Eiffel Tower

Continuing with the European tour theme, here’s a shot of the Eiffel Tower. We visited Paris over a weekend that included Bastille Day (July 14th) which is the day on which the start of the French Revolution started.  It’s celebrated similar to our 4th of July with airshows and explosions.  We didn’t see any airshows, but we did get unnervingly close to some explosions.  Apparently the French found it entertaining to light firecrackers and just drop them on the sidewalk to explode a few seconds later.  Yeehaw!

We had visited the Eiffel Tower during the day, but went back to the area at night.  It was very foggy, which made the tower that much more interesting for photographs (I may have felt differently at the time, but I like them now).  Stabilized lenses existed, but we’re well outside my budget at the time.  Camera sensors were not what they are today either, so I tended to stick to ISO 100 (analogous to 100 speed film – not what you pick for night photography), to maximize image quality.  This is where the F/1.8 lens was useful as it helped keep shutter speeds fast(ish).  This picture was a 1/8 second shutter, which is pretty borderline for hand held (I had no tripod) and thus is a little less than perfect, but I think a cool shot none the less.