Some photos from Paris

sbadmin —  10-Apr-2013 @ 15:03

A few weeks ago we went to Paris and battled with somewhat snowy weather. Paris is a beautiful city, full of fascinating architecture and fantastic food. I’ve visited before, one summer during school days, but going at this time of the year was good for seeing a different side to the city.

Eiffel Tower I by Simon Boardman (sboardman)) on 500px.com
Eiffel Tower I by Simon Boardman

March seemed like a good compromise to escape the worst of the winter weather and avoid the crowds of late sping/early summer tourists. Much like Rome there’s lots to photograph, most famously the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe.

We did the usual tourist things, the Louvre, Champs Elysee etc. But my favourite expedition was to the Grande Gallerie de L’Evolution, which is the Natural History Museum complex adjacent to the Botanical Gardens. I’m a biologist by trade and absolutely loved seeing the displays and using my incredibly rusty (and not extensive) French to muddle my way through the various exhibits and marvelling at the range of animals and plants on display. I’ve seen pictures of the gallery before from Trey Ratcliff and knew I wanted to have a go at getting my own shots, but was unsure how the camera would cope without a tripod, because museums are not normally well lit for photos.

Grande Gallerie d'Evolution by Simon Boardman (sboardman)) on 500px.com
Grande Gallerie d’Evolution by Simon Boardman

Fortunately I was able to crank my ISO and try some individual shots, such as the one with the elephant in the gallery below, as well as finding a convenient display case to rest my camera on for a 5 shot HDR, shown above, which came out surprisingly well despite the low light and moving people.

All in all I really enjoyed Paris and the wintry state we found it in, perhaps we’ll make it back one day but for now please enjoy the photos I captured from this adventure.

Paris

 

Eiffel Tower in the Snow
A couple of weeks ago I spent some time in Paris on the tourist trail admiring the fabulous architecture and eating as many pastries as possible. It snowed for the entire second day of our trip, which was very pretty without causing total traffic chaos like we suffer here in the UK. However, I did notice a slight issue with snow when I got home and transferred 4GB of photos into Lightroom.

Snow. On the front element of my wide angle lens.

Now I thought I’d managed to wipe most of it off at several points in the day. But I was sorely mistaken; apparently the inside of my coat sleeve was not sufficient to mop up all the moisture from the glass on my lens. Fortunately the photos aren’t ruined, just not as technically crisp as I’d envisaged them. But they could have been a whole lot better hand I bothered to use my specific lens wiping cloth which I carry in my bag for such an occasion! D’oh.

I’m still going through my post processing, but here’s my favourite shot I grabbed with my phone to bring some visual spectacle to this post and hopfeully whet your appetite for more in the near future!

 

5 Awesome Photographers on Instagram

sboard —  15-Feb-2013 @ 12:27

Instagram has a distinctly polar reputation; its either a great place to showcase what mobile phone photography is capable of, or a repository of over-edited photos of food and cats. I believe the former and think it’s a genuinely neat way to check out photos. It can be quite difficult to find photographers who post consistently high quality work (sometimes they cheat and don’t use phones!) so I have taken the liberty of picking 5 accounts who always come up with the goods.

Chamiltonjames

Charlie Hamilton-James is an award winning British photographer and film maker. His photos are guaranteed to put a smile on your face with stunning wildlife shots or pictures of his beloved dog Dave. His personal website is here.

Kaigner

Karine Aigner is a former National Geographic picture editor and photographer. His stream is a mix of photos raising publicity for ecological and humanitarian causes, plus occasional pet shots! His portfolio is also well worth a visit; link here.

PowerPig

Chris McVeigh (PowerPig) likes lego and is a constant source of great looking model portraiture. Highly recommended if you still love Star Wars!

Rubicantekid

In the same vein, Mike Ruby (Rubicantekid) uses paper figures to provide a microsized commentary on life, often with amusing results.

Gopro

Better known for their pint sized, near-indestructable video cameras, GoPro are your go-to source of epic adventure shots of sun, sea, surf, snow or trails.

So that’s a flavour of some of the best quality photos you’ll find on Instagram, if you’ve got any other awesome accounts I’ve missed share them in the comments! And of course you can follow me as well for photos of food and dogs.