It's my last session with Sab and we are doing some night shots. We are in the area around Opera to work on shooting the grand boulevards in their Christmas glory, and to look at techniques and effects that capture the feel of Paris at night. We started in a cafe, where we had lots of time to work on indoor lighting issues ("lots of time" because the waiter was thoroughly confused by my order of coffe with cognac
in it!). I tried using depth of field to isolate a subject in a scene, using slow shutter shutter speed and playing with reflections. Here are the cafe shots: the first shot would have been stronger if the waiters were making coffee, rather than discussing a bill. In the second shot, I like the idea of the girl being visible through the shoulder of the moving waiter, but we aren't getting enough info about the girl to make it an interesting story.
Seems he has an unwelcome ghost!
L'addition, s.v.p
We then took to the streets to shoot the boulevards, only to find that they were in the middle of the change-over from Christmas lighting to new year sales. The objective was to try and convey the story of the night workers undertaking this grand effort.
We worked on some street shots using zoom for the impression of movement and long shutter speeds to create a faux-double exposure - that was fun!
Late for the last metro?
Sab as ghost critic
At that stage the sub zero temps forced us into a tex-mex cafe where I had nachos and desperado beer, while sneaking one last story shot about a first date.
Thanks Sab for a great course - I am now prowling the Brisbane streets, on the lookout for opportunities to tell more of a story in my pics!
Amandine
Seems he has an unwelcome ghost!
A bear window cleaner?
Late for the last metro? 
Hi Amandine,
ReplyDeleteGreat to see some of your shots from our lasts session 'out there'. It was a chilly night, and we didn't always see what we were expecting to find, but that's street photography for you!
I think you've got a great selection of shots showing a lot of different aspects of the city at night at this period.
I agree with your analysis of the café shot with the girl that seeing her face would have strengthened the 'story' but the one of the man seems to achieve that. The teacup handle frame works well. I'd forgotten that bear who looked like he was cleaning the windows too! And I have to say I love the 'ghost critic' shot - I'll be using that on my site with your permission!