Mona Lisa , Smile! - Parisian Getaway ~ Day Two

Hey Surfers,

Editing this post has been a nightmare as I've managed to injure the wrist on my right hand! I've had to do everything left handed which has been a struggle...but its all done :)

Today I'm featuring pictures from the second day of my trip to Paris; it was the only full day we had out there so I made sure to pack a lot in.

 After a quick breakfast, which we shared with this arty giraffe, we went on another Metro adventure to The Louvre Museum, I think, from the title, you can guess what we saw there ;)

Below are pictures of the famous glass pyramid and surrounding buildings. I was completely blown away by the intricacy of the architecture and took more pictures than I can count.

After queuing up and getting our tickets we went to see what the Louvre website calls their "three famous ladies" : The Winged Victory of Samothrace, The Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. I have to admit I am a big fan of museums, it amazes me that all of these things survive for so long, and that the people who made them probably had no idea of how significant they would be.

Part of me still can't believe I saw the Mona Lisa in person. There were many people surrounding the painting but black ropes and security guards kept anyone from getting too close. Thank goodness for zoom lenses! I was stood slightly at an angle but right at the front so managed to get some really good pictures.

 The Winged Victory of Samothrace

I don't know much (if anything) about this statue but thought it was really striking. I find myself wondering what happened to her head.

Another famous piece, the Venus di Milo.

Some of the gold ceilings

  After a good few hours in the museum we decided to move on to our next destination:
                                                                           The Eiffel Tower!

When I went to Paris as a child I didn't venture up this imposing landmark, but this time around I was determined to go right to the top!  After a surprisingly short wait we explored the first floor and made our way up to the peak.

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower.

I had to poke my camera lens, and later my Ipod and phone, through the fencing to get any clear shots. I have to admit I had a few premonitions of all of them being lost over the edge, haha!

half panoramic view, from inside.

The glass floor on the Tower

The weather was getting progressively colder as the sun was beginning to set. But, as the sun set, the lights of the tower were lit. It was mesmerizing.

After stopping every few feet to take a picture the bitter wind, and our skipping lunch, made us decide to look for somewhere to have a truly Parisian dinner. After trying a few places we found a nice cafe not too far away. The staff were lovely and the food was delicious; the pasta there has ruined all other pasta dishes for me...forever. We were able to warm up with a cup of coffee and relax for a little while whilst enjoying where we were. 

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 For desert we popped into a little bakery down the road and picked up some cake to have back at the hotel. I did toy with the idea of seeing the Arch de Triomph but it was almost painfully cold so we headed home.

The square near the restaurant 

We were exhausted by the time we reached the hotel and it was blissful to relax with a warm cup of coffee, and free wifi.

Hope you enjoyed this post, I'll be back next week with the final day of the trip. I'm heading to the Christmas Sales tomorrow, wish me luck!

Love Lily

X

Papping Paris : Parisian Getaway ~ Day One

Bonjour Surfers!

I have recently returned from a three day trip to Paris for my birthday! I made sure to take my camera with me to capture all of the stunning sights that the city has to offer. I managed to take over 400 photographs...so have decided to only chose and edit the pictures I feel came out the best, though I will still be splitting the trip up over three posts so the blog will be regular again! One of my New Year's resolutions will be to get back to weekly posts.

Just outside our hotel

I was joined on this trip by my lovely mother; I mean the woman did give birth to me so who better to spend a birthday with, haha!

We had an early start (4.00am) and hopped on the Eurostar for our two hour train journey before finally arriving. I managed to get us thoroughly lost on the way to the hotel but we found it eventually, even if we were frozen and damp... After happily abandoning our suitcases and warming up with a coffee, we headed out to to Notre Dame.

Photographing the catherdral threw up SO many issues. There was an army of people who were determined to ruin every picture I attempted, also, as it is December there was very limited lighting. But where there's a challenge there is a chance for some fun and I think the pictures turned out quite well; even if I did have to lean on my Photoshop skills a little.

  The interior of Notre Dame is lit by beautiful hanging chandeliers and candles, as well as the light which filters through the famous stained glass windows. 

They made entire cathedral glow.

One of the most beautiful features of the building, and probably the most famous, are the circular rose windows. It took a few shots to get the lighting right but I think I managed to capture at least some of the beauty of these masterpieces.

Exterior rose window

Streets of Paris overlooked by the gargoyles of Notre Dame 

I, of course, had to make a trip up the famous towers of Notre Dame. After climbing what seemed to be a thousand steps which threatened to throw me back down at any minute (and making a mental note to start going back to the gym) I reached the first floor of the tower and was able to enjoy the panoramic views of the city.

Paris from the towers of Notre Dame

 If you look carefully in the above picture you can see the Sacre-Coeur. The picture came out kinda basic so I let myself have a bit of fun with the editing.

I have to say, while the views were amazing, what I liked the most were the grotesques. They were definitely a sight worth seeing!

The Grotesque watches over a misty Eiffel Tower

After climbing a second flight of stairs for more pictures I ventured back down to that we could head to our next destination: The Grande Mosque of Paris!

By the time we reached the Mosque night had completely fallen and my pictures of the striking minoret did not come out at all. I didn't have a tripod with me so knew that getting any blur free pictures in such low light would be damn near impossible but I had to get some shots of the majestic gardens. The only image to come out well is above, and even then it was so dark I had to resort to some heavy photoshopping.


