The Metro Entrance – Place Monge in Paris

“I am sure the next step will be the electronic image, and I hope I shall live to see it. I trust that the creative eye will continue to function, whatever technological innovations may develop.” – Ansel Adams

 

I decided to scope out our exit strategy from the Latin Quarter first thing in the morning by filing up on a quick espresso from the local cafe and taking a quick stroll up a few blocks to see if the taxi stand that I googled was in fact there. The last thing we needed to do was wander aimlessly looking for a taxi on a day that was going to consist of hours of train travel. Plus, it was just a beautiful morning…..(you can almost hear the birds chirping right through the picture can’t you?)

Of course, I took the camera and sticks along for the morning journey 🙂

You see, for me, leaving a place while solo traveling usually means grabbing the pack and a small bag and just heading out the door. Most likely that trip out the door would have been to the first Metro Station. Easy to navigate as a solo male for sure. As this trip had a couple other people on board, (special people in my life I must say), a train to catch, and what can only be described as an excessive amount of luggage that no sane man would ever want to oversee the navigation through 3 metro changes and several staircases……the taxi was OBVIOUSLY the best option.

The trip to make sure that the taxi station was in fact where it was SUPPOSED to be was kind of an insurance plan for a stressless day of travel before it unfolded. (and a great excuse for a solo morning stroll)

Man, I really do love Paris 🙂

I played a little with this one. My initial plan was to take all of the color out and process that way. After a couple layer masks and blending strokes to see what a little color did to the far distant buildings, I decided to take it a bit further.

The foreground detail actually had me wanting to try something different. It was too gritty and really distracted my eyes as I tried to figure out how to direct the viewers eyes through the image. I then popped a copy of the image into a Topaz filter I liked and have used quite a bit before and found exactly what I was looking for!

If you haven’t tried these plugins yet, I highly recommend taking them for a ride!

I’ll do a few videos soon on the youtube channel about them, but until then, check them out here or the banner below to get started exploring!

Its a great addition to the creative toolbox 🙂