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Tourist Shot
Tourist Shot
Melethia


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Best of 2008 (Advanced Editing VII*)
Collection: Challenges 2009
Camera: Canon EOS-30D
Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Location: Strasbourg, France
Date: Oct 10, 2008
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 320
Shutter: 1/250
Galleries: Candid
Date Uploaded: Jan 12, 2009

 Sadly, this does not have an obvious pigeon in it, though I suspect there must be one somewhere in the frame. I considered several pigeon shots, but most of the ones I really like have already been in challenges. Hence, you get a few more of my passions, all neatly wrapped up in one photo (which would have been PERFECT had there been a foreground pigeon, darnit!)

I like taking tourist snapshots - mostly because I like being a tourist and taking pictures and most of those are snapshots. But hey, let us not derride snapshots - they're very useful things! They provide memories, and in my case are a wonderful source of entertainment.

Sometimes I take pictures of tourists taking pictures. It's an odd hobby, but an oddly enjoyable one.

I enjoy street photography, even if this doesn't quite count as "street" photography (though it does have a most excellent street in it - you don't find cobbles like this in Texas or California, you know.)

I like taking candids. People are really very fascinating.

And I do like shooting into the sun, or very nearly into the sun.

Oh. And it's wide. And it's way too busy. I very much like wide and busy. :-)

So even though it has no obvious pigeon, it's still very much "me".

(Note - I didn't use anything similar in a challenge, but this was in my portfolio and featured in a monochrome version in a side challenge thread. Apologies if it was overexposed prior to this challenge, but it's one of my favorite shots of the year and I thought it appropriate.)

Thanks to all the voters and to the good folks who participate in side challenges and forum discussions and who submit their best for public consumption each week. Though I may bemoan my scores at times, I ALWAYS enjoy coming here and seeing what's new and who's shot what and just the general comaraderie of good people. Happy shooting in 2009!

The version from my portfolio:

Statistics
Place: 190 out of 531
Avg (all users): 5.8947
Avg (commenters): 7.0909
Avg (participants): 5.8994
Avg (non-participants): 5.8814
Views since voting: 1302
Views during voting: 399
Votes: 228
Comments: 27
Favorites: 0

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AuthorThread
 05/30/2009 02:36:49 AM
Fantastic light and the acceptance of the shadows.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/29/2009 09:58:46 AM
I love the processing.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 11:51:45 PM
Shoulda known! Terrific light show, Deb.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 01:03:04 PM
Still a cool shot - but I do prefer the B&W.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 01:09:40 AM
Oh, well :-( I'm sure I thought this would do better, but I love it regardless!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:43:16 AM
Hey, we're right next to each other, Deb!

Great shot - thought it might be yours during voting.

  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:33:47 AM
Still loving this one. Very respectable score too
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:30:06 AM
Originally posted by colorcarnival:
Ha! Was not something I was expecting from you. What a fun photo. Don't you wish you could see what she captured? Did she get flare? hehe Did she have to reshoot because she missed the target? I have to tell you, at first glance, I thought this woman was holding her camera up to take a pic of the couple behind her. I thought she was being artsy clever. But she is probably just taking a shot of a pigeon on a historic windowsill. Oh well. Thanks for making me wonder :)


duuh! She was shooting an unidentified flying object that destroyed them ALL.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/23/2009 12:12:20 AM
Ha! Was not something I was expecting from you. What a fun photo. Don't you wish you could see what she captured? Did she get flare? hehe Did she have to reshoot because she missed the target? I have to tell you, at first glance, I thought this woman was holding her camera up to take a pic of the couple behind her. I thought she was being artsy clever. But she is probably just taking a shot of a pigeon on a historic windowsill. Oh well. Thanks for making me wonder :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
01/22/2009 10:52:18 PM
I love the editing, bumped contrast looks nice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 10:38:26 PM
I have to skip the vote on this one, as I know it's a Melethia entry and that would influence my vote. I do like these street shots in Germany, however. The cobblestones have a great pattern, especially in this kind of light.

Added: Ok, it wasn't Germany, but I knew it was yours. Placed towards the high end, too. Congrats!

