My wife and I returned from a 2 1/2 week trip through Europe on Monday, 5/12. It's a trip we've been talking about doing, and my wife has been planning (she's a fantastic planner) for a long time now, and it finally happened!
She visited Europe a long time ago with a large tour group, and I had never been before. Together we thought we would conquer the major Europeon cities so get a basic flavor of each country. We started in London, then took the Eurostar (or "chunnel" as it is sometimes referred to because it goes under the English Channel) to Paris. From Paris we flew to Venice, then took a train to Florence, then took a train to Rome, then flew home.
Naturally, being a photographer, I had to bring my gear, which I keep in my photo backpack. For this trip, I brought my 28mm prime lense, my 50mm prime lens, my Tamaron 28 - 105mm zoom, and my Cannon 70 - 200mm zoom. Unfortunately, I broke my 28mm prime lens in London as I was going through my backup, but it turned out to be ok because my 28-105mm zoom was great for letting me crop my landscapes in the camera, giving me more options.
I knew in each country I wanted to get shots of the most famous landmarks, weather permitting. In London, I was able to capture the Tower Bridge perfectly, but due to rain it was difficult to get a whole lot more. However, I've done a rough draft of the image and I think it turned out great. In Paris I was able to get shots of the Arc du Triumph, Notre Dame, and Eiffel Tower. In Venice I got shots of the Plaza San Marcos and, of course, the gondolas. In Florence, I got shots of the Pontevecchio bridge, the Duomo, some other famous churches, and some statues. In Rome I got shots of the Collosseum and all kinds of other famous landmarks.
On this trip, I specifically brought my tripod because I planned on doing HDR shots of most of the iconic landmarks in Europe. I really like the HDR look because it's a hybrid between a photograph and a painting. It also gives objects a dreamy sort of etheral effect. There are a few methods to create an HDR photo, but my preferred method is to auto bracket 3 separate shots, each separated by one stop, and then combining them together to make the HDR image. This allows me to get a far wider range of shadows and highlights than just one image (be it digital or film) is capable of getting. In fact, if you look at my gallery, you can see some HDR images I've done in the past of the Manhattan Bridge, the Ruby's on the Balboa Pier, and Balboa Pavilion.
Besides the fantastic scenery and history in Europe, my wife also did a ton of research and found some fantastic restaurants for us to try. We were not disappointed, and had some of the most amazing food either of us have either experienced.
A preview of some images and a review of the restaurants will be coming up in future blog posts. For now, it's great to be back home!
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