Dark at the End of the Tunnel

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Dark at the End of the Tunnel ~

Dark at the End of the Tunnel, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Life is a funny old thing, isn't it? And death even funnier. The idea of the void, but not even that; literally nothing. Not even there to realise we're not there, literally not existing and not knowing we're not existing because we're... not existing. I know it sounds like I'm saying the same thing twice but it's necessary. The idea of not existing at all is quite difficult to comprehend.

I like to deal with it by trying to be as creative as I can in this life that I 'have', if one can 'have' a life, and imagine that when I'm gone people I have helped create will go on and might enjoy something of what I've done.

One of the things it's easier and easier to do these days is leave traces of our passing. The difficult part is getting rid of them! But what I really mean is something significant. I think that some of us would like to feel they have created something worthwhile which will stand up on its own once we've gone. Not passed on. Gone.

My own attempt, and it's happening here and now before your eyes, is to publish photos and words which, for what they're worth, which isn't for me to say, will be around once I've left the land of the living.

It's quite a nice thought that someone might spend some time checking them out and perhaps smile at the finesse and futility of some old codger taping and clicking away for all he's worth, and in the end, yes, that's probably all I'm worth. That makes me smile, and so it should for I'm not going to be doing any smiling once the dark at the end of the tunnel has envelopped me.

And maybe it is for us to say that, yes, that was quite good, that thing I've just done, and not for anyone else to judge. That's why I abhor competitions and critiques and condescension, even though I've been guilty of all three far more often than I'd like to admit.

I always say to people about their pictures or anything else they're trying to create, that if they like it, it's a success and stuff the rest. Then they can look to 'improving' it if they wish, but that fundamental feeling of pleasure or satisfaction at having created something which didn't exist before and has in some way improved your existence is primordial and the thing to hold onto and treasure. And share with those who care. They are there.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Don't Lose Your Head

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Don't Lose Your Head ~

Don't Lose Your Head, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Just read a chapter from a book called 'Do llamas fall in love?'. The chapter itself was equally puzzlingly entitled 'A goat with gaps' and asked me how sure I can be that my hypothetical goat, returning from a brief spell away, is really my goat, even if all the signs and signals tell me it's so.

I won't go into the details because someone's already written that book and I can't be bothered adapting it to some Parisesque version, but what if...

What if Marie-Antoinette, or someone who looked suspiciously like her, suddenly poked her head out from behind that pillar and said 'peek-a-boo!' or its French equivalent? We're just around the corner from the cell where she spent her last hours before feeling the celestial meat cleaver's final chill...

It's the Conciergerie and that interplay of curves and lines and shadows is quite sublime. The whole hall is a miracle and I'm only disappointed you can't get into one of the medieval towers you can see from Seineside, as that would be intriguing.

Do llamas fall in love, you may be asking yourselves as we wrap up this little piece, and I'm kinda feeling I should answer that question - hang on... oofff! Just read it, and it's a bit complicated, but ultimately, no, llamas do not fall in love, sorry. This despite the ear-nibbling, snout-snuggling, monogamous behaviour we might like to associate with lurve as we understand it.

It all comes down to beliefs - beliefs and concepts about what love is and because llamas ain't got language they can hardly be waxing lyrical about each other in the way we might be tempted to imagine them doing. That's enough. Marie-Antoinette's losing her head over all this metaphysical musing... that is Marie-Antoinette, isn't it? It certainly looks like Marie-Antoinette...

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Merde Alors !

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Merde Alors ! ~

Merde Alors !, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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This beauty comes from my new series over on Paris If You Please called 'Crap Paris' or something like that. Not this exact picture; I played around with it a bit more for you guys.

So my Crap Paris series is about everything that isn't so glamorous about the Shitty of Light, and I'm afraid there are quite a few, like homeless people, trashy areas, dangerous back streets, drug dealing, the list goes on...

This is a relatively tame member of the series. The reason why someone wrote this, I mean took some serious time out to scratch this thing into a solid stone wall, will remain a mystery, but maybe if we could read what lies below there would be a clue there, but I can't.

I like the bars on the windows too, adding to the urban decay-type feel to the atmosphere here.

I couldn't tell you where it is now, but some not-so-well kept up neighbourhood I imagine. More loveliness coming tomorrow, and although it will probably still be stone it's not in the same ballpark. See you there...

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Calling All Stifs

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Calling All Stifs ~

Calling All Stifs, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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You often see this sign, 'stif', as you chug around the train network, but in all these years I've never quite been able to work out what it is or does.

Here it says it's the organising authority for our transport in the greater Paris region, in which case it has a great deal to answer for, but I can't quite see what the point of advertising its existence can be. Don't they think that SNCF, RATP and RER are enough acronyms to stomach on a good day for the average tired and sometimes frustrated traveller?

Added to that is the fact that you never actually hear anything about STIF, or those who work for it, who I'm convinced must be called 'Stifs' or 'Stiffies' for their sins. Just what is this mysterious organisation and why should we care? Are we supposed to contact them when things aren't going so well? Should we spontaneously congratulate a passing Stif when our train arrives on time for once? All this remains grimly, grimily, gloriously unclear.

