A Moveable Feast

photography classes

I have taken a couple of more photography classes since September. The two last ones about capturing speed and about night photography. The purchase of my new toy had been initiated by a missed opportunity during the finish of the Tour de France this year, when I had Lance and Alberto directly in front of me, and all I got was a lousy blurred photo. So I am hoping this will be different in 2010. I want them to be recognizable this time. But a good camera is not enough, there are some little tricks involved about capturing speed, I was hoping to learn. We took the photos around the Place de la Concord to appreciate the impact of using 1/1000 versus 1/60 on the water fountains, and then continued learning to capture sharp impages of the cars circulating around the Place de la Concorde, which is basically obtained by following the object with your camera (panning). Sonds easy but takes a little practice to master. So I got my Tour de France training, Lance I am ready !

Capturing the Fountain in the Jardin de Tuileries with the Ferris Wheel on the Place de la Concorde in the background :

Tour de France 2009, with my old toy. Lousy. Lance is blurred. The spectators are sharp, and the buildings in the background overexposed.:

Practicing for Tour de France 2010 on Place de la Concorde with my new toy, not yet perfect, but will be getting there. With panning the bikes are almost sharp, the background (Champs-Elysees with Arc de Triomphe) is blurred transmitting the notion of speed, and the exposure correct. :

The other class was about night photography, and I especially appreciated learning about the streaked light effects with long exposure, and the effects of changing the focal length during exposure ("zoom burst").

Here again the link to the site where I booked the classes: http://www.jeveuxetrephotographe.com

 

 

a magic moment

Sometimes there are situations that you can't anticipate, and that provide maybe for that very reason a magic moment in life. I just had a 15 minute lasting magic moment, that I want to capture. A long day in the restaurant, happy customers, among them my friends Allison and Paul, my team (I have now an apprentice and a commis) working hard, a flawless service, and my decision at 0:30 to let the last metro go and rather give some more time to clean the kitchen thoroughly and share a glass of wine with the waiters. Finding a taxi at 1:30 a.m., rather uncomfortable if not scared, because as a woman I always feel the metro is safer than a taxi, at least in Paris (there have been some "incidents").

I explain to the driver where to and how (!) to drive me home. Usually I would then pull out my cell phone, and type wildly nonsense prentending to text, just to give the taxi driver the feeling that he can't kidnap me without consequences. But not this time. Suddenly a huge wave of inner peace overwhelmes me by the beautiful music that is playing from his CD. After a while of silence between us I say : "what is the music, it reminds me of Leonard Cohen." And indeed, it is the London 2008 concert, and the taxi driver increases the sound level and tells me how much his wife and daughter love this music and that I must buy the DVD. Then we both listen in awed silence again.

We are driving by the opera house, the Palais Royal, the Louvre and its Pyramide, crossing the Seine on the Pont du Carrousel, with Notre Dame to the left and the muséee d'Orsay to the right, and all this to So long Marianne and Suzanne. I know it's very sentimental, but the moment almost made me cry and be grateful to be alive and live in such a beautiful city.

 (photo by Arnaud Frich, www.arnaudfrichphoto.com)

Je veux être photographe

I want to be a photographer. That's the name of a company that provides training by high profile professional photographers to amateurs. A month ago just before my two trips to Germany, frustrated by the poor photos I had taken of the arrival of the tour de France in Paris and now driven by the desire to have a better tool at hand for capturing special moments or simply impressions of Paris and the rest of the world, I acquired "my new toy", as my father calls it, that listens to the name of Canon EOS 450D.

I bought all types of books specific to the camera and about photography in general. Now studying books is one thing, but when I heard about this company in Paris I didn't hesitate one second and registered for a class. The theme of the class was "to photograph Paris like Doisneau". You all know Doisneau and the famous photo of the kissing couple in front of the hotel de ville ? Of course you do. Well at least Margaret and Andy know....

When I got the confirmation mail, I skipped up and down, because the teacher of the class was the one I had hoped for, Dominique Llorens. His experience is amazing and I still can't believe that someone like him was teaching me how to take better photos. He is, next to some other projects, the assistant of Yann Arthus Bertrand, who you all know from the amazing photos of "earth from above". How lucky I was  !!!

