Sun setting behind the Castle of Sceaux

If I don’t have the time to go and shoot, at least I can retouch some old photos I took and publish them. This picture of the castle in parc de Sceaux was sitting on my computer for a long time, almost 3 years to be precise. I liked the picture and the tones but there’s a bit of blur that I didn’t like. But I took it through Topaz and edited it a bit so those errors aren’t too visible.

Parc de Sceaux is located a few kilometers south of Paris, it’s a very French parc with great sculptured hedges and a fantastic lawn that extends into the horizon. I shot that lawn a while back in my early “high HDR” period, which you can find here. In fact I have a few HDR pictures of Sceaux, because I just love that place.

The castle is a moderate sized castle built of bricks and stone with a similar architecture to Place des Vosges. Stefano Pinci a good friend and great Italian photographer shot Place des Vosges in HDR here if you want to compare them.

Again it’s a “dead center” photo which goes against many “rules” in photography, but hey after all I’ll do it my way wont I.  It’s an HDR photo but I tried not to go too far with the HDR. Yes it’s very saturated and the street seems unnatural, but in reality the street is like that as it’s grey/blue gravel and I took this in the blue hour of sunset. The sun was already below the horizon setting behind the castle as you can see in the sky.

If you’re going to Paris and want to get out of the city for a second (and you’re not going to Versailles) then I suggest you go to Sceaux it’s a magnificent little city which mainly consists of a huge parc and it’s castle and they often have photo exhibitions or other art exhibitions in the gardens.

That night when I shot this photo the parc staff were busy getting everyone out so I had to kind of hurry, the wind was blowing more than usual and I didn’t think it would affect my tripod until I got home and processed the photo where I noticed the camera had moved causing that slight blur.

So the HDR photography tip of the day is:

If there’s wind, don’t hesitate to add weight to your tripod to stabilize it. If you don’t feel that you can keep the tripod steady with your hand (and I don’t advise it) then attach your camera bag and gear under the tripod. And if you can’t do any of those then you’ll have to increase the ISO and clean up the noise in post production.

Voila enjoy it and if you do enjoy it, hit the share buttons below. Thanks to you all for reading all of this

An HDR photo of Berlin seen from Alexander Platz

I just got back from Berlin, was there for work reasons and didn’t do any shooting this time. But last time I was there with the family I took a few pics and I figured now is a great time to share one of them.

I took this shot handheld from the restaurant at the top of Galeria Kaufhof on Alexander Platz in Berlin. It’s an HDR photo of three shots that I edited in Lightroom, Photomatix and Topaz. Technically the shot isn’t quite right since it’s blurry and has some window reflections as I was inside when I shot it. However it’s more of an artistic shot than a technical shot.

As I was grabbing a bite up on the top floor of the shopping mall it was hailing and the dark clouds were over us. However the sun was still shining through on the horizon and it really looked like the smoke of a fire.

I tried to replicate that feeling with the shot and hope I managed to show a bit of that.

True this photo is obviously edited and rather unnatural but I like it.

Berlin is a bit of a magical city to me, it’s got an energy that one doesn’t find in most European cities one of a place that’s on the move. Constantly evolving and creating new ideas and while I’ve not yet found “the perfect photo” of Berlin, I’ll keep trying and maybe one day I’ll get it just perfect.

Meanwhile you can see my Berlin photos here: http://martinsoler.com/category/berlin/

Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors) of Versailles in HDR

The Hall of Mirrors or as the French call it Galerie des Glaces of Versailles castle in HDR.

A few weeks ago I returned to Versailles with the family who had flown in from abroad and of course Versailles is always on the list of things to see. So for the second time in 2011 I was back in what I jokingly call the summit of extravagance. This castle is amazing, it is amazing in a movie, in a fairy tale in a book and in real-life its all more so. The gilding from top to toe, the velvet, the marble just everything is in there.

Now that doesn’t make it a fantastic subject for photography for a few reasons, not the least of which is the massive amount of tourists. The other reason is that the castle is just so absolutely huge that it’s never easy to find an interesting angle that fills the shot. But that said, I had been there and shot the halls of Versailles earlier that year so I was prepared for those problems. This time I took a wider lens with me.

