegal to take crisp photos? Bullshit

Today we went to the Louvre. To be honest, I expected a lot more from such a hyped up gallery. I will never say the Louvre was a bad time, I will only say that is was intense; imagine taking in thousands of pieces of the same or similar nature in a span of 6 hours. Either way I had fun and I will probably go back before this trip is over.

At both galleries we were allowed to bring cameras in, I brought mine both days and have many awesome photos... I will upload them when I feel the urge.

late November?

I don't know how it happened but somehow it's already November 23rd. It's nice that we haven't seen any snow yet.

I've been in contact with my good friends the Michalchuks from their home in Calgary and it sounds like everything is off to a good start in the Canadian Rockies. Some of the resorts are already open and some of the more anticipated openings are only a couple weeks away. Probably the one thing I miss the most so far besides family, friends and great food is a solid mountain session with the Bros and the Winnipeg crew.

A few nights ago Ryan, Brandice and I went out to tour the Champs Élysées area and visit it's many high end shops. We found some seriously cool stores like a giant Nike store and a Citroën display room. For those not familiar with the Euro car scene, Citroën is a french car manufacturer. We also saw a Lamborghini shop which we will be exploring later this week. Some of the other neat shops we saw were all high end clothing stores that you probably couldn't step into unless you were wearing Armani head to toe. That evening was the first time that we got to fully experience Les Champs Élysées the way it should be experienced; all the trees along the way were decked with beautiful white-ish blue lights for as far as the eye could see. We are experienced. We were in full exploration mode that evening which is what brought us to a building that assisted us in a view to remember forever. We went up to the roof of a building just off Champs Élysées and discovered the Eiffel Tower only a dozen blocks away doing its strobe light display, it was glorious.

Yesterday evening Brandice and I went to the Père Lachaise cemetery to visit Jim Morrison and hopefully take a few photos. Sadly, we arrived at the cemetery just in time for the clouds to roll in and take away our lighting. We visited Jim and left. We were cold so we went to a nearby coffee shop to enjoy a café au lait, it was the best coffee I've had so far on this trip. If my memory serves me correctly I think that was the night that Brandice, Ryan and I went out to Notre Dame to grab some quick photos and ended up at Hôtel de Ville where those two got a sweet Lion photo shoot session... photo:

genetically modified super peppers from France

This is a view from our ''balcony'' with an HDR touch

Part 2 (of a rad series)

Brandice and I went out shooting last night for the first time... i guess since we left Winnipeg. She finally got her camera working.

Here are some:

photographic adventure 1 (beginning of a rad series)

Here is the beginning of a series... These images are all compiled of 5 photos thrown together through a magical program... they are not fake even though they may look it. HDR technology is great, it allows you to view an image in a way the human eye would view the same scene in a live setting... it picks up the highs and lows of every feature giving you this:

steady hand tripod (3 photos)

Notre Dame fountain

the world's most beautiful tree... Notre Dame park

the most awkward window of all time just across the way from our apartment

...things get strange with high dynamic range

Last night I went to "La Défense" last night via the M1 metro just around sundown...


I also figured out a new digital photo technique called HDR rendering. What you do is take 3 shots (or more) of whatever you want as long as the camera doesn't move during the sequence (via tripod or non-shakesters). Photo 1 should be perfectly exposed, photo 2 should be under-exposed and photo 3 should be over-exposed. You can also use a single shot and over/under expose it in photoshop lightroom, however this method is not as legit as the other and does not produce the same results. Once the photos are uploaded on the computer you go to town and come out with this:

This first photo is done with the first method mentioned...
the following photos were done using the lightroom method.

we need to see some light

Sheen and I are chatting with each other and we're in the same room

someone save us



how come no one emails me back? show some love

never expect to be sure

So it's Saturday, I didn't even realize it but yesterday was Friday... the best day of the week.

Sheen and I started off the day properly today... well, for Sheen it was the beginning of the day. I already went out to send some postcards to some family members and I picked up some coffee filters. When I returned Sheen crawled out of bed and I made us a stellar Perkin's style breakfast. It was about 4:30 pm, haha... any objections?



Here's a photo of Brandice showing her love for pineapples from a photo shoot that we had last week:

cool

how about some fun

It wasn't intentional to channel Bob Dylan but lately many people have been talking about it.

have a laugh at my expense:



Freewheelin is how i would describe my life right now anyways so whatever

Marseille and back again

So if you don't know I went to Marseille on the evening of the 9th of November. I spent the first night in the Marseille airport and it was terrible... somehow I slept in on an airport bench...? That day was my birthday... the 10th. I skated the magical Marseille bowl for a couple of hours that day and then explored the city for the remainder of the daylight. That evening I found out that Marseille should never be explored during the night; just looking down some streets scared the french out of me. To finish off the day I went and saw the new 007 flick in french, it was alright... but not really.

The next day was spent exploring; I found out first hand that Marseille is an extremely dirty city... please note the photo of the old man navigating his way through the depths of cardboard boxes. That evening I picked up a bottled of wine and enjoyed it all by my lonesome in my sweet personal hostel room. Note the photo of me enjoying the mandarin orange.

I am extremely excited about the mandarin orange season that is upon us. Everyone get their citrus on.

That brings me to the 12th of November... This day is my dad's birthday, for those who don't know him, he is awesome.

I planned on waking up early and skating the bowl again today but it ended up raining. I still woke up early and went down to the park to take some photos... It cleared up a bit but the bowl was still wet, I didn't dare skating it in fear of breakin ma neck... see photo below.

After the photo session I was scared away from the bowl by a bunch of shitty french girls making sounds that should be illegal. I took a bus to the metro stop and then made it to the main train station where the airport shuttle leaves from. I was supposed to fly home the next day but I decided I didn't feel like getting cozy in the airport for another 12 hours... so I took the next train to Paris. The train left withing an hour and it was awesome; I got to see a glorious sunset over the beautiful country of France and an epic castle placed atop a hill on the corner of a little river. Best 75 euros I ever spent.

It's nice to be back home. It was especially nice to come back a day early even though it sometimes seems like there isn't much to do here in Paris.

hippie street, Marseille

looking out my hostel room window into a scary Marseille street

It's that time of year again everyone... get your mandarin on

a terribly narrow and never-ending downhill metro walk

you could almost swim in the cardboard... it wasn't this bad everywhere but it wasn't good

I enjoy movement

des coques dans un parc!

this guy wasn't as cool as he looks

through the unwashed train window

thursday november 6th 2008

Today I didn't feel like blogging

Wednesday November 5th 2008

Perfect:

bitchin

(knob)