Weekly Header Challenge - The Dark Side

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ The Dark Side

Chosen by Katney.

I want you to know that I really debated with myself over this week's header.  My first thought, obviously, was Star Wars, and although I could find some related images, my mind wandered just a little to the...dark side.  Yep--my header portrays just one aspect of the "dark side" of my family.  Jacob's 23rd birthday was in January, and we turned off the lights to get a good candles-in-the-dark image.  He decided to have a little fun with it, and the image turned out quite dark and creepy, as you can see below.

Major creepy, huh?  Welcome to my family.  ;)

To get the horizontal aspect of the header, I had to crop a lot out.  But I really felt this image best portrayed the theme.  Sorry, folks!  Now on to some happier dark images.  Here's the actual cake-and-candles image I took at Jacob's birthday:

 
On an evening out for ice cream with friends, we spotted several military helicopters coming in for a landing at our local airport.  I snapped this great image below--the darkness of night, plus the darkness of nighttime military maneuvers.

Winter can be a dark time, and we certainly had an endless one this past season.  Here was the view out of our front living room window early in January.  (You can see the shape of the angel on top of our manger.)

And here was the view out of the same window in April.  Long and dark winter, that was for sure.

There's a lot of light reflected on these evening storm clouds over our neighborhood, but there's a slightly menacing feel to them as well.

I love the below image, even though it was a mistake.  Really.  I think it looks like a dark, misty scene, with fog and shadowy trees, and some weird lights floating around.

Here below is almost the same scene.  I had been setting up a pre-fireworks image, and wanted to test the shutter speed.  I recall I had it at 3-4 seconds, and got a nice image (below).  I then pressed the shutter a few minutes later, and started to move the camera, forgetting that I had it on such a long shutter speed.  The above image resulted, but it actually turned out pretty cool.

After all the darkness and creepiness, I leave you with this cute image:  my friend's daughter, playing hide-and-seek after their house had been emptied for moving, peeked out from the darkness long enough for me to get this cute image.

What dark treasures await me at your blogs today?  I'm off to see!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - Night Lights

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew
Tom W 

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ Night Lights

chosen by Craver

I've used several of my nighttime images--moon and stars--in past Headbanger posts, and so my thoughts turned toward the man-made varieties of lights that we see once the sun sets.  I don't have many of those, but I do have several from a very special place, thanks to my strong and thoughtful husband!  Fernando willingly toted my tripod around Paris, both during the day and at night, so that I could get both selfies for us and beautiful nighttime shots.

Without further ado, mostly because I have a bad cold (developed in literally an hour yesterday) and my head is fuzzy to say the least, I give you my images for Night Lights.

My header image, minus the crop:

On Avenue Champs-Élysées, looking east toward the Arc de Triomphe.

The below is one of my very favorite images from our trip.

On Avenue Champs-Élysées, with the Arc to my back, looking west in the rain.

On Avenue Champs-Élysées, looking toward the Arc.

On Avenue Champs-Élysées -- Fouqet's, a restaurant featured in the movie Taken.

On Ile St. Louis, while we enjoyed our ice cream from Bertillon, just after a brief rain shower.

Pont des Arts, one of the four pedestrian bridges crossing the Seine.

Looking across the Seine River, with Notre Dame in the center.

On a side note, as I write this blog on Tuesday evening, I'm planning on heading out to the backyard patio to see if I can catch a good photo of Mars.  Today is the opposition of Mars!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Weekly Header Challenge - What's Up There in the Sky?

It's time for the Weekly Header Challenge!

"Headbanger" Participants

Craver VII 

Fishing Guy 

Katney 

Imac 

Lew 

I'm joining in the group above for this weekly challenge.

Click on the other participants' blogs to see

what they've come up with!

Theme ~ What's Up There in the Sky?

I almost forgot to post this week--argh!  Travel--especially when you get home at 3am and collapse into bed--messes with my head.  I keep thinking today is Monday...

You get the benefit of fewer words, and mostly pictures.  ;)

Here they are:

My header, which is the moon over my parents' lake house in the Adirondacks of upstate New York:

ISO 100, 17-85mm at 17mm, f/14, 30-second exposure (counted in my head)

More of the moon, way up there in the sky:

ISO 100, 70-300mm at 300mm, f/5.6, 1/800 second

The Florida moon, along with a few asteroid trails!!

ISO 100, 17-85mm, f/8 64-second exposure (again, counted in my head)

Below is the moon, along with Jupiter and Venus (Craver inspired this one):

February 27, 2012

ISO 100, 17-85mm at 17mm, f/22, 53-second exposure

Captured an airplane just to the left of the steeple below.

An annual airshow at the local airport, half a mile from home.  These below shots were taken from my back yard.

Way up there in the sky, for the last time, went the Space Shuttle Endeavor!  We were lucky enough to experience the launch (about 50 or so miles away) when it was delayed almost two weeks, and our vacation with friends began!

Fireworks are up there, too, especially if you're sitting really close to the launch site.  Two of my favorites from last year's Independence Day celebration:

ISO 100, 17-85mm at 17mm, f/8, 4-second exposure

This little guy thought he was way up there in the sky, too!

Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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Les Ponts de la Seine -- Bridges of the Seine | Paris Travel

The Seine River, headed west and downstream out of Paris.

Our Silver Paris

Welcome to my Paris travel journal,

where I share our experiences of our special journey to Paris.

Please use these posts as a guide for your own travels

to this amazing and wonderful city!

Or simply read, and dream...

