Isn't It Pretty To Think So?

While in Paris, I carried two guidebooks: The Lonely Planet Guide to Paris and The Sun Also Rises. When it came to trying to figure out where to eat at night, I’d open to section one and see where Hemmingway was going eighty some years ago and then go there – interestingly, I think every café he mentions is still open. While I didn’t have a bad meal (or drink) at any of them, La Rotonde stood out. After enjoying a pleasant Parisian Spring evening sitting on the Boulevard Montparnasse with a Cote du Rhone and an amazing entrecote, I gathered up my gear to go do some night shooting. As I started to cross the street, I took one look back at the café and saw, well, what you see above. Seemed like a pretty good example of a Parisian Café at night so I set up my gear and spent a few minutes ripping off some HDR brackets. I’ve spoken before about trying to incorporate the idea of The Forms into my photography but I won’t go so far as to say that this particular image was trying to capture the Form of a Parisian café. Honestly, I really just had a great meal.

Know Me Better Than I Know Myself

I don’t think I can describe exactly what led me to take this photo. So I’ll let one of the commenters from flickr do it instead: “I love how it seems so busy, but then when you look more closely there really isn't much happening.”

Yeah, pretty much.