Thanksgiving in Paris

Dante after his bath this morning.

Helping some dude down off the store shelf. I love this place, it's called Delevaine and they've got the coolest stuff for guys.

Paris a clear day for the Eiffel Tower

Ah yes, a postcard picture of The Eiffel Tower, you knew I had it in me! First clear day since we got here.

Paris spectacular mansion on Francs Borges

This amazing mansion on Francs Borges is now a school.

The Edith Piaf museum. A contribution run apartment that she lived in for a year, according to the proprietor, which is stuffed full of all kinds of memorobilia of her, including dresses she performed in. She was tiny.
Pere LaChaise cemetery and yes we went to Jim Morrison's grave, covered with cigarettes. Chopin's was much more lovely. The thing that surprised me was the terrible state of disrepair some of the tombs were in. I'd always thought that if someone'd bought their plot and paid for it that part of those dues would be upkeep. Guess not. This one wasn't nearly in the worst condition it was just weird and eerie to be able to look inside the broken tomb and see the bare ground inside and the garbage that had accumulated inside it.
These were in better shape.

Paris

The Metro strike isn't quite as benign as I thought on the first day we got here, the delays also apply to the buses and tonite we waited for a while for the 95 bus take us home and decided it would be better to try the metro. Although there was a train every 10 minutes or so but they were completely packed at 8pm and we let two go by without getting on. Without the stroller it would have a been a very tight squeeze. With the stroller, it was just not going to happen. Finally we went back to the 95 bus and I folded the stroller up and we squeezed on.
The beauty of a bus ride in Paris is of course the marvelous sites along way. There's something really amazing about your bus stopping right inside the plaza of the Louvre.

Or going past a very Jules Verne style metro station. In fact alot of the city makes me think of Jules Verne. The interior of the Cite metro stop is like being inside what I imagine the engine room of the Nautilus would look like.

The lights of the Printemps. All from the bus window.

The French Metro Strike in Paris

We've been here since Saturday and rode the Metro for the first time tonite. For one thing during the stike it's free. For another what they call a delay in train service is more like everything normal back in New York. A ten minute wait between trains!!! Quel Horreur!! So we took it to see Crazy Horse, no pix of that. But the most packed subway platform I've ever seen in Paris. When you board, there are eight seats that fold up in the entrance section of the train. It got kind of packed at one point and immediately everybody that had a seat on one of those folding chairs got up to make more room for the people getting on. I'd love to see that happen in Manhattan.


A random artsy image of sugar dispenser and counter in a cafe.


The Champs Elysses on a rainy night.

Counting Crows Adam Duritz

This is cool. This is like one of those shots you see underwater where half the lens is above the sea and the other half is below. You can see Adam in the right side of the frame at the piano past her reflection. I love the way her smile is doubled by the reflected image.Here he is taking a bow at the end of the show facing the people who watched it at the end of the show.

Abbie at The Counting Crows

Likes lots of little kids Abbie was all over the place and refused to smile most of the time, especially when she saw a camera. I was fine with that once I saw her striking this pose. This was at the Counting Crows show at Delta360 in midtown, last night.

Barney

The Barnster celebrated his 20th birthday on Saturday and I was there to document it all. His legions of fan’s necessitated a bodyguard or two.

Gizellabelle and a friend at Cielo

Not last night. Still cool. Really long exposure to bring out the red in the bushes. Two hotties out for a night on the town at Cielo during Kerri Mason's party there.

Although this wasn't technically last night, it was this weekend. I've been using alot of available light as usual buyt really loved the way the two band members bodies from the Klaxons juxtaposed in this shot and the lighting was beautiful. Webster Hall on Friday.

This actually was last night and again all available light. Years ago I'd shot Mishell and gone to an after party she was having at someones house. There had been signs all over the venue not to use flash, and miraculously, no one. Miraculous because as it turned out if they had Mishell would have gone into an epileptic seizure right there on stage. I know this because later on that night at the party I was in a different room from her and shot a snapshot with my point and shoot and she had a freaking seizure. I feel bad about it to this day. Anyway this shot at Hiro was during one of the last songs. There was just one moment when the position of the light and the position of her hand lined up properly so that her body would block the light from completely flaring my lens and this is what worked out.

Rafi from Miriams, also last night. Part of a story I've been working on for The New York Post.
I'm using two lights here. A ring flash and hot shoe flash. A main near my lens and a second one off on the right that's a stop or two brighter and triggered remotely. Gives me a nice modeling effect and fits inside my camera bag.

I shot this second one because I decided I wasn't crazy about the brick and this cool curtain was available. I like the atmosphere it generates better than the brick and also gives my editors more to choose from.