Ian Bramham's Photoblog
Montmartre just before Dawn
Posted by Ian Bramham (Manchester, United Kingdom) on 6 January 2008 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.
Another photo taken during my recent trip to Paris....this is the view from the top of Montmartre just before dawn looking back toward the city centre.
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Links to the websites of other photographers whose work I love and who have all helped me enormously over a long period of time. I find the work of all 3 to be inspirational.
Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada
gasp you're killing me Ian....no words for this powerful take! You're doing to me, what what's his name?'s doing to you! One in every generation lol
6 Jan 2008 12:52pm
@Lorraine: Steichen you mean?.....ahhh, how you would have loved seeing his photos Lorraine.....those early 'pictorialist' photos were truly life changing!
Yakumo1890 from Japan
I like the strong diagonal here, repeated by stairs, handrail, houses and trees. An impressive composition, simultaneously quiet and yet full of vivid life.
6 Jan 2008 1:36pm
@Yakumo1890: What la lovely thing to say...how kind! - Thank you very much GJC!
The composition was surprisingly difficult on this shot for some reason and I took quite a few attempts with both my DSLR and this compact Fuji F31 before I got this result.....Paris is famous as a honeymoon destination and I whimsically like to think that this young couple are walking to the top of Montmartre shortly before dawn to hopefully catch a winter sunrise over Paris.
I'm not sure what they will have thought of the appearance of dawn's first light over the city as there was no sun to speak of, nevertheless I thought it was dramatic and took a photo of it to show you all as tomorrow's post....I hope you like it too.
PS - I thought the descrption in your bio of why you are drawn to photograph Kyoto beautiful and poetic.
@El Jefe: Thank you very much El Jefe!
@Steven: Thanks very much Steven! - I hope you will return tomorrow to see my photo taken from this spot in Montmartre of a winter dawn breaking over Paris.
Michael Rawluk from Prince George, Canada
I love it. There is a wonderful balance.
7 Jan 2008 4:48am
@Michael Rawluk: Thanks very much Michael - I found the composition very difficult on this one and tried but failed many times before getting this one with my compact Fuji F31 camera.
@Putter: Thanks very much Putter!
Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada
Yes I mean Steichen, He did wonderful photography, and of course I'm sure the computer is not doing his photos justice, still all things being equal, I like yours better :)
7 Jan 2008 1:01pm
@Lorraine: I don't know what to say Lorraine but thanks for the big compliment!
Twelvebit from Victoria, United States
Some beautiful photos, especially the night shots, with this one especially evoking the Paris images of Brassai. Here I thought Les Escaliers, Montmartre.
10 Jan 2008 2:55pm
@Twelvebit: Thank you very much for the link to that photo by Brassai (yet another photographer about whom I was profoundly ignorant!)
The two photos look like they've been taken from pretty much the same spot (the very top of the stairs looking back down to the city below.
I've just uploaded some photos that I took in the Paris metro. They are very different from these ones here on Aminus3 but I thought you may be interested http://photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=798107
Twelvebit from Victoria, United States
I have some Paris Metro shots I took last time I was in Paris --but it was about 10 years ago and all I had was a cheap low resolution digital camera of the day. Your images don't look like the images of a beginner --you do great work. I looked at your Metro photos and I really like the B&W conversions. Alas, I have PSE 4 (and it has no good conversion routines, just the old greyscale and desaturate commands), and I have been seeking an acceptable conversion method short of spending a small fortune on CS3.
11 Jan 2008 3:13pm
@Twelvebit: I used Photoshop Elements 5 to convert this one (all my shots in fact) to B&W.
I use the default "enhance"..." convert to B&W" ....and then choose one of the style options and adjust contrast, usm, light and shadow etc to taste depending on how I feel about each one.
Fujifilm FinePix F31fd
1/15 second
F/2.8
ISO 1600
8 mm