I wanted to shoot the hall of mirrors a few times before but never could get it right due to the hundreds of people that are normally standing around taking it all in. This time I decided I would get it, and so with a lot of patience (and a few evil looks) I managed to get this shot with not too many tourists in the picture.

I shot it in HDR but handheld since I don’t think they allow tripods (they don’t allow much and babies have to be carried), but recently most of my HDR photos have been without tripod so I figured I could make it work. The picture was retouched in Lightroom, Photoshop, Topaz and then back to Lightroom and I’m quite happy with the results.

It is a very busy photo, but then again the decor, paintings, sculptures, gilding, chandeliers and all the rest make this a very busy sight. So its only as busy as the real thing. It feels a bit surreal, but that is how the place is – surreal. The picture is best enjoyed in highres so I’ve included a link to the highres hdr photo.

HDR Photography Tip for Versailles

1. Impose your presence, I know it sounds rude but the place has some 5 million visitors every year (that’s about 14,000 a day) so if you’re not making a stand for your spot and your picture you might as well just follow the crowd and get lots of head-shots (from the back).

2. Talk to the guards and ask them to help you on a shot, I borrowed the guards stool as a make-shift tripod for one picture and he was only too happy to help me out. But be polite with them, realize you’re one in 14 thousand and they’ll get paid even if you don’t get the shot. Never start with “Excuse me” but rather with “Monsieur, Madame or Mademoiselle” that’ll get you a long way.

3. Try to get other tourists to help you by standing still (and block the passage for the others) while you take your shot. And of course thank them for it.

4. Don’t worry too much about high ISOs, Versailles’ decoration is “noisy” so you can always fix it afterwards.

Sunrise in Chantilly, Christmas wishes from Martin Soler

Wishing all my friends, readers, stumblers and everyone else a very very Merry Christmas and the best new year ever.

While I haven’t been extremely busy as a photographer in 2012 both in quantity and quality it’s been a fantastic year. I became father to a most incredible son in March when Damon was born and while I dreaded the sleepless nights and all the hubbub that comes with a baby I can say I’ve been enjoying it. There is no feeling like the “thank you” from one’s baby after waking up at night to comfort him. The sigh of relief when he can go back to sleep is enough reward for me.

At wihphotel.com we’ve had an incredible year in a fantastic team and it’s only getting better. Helping independent hoteliers make 2011 a better year than the years before has been a blast. There’s nothing like going back to a customer and showing them the results to their investments and seeing how happy they get when they’ve bumped up their numbers above their expectancy.

As a photographer I’ve lagged a bit behind though, all those projects had a toll on my photography but OK something had to give and better that than the other two. Hoping to make a better year of that in 2012.

Speaking of photography I thought it would be fun to check out what are my most viewed photos of 2011, so I went to check some stats, results were surprising, not at all what I expected, but the stats are the stats and I’ll share those here:

1. Damon Benjamin Soler, born 29 March 2011
2. Street Photography in Paris near Pont Neuf
3. Paris Panorama in HDR
4. Water Drop Photography
5. Down Stairs of Montmartre
6. Heaven or Hell? HDR image in Mulhouse
7. HDR image of Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
8. Decrepit old room
9. Le Boheme a Montmartre – a street photo of Paris
10. Jazz photo by Notre Dame, Paris

Well if you ask my my top ten photos should have been the following taken from the oldest to the newest and not in sequence of how much I like them:

1. La route pour Versailles
2. London City Hall and Tower Bridge
3. Arc de Triomphe a Parisian photography classic
4. Fireworks and the Eiffel Tower, Paris HDR
5. Jazz photo by Notre Dame, Paris
6. Heaven or Hell? HDR image in Mulhouse
7. An HDR photo from Branitz Parc in Cottbus Germany
8. Turn to the Tree
9. HDR image of Chateau Vaux le Vicomte
10. The Lights of Paris

But as they say in France “Des goûts et des couleurs, on ne discute pas.” which would translate into English with something like “One doesn’t discuss taste and colors” and that’s something any artist needs to live with, what they think is great may not seem great for someone else.

