A STREET IN PARIS VERY EARLY IN THE MORNING

Hello everyone! My family and I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Europe! It was our first time there. Those of you who know me, you already know that my camera was ready to take shots of this beautiful city.

I always wanted to take a photograph of the quintessential "Paris Street" with its famous and historical architecture, balconies, and narrow streets. After getting an overview of Paris through their "hop-on-hop-off" tour bus system, I realized that getting the shot that I envisioned in my mind would be impossible during the day because of the hundreds of people walking the sidewalks, as well as the busy streets with all their compact cars, motorcycles, scooters, and tour buses. So one morning, I woke up at 5:30am just to try to get that classic shot.

It was a cold, crisp, and cloudy morning when I walked out of the hotel, but it felt great to walk through the streets of Paris as the city was just waking up and the sun was just rising. I already had an idea where to go because a few days before, my son Myles and I saw the classic Paris street scene just one block from our hotel on Rue de Grenelle Street as it intersects Avenue Bosquet. In order for me to get the shot that I wanted, I had to literally stand in the middle of the narrow street but since it was so early in the morning, there were no cars (yet) to run over me. The picture that you see here is my favorite out of the series of shots that I made.

I did feel kind of silly though....waking up so early in the morning and standing in the middle of the street with my tripod to get the shot, but after looking at the final result - it was all worth it.

Technical Info:
f/13, 1/6sec, Lee Polarizer, Nikon D2X, Carl Zeiss 18mm, Gitzo Tripod.
In Adobe Photoshop Lightroom3 - boosted the contrast/color sat and played with the curves, highlights and shadows (dodging and burning) for effect.