Like Rob explained earlier, our computer has been down most of the week so I obviously couldn’t work on any photos. I looked through our past pictures and found this in our Paris set. We only have a few photos in this set because when we took this trip 4 years ago, we had a film Nikon SLR…not digital. These are the few photos that we scanned before giving up because it took so long.

Since I took this photo with a manual SLR, there are no edits. It was taken on black and white film and then printed on black and white paper. Many people may not know that if you shoot or edit your pictures to be black and white, unless you specify to have them printed on black and white photo paper, they’re printed on color paper. When we had ours developed, Inkley’s, who we used at the time, accidentally printed ours first on color paper and then correctly printed them on black and white paper. The difference is amazing. When printed on color paper, there is a very noticeable warm tone to them. Not bad, just not black and white. Remember to have your black and white photos developed by a company that prints on the correct paper.

Back to the subject of the photo…Notre Dame. I specifically remember taking this shot. It was my second time in Paris so I was familiar with the city and knew where I wanted to visit and take Rob. Here we were crossing the Seine on our way to visit the famous cathedral. This shot I took is very “postcardy”. In fact, I think I may even have a real postcard just like this in color. But I wanted to take the picture anyway because it looked like a postcard. Paris is just one perfect shot after another. We all grow up seeing these images on tv and in books, etc. but to be there in person is incredible. There is such a vibe that is so difficult to express. It’s very “old world,” cosmopolitan, cliche, vivid, legendary, inspiring, memorable, quaint, and quintessential. I really cannot describe it perfectly. Every good thing people say about it is true. And that’s why we’ll go back again and again.