Well to round off the year I really want to thank all the people that have stopped by my site, all the people I’ve had a chance to connect with through the comments, through the many different social media and all those great people I was lucky to meet in person. You’ve made 2011 a great year and I’m looking forward to meeting you all again in 2012.

Finally got out to take some pictures again. Lately I must be starting all my posts like that. Well after complaining to myself this weekend that I’m not taking enough photos, I got my act together and went out to look (because there’s always a great photo if one looks enough).

The street lights of Paris are something to behold. I’m always impressed by their beauty, Paris is often referred to as the city of light, for many reasons but one of which is that it was an early adopter of the street light. By coincidence the first street lights adopted in Paris were not far from where I shot this photo (around the Louvre area).

After a day of walking around and being a tour guide for family we arrived at Place de la Concorde and the sky was slowly clearing up as the sun was setting. Got this shot of the lights with the sun behind the lights shining through the matte glass but not enough to burn out the image.

Moments like these one enjoys HDR most, thanks to HDR I could get the sky, the lamps and the background without too much over exposure nor under exposure. I try to take it easy on the HDR as I don’t like the bizarre look it gives which I find all too frequent out there. But we all start like that and that’s OK.

I took another photo from Place de la Concorde which is also HDR, this one is of the Obelisk in the center of the square, I find it less interesting so for the moment I have only posted it on Google+ you can find it here and while you’re there, you might as well follow connect up.

Photography Tip of the day:

Think of HDR as a means to an end, not as a style of it’s own. I shoot almost everything with bracketing these days even when I’m going hand held (aside from portraits) just because I know I can then go back and with HDR techniques I can get all the levels and make a decent shot. That doesn’t mean I’m going to make an over-saturated image.

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Sunrise in the mist of Chantilly Forest

Chantilly is a few kilometers north of Paris, it’s got a large forest and plenty of nature. In addition to a few luxury hotels and resorts. Last weekend I took my wife and son to the Hotel Mont Royal, a castle in the middle of the forest that has been turned into an amazing hotel. We got lucky on the weather (like most Europeans) and had an amazing time all together. My son went for his first swim in a pool and we celebrated his 6th month.

As I haven’t been shooting for a while I thought it’s time to get out there again and use this relaxing weekend to get out and shoot. I thought the hotel/castle would be a great subject to shoot but it turned out not. I just couldn’t get the lights, sunset and cars to align so I skipped that.

This morning as we woke up my wife pointed out the window to show me the mist between the trees which looked spectacular. So I grabbed the camera and tripod and went to the roof terrace of the chateau to find a good angle. As the hotel is built on a small hill the view over the forest is spectacular, it’s quite different to look at a forest from the top and not from the bottom.

So I managed to capture this great sunrise over the forest of Chantilly. The photo here is not HDR, I shot it in HDR but I prefer this version as it’s more natural on the sun. But the HDR version is slightly warmer. I posted the HDR one here: Sunrise in Chantilly HDR and I’ll let you judge for yourself.

The photo isn’t exactly straight out of the box, I changed the white balance to give it the blueish look which I like. Otherwise it looks as if I had put a yellow filter on the whole thing and I’m not a big fan of that. In my mind a sunrise in the forest is chilly and so I feel like a blue tint is right. And you’re welcome to disagree with me on that as this is totally subjective.

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Waiting for the metro

Sleeping in the Metro, a Paris street photo I took some time ago. This gentleman was waiting for his metro, which took a while to come. Not even so sure he didnt miss a couple before he realized what was happening.

To me photography is a passion, it’s about capturing moments that and conveying emotions. Aside from HDR which is all about strong emotions (and incidentally why I love it) street photos are another great way of capturing special moments. There are masters of the art, they just know how to be at the right place at the right time and take it. They probably also have the nerve to stand up in front of strangers and that a great photo.

I don’t pretend to have any of the above, as to street photos, I am still a bit of a luck photographer. Even though I sometimes go out and tell myself not to return until I have a whole bunch of street shots, only a few of them make it out of my hard-disk.

It was taken in Paris subway system at the station called Luxembourg (I guess you figured that out) I took it the same day as I took this photo “Looking back“.