This is the final image of one of the rooms in the Grande Mosque. All of the walls were tiled with mosiacs and surrounded this amazing marble (at least I think it was) room.

By this time it was so cold that we had to leave but not before stopping nearby for some delicious, albeit not Parisian, food at a little restaurant near the hotel.

Hope you liked this post, Surfers. I'll be back next week with pictures from Day Two!

Took even more pictures that day...

Until next week!

Lily

I hope you like the new look. I think it's much more chic now ;)

Also check out this awesome blog written by a good friend of mine ( I know, all of my friends are bloggers too!) Their wall stickers are amazing, as is the blog!

http://www.stickerscape.co.uk/blog/latest

"Hump day treat" - Having fun with Photoshop

Happy hump day Surfers!
(We're over the hump of mid week!) Also, I hope you all got the "Mean Girls" reference there.

It's been a while and I have failed miserably in terms of photography, so I had a look through my memory card before it was formatted and found a few pictures which had the potential to be quite interesting; they just needed a little help. I had a play about with Photoshop and turned out some pretty decent images (in my opinion at least!) I've included the original photographs so that you can see just how much has been changed.

Now I don't pretend to be an expert with Photoshop, I used some preset effects which are on the program then made some adjustments and added a few bits, but hey, I'm still learning.

Before

These are some shots I took back in the summer in the orchard. I was actually trying to learn about focus points when doing this and the original picture is pretty basic; however with some contrast changes and a lens flare to imitate the sun it has ended up being quite a pretty picture.

This image has actually inspired me to take some more conceptual photographs, I just need to find myself some willing models! Haha.

Before

After

This final image is one I am quite proud of; it was taken on one of the last times I was in London. 

When I first purchased Photoshop I wanted to see how much it could do so, after watching some Youtube tutorials, I had a go with some real photo manipulation and ended up with this :) I know you can still see the reflections of the buildings in the water but we'll work on it.

Hope you enjoyed this mini post. I'll be back when I have persuaded some of my friends to stay still long enough for a picture!

Have a good rest of the week.

Love E

Don't forget to check out the blogs which have links at the top of my page! They post much more regularly than I! 

x

Big lenses and Jellybeans

Hey Surfers,

I am finally back with a new blog post! Sorry about the delay, I have have completely stumped for ideas to post so my cameras have been being neglected.

Luckily, one of my colleagues in the office recently lent me a 55-300 mm zoom lens to try out with my DSLR. I was quizzing them about whether I should purchase one of these lenses myself, as I only own a 18-55 mm, and they very kindly offered to lend me their Tamron Zoom lens for a week so I could decide if I really wanted to invest.

Of course I had to take advantage of this new piece of equipment and write up a long overdue blog post!

Comparison of lenses 

The lens felt enormous as I was used to my much smaller 18-55 but I was excited to try it out. One of the reasons I wanted to pick up a zoom lens was due to the harvest moon which was out recently. It was so beautiful and many photographers around the country got amazing pictures; however my little lens couldn't cope and I got terrible shots. After being lent the Tamron  the moon was beginning to wane but I did manage to get the below image.

Waning Harvest Moon

After getting a picture like this I was looking forward to testing the lens out again but the week got away from me and before I knew it I had almost no time left with it! I had honestly given up being able to try it out properly...however, on the way home from work today, I was demolishing some jelly beans when I came across one which had an interesting shape. I was just going to take a silly picture for Instagram but, after getting an image on my phone, I remembered that my colleague had told me that this particular lens had a macro mode. A few minutes later I had set up my camera and tripod and snapped this"delicious" (forgive the pun) picture.

Cat beans

I wanted to try more macro shots so grabbed a packet of colouring pencils left over from my cousin's second birthday party and, after tying them up with my hair band out of fury, got these images.

I really love the soft blur in these images. I had never been able to manipulate the focus so easily with my other lens and it was something which used to drive me crazy! Below is a "behind the scenes" picture taken with my phone so you are able to see the set up and distance I had to use to get these shots.

Now that autumn is rolling in it is getting darker much earlier but I wanted to try out the zoom capabilities again so went into the back garden to try and find something to shoot. I had intended to capture the Red Kites and wild rabbits which live around my house but they were nowhere to be found so I had to make do with what was nearby. Enjoy.

I was using manual mode for this shot but it came out much too light so I have had to use Photoshop to correct the image.

Now for the final image

This last picture, whilst showcasing the Tamron's fantastic zoom capabilities, I found quite boring so

I had some fun with the effects on Photoshop. The field in the picture is actually quite large and from where I stood the cows were pinpricks.

My final opinion on the Tamron lens is this: I was very impressed with all of its capabilities, however without a tripod and self timer on your camera it is incredibly easy to blur these images (which my colleague did warn me about).

 I'm a little undecided if I will be purchasing a 55-300 mm zoom as my next lens as part of me would like even greater zoom functionality, though the price does then sky rocket. The lens I have been looking at (which is a 55-300 mm) is just under £150.00. It may well be a case of getting a smaller  lens and becoming more adept with this type of photography before moving on to something with telescopic capabilities XD

Anyway, thanks for reading, Surfers. I'll be back the next time inspiration strikes; sorry that I can no longer promise weekly posts.

Enjoy your weekends!

Love E