Message edited by author 2009-01-23 00:29:37.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 08:51:32 PM
Beautiful photo, but I will have to abstain from voting due to certain forbidden knowledge on my part.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 11:19:55 AM
Love(d) it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/22/2009 04:45:45 AM
Wow. Beautiful.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/19/2009 09:29:23 AM
lovely tones and warm feel, great sharpness and attention to details
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 07:35:07 PM
Oh I love it! Tourist with a fine art finish. YES!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 03:43:48 PM
Take me not to palaces, or bridges or to towers.
Please donĂ¢€™t take me anywhere I have to queue for hours.
I do not care for Queens, or for Kings or Presidents,
I do not care for Popes or Duchesses of Kent.
I am quite keen on galleries, with art upon the walls,
And ancient ruins please me, and lakes and waterfalls.
If nature had a hand in it, then you can count me in,
But if you pay a price to stand in line, my patience will wear thin.
Take me somewhere wonderful, with food and drink and a view.
Take me somewhere colourful where I can discuss the world with you.
Leave out all the tourists traps and foreigners with glee.
A hundred million foreigners messing up the place.
Like me.
- (some aussie dude) elliot cowan

Love the sun burst and the long shadows, and the fact that it's a tourist shot of tourists taking shots and titled 'Tourist Shot' - possibly referring to you... wait, or them? ....OR both! :D

[no vote]
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 11:28:27 AM
to oof
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/17/2009 12:48:04 AM
I really love the story going on here...the light and shadows are fantastic
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 05:56:16 PM
I'm a sucker for shots like these. Great textures and shadows, interesting subject matter, good street shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 04:11:54 PM
I think I had a capuccino there!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 04:08:43 PM
It was a day, like any other day. The sun was rising, and had just cleared the rooftops to shine down on the masses gathering for their morning tea and coffee and scones, and whatever else was the pleasure of the people starting their day. So it was when the first few people looked up an saw it.

Over the rooftops it came, the giant hovering... thing. Pure black, seeming to suck in all the light. The first few people to notice stopped suddenly, to stare, in awe and fright and disbelief. Some broke through the shock to grab for cameras. Others finally noticed the people looking and glanced up themselves, and were then entranced as well.

It advanced slowly, this thing. This massive hovering disc of blackness personified. Those that stood there watching it could not tell if it was an object, or some kind of advancing nothingness. It seemed to be both there, and not there. It seemed to be both round and flat. Then, without a sound, it stopped.

Now, most of the people in the streets had noticed it and had gathered and were standing around in an awed sort of silence. A few whispers slid through the crowd, but it was as if nobody dared to speak. They barely dared to move. Then, a strange humming began. It felt as if it came from within their very heads. Slight, at first, like the noise of an old television that was on, but not connected to any input. Just an annoying little buzz in their minds. Then, it began to grow, to change in decibel and pitch, to become both louder and lower, increasing more and more each and every second.

People began to grab their heads, their ears. Some screamed, some moaned in pain, some in a sort of disturbing ecstasy. Most of the crowd dropped to their knees, crying out in anguish and pain.

A sudden pulse came from that hovering mass of black then. A pulse that was both light and not light. Like a sound wave rendered visible. It came from that thing, and as it passed down to the city below, as it passed among the people gathered there, they were suddenly blown apart, turned to ash, and scattered on a wind that shouldn't have been able to exist.

They were obliterated, each and every one, and the deep and resonant humming ended as quickly as it had began, and the blackness began to retreat, and the sounds of emptiness in the streets reigned free.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 02:37:15 PM
I love candids like this! I love the flare from the sun, and the location. This shot would love wonderful in b&w, but it looks good in colour also.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 01:15:54 PM
love this one - it cracks me up how the pair behind the 'shooter' almost seem to be watching the image on the screen rather than the scene itself....

and that light is glorious!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 12:49:41 PM
This reminds me of some of melethia's stuff. I really like it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 09:42:04 AM
I love the swirls of the cobblestones. Nicelt seen and captured. Well done with the sun! 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 01/16/2009 02:20:10 AM
This looks great Deb and is quite stiking as a thumbnail :o) Not voting on this image :) Good luck :o)
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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