Calling all Stifs, please get in touch and put my out of my misery; who are you and what do you do? And who's the little white-on-blue guy in your logo supposed to be? Because if it's me running for a train I can appreciate that. But if it's supposed to be me dancing for joy at the efficiency of the Ile de France train system I might beg to differ.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Never Mind The She-Wolf, Bitch

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Never Mind The She-Wolf, Bitch ~

Never Mind The She-Wolf, Bitch, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Yesterday was the 14th July, and they do fireworks here in Paris complete, this year, apparently (I didn't make it) with a disco party in the rain. Shiny sequined little numbers de rigeur, just like we didn't used to wear back in the day.

Anyway, Abba-envy aside, I've been frequenting the Nikon Facebook pages, because they allow you to post your pics into a special -get-'em-off-the-main-stream-asap section, and you wouldn't believe, I mean, YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE how many people think (their) pictures of fireworks are the best thing since Waterloo.

Seriously, page after page of boring - so boring - images of sure, beautiful, but so samey coloured lines. The problem is, people are so chuffed with actually having got the shot they forget that it's the live experience of the actual fireworks themselves, with the explosions and the smell and the sight of the sky exploding and the oohs and aahs that make the magic.

A picture of fireworks, on the other hand, has none of that. No sound, no movement, no smell and no oohs and aahs. And they're all the same. Shame.

Other pictures are available, folks, even on the 14th July. Like this one; a couple of babes suckling a female wolf. Is there a name for that? Hang on... ok, a she-wolf or a bitch, although I don't know her personally. It's weird anyway, and about a million times more interesting than a fireworks shot in my humble. In a modest little Paris square near you.

Look, I've even added some crazy colours for all you exploding chemistry fans. And you can't say fairer than that. What would Romulus and Remus have thought? Never mind the she-wolf.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Asymmetrically Yours

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Asymmetrically Yours ~

Asymmetrically Yours, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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If you were here, and you turned around, and it was today, the 14th July instead of when it was actually taken back in June, and it was around 11am, you would probably see about 50 assorted jets flying low overhead as part of the Champs Elysées parade and be impressed by it no end.

As it was, I was in the Conciergerie and could only hear (but boy could we hear) the planes thundering by, or possibly catch a reflection of one or two of them in the windows of the Cour des Dames (Women's Courtyard) where we found ourselves.

This photo, though, has nothing to do with all that. Here we're looking at what could have been a very symmetrical shot indeed, but I decided it wasn't going to be, for reasons I've gone into elsewhere.

There's something delightfully unsettling about disturbed symmetry. The eye seems to be wanting the scene to be a perfect reflection down the middle of the shot as it so clearly could be. This jarring, however, is everything which makes this picture worth taking a second look at. And if that weren't the case that overworked rule of thirds wouldn't even get a look in, right?

And what, you may be wondering, is that wooden monstrocity blocking the view where there used to be one of the most elegant gardens in Paris, pray tell?

Ahh, well that, you see, is the Comédie Française as you've never seen it before, mate! It's currently being refurbished and in a stroke of industriousness has splurged out taking over a handy isle in the Palais Royal gardens. You know, the one where those two shiny and supremely symmetrical ball fountains used to be. Maybe they still are for that matter. If anyone has actually been inside the humungous hut, then do spill the beans, my asymmetric heart is dying to know.

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.

Reflecting On You

Paris iPhone Photo Chronicles ~ Reflecting On You ~

Reflecting On You, originally uploaded by Paris Set Me Free.

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Some say photography's all about light. Others consider capturing 'the decisive moment' all important. Gear freaks might consider the technical perfection of the image the acme of success. Personally, I lean towards the 'sensitivity of the photographer' viewpoint.

But if we take that first point: photography's all about light... Even if that's not how you approach the topic there's no denying it's true. No light (even just a tiny little weeny bit), no photo.

Here we're looking at light (is that actually possible, by the way?) which is bouncing off the floor towards us (let's pretend it is). But the floor which is being illuminated in such an attractive way isn't being totally illuminated. And funnily enough, it's where the light isn't hitting it which actually gives us the attractive pattern in the first place; it's the absence of light in some parts which pleases us most.

As you will have guessed, the sun is streaming through an obstacle in order to give us these nice patterns, an upside down pyramid in the underground Louvre shopping centre in Paris as it happens. There light has two challenges to address before reaching the floor: the upside down base of the pyramid and one of the sides, which gives us the two levels of sharpness of the pattern on the floor and makes it all the more interesting.

The funniest thing of all is that if you just turned off the sun we'd be back to boring old floor tiles (still reflecting some sort of light, nevertheless) and this article, perhaps thankfully, wouldn't even exist.

It's a bit like a hello or a smile. You don't have to say hello or smile at someone, and often you certainly don't feel like doing so, but if you do you generally get a bounce back; a reflective effect if you will.

Think about it: if you smile at someone, and if your teeth are sufficiently shiny, that smile will be bounced right back atcha. Same with the hello. Unless they're a particularly unreflective git in which case stuff 'em and move on to a more reflective mug... Talking of which...

Maybe we can also consider ourselves as having a certain amount of built in reflectiveness or reflectivity. The more you have, the more outgoing and personable you are. The more you keep it in, the more miserable you become. There, I've found my link between my humble image and the whole of humanity, so that'll do for today. Job done. Marvellous. And what do you think? ;~S

And why not...

J è  GRAB MY 20 AMAZING PARIS CURIOSITIES FREE NOW!  ç J

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© 2012 Sab Will / Paris Set Me Free - Contact me directly for photo tours, interviews, exhibitions, etc.