The class lasted 4 hours, starting in a café with Dominique sharing some anecdotes about his professional experince, including his encounter with Doisneau himself, who had lived in his neighbourhood. So exciting !!! Then he provided some theory about the choices to make when taking a photo. Afterwards we were sent to the nearby market, to put to practice Dominique's advice and tips for taking photos of people in Paris. I was first totally blocked, because I felt very uncomfortable about taking photos of persons I didn't know. I didn't want to invade their privacy. But whenever I had a doubt, Dominique stood suddenly in front of me out of the blue, asking how I was doing and checking how I took my photos. He showed me how to get better in touch with people and create easily a relationship to use for good pictures. He also identified as one of my key "mistakes" the centered positioning of objects, whereas a basic guideline for better composition is to follow the rule of thirds.

After the hands-on exercise on the market we all returned back to the café and our photos were uploaded to Dominique's laptop and then "criticized" and edited by him. This was the most instructive part for me. I learnt so much about composition and layout of pictures, framing, emphasizing, dos and donts, watching background, etc.

The next day I sent an email to Dominique to thank him for the good time and his willingness and talent to pass on his experience. Checking out new courses tonight I just found my email quoted on the companies website, together with a selection of pictures we took that day. Mine is the second one in the gallery. Check it out...

La rentrée

literally translated : "the return", which fits the situation better than the actual meaning "back to school". Happy New Year to the French ! Well, calendars run from September to July and not from January to December here. After a month of no activity, the country wakes up and everything starts as if it was a new beginning. The official back to school day in Paris was last Thursday and since then things are getting back to normal.

The picture below by the way is my godchild Amelie on the way to her first day of school in Germany a month ago. Also a big event, to which I travelled, but not driving the life of a whole country as it is the case here.

 

La rentrée to the restaurant has been a little rough. We returned and many things were broken and not set up correctly, so the only words the otherwise so well behaved chef kept repeating was "putain de merde". First the drains didn't work, so we had to deal with flood in the basement five times a day. Then the dishwashing mashine created a blackout each time we switched it on, the first night the customers sat several times in the dark, then I pulled the plugs and decided that everything would have to be washed mannually, which created more inondations. So my dishwasher-commis instead of being able to help me with the mise en place and the plating during service, did nothing but washing and cleaning "la piscine" (the swimming pool" as I started to call my flooded basement area. This doubled my workload and of course the speed at which I had to work. Fortunately we were only running at 30-40 covers per night, so it was still manageble. With the targetted 50-70 covers per night I would not have survived...

Then we had various types of animals that had found a new home and reproduced during the closing week. I won't go into details, otherwise none of my friends and readers will come to the restaurant any more. Just watch Ratatouille and Starship Troopers simultaneously to get the point. This has been fixed in the meantime with various traps and tons of poisening spray. Among the other minor issues was the failure of the lights in the basement, so that I use now a little reading lamp to have light for plating. Sometimes also the food elevator broke, so that we had to carry plates via the back stairs upstairs to the restaurant level. Also besides the restaurant falling apart, and the frustrated chef, "le patron" is more than stressed, as his business partner, my former 2nd patron has left the partnership and wants to be paid his share, but the credit  hasn't been yet approved by the bank. Obviously this would trouble any entrepreneur, so his mind is somewhere else, and he is not focussed as usual on the details and operations of the restaurant.

I can continue : the guy who usually runs the starters and desserts for lunch service got married and is on 2 weeks vacation, and sent a family member to replace him. His cousin speaks hardly French, doesn't really work clean and fast, and is a reasonnably good dishwasher but not a qualified commis. This should have been predictable, but le patron thought it could work, the chef did not. So two days after la rentrée the chef called me at home to beg me to work also during lunch service and to start working at 10 a.m.; instead of 4 p.m. And I can't say no to anything the chef asks me... But after one day of 15 hours without break, I came in totally crushed the next day and asked the chef and le patron if they realize what they have asked to an old woman like me. I was sooooo tired and could hardly open my eyes. The patron then said that they would find a solution, and it would be o.k. if I could only come in at noon. The chef was not happy, but it was a better compromise. While le patron was very flexible, he couldn't resist to tease me later, and asked how I imagine to run a restaurant, if I am so tired after just one day working two shifts. I didn't even try to argue, because he was right. For me this was an important lesson. I might actually not have the physical energy neither desire to run a restaurant for lunch and dinner service on my own. What's the point to be tired all the time. But I believe I will find a formula that fits, either limited opening days / hours, limited number of seats, cheap employees, a business associate, etc. etc.. Something to plan well, before making the big step.

