3rd Time’s A Charm

Now that I have fully recovered from my jet lag induced haze, I can get back to sharing some images from my recent trip to France. The trip began with a 5 day stay in the little town of La Mongie nestled in the Pyrenees. We rode our bikes over some of the most famous mountains in the Tour De France (Col de Tourmalet, Aspin, Soulor, Aubisque as well as Luz Ardiden). It was both humbling and inspiring to measure yourself against the times of your heroes. They are much faster than I am, but the throngs of fans who were camped out along the mountain roads cheered us on as if we were in the Yellow Jersey. It was an experience I will never forget.

As for this image, once we left La Mongie we traveled to Bordeaux to watch the individual time trial. We arrived a day early which left us plenty of time to explore the town. In the center of the town is the massive Cathedral Saint-Andre. I walked around it several times, both day and night, trying to decide how I wanted to make an image of it. It wasn’t until my 3rd lap that I noticed this small diorama of the cathedral itself. I then realized that this is the image I had been looking for.

Capture Notes:

Nikon D700
Nikkor 17-35 AFS
Gitzo Traveler
Lexar UDMA

Aperture f/4.0
Focal Length 35 mm
ISO Speed 800 (oops)

Processing Notes:

Capture – 9 images @ 1ev
Photomatix – HDR/ToneMapping
Photoshop – Curves Adjustment
Photoshop – Vibrancy/Sat Adjustment
Sized for web
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