The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- At June 25, 2013
- By Jay
- In Architecture, Black & White, Travel, Urban & Street
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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
That would have been me during a recent trip to beautiful Montreal. With my camera firmly resting on a tripod (Really Right Stuff – you guys rule), aimed up at the monolithic structure that is the Notre-Dame Basilica in Montreal. And yours truly bent down trying to frame the damn thing. Even with a 24mm lens it barely fit.According to Wikipedia the Basilica is 200 feet tall and 151 feet wide. Trying to get a shot from further back was a waste as too much traffic and pedestrians, and the perspective would have been skewed. So I just went to the base and exaggerated the whole thing, waiting for the sky to get down to around the same level as the blue lights under the main arches. Ultimately the exposure balanced and I was done. A final shot of the entrance with the “ND” inlayed into the concrete and then I headed back to the hotel.
Back to Montreal
This post is actually coming late as I came back to these shots having just went on a Printing Binge. Haven’t put pigment to paper in far to long so on a whim cracked out about a dozen black & white prints. There’s still that somethin’ somethin’ that the screen can’t match. These are currently among the pile that has grown on my desk. Geometry, light, doors… Don’t know why but I like pictures of doors.
But it’s not all gloomy and gothic in Old Montreal. There’s splashes of color to be had, predominantly of the red variety. Guessing it’s a reflection of that hot Francophone blood coursing through the city.
And other bits of color and warmth with the early evening sun…
And then there is balls out, full on, get your sunglasses color pouring through the tinted windows of the Montreal Convention Center.
I had actually run a couple of shots from the Convention Center a couple of years ago here and here. With the sun slicing hard and low I made a mental note to head back.
The Wall
Another mental note was to revisit the chunk of the Berlin Wall prominently displayed at the Centre de Commerce Mondial. I had first shown it here. Took another perspective of it this time. Still blows my mind.
Don’t lie – you’re humming some Pink Floyd now, aren’t you?