Spring in Charlottesville

 Having grown up in central Virginia, I love the area in the springtime. I was fortunate to be able to spend four days in Charlottesville recently, and have the chance to capture some lovely springtime photos.

Setting sun: backlighting

Our new house backs onto a beautiful (man-made) pond, which looks especially lovely as the sun is setting at night. 

The Eiffel Tower during the day

On our second day in Paris, we took the Batobus (riverboat taxi) to the Eiffel Tower. This was taken at our stop.

 Being on the Batobus provided opportunities for beautiful shots of the Eiffel Tower behind this bridge.

WPP: 5 week wrap up

You may have noticed (or not, cause you don't care, but that's ok) that I haven't posted my Weekly Photo Project submission here in a while. That's because I didn't submit one for most of the past month; of the 5 weeks recently, I missed 3 of those due to how crazy our life became there for a while (trip to Paris, moving, work travel, unpacking, etc).

The Eiffel Tower After Dark

My girlfriend and I went on a photography expedition (with husband in tow) to get photos of the Eiffel Tower lit up at night. We spent about two hours out in the bitter cold, but it was completely worth it to get these beautiful images.

My children, outdoors

When the light outside is this great, you can't help but take photos of these adorable subjects! 

Paris: Notre Dame

Continuing from my previous post...

We made our way to Notre Dame, as it's one of the places Evan was very excited to see (again).

Paris: Seine and Saint Chappelle

We arrived in Paris a week ago Monday, much later than planned but ready to hit the city after freshening up at our hotel. Since we'd each gotten a maximum of about 4 hours of sleep on the plane, we didn't have anything planned for the day beyond walking across the Seine to the Ile de Citie to visit Notre Dame and Saint Chappelle, both on the island. Just walking through Paris you see the most beautiful buildings.

WPP: March 18-24

Two weeks ago the theme for our weekly project was "Vintage Cars". I'm not a car person, and I very rarely have the chance to see any that would be considered vintage, much less take a photo. However, that weekend I happened to take a low-light photography class in Georgetown (Washington, DC) and captured this vintage vehicle. No one said that vintage has to mean "mint condition", right?

One of the aspects of the class was to play with white balance to get different "moods" in the photo, particularly as the light is changing due to sunset. I used the tungsten light setting on my camera; when used outdoors, it creates this great moody blue tinge to the photo. I was very happy with how it came out, and can't wait to share my favorite photos from the class here!

For last week (March 25-31), I was out of town in Paris and missed the submission. The title was "Something I See Everyday", which would've been a lot of fun to add to, but being in Paris just wasn't in the cards. I most likely would've submitted a shot of my kids or dog!

Speaking of Paris, I ended the trip with over 1,500 photos to go through. I am hopeful to start on that this week, but we're moving over the next three days (my house is currently a mass of boxes, all to be loaded on the truck tomorrow), and I still have a boudoir shoot to finish editing and get to my client. It will all happen at some point, right?!

And I'm off!

Tomorrow evening at this time, I will be on a plane over the Atlantic Ocean headed to Paris for a week. My husband and I had always talked about going to Paris (or possibly London & Paris) for our 10th anniversary, and somehow, despite many possible impediments, it's happening! Even better, we're going with two of our favorite people on earth, good friends of ours who are also celebrating their 10th anniversary this year (we got married within 3 weeks of each other; she and I were in each other's wedding).

I'm excited for so many things about this trip, but one of the most exciting things will be the photography opportunities! I can't wait to share photos here with everyone. I think I have all of my gear packed; most everything is in my new camera bag (from jototes.com) - I am in love with this bag! It doesn't even look like a camera bag from the outside, which is helpful as I've been told by so many people about the high risk of pick pockets/crime in Paris, so I'm glad to have something that would be difficult to steal (assuming I'm keeping it across my body, as planned).