Before I write my final Paris Travel post, I wanted to revisit this one subject.  Images of the Seine River are sprinkled throughout several different posts, but I have gathered them all here in one post.  Not all of the bridges are romantic, and I don't have images of every single bridge along the Seine in Paris, but I'm going to post the ones I have, for you and me both to enjoy.

I'll start at la tour Eiffel, and make my way east (generally) along the Seine (which would be upriver).

When you visit Paris, you'll need a good map to help you spot the bridges, and also just to get around--I recommend one from Streetwise Maps. (Mine is a 2012 map; ISBN 978-093503925-2, about $8 US.)

From the top of the Eiffel Tower, you can see many of the bridges along the Seine in Paris!  At the time we were there, however, I didn't think about documenting all those bridges. I was having too much fun just being there with my honey, sipping our champagne and enjoying the incredible view.

Here is an image showing the bridges west, downstream and away from Paris:

From the first bridge toward the bottom of the image: 

Pont de Bir Hakeim,

a Métro bridge (at an angle in the center, crossing the Allée des Cygnes,

and pont de Grenelle.

And that is where I run out of map and bridge names.  :)

The same bridges during our descent to the third level.

From the base of le tour Eiffel, this bridge, pont d'Iena, leads you to the Trocadéro with its pools, fountains, and museums. 

Pont d'Iena.

Passage Debilly (a pedestrian bridge) on the left and pont de l'Alma on the right. 

Spot passage Debilly (the pedestrian bridge in the extreme lower left corner),
then go east (toward the right) and find
pont de l'Alma,
pont des Invalides,
pont Alexandre III (with the four gold-topped pillars),
and pont de la Concorde.

Here is where my photo tour begins in earnest:  Pont Alexandre III in all its glory.  :)

Here is an aerial view of this spectacular bridge, taken from the top of the Eiffel Tower:

From left to right:  pont des Invalides, pont Alexandre III and pont de la Concorde.

Pont Alexandre III as seen from street level.

Pont Alexandre III as seen from our boat on the Seine.

Detail of pont Alexandre III from boat level.

One of the columns on pont Alexandre III. 

After pont Alexandre III comes pont de la Concorde, then passage Solferino (another pedestrian bridge), neither of which I captured at all.  The next bridge we come to is pont Royal, below.

Pont Royal.

Continuing east, we encounter another pedestrian bridge, pont des Arts.

Pont des Arts.

Next, we come to pont Neuf, the point where the Seine River splits to flow on either side of two islands, Ile de la Cité and Ile St. Louis.

Pont Neuf (northern side).

Now I'll try not to be too confusing here, as the the bridges abound at this point.  :)
After pont Neuf, heading east, the next set of bridges that cross the Seine are:

• From the Rive Droite (Right Bank, or north side on our left) to Ile de la Cité -- pont au Change
• From Ile de la Cité to the Rive Gauche (Left Bank, on our right)-- pont St. Michel (I don't have a picture, boo)

Pont au Change is noted for its "N," which stands for Napoleon.

Pont au Change

Still heading east, the next set of bridges are:

• From the Rive Droite to Ile de la Cité -- pont Notre Dame
• From Ile de la Cité to the Rive Gauche -- petit Pont (no image, double boo)

  pont Notre Dame

Pont Notre Dame, as seen on our boat tour with a sunstar.

The next set of bridges are:

• From the Rive Droite to Ile de la Cité -- pont d'Arcole
• From Ile de la Cité to the Rive Gauche -- pont au Double

 

The bridge with the railing is pont d'Arcole (then pont Notre Dame and pont au Change beyond).

Detail of pont au Double.

Where the two islands meet in the river, a series of three bridges cross:

• From the Rive Droite to Ile St. Louis -- pont Louis Philippe
• From Ile St. Louis to Ile de la Cité -- pont St. Louis
• From Ile de la Cité to the Rive Gauche -- pont Archèveché

First, pont Louis Philippe, in shadow.  Not the best way to capture the bridge, but that wasn't the focus of this image.  :)

Pont Louis Philippe.

I did take a picture of pont St. Louis, but it won't show too much detail.  We were sampling our first taste of Berthillon ice cream (read about that here), and pont St. Louis was behind us, with Notre Dame peeking out way in the back.

I have several images for pont Archèveché, so please enjoy this interesting bridge!  A legend began not too long ago, that lovers write their names on a padlock, then attach that padlock to the fenced railing along this bridge.  By doing this, the lovers would seal their love and be together forever.

Standing on pont Archèveché, looking at la cathédrale de Notre Dame.

The next set of bridges cross over Ile St. Louis:

• From the Rive Droite to Ile St. Louis -- pont Marie
• From Ile St. Louis to the Rive Gauche -- pont de la Tournelle

Pont Marie has a special place in my heart, for it is the first Seine bridge that we saw on our first evening walk from our appartement to the Seine River.  I will never forget the wonder when we crossed the last street and stood there above the Seine, looking out on a beautifully illuminated bridge, and all the bridges and lights beyond.

Pont Marie, and my first view of the Seine River.

Detail of pont Marie.

Now, here is pont de la Tournelle on the other side.

Pont de la Tournelle.

Pont de la Tournelle.

 

You can barely see pont de la Tournelle; my own focus falls on the illuminated tour Eiffel shining above it, just about in the center of the image.

The last bridge of my photo tour crosses Ile St. Louis on both sides of the river; This is pont de Sully.

Underside of pont de Sully.  

Thanks for taking this long tour with me!


Treasuring life's moments,
Christine

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