Today I want to look at a few images from a trip to Paris. Let us study some digital photography tips about travel photography.

When you go to a different place, your senses are heightened and you are aware of the smallest details. Details you might normally overlook.

One of my list of things to do in my life, was to visit the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Thanks to my good friend, Travel Editor at the Orange County Register, Gary Warner, my first trip was a quick 18 hour side trip to the city of lights before meeting up for our assignment in London, England. What a great guy!

One of my strongest rules about vacation photography is too shoot now!

Things happen and you might never see or have a chance to photograph something again. So see it and shoot it!

Just because you are visiting the Eiffel Tower, you still need to apply strong photo rules to make a great image.

Please remember the three rules of a great photograph:
1) Composition
2) Lighting
3) The Moment

Remember these and when you are in the fantastic and exotic location, you can make incredible and memorable images to last a lifetime.

Our first image was a very French-looking man who stopped to gaze out one of the windows in the Louvre. Let’s reverse engineer to see how I did:

1. Composition – I placed the gentleman and his beret in the lower right area of convergence, where the lower horizontal and the right vertical meet and the tower of the building in the upper left area of convergence.

2. Lighting – Strong light from outside created a silhouette of anything inside the window. A strong and high contrast image results from this type of lighting.

3. The Moment – The moment captures the essence of the scene or event that you are photographing. For me, the solemness of this museum made me want to capture a reverence that I felt. In the midst of the masterpieces, this man took a break to gather his thoughts before returning to the most incredible museum in the world.

Next, one of my favorite pieces in the Louve.

Cupid and Psyche by Canova.

The story/myth about Cupid and Psyche in a nutshell is about love, jealousy, redemption and loyalty.

Let’s do one more:
1) Composition – The lovers are placed into the lower left area of convergence and the shaft of light helps to lead the eyes of the viewer to the statue. Also, the wings of Cupid and Psyche’s arms make an X on their faces.

2) Lighting – Beautiful sidelight coming from a large window on camera right and the shaft of light add drama and contrast.

3) The Moment – Even though our couple is frozen in their pose, what a romantic pose it is. The summary of their story is shown by Canova and his masterpiece.

When I went to Paris hoping to capture a different view of the Eiffel Tower. My first idea was to shoot the tower from a window. Too expensive for a hotel and I couldn’t find the right angle, maybe next time! My next wish was to try a view from the surrounding neighborhood.

I wandered around and found a street scene complete with cars, trees and an apartment building. I placed the tower in the left vertical third, to add to the imposing height of the tower.

Finally, a nice surprise!

I was on a tour boat on the Seine river and saw the Statue of Liberty! This second Statue of Liberty is near the Grenelle Bridge on the Île des Cygnes, an island in the river Seine.

I composed it so the statue was in the right vertical and the Eiffel Tower could be seen in the left vertical. Lady Liberty’s face is near the upper right area of convergence and the tower is in the lower left area of convergence.

Thank You, France!

Lastly, I just wanted to thank Phototrend.fr for linking my new blog!

Bonjour!

Digital photography tip on lighting and our angle or point of view.

This entry talks about light and how often we don’t really recognize it and how our angle or point of view makes all the difference.

In the first image we have a typical crib in a nursery. There’s a window that is on the left side with non-direct light coming into the room.

In the second photo we have our baby. Most people are happy with this type of an image. We can see the baby in the photo and that is about all. The angle is from a normal adults view, high above and looking down on the baby.

But in our last image, we have an image that will last.

Why?

Because it combines composition (I’ve placed the baby’s face in the upper area of convergence), great lighting (the window provides  soft even lighting) and a nice moment as the baby smiles.

My angle or point of view helps to draw the viewer into the image by shooting through the slats of the crib to bring some visual complexity into the photo, too.

Instead of a boring image of a baby lying in their crib, we have a memorable photo of a really cute baby seen from their point of view of the world. The slats do give more complexity to the photo, too.

To review:

Window light where the light is not directly shining on the subject is normally very soft and beautiful.

The angle/point of view of our photo is highly important to give a different perspective to your photographs.

Hope you enjoyed another digital photography tip!

Have a great day.