Beauty and the Beast II Photo

Photographer’s Note

The Eiffel tower was met with much criticism from the public when it was built, with many calling it an eyesore. Newspapers of the day were filled with angry letters from the arts community of Paris. “And during twenty years we shall see, stretching over the entire city, still thrilling with the genius of so many centuries, we shall see stretching out like a black blot the odious shadow of the odious column built up of riveted iron plates.” Signers of this letter included Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Charles Gounod, Charles Garnier, Jean-Léon Gérôme, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, and Alexandre Dumas.

Novelist Guy de Maupassant—who claimed to hate the tower — supposedly ate lunch in the Tower's restaurant every day. When asked why, he answered that it was the one place in Paris where one could not see the structure. In reality, since zoning restrictions limit the height of most buildings in Paris to 7 stories, only a very few of the taller buildings have a clear view of the tower.

Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years, meaning it would have had to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it could be easily demolished) but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the expiration of the permit.

Budapestman, macondo, Cretense, Loic_bzh, jhm, jlbrthnn, swiatopelk777 ha contrassegnato questa nota come utile

Critiques | Translate

erhan1958 (4859) 2009-11-21 2:55

selam alexander
mükemmel bir paris sonbaharı
greetings
have a nice weekend
erhan

snunney (38395) 2009-11-21 3:02

Hello Alexander,
I rather like this novel composition of the Eiffel Tower. The nicely lit autumn foliage makes a pleasing contrast with the austere lines of the tower. Good use of depth of field. Well observed and presented.

Budapestman (46503) 2009-11-21 3:13

Hi Alexander,
a superb photo of this famous tower with impressive composition and beautiful foreground, the colours are very nice. A splendid impression, Tfs! Have a nice weekend!
George

npecanhuk (17951) 2009-11-21 3:14

Hello Alexander!
I really like this picture specially because of its originality!
Level of sharpness in the foreground, contrast with the blurred background (where I can see the wonderful Eiffel Tower), pov, white frame, square format, colors, exposure and composition are all excellent!
TFS - congratulations!
Best regards,
Neyvan

Didi (37569) 2009-11-21 3:18

Bonjour Alexander
Une intéressante composition différente traditionelles cartes postales touristiques
Une mise au point sélective sur le feuillage donne un certain attrait avec le bokeh sur la tour Eiffel

Best regards

diomed (7126) 2009-11-21 11:55

Hi Alex,
original view of the Eiffel tower: I like the composition with the nice colored foreground and the tower out of focus. TFS
Nice WE
Antonio

danyy (70671) 2009-11-22 0:11

Bonjour Alexander,
un clin d'oeil à ta manière à l'automne et à la grande dame de fer, le tout dans un même cadrage. Bien vu.
Amicalement.
Daniel.

macondo (13704) 2009-11-22 0:50

Hi Alexander.
There was a fascinating and large exhibition in the Hotel de Ville in June, which I went to see - all about Eiffel the designer really, but showed many of the amazing alternative towers that were designed at the time. I had never known before that it had been planned to pull it down!
Anyway, it's a very delicate, simple but effective rendering of Autumn leaves and light, with the twigs seeming almost to blend in with the structure behind. The partial, blurred tower doesn't take attention away from the leaves and sky, but nonetheless instantaneously suggests the location. Nice work.
Regards,
Andrew

Cretense (60379) 2009-11-23 0:47

Hello Alexander!

Excellent, innovative framing and composition, great idea to focus on the leaves and leave the Eiffel Tower out of focus! Great light management, beautiful colorus!

Hercules

Loic_bzh (7079) 2009-11-24 3:21

Hi Alexander,

you succeed in shoting the Eiffel tower in a non common way and it would worth 2 points just for that! But this pict is much more: brilliant contrast between the strenght of the tower and the brittleness of the branch, between the colors ot the leaves and the one of the tower...

Cheers,

Loïc

jhm (86502) 2009-11-24 4:10

Hello Alexander,

A nice colourfully picture with the focus on the leaves.
Colourfully picture, all leaves during these period of the year are extraordinarily lovely.
The colours and lights are very nice
Very well done, TFS.

Warmest regards,
John

jlbrthnn (42589) 2009-11-24 8:05

Hello Alexander,
The focusing on the sheets, which creates a blur on the Tour Eiffel, is better effect. It is an excellent contrast, a good light, beautiful colors of autumn. Cheer.
Have a good evening
Cordially
Joël

macjake (4681) 2009-11-27 2:08

Hello Alexander

Its great to see the famous tower used as a backdrop, not the focal point for a change.
the bright yellows fit well with the steel grey.
Also, you cropped the image at an excellent point as well.
Congrats
Craig

swiatopelk777 (11984) 2009-11-27 2:25

Hi Alex!
Very sophisticated composition. Perfect capture. Original shot. Funny effect.
Greetings from Warszawa!

AiresSantos (45796) 2009-12-02 0:07

Hi Alexander
Different, unusual but very beautiful this composition.
I like a lot the yellow leaves on left side
TFS and have a nice day
Aires

coco (29181) 2009-12-02 13:12

Hi Alexander.

When I saw your photo I thought about one picture I posted time ago.

Nice and very smart work with the composition and gorgeous DOF too.
The exposure and colours are great too.

Carlos.