I hate shooting handheld. Not sure if my hands hake to much, but the shots almost always come out blurry. Or maybe I’m just too strict on what I find as acceptable sharpness. And the photo I’m sharing today, was taken handheld. The top of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is a strict no tripod zone, with few people around always checking that you don’t use one. And even the railing (if you could call it that) is so horrible, that you can’t even brace the camera on it. So all you can do is handheld.

So here I used a very fast shutter speed, which was quite possible with how sunny the day it was, but I would still preferred a smaller aperture, but I rather went safe than sorry. This is a single exposure, edited in Lightroom and Photoshop.

Technique: Photoshop edit, Number of exposures: 1, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8, Focal length: 70mm, Aperture: 7.1, Middle exposure time: 1/800s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: no, Location: 48.856510, 2.286782

Now that I know how this bridge is called (Bir-Hakeim bridge), I will still continue to call it Inception bridge (after the movie of course :)). It just fits so nicely, with all the repeating pillars and the view you get when you stand in the middle. Like something from a crazy dream :)

This is a three shots HDR, created in Oloneo Photoengine. Photo taken during the morning blue hour.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 3, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 16mm, Aperture: 8, Middle exposure time: 8.0s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.856510, 2.286782

This came out better than I expected. The spot was quite busy, with people and cars going through the shot all the time. But somehow, in the middle of taking a series of exposures, there was no one for few seconds, and I got the shot :)

It was also quite fun running around the area, trying to find the best puddle to get a nice reflection. Surprisingly, haven’t seen many photographers do the same :)

This is a blend from two exposures, created in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 17mm, Aperture: 16, Middle exposure time: 10.0s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.855689, 2.297989

It was so busy in front of the Moulin Rouge when I stopped there. Every moment some cars or buses stopped in front of it, so blocking my view. And if those moved, the street got filled with traffic immediately. So in the end, I did mostly shots like this one, more towards a detail than the whole thing :)

This is a blend of two exposures, created in Photoshop. Most of the image is only one exposure, and I used a second, darker one, to tone down the sign.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 24-70mm F2.8, Focal length: 38mm, Aperture: 14, Middle exposure time: 4.0s, ISO: 100, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.883967, 2.332199

Let’s continue with a little more wider shot from Paris. This one just includes so much of the city :). You can’t even tell it was taken through a glass window. It was actually quite funny, the looks of all the people around me, when I put my jacket over the camera to shade it :)

This is a blend of two exposures, created in Photoshop.

Technique: Oloneo Photoengine, Number of exposures: 2, Camera Model: Sony a7R + Metabones MkIII Adapter, Lens: Canon 16-35mm F2.8, Focal length: 22mm, Aperture: 6.3, Middle exposure time: 15s, ISO: 200, Tripod used: yes, Location: 48.842261, 2.321754