As I devoted more and more time to this hobby of mine I started to wonder “What advices do the best photographers in the world have for us … puny mortals?” and I came across many good ideas but only two of them stuck to me:

1. Wear good shoes!
2. Don`t process your pictures immediately after you shot your assignment.

I`ll will talk just a little bit about the 2nd one.

The whole idea is based on the fact that 2-3 days after the assignment you`re still attached emotionally of your pictures. Thus, the more you let them sit unattended, the more distant you become of them. And by the time you decide to work on them you`ll analyze them with more critique … as if they were not your pictures in the first place. So picking the favorites and processing only those should be an easier task to do and with better results. Some of the early photographers used to let the film rolls stay in the fridge up to 6 months before they got developed, but in this fast world we`re living in we`re lucky if we can let them sit over the weekend.

I tried the “process later” approach and everybody got mad at me because I wouldn`t give my friends the summer / party / night out pictures the next day so they can upload them on Hi5 / Facebook / personal shrine page somewhere on the Internet. Eventually they got used to it and now I don`t have to worry about that anymore.

The pictures I`m about to show you are shot this august in Paris (and in the future blog posts: Normandy and bits and pieces of Netherlands)

This year 15 days of summer found us in Paris, Normandy and the Netherlands (5 days each).

There`s a first time for everything … this was my first time in Paris. Beautiful city but it stinks (literally) and it`s expensive. Were not your average “must see everything” tourists.  We don`t step inside every stupid museum we see marked on the map. We`re the kind of travelers that get to know a city by keeping our asses outdoor and taking time just watching the ordinary people doing ordinary stuff.

No, we`re not the kind of “Me Want FOOD!” hill-billies but the “sitting and enjoying a glass of wine here and a glass of wine there” is what I like the most.

But enough about that.

This year Ioana`s parents (or for better understanding: my {somewhere in the future} parents-in-law) celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. I know what you`re thinking: free booze! And you`re right! The ceremony took place at a Orthodox Church in the Latin part of town and it was simple and beautiful.

Mihai Eminescu - Leica 10 - Rollei Retro 400s

I will split the remaining 4 days into 4 groups: Museums, Defance, Street View and Eiffel Tower.

1. Museums

• Musee d`Orsay – Built in a old train station

Musee d`Orsay - Leica 13 - Rollei Retro 400s

2. Defance

Grande Arche de la Fraternité

Arc de Triomphe

9 Frames

10 Frames

11 Frames

360 of Defance Main Square - 25 Frames

3. Street View

1. Digital stuff that I need to get out of the way…

2. Leica in chronological order…

Leica – 10

Leica – 11

Leica – 12

The first of the following pictures is shot on film and the other seven were captured with the Nikon D90. This guy was awesome!

Aaaand back to Leica and film…

Leica – 13

4. Eiffel Tower

The tower in pictures…



And for the next part … we had to stay in line.

And after God knows how many steps …

And a few with the rangefinder…

Overall I liked Paris but I don`t consider it to be a place to move to. It`s not even close to my top three places to live in.

This entry took me 4h:56min to write from 0% to 100%, that means from RAW pictures and no idea about the entry to what you have before your eyes so don`t hate me if I don`t hurry up with the Normandy entry.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did traveling this summer. Comments are appreciated… this way I`ll know my work was not in vain.

More tk.