Paris Day 1 – Eglise De La Madeleine

Continuing from: https://bryanallo.wordpress.com/2013/07/09/paris-day-1-galeries-lafayette-heaven-on-earth-for-women/

After exploring Galeries Lafayette, I realized I had lost my bearings and walked too far west. I then took the next south-east street which landed be at this round about. In the middle of the round about was this very old church: Eglise De La Madeleine.

It was here that it began to sink in, just how much the French people value their construction and buildings. Paris is dotted with a plethora of monuments. Not just hastily erected structures with tablets and inscriptions. They are all monuments that took decades or generations to complete. Exhaustive use of granite, marble, stone, copper and iron. It was very inspiring and profoundly moving to walk up to, touch and visit every single one of these monuments. Even simple state/governmental office buildings, stood as if those who built them wanted to make a very pertinent point to all who did as much as walk by. You could feel the deep sense of pride of those who toiled away, cutting those stones, granite and smelting the copper.

Eglise De La Madeleine, was no exception. And to think that, as I explored the city more in the following days, I realized that this church was perhaps one of the most modest of churches dotting the Paris landscape. It was humbling.

It was overcast and drizzling but I managed to get a somewhat clean shot of the front despite the high level of traffic. Fortunately I was able to get some shots of the inside. Once inside, I took extra care not to disturb the faithful who were present for worship. I set my 5D Mark III to Live View mode so as to avoid the loud mirror slap that comes with an SLR. I was able to quietly take multiple HDR bracket shots. I used a high ISO 1600-3200 since I only had enough time and space to shoot handheld. In this respect, the 5D Mark III proved it’s worth with no noticeable noise. Below are some of the shots I got.

Some of the cleaner shots will be processed and made available for print.