We we are wrapping up and getting ready to brave Heathrow airport and their Draconian carry-on restrictions tomorrow so that we can try to beat Tropical Storm Hanna to Charleston to make the storm preparations. We will post picture updates when we are back in the states and safe from incliment weather!
Nathan
We made to London yesterday from Paris via the Chunnel. And last night, we met some missionaries and took some fun family portraits of them around their home and at a local park. They graciously made us a home cooked meal. We can’t wait to share with you some of the shoots we got.
Later today, we meet up with some close friends of Valerie’s to take some couple pictures around London Tower. I was hoping that we could do a photo shoot with the Queen as well, but I think she is otherwise engaged. Maybe next time. Cheerio!
Inside Notre-Dame Cathedral
This and the following pictures were taken inside Notre-Dame Cathedral in Historic Paris. They are my favorite shots so far.
Okay okay! Here are some of the Paris pictures, sheesh 🙂 We went to the normal ‘must see’ sights in Paris, and I am very happy with what we accomplished, picture wise. Mell and I had a picnic with fruit and pastries from the Rue Claire Market near our hotel, and we sat on the Champ de Mars and talked and took pictures.
A duotone conversion of an otherwise vibrantly colorful Eiffel Tower at dusk. Mell and I had a picnic on the Champ de Mars and watched night fall over the Eiffel.
The tower is currently lit in blue in honor of the European Union. On the other side of the tower there is a circle of Stars al la le EU.
When night falls every hour the tower litterally sparkles for 10 Minutes. This was added to celebrate the Millenium in 2000, but it was kept by popular demand. We knew it was coming, but it was stunning when it did. You could hear the whole crowd gasp, and then sigh 10 minutes later when they turned it off.
Fun fact: On Mell’s little compact Canon Powershot camera, the “Night Photography” setting actually has a little picture of the Eiffel tower as its icon. Photographers need to stay on top of their game because these little consumer cameras are getting good.
Fun fact 2: All these night pictures were shot hand held with a 5D and a Canon 24-105 F4.0 IS Lens at 1600 ISO. No Photoshop applied (I’ll do some more noise reduction on the final print versions).
We made it yesterday to Paris with great ease thanks to the amazing train systems they have here in Europe. Our hotel is only blocks from the Eiffel Tower and the Seine river. We can’t wait to share with you some of the scenes soon, and we will have some more Germany photos up later as well. Only 4 days until the wedding!
Our weekend in Germany was jam packed. Saturday morning, our host, Mellisa, walked a block to her local bakery in Quiedersbach to make us a traditional German breakfast. Then, we were off to downtown Kaiserslautern for the morning market where we saw flying overhead a C-17 from the Charleston Air Force base.
C-17 from the Charleston Air Force Base
We then went back to Quiedersbach to hike to and photograph the castle’s ruins that overlook the city.
Castle Ruins above Quiedersbach
The well in the center of the ruins
Then, it was time for lunch (bratwurscht and beer, of course) and the car race that started about a block away from where we stayed. The cars (all hatchback size) did several time trials up and down the twists and turns of the mountain road. We also got some great pictures of the huge alternative energy wind mills and fields that surrounded the race.
Wind Mill
Down the straightaway
Wheat field above Quiedersbach
On the 21st we caught the train from Venice up to Porderone, Italy (near the Alps) and took a taxi to a little town called Arba to visit our Wedding and Portrait album publishing company, Graphistudio. We met with Alessia there who showed us around.
What we learned:
It was great to see where these albums are actually produced and to put some faces on the names. the link below to see the pictures!
So Mell, Mellisa and I toured Kaiserslautern and Quiedersbach today, but more on that later. Here’s a more extensive gallery of Venice! The blog gallery function didn’t like so many pictures, so I did it as an adobe lightroom gallery.
Enjoy!
Sorry about the lack up updates. We have only just found an internet cafè here in Venice.
I won’t waist too much time telling you how beautiful it is (pictures do that better, right?). But suffice to say it more than lives up to it’s reputation. There’s no straight path to anywhere, and the alleys are winding and tight, and pour into campos (squares). The gondoliers are all about (we’ll take one soon), and the water bus system is a lot of fun. In any case, here is a selection of the pictures we have so far.