Since today (8 May) is the 75th anniversary of VE day, I thought it would be a fitting time to post this photo (taken 2 days before the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings) from the Normandy American Cemetery, near Colleville-sur-Mer in France. The tombstones of Medal of Honor winners are distinguished by the gold leaf lining their engravings. Front and center in this shot is the grave of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. — eldest son of President Theodore Roosevelt.
Gen. Roosevelt was the only general to land by sea on D-Day with the first wave of troops — and at 56, was the oldest man in the invasion. Despite arthritis and a heart condition, he led the assault on Utah Beach. He died a little over one month later of a heart attack. His brother Quentin (who was killed during World War I) is buried just to the left of him in this shot.
Tag Archives: France
Diamonds and Rubies
A look down Paris’ Champs Elysées at night:
This is just one frame out of many in a time lapse video I’m putting together — just as soon as a replacement for my now-defunct main computer arrives (!?!). If you were curious, there are little sheltered “islands” for pedestrians at the center of crosswalks on this street — perfect locations for a little night photography.
Love locks
A relatively new phenomenon (for Paris), the Pont des Arts bridge has gotten covered with “love locks” since about 2008.
If you’re not familiar with the meme, the idea is that couples write their names on a padlock, lock it on the bridge, then toss the key into the Seine river as a show of their everlasting devotion. The problem, though, is that the bridge wasn’t really designed to handle this kind of a load (it’s estimated that nearly a million locks, weighing 60+ metric tons, have been snapped onto the bridge).
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Giant in the mist
I took this image (actually, a panorama of two images) several years ago, and just recently thought to revisit it in my “workflow.”
What I like best about this image is the people in it. For many of us, Paris and the Eiffel Tower are romantic places seen only on occasional trips. But for the locals, they’re a regular part of the scenery — almost taken for granted. So while I was working to get a good composition of this image with the tower, the people that lived nearby were going about their regular lives, paying little attention to the tower.
Eiffel squared
A really good reason to embarrass yourself publicly in Paris — to get a unique shot of a thoroughly-photographed landmark:
Come to think of it, I guess I didn’t make *too* many people laugh by laying on my back for this one. Makes me wish I could go back again soon…
Sacré Coeur – en noir
If you’ve been following this blog for long, you may remember that I do most of my image post-processing in Aperture on a Mac. Well, Apple just released an update to Aperture (containing a slew of needed bug fixes), so I’m taking the opportunity to dig back in my archives to revisit some old shots that were ready for a second chance.
This one was taken looking up the steps east of the Basilica. I think the B/W treatment gives it a noir film feel…
Paris flowers