I continue with "la rentrée" : During my (wonderful wonderful) cycling vacation in Bavaria I had not given a single thought to the new Fall menu. The meeting had been set up for September 8 for implementation as of September 15, that would give me 2 weeks from the reopening day. But surprise, on Thursday last week, the chef announced that the menu planning meeting would be on the following Tuesday, September 1st. That left me with 3 days to come up with 7 starters and 7 desserts, which meant weekend "recreation" was cancelled, and I worked all weekend over my cookbooks and magazines, feeling very much reminded of those many days preparing presentations for HP a little late under time presssure. So all of last Sunday and Monday I established my proposals, and while a little upset about the missing weekend fun, I was rather happy with my results. At the end 3 out of the new 7 starters and 6 out of the new 7 desserts will be from my list. To be discovered in a future post.

Today was my first full real day off after those intense two weeks, and the fact that I only woke up at 11:30 a.m. speaks for itself. My legs and feet still hurt and I spent my day reading (NOT a cookbook) sitting in sidewalk cafés and restaurants in the September sun. Next week will be much better, I will be back to my normal working hours, and it seems there will be no more "piscine" in my kitchen.

July 14th

Ok ok May is over, and it is time to create some new posts. I admit have been a bit lazy with this blog, even though my culinary and professional adventures have been more than exciting. Take it maybe as a sign that everything is going very well, and maybe because the fact that I am working as a cook, seems more and more normal to me than it used to, creates a little less desire to write about it. But I have heard a couple of complaints and I will resume writing about the new restaurant and my experiences there. Promised.

For the moment let me share some pictures from yesterday night. I had decided to watch the fireworks that celebrated Bastille day and at the same time 120 years of the Eiffel tower from the Seine river banks, with a view across Pont Neuf and on the Invalides as well. It was one of those perfect moments when you tell yourself how lucky you are to live in this beautiful city.

 

 

Welcome to Europe Mr. President

with this picture from the Jardin du Luxembourg and the first model of the statue of Liberty by Bartholdi. I just discovered it two days ago, running there now 2-3 times a week, which is now feasible thanks to my new evening work schedule. A whole new life...

It must be spring, my favourite season. I spend all my money on café and "Perrier tranche" sitting on terrasses in the sunshine reading cookbooks (my new bosses want me to come up with proposals for the new menu next week).

43 trial years

I had invited a couple of friends to celebrate my 43rd trial year on this planet with me for last Thursday. But then, against all expectations I was offered the job of my dreams in the restaurant of my dreams and therfore had to work Thursday night. So we postponed to Monday night, yesterday. I invited the girls for cocktails in Harry's New York Bar, a bar that Hemingway used to spend quite some time in and so did my blog reader Norman from California when he lived in Paris as a young man. This is the bar where the Bloody Mary was invented, and I must say it is the best Bloody Mary I ever had (but is the mix on Air France flights really a good reference ?). The atmosphere and the barmen make this a very special place. Thank you girls for a fun evening !

 

 

Snow !!!

Yesterday night meteo france communicated a "snow alert" for the north of France, including the area around Paris. I was excited like a little child. Actually I have never seen snow before...in Paris. So this morning, while I could have enjoyed my unemployed life and sleep until noon, I was so excited I woke up at seven, got up to see what the night had brought, and indeed, some snow on the trees in front of my window. It felt like Christmas. So I forced myself to stay up, and to get out to admire the snow, because I knew it was rare and would not last very long. I had a special place in mind to go to, but until I arrived (I had to walk, as the bus network was shut down), most of the snow had already gone. Still very pretty !

And returning home at noon instead of getting up at noon was eventually not too bad. Anyway I need to get used slowly to the time zone that awaits me as of next Sunday (7 hours advance).

Door #22 - Place de la Concorde

I am sooooo tired. Got up very early this morning to finish my Xmas gifts (in the kitchen) before going to work, and had no opportunity to sleep between the shifts. So I am not going to write a lot tonight. I just want to sleep now, my eyelids are falling down. Here is another picture I took last week on my walk from home to the restaurant on the place de la Concorde. Right now there is a big wheel installed, which adds a special atmosphere at night. On the lower right part of the picture : the beginning of the illuminated Champs Elysees. Bonne nuit. A demain.

Door #18 - Le Palais Bourbon

The Palais Bourbon is the seat of the French National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament. It was buildt for the daughter of Louis XIV and constructions started in 1722. 1806 Napoleon had added the portico on the front, mirroring the columns of the Madeleine church on the other side of the Seine.

I recently started the habit to walk from home to the restaurant for the dinner shift instead of getting into the cramped metro. 45 minutes that lead along some beautiful parts of Paris, especially at night, and keep me moving a little bit...

Thanks to my new habit I discovered the video that is currently projected onto the front of the Palais Bourbon, conveying the origins of the European idea. Reason is the current French presidency of the European Union, ending December 31st.