streetlights

Hexar RF
Nokton 35mm f1.4
Portra 160 NC

Bonjour Cedric,

Just like the "red metal" one, this is also an excellent picture. Is it in La Défense, I presume?

Cheers,

Hi Cem,

Yes, you're true, the two pictures have been shot in La Defense (my favourite playground).

Thank you for your comments.

Cédric.

© Cedric Massoulier, Hexar RF, Nokton 35mm f1.4, Portra 160 NC

Hi Cedric,

Your picture with the 35mm lens gives a great feeling of presence as the base of the building is pulled towards the camera in such a dramatic almost intimate way. The 3 lights on the left serve to anchor this picture effectively. Thanks for allowing me to work with your image quickly corrected for perspective. I did this simply using PS CS2, but found the sky needed more clouds so I cloned them.

I immediately see that the tall glass building is much more impressive and grand. Previously, the lamps were an important center of interest was in the lower 1/3 of the photograph. Now, post correction, the power of the picture is in the phenomenal vertical architecture in the upper right 2/3 of the picture. Those 3 lamps? They are a now merely a decoration and point of reference which helps us realize and balance the immense majesty of the wonderful sky-high building towering above.

What impresses me is how the first picture is more intimate, if that's possible with such fine modern architecture while the second is profoundly epic and formal. In both cases, I wish there would be adjacent photographs so they could be stitched. Cedric, could you go back and do this again; I love the place! Where about is this? Thanks so much for sharing!

I am so happy you are doing such fine pictures with this camera. how noisy is the shutter compared to a Leica, if you know?

Asher

Hi Asher,

This tall glass building is the headquarter of the now famous Société Générale, the bank where a rogue trader lost more than 5 000 000 000 € in January ! I work in a tower very close to this one. It is in La Defense, the business area of Paris. So it's very easy for me to do it again, and i will.

I am currently at work and proxy server blocks your picture so i will see it tonight, at home...

Shutter noise of the Hexar RF is a polemical subject among Leica users... Shutter noise itself is low, with no vibrations... but motor drive automatically loads the film just after the shot and is quite loud. Not very loud but it sounds like a kind of "ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiip", generally very weird and disturbing for someone who use Leica bodies with manual loadings.

You have good informations about it here :
http://www.dantestella.com/technical/hexarrf.html

Asher, i am at home so i can see your picture : very interesting, effects are really different.

An interesting comparison Asher - the difference the perspective (or lack of it) makes to the photo is quite startling.

For me the original image makes me feel as if I am there, gazing up at the view, whilst in the second I feel detached as a viewer and further from the scene - almost as if the picture had been taken with a long lens.

Fortunately I don't have to choose which I prefer, and I can enjoy them both! Great picture Cedric!

I love the way the curves of the building play with the reflected curve of a nearby building (which is probably a straight wall, but comes out curved in the reflection). I also really like the way the windows in the reflection come out oddly shaped. The tower is nice, but the bottom half of the picture speaks more to me.

Another version:




Trying to keep the round shape of the building still round, and respecting the lamps.
If you want to make this type of edits, you need to frame wider.

But I think, i like the original - for Cedrics shooting style - better...