29.10.09

54. Yesterday's Alphabet (inspired by a friend...)

firstly, i'd like to point out that this post was more of a project than anything else...& i'd say that you're in for a treat...

secondly, just to put a spin on things, i've decided to go a little "all-out" with my picture editing, which is to say that i KNOW things are over-done...it's the fun! :)

thirdly, all photos were taken on october 27 but the post is only up today cause that's how long it took me...

ALONE


BUS STOP


CORRUPTION
so here's my little notre-dame de paris experience...(photos are un-edited)

step 1: intrigue...ah, a statue, who could it be? well, 2 sec. later, a woman appears from underneath the silverness to join the rest of her friends who are obviously takng turns to be the statue...they laugh hysterically & think that it's all too funny that their "beating the system"

step 2: while entering the cathedral, we find another woman begging for money. at this, i was simply speechless. am i the only one that finds something contradictory about this? or perhaps i'm being too judgemental...

step 3: this woman comes up to me after i exit the church & asks "do you speak english?" i was going to lie, but i couldn't so i said yes. so she holds up that piece of paper ther, which i knew was supposed to coax me somehow into donating but i skimmed through the scribble anyway but i only catch the last line..."god bless you"...really??? je rêve...

step 4: on the very left, you see the "statue woman" literally sprinting away (almost comical) towards the cathedral to hide in the crowd of tourists because on the right, you see a pair of gendarmes approaching. it turns out that what they're doing is strictly prohibited...

...& her friends all think it's hilarious (it sounded like cackling...) that today, she's the one out of the four of them that has to run like a fool. they laugh smugly, practically in the gendarmes' faces..."culture shock" for $200 alex


DOG-WALKING
it's not uncommon to see parisians waok their puny dogs on retractable leashes they my own dog could never ever survive on; for some reason, i love this picture; maybe it's the jacket, the angle? & yes, there is a dog behind here that i managed no to capture...


ELEGANCE
paris day morning


FALLING FLAT ON ONE'S FACE
last night, i saw this guy sprinting down a parisian sidewalk on springy stilts. in a split second, he just disappeared behind the cars parked along the street...ouch :S never did i ever think i would catch a scene like that!

GREEN
on our way to paris


HOLDING HANDS TO CROSS A STREET


ILLUMINATION


JAMMING
technically, he wasn't jamming; it was more like gentle strumming but super amplified that at first, i thought it was music played by the cité de la musique building to attract people...beautiful


KIDS
chilhood is a great thing...


LOST IN TRANSLATION
i dare you to close your eyes & imagine...banana spit...hehe :P


MOULIN ROUGE
i thought it would be bigger & more independent as a building...hollywood magic, i guess...opened 1889, not long after the revolution (no way! my ipod is playing "roxanne tango" from the soundtrack now!!) *sigh* ewan mcgregor is too perfect for the part...


NOTHING MORE INTERNATIONAL THAN A CHINESE BUFFET
seriously, these restaurants thrive everywhere, like grass (planet earth joke)


ONION SOUP
gosh...i don't know...i love onion & i love soup. i don't love onion soup, at least not the french kind. i hate bread dipped in xoup & little did i know that this famous dish is packed full of bread. & no one mentioned that it's covered with a thick layer of melted cheese either...just my luck. i hate melted cheese, especially when it's used to provide some desperate bit of flavour for a soupd that really has less flavour than a broth. ugh, i'm gonna say that my expectations were too high...let's just say. & i'm hoping it was just the bad prep of the restaurant cause their other dishes & service were also rather poor...might i add that the dishwatSOUP, i mean soup was 7£?


POLLUTION
WHAO. talk about contrast. on the left we have the colour of the sky. on the right, we have the colour of paris' sky...aye-ay-ay...(un-edited picture)


QUIRKY
when i saw this guy on my way to the st-pierre, i wanted to take a piture of him sooo bad (stalker behaviour, i know) but i didn't want to freak his out & as it's kind of hard to get a shot of someone's face without standing in from of them...anyway, on my way back to the car from the église, i saw him again!! i knew i just had to but again, you knoa, i still tried to stay somewhat respectful...so when he turned the corner, i got this. he had the BIGGEST beer-bottle glasses i had ever seen...too. cool. my jaw hung open, that's how cool.


RIVIèRE SEINE
i LOVE this shot, taken walking towards THE tower


STADE DE FRANCE
where they play foot & where céline dion performed


TOURISM
need i say more? i actually took this shot for the diabolo guy in the bottom left hand corner...he was failing miserably; a beginner? for a street performer, you don't gain much when your diabolos (is that what they're called?) are flaying all over the place...not very practical on a big flight of stairs...


UNINTENTIONAL
this is absolutely my FAVOURITE shot EVER. ever. love. love. love. & i'm not even going to take credit for whatever artistic skill it might have took cause it was a complete fluke. i was trying to take a picture of i don't know what & the car moved so i got this instead...i'll take it, thanks. :)


VENDOR
this was in from of the église st-pierre in montmartre; i have a cdertain sympathy for him cause he's um, stuck in a wheelchar, which is a handcap that cuts you off from most professions, i think...anyway, i though he was pretty good, with his mike, making little keychains...


WHY NOT?
i was thrilled when this guy decided to smil, even for the camera of some random foreigner zooming past him in an ancient volkswaagen


X-RATED
paris is very big on sex. there are sex souvenirs for sale at sex ships, there are sex streets and heck, there's even a sex forest. every night, gendarmes have to patrol the forest to make sure prostitutes are taking advantage of it or er, being taking advantaged of in it...


YELLOW
i honestly couldn't resist the yellowness of this façade


ZEBRA CROSSING
dead centre in parisian traffic
<3
[bt]

2 comments:

  1. Hooray! Kudos to you Bou. These pictures are seriously amazing. My favorites are:

    A-E-G-I-L-U

    :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. [bt],

    this is seriously the best post i've read...by anyone. Ever.

    i LOVE your photos, and the concept is genius.

    lucie

    ReplyDelete