Tag Archives: Louvre

Winged Victory

Posted on December 24th, 2012 by

Dangerous Waters

The Louvre is a sea of people.

I was thinking this as I stood on the platform of the staircase that displays one of the most famous sculptures in the world, Winged Victory. Along with the Venus De Milo, Winged Victory is one of the must see sculptures at the Louvre. It is impossible to see all the the Louvre’s treasures in a day (you actually would need a week or more), but there are highlights your first time through which you don’t want to miss. It’s best to have a plan, and my plan that day was to capture a bracket of Winged Victory with no extra people in shot. This brings me full circle to my ocean of fellow gawkers. In an odd way this struggle made me appreciate the photo more, and the victory of battle at sea.

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah Everyone!

HDR Photography
Winged Victory by W. Brian Duncan

Evening at The Louvre

Posted on December 13th, 2012 by

Comic Experiments

In a continuation of my processing experiments I made a little something that ended up making me think of graphic novels. I usually try my best to not have any preconceived set of parameters for my photos, rather I try to let them lead me where they want to go. I have been working on this photo for some time honestly. The coloring really was giving me trouble. This is actually shot at sunset and the sky is a nice blue and purple, but the lights of the palace grounds are in full blaze making a heavy hue of tungsten. I processed the photo twice for each color temperature, but still couldn’t get things feeling right. I ended up trying black and white which I really liked but then started playing with selective color, something I generally dislike. In this particular instance I think it came out very fun!

HDR Photography
Evening at The Louvre by W. Brian Duncan

Glass Pyramid and the Sky

Posted on November 22nd, 2012 by

Sky

There is quite a bit riding on the weather…photographically speaking. You generally have only a limited time at a location, and if you have a completely blue sky or a really dull grey one, you tend to get boring pictures. Sure there are ways to fake interesting clouds, but I don’t do that. I take what mother nature gives me and try to work on it from that vantage point. Not every shot will be great, but hopefully you always come away with something you find helps you learn. Other days, as in life, you get a bounty of great clouds. When that happen…collect as much as you can and be thankful!

HDR Photography
Glass Pyramid and the Sky by W. Brian Duncan

Two Pyramids

Posted on August 2nd, 2012 by

Louvre

I went crazy photographing at the Louvre courtyard…I just couldn’t seem to get enough photos of those I.M. Pei pyramids. Most of the french consider them to be a blight on the beauty of the Louvre Palace, and to tell you the truth I have never understood what a modern sculpture is doing on precipice of an old art museum. It seems like these would be better suited for Centre Pompidou, but what do I know.

Technicals

This is a three shot bracket (-2, 0, +2) combined in Photomatix. All other adjustments were done in Lightroom 4.

HDR Photo
Two Pyramids by W. Brian Duncan

The Parisian Pyramid

Posted on November 13th, 2011 by

And So it Begins

I took 2000 photos on our recent trip to Paris. Processing those has proven to be daunting to say the least. Even with Lightroom’s wonderfully capable categorization systems and flags, I feel buried under all that I have to process. I thought I would begin (unless you count the photos I did for Pamela’s Blog Trois Canelé and Top of Notre Dame) with a simple photo outside the Louvre on one of the better days. The processing is simple, but I was pleased with the outcome.

Future Times

I am working on a new website to house all my travel photography. I am hoping to have it online by the first of the year. Having everything on this site makes it hard for me to promote any one thing. So here it to future endeavors, may they be successful!

HDR Photography
The Parisian Pyramid by W. Brian Duncan