What is it I like so much about photographing Paris? I’ve been trying to pinpoint this. Of course, everyone here seems to be having a good time and it is like a moveable party (Hemingway nailed this one). Also, the light is often fantastic. Proving that Paris is not just for the pigeons or birds.

Coming into Paris after a cramped overnight flight from San Francisco I rode the Air France Airport bus into the Gare de Lyon, where I caught a taxi to my cute studio apartment in the 4th Arrondissement. After picking up the keys, I bought the makings for a light picnic lunch, and headed a few blocks over to the banks of the Seine River, where this pigeon in a blown out shaft of sunlight caught my eye. I shot the image at f/1.4 using my Zeiss 35mm lens to create shallow depth-of-field on the pigeon, and a dramatic out-of-focus effect in the scenery and clouds.