The Paris Opera House

When visiting Paris the Opera house is a Must Do in my opinion.  Also known as the Palais Garnier after its architect Charles Garnier, it is now mainly used for ballet whilst the opera has moved to the Opera Bastille in the eponymous Place. The opulence defies one's imagination and the usual climax of a tour is to go into a box to see the auditorium with its wonderful ceiling painted in a contrasting style by Marc Chagall in 1963 which has at its centre the Grand Auditorium Chandelier.  This time when we visited last week, I was astounded to see the stage curtain open and then a corps de ballet rehearsal began before we were politely asked to leave the box!

The exterior from the Place de l'Opera

Around the Grand Staircase

The Grand Foyer

The Stage and the Chagall ceiling

A couple of punters looking over the grand Staircase

Macro Fuchsias and a mystery

I went into the garden to try to practise the art of Macro photography on some wildlife this morning.  I drew a blank on insects, so I thought that I'd try some flowers.  The fuchsia flower has always fascinated me, so I thought I'd give them a whirl and promptly discovered why people resort to cut specimens when playing the macro card - the wind was blowing them all over the place and when I found a bloom that I liked, the background was awful, so I cut them and set them up indoors away from wind and with a dark background for plenty of contrast with the flowers.  By way of variety I chose a pale pink flower from the garden whose species is unknown to me - I don't even know whether it is a weed or a cultivated plant. Whatever, it looked suitable for my purpose.  Any identification gratefully received!  I won't be printing these in a hurry - I'd need to take out an ink mortgage for the background!

IR at Hatfield House

Out for my birthday to Hatfield House last week to meet old friends whom we haven't seen for far too long.  When I looked out in the morning there were some patches of blue in the sky as well as some high cloud, so I thought that it might be a good day for some infra-red.  Judge for yourself!

All are processed in Color Efex Pro, then Silver Efex Pro followed by noise reduction to the sky using Dfine