Rome. If You Want To.

I don't remember where I got the idea for this shot from - online, guide books, wikipedia - but regardless, from the first day in Rome, I knew that I wanted a shot from the Ponte Umberto I bridge. Sunset, blue hour - didn't matter. I just knew that I'd be spending some time on that bridge waiting for the light.

As it happened, I was only able to get there on day two (of two) and the way the afternoon was going, it was pretty clear that it wasn't going to be a very interesting sunset, so blue hour it was. Two problems presented themselves however. First, I mistimed my arrival - for reasons I can't explain (like I said, I knew the sunset was going to be weak) I got there way too early. In fact, I got there too early even for the sunset itself (which, again, was weak). The other problem was that the sun was generally setting behind St. Peter's - the problem being that it would take much longer to get a deep blue sky where I wanted it (it annoyed me to no end to see a nice, indigo blue sky behind me while there was still plenty of light behind St. Peter's).

All of which added up to a lot of standing around, leaning against the side of the bridge and waiting. To kill the time, I took a lot of photos, even though the light wasn't what I really wanted (and wound up deleting most of them), helping some tourists with camera problems, and just observing - mostly observing tourists snapping the same scene and keep moving. It's a shame - it was a nice scene, but the light sucked. By the time the light changed, I was the only one there. If they'd waited, they could have had this:

Focus On: Parisian Metro Stations (Part One)

Thanks to my travels and interests in urbanism, whenever I'm in another city, I always try and shoot some photos of their metro stations. But not all systems are created equal as both their physical layout and station design help determine how photographically interesting they are. Which means that the Parisian Metro system is easily my favorite system to shoot.

Most important to me - from a photographic standpoint - is the arrangement of the platforms. Island style platforms - with the platforms in the middle of the tracks - are suboptimal as even with a wide lens, you can't really capture platform. Far better are platforms on either side of the tracks, allowing you to shoot across the right-of-way to the far side (elevated island style platforms - ala the CTA - at least allow for shots of the surrounding city. Underground island platforms are almost photographically useless).

The Parisian Metro system (usually) combines platforms outside of the right-of-way with classic station architecture. And they're even well lit. To top it off, with train headways of only a couple of minutes, it's too easy to simply skip a train to wait for the opposite platform to clear out.

Here's a few examples:

Scattershot: Scenes from a Chicago Winter (Part Three)

So once again, the day job has kept me away from another spectacular Chicago Winter. All of this talk of polar vortices, record breaking snowfall, and bitter cold just serves to remind me what I'm missing. But I do make it back for Chicago Winters occasionally, so here's a look back at Chicago Winters past:













Part One
Part Two
Part Three

To the Bitter End

After leaving the Tour Morland, it was so late that the Parisian Metro had in fact closed. No matter, I was staying in the 5th Arrondissement and while I was pretty worn down by this point and while it would be a bit of a hike to get back to the hotel, it was certainly doable. And besides, the rain had stopped, there weren't a lot of people on the streets, and it was Paris at night - surely there were opportunities for more photos?

You be the judge:

Scattershot: Scenes from a Chicago Winter (Part Two)

So once again, the day job has kept me away from another spectacular Chicago Winter. All of this talk of polar vortices, record breaking snowfall, and bitter cold just serves to remind me what I'm missing. But I do make it back for Chicago Winters occasionally, so here's a look back at Chicago Winters past:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

White Nights Can't Be Wrong

So presently I found myself in Paris. As it is wont to do, the day job dictated the schedule, and so I was to be in the City of Light in mid-October. Columbus Day weekend to be precise. No matter, Paris sera toujours Paris and perhaps the fall weather would provide a better backdrop for photos.

I don't remember how I found out about it, but a few days before departure, it came to my attention that the same weekend which I would be in Paris, would be the Nuit Blanche - White Nights - festival. Now, I had, up to that point, never heard of a White Nights festival but imagine my interest when I learned that not only would Paris be staying open late that Saturday night but that as part of the event, the city would be opening buildings not normally open to the public. Some quick research showed that there were a lot of options - too many, to be honest. I would have to pick my shots.

However the Nuit Blanche folks were generous in not only listing the sites but in even providing photos from the locations. A plan came together: I'd go for the Pompidou Center, the Mayor's office of the 4th arrondissement, and - the potential prize - the Tour Morland. The tower houses the Paris Urban Planning offices and - more importantly - has a terrace on the 15th floor not normally accessible to the public. It was going to be a great night of shooting.

I turned out to be a miserable night. It was pouring rain almost the entire time and while I like the effects that rain give to a photo, I can't shoot in it if it's coming down too hard. Which it was. And then, all the lines, lines, lines! I easily spent more than half the night standing in line with about 30 pounds of camera gear on my shoulder. And then, the first two stops were flops. It turned out that the Pompidou Center wasn't letting you on the roof as had been implied, but only onto a terrace on the fourth floor. It was a different vantage point than what you could access to normally, but nothing special. Then the mayor's office...

Look, I speak French which makes what happened even more inexplicable - rather than go to the mayor's office of the 4th Arrondissement, I wound up at the mayor's office for the city of Paris. Which I didn't figure out until I got inside (though the ridiculous line should have clued me in). Now, the  Mayor of Paris' office IS spectacular (and suitably ostentatious) and while they let me shoot as much as I wanted in there, it was not at all what I was going for.

So by the time I got to the Tour Morland, I was tired, wet, and not in a particularly good mood. And standing around for another hour or so wasn't helping. In fact, it was getting so late (after midnight at this point) I was afraid that they were going to shut down. Well, they did in fact do that, but those of us who were already in line were allowed to stay. So after all of that, I was finally able to ascend to the 15th floor and head out to this terrace which I'd been waiting to see all night, whereupon I was greeted with this view:

Good Morning, Paris.

Scattershot: Scenes From a Chicago Winter (Part One)

So once again, the day job has kept me away from another spectacular Chicago Winter. All of this talk of polar vortices, record breaking snowfall, and bitter cold just serves to remind me what I'm missing. But I do make it back for Chicago Winters occasionally, so here's a look back at Chicago Winters past:

Part One
Part Two
Part Three