Paris, France – Impressions and Moods

This is the Notre Dame cathedral right near the center point of Paris. In my photo, we were waiting on line to see the inside of Notre Dame. It was actually one of the first days it rained during our trip, so we were pretty lucky until then.

It was a rainy day, so I kind of tinted the photo blue in my camera for two reasons. First, because it was kind of a dreary, saddish day, and second because it was kind of ironic because the sky wasn’t really blue that day. It was really more gray. But blue is a pretty strong color.

The line outside wasn’t so bad, and it was nice to go inside and finally get inside and out of the rain, and see more about the cathedral’s history.

The Kid had been messing around with the light and color settings with her camera a lot during the trip. At first I discouraged it, but when I saw their photo of Notre Dame, I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. They totally got the idea the mood of a quiet, rainy day, by emphasizing the effect of using a cool tone like the color blue.

It made me think of other quiet moments during the trip, like waiting for the metro after one of our daily excursions, and taking the time to appreciate the beauty of the station itself as we passed the time. My photo is of the Cité metro station, which we happened to take after our visit to Notre Dame. This elegant station opened in 1910, and requires walking down several staircases to get to the platform. On our way down, I was immediately struck by sight of the silhouette of the man waiting for the train. Taking The Kid’s lead in letting color emphasize the mood of the photo, I opted for black and white to set the tone for mine.