After my post about the strange urban landscapes of La Defense I should publish some pictures of the other side of Paris, with all its postcard charm.

I woke up very early on my last stay in Paris and decided to drift around place de la Concorde to capture the city while waking up. I had a pretty good idea when and where the sun would rise and explored several places while the blacks turned to blues.

While walking towards the Seine I noticed another lonesome pedestrian walking in front of me. Focusing on the beautiful lamppost made the person fade nearly completely into the blurry background (done at full open aperture which was 1.4 on my 50mm lens). The anonymous blurry figure fading into the background captures my feelings of that morning. 6am on some sidewalk in a forreign city after heavy rain does feel blurry.

On the pont de la Concorde I placed my Canon 5d on the solid stone banister which allowed me exposure times of roughly 20 to 30 seconds.

The picture above was what I had in my mind when I left the hotel. Lot’s of reflections in the water of the Seine, smoothed out by 30 second exposure. The Eifel tower leaves no doubt about where this picture was taken.

To my surprise the view to the east and towards the rising sun appeared to me to be the more interesting one. Cars streaming on the road turning into laserbeams, the still sleeping tourist boats and the many shades of blue in the sky, very softly reflected in the water of the river, capture the moment of the awakening city.

On my way back I found this bridge a bit east of pont de la concorde.

Besides the interesting construction the combination if artificial and natural light caught my eye. The guy standing on the bridge was looking down into the water for several minutes. Just in the moment I took the picture he must have sensed me and looked directly into the camera.

Last but not least the train ride out of Gare de l’Est added some atmosphere – in a very literal sense of the word.

I was a bit slow in readying my camera and when I was ready most of the action was already over. The pedestrians in the foreground, captured only as siluettes in front of the smoke of the flare make a nice scene. But the cap of the first guy, the hat of the second and the short trenchcoat of the third man make this shot interesting. Looking at the Paris fashion in this sourroundings it is hard to tell for sure if this 2010 or 1965.

These pictures where taken with the Canon EOS 5d (Mk.I) and the EF 50 f/1.4.

Slight adjustments in brightness and tonal ranges where done in Lightroom.

Let me know what you think of these shots. Do they work for you?