If you are familiar with my photography, you know that with the exception of my portrait work, I typically don’t have people in my photos. Usually with a combination of patience and very long exposures I can virtually eliminate the people. On this day in May at the Louvre, that simply was not possible, There were so many people that visually, the people almost became the event. So like they say, “If you can’t fight ‘em, join ‘em.

I thought I’d post his now because it has sort of an inside-out Christmas tree look to it… Despite it’s appearance, there was virtually no post processing done on the image. I just did a minor curves adjustment & Topaz Adjust to add a little ‘pop’. The effect was caused by the long (3 second) exposure while the train moved through the tunnel surrounded by all these flashing lights.
As I was about to post this I was trying to decide on a title for the photo and “Wormhole” seemed the obvious choice. It just looks like what I would fantasize that traveling through a wormhole would look like. Then I realized that my friend and amