By Jenn Gidman
Images by Liz Huston
Liz Huston had filled a whole memory card with photos from her vacation to Paris when the unthinkable happened on her last day there. "I was sitting on the bank of the Seine, making a video with my iPhone, when I dropped my lens cap and 32GB card into the river," she says. "I lost about four days' worth of images, including photos of my final birthday in my 30s on top of the Eiffel Tower. I almost jumped in the river after it."
With little time to spare, she managed to capture a few more images in Paris, exploring the places not as frequented by tourists for a quieter peek into the city's wonders. "From the Tuileries to the statuary in the Jardin du Luxembourg to the views of Paris from the top of Notre Dame, I tried to show the view not often seen," she explains.
Liz brought her Tamron SP 24-70mm VC lens to capture Paris' nooks and crannies. "I only brought this lens, and it's all I needed," she explains. "I like to photograph what I intend to photograph. I need to have the flexibility to zoom in with a wide lens that's fast, and the 24-70 does just that."
The leafy paradise of Tuileries Garden, situated between the Louvre and the Place de la Concord, was the ideal spot for Liz's sunrise photography. "I love to shoot as much in-camera as I can, which I did here to capture this statue reaching up into the morning light," she explains. "I didn't have to crop this photo at all, thanks to the 24-70. I only had to bring up some of the levels a little bit—it was so beautiful on its own with the sunlight streaming in."
One of her off-the-beaten path photos turned out to be of one of Paris' most famous structures: the imposing Notre Dame Cathedral. "I went over there one morning and ended up leaving defeated because there were so many people that I was just spending my time vying for a good spot," Liz says. "After I lost my memory card, I ended up going back to try one more time, but this time I approached the cathedral from behind. It was amazing back there—no people, and a perfect view. You can see the two famous columns on the left of the building."
Climbing to the top of Notre Dame afforded Liz a spectacular city view, but she decided to put a twist on it with her 24-70. "When I entered the staircase to climb to the top, it was sunny; by the time I emerged, the rain was just about to hit, so it was really dark and moody," she says. "I wanted to express how it actually felt up there, not just how it looked. I positioned the gargoyle statue in the foreground of my photo, with the city and the Eiffel Tower sprawled in the background. To capture even more of that moodiness, I opted to convert to black and white. That also added a bit of timelessness to the photo—except for the cars below, you really can't tell what time period this image is in."
Liz was especially able to experiment with the 24-70's focal-length range in the verdant Jardin du Luxembourg, or Luxembourg Garden. "I had never been to this garden before," she says. "A friend of mine was born near there, so I decided to go check out his neighborhood. They were doing renovations on the park, and many sections were more or less closed off, which is why I was able to get so many photos where there are no other people in them."
In the Jardin, Liz explains, she was able to find "sweet little moments," such as the image she took of the statue peeking out from the greenery. "Then, in an instant, I could zoom out further and capture the leading lines of the fountain walls or the juxtaposition of the garden's trees against the stone pathways and structures," she explains. "I was really exploring with that lens, pushing myself to discover scenes I hadn't photographed in the city before."
Using the 24-70 allowed Liz to also focus on a trend that started on the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge and spread to other areas of the City of Love. "People are attaching what are called 'love-locks' to the bridges," she explains. "They're simply padlocks with heartfelt messages written or inscribed on them. There are actually vendors selling locks all over the city, which is now starting to board up the railings because they're getting too heavy with the locks on them. But I managed to zoom in and capture a section with the 24-70, which really shows the details behind this facet of Paris that some might not know about."
Liz's favorite place in Paris—the Musée d'Orsay, located on the left bank of the Seine—was where she captured one of her favorite end-of-day images. "I went to the museum every day, and I just happened to be in that area as the sun was going down that evening," she says. "No matter how cold it is, if the sun is out, people will just sit along the Seine and bask in it, and that's where I was when I captured this image. I bumped up the saturation, popped on a filter, and just watched as the golden hour hit, building up to the crescendo you see here."
In the end, while she's regretful that she lost so many images on her memory card, Liz is appreciative of the ones she captured in their stead. "They turned out to be little treasures that you don't find on your typical bus tours through Paris," she says. "I brought back a completely different view of a magnificent city that's been photographed thousands of times over."
To see more of Liz Huston's work, go to www.lizhuston.com.