Street Photography tip

Subways are great places for street photo. Especially outside of rush hours (as you’ll have more space) and just sitting on the opposite side with a decent zoom you’ll get lots of great pics. When in Paris look especially for RER stations because people are travelling longer and that tends to show in their behavior. It’s also easier for the non-pro as you’ll have more time to adjust for your shot.

For the pros well I’d say metros are great. But if you’re a pro you hardly need a tip

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Bored in a museum. Street photo

Visiting a museum can be fun, it can be exciting, but for these guys it was boring – and extremely much so.

Street photos generally have little text to them so I’ll let you imagine the words that go with this photo.

All I’ll say is that about the dodgy quality, yes I know it’s shaky, it’s not tack sharp, it’s lots of things far from a perfect shot. But what I like about this shot is moment it captures, I tried to re-shoot it at the time but the couple got up and left. So this is street photo at it’s best. Capturing a unique moment of emotion that will probably not repeat itself again. To me that’s what street photography is all about.

I admire those that do it well, and I attempt to do it as good as them.

This was taken in the Victoria and Albert museum in London a while ago but I just never posted it because it’s blurry, now looking over it again I think it’s worth posting blurry or not.

Street Photography Tip

If you don’t know what you’re going into then put your camera on automatic. Otherwise try to keep setting like this Aperture 5.6, Iso 400 outside 800 inside and put it on aperture mode. Then of course keep your lens-cap off and have your camera out of it’s bag. If you’re going to be in dark spaces well then pump up the iso and try to recover the noise with a noise removal software.

Street shots are from the hip, they’ve got to be quick and you need to be in-your-face about it.

An old car in Montrouge, Paris

I realized I haven’t been shooting much lately when I opened my Lightroom to work on my next photo and saw that aside from a gazillion photos of Damon (my son) there just wasn’t much I wanted to post. Like most new fathers, we’re showing our kids to everyone we meet and I figured that most of the readers of my blog would soon ban my blog if I started posting all the baby photos I have.

But I decided that I would go through some old archives and look around for some of my old shots to see if there was something I could work on and use. I found this photo of an old car in Paris suburb called Montrouge. If I am not mistaken this is a Morgan +4, a pretty photogenic car from the 60s.

The photo was taken in May 2009 with my first DSLR which was a Canon 500D at a car show they were doing in the city. The street was lined with Ferraris and lots of other great cars. I shot quite a few of them but they just didn’t turn out that great due to the background which didn’t really look that good with a Ferrari but on the other hand fits well with an old car like this.

Well this little experience made me realize how much I need to start going to shoot again, however, taking care of my son has stepped up on the priority list and I think nobody will be upset about that.

About the photo: It’s not an HDR, I post-processed it in Lightroom and de-saturated it quite a lot, then took it over to Topaz and enhanced the details a bit to give it a more grainy look and voila.

Photo tip of the day

A car is only as photogenic as the background makes it, so look at what you have behind and find the right car or background for yours. A car meetup can be a great opportunity but remember the backgrounds.

Damon Benjamin Soler, born 29 March 2011

For a while now I have been talking about my son and how I have not put that much time on my photography and other projects. As a photographer I would not hesitate too much to take photos of unknown people and publish them. Just like Farris Smith playing Jazz in Paris or some of the other street photos I took. But taking a photo of my own son, or wife or a great friend is a whole other matter. Now those photos need to be perfect.

And I am still a long shot from having a perfect photo of Damon. I keep looking at Anne Geddes photos and wonder how in the world she does it. Get the baby in the cutest positions and take a perfectly well lit image it’s quite an art.

Yesterday as it was getting really hot in Paris (see my tweet on that) and Damon wasn’t going to be wearing any pyjamas, I took this photo of him on our bed. It’s pretty good, but it’s not perfect. However it’s straight out of the box, only work done on it is a crop.

The light source is pretty good, it’s a large window on his right facing east so no direct sunlight in the evening in a very dark room. It’s a little under-exposed on the left, but I actually quite like that so am keeping it that way.

Voila world, here is Damon he was born in Paris on March 29th, 2011 and is celebrating his three month birthday very shortly. A big step for him and a big step for us. We’re happy to have him in our family and he seems just as happy to be there.

Photo Tip:

Babies are cutest when they are sleeping. Try and shoot when they are sleeping and you’ll get some amazing images.