Memories of Paris

I love street markets! You should have been in Belgium when I was trying to buy gummy candies from a vendor who spoke no English with me speaking no French! Luckily, there was a bystander that helped us out! Above was a band that was walking along playing music in Paris at a street market that I came upon. I also captured it on my powershot that has video capability. That is one reason I love a camera that can shoot video. You never know when there are sounds or movement that you just NEED to capture! I need to play more with the video capabilities on my new 7D.

Another thing I am interested in is the transportation of an area. Above I came across this scene with the bicycle that just said "Paris!". I used Picasa to create the one spot of color on the window box. I have more examples of transportation that I will share later.

The people of a region is another thing I love to capture. The people in Paris do a lot more walking than Americans do and they do love their dogs. This is when a zoom lens comes in handy as you don't want to appear to be obnoxious. When I was in Brugges, Belgium, I was taking a shot of the town when all of a sudden someone started screaming at me. A Muslim lady thought I was taking her photo (I didn't even see her) and she was not happy! I don't think she was even in the view finder!

Anyway, this is something you have to treat delicately. You can smile and ask permission, if language is not a problem. In poorer countries you might even offer to pay someone for a photo. I don't have enough experience to give you a lot of suggestions but I do know that if you are at a street market and you are willing to purchase something from someone, they are much happier to have you snap their photo. This is even true in America. For example, the basket makers at the market in Charleston....don't take their photo unless you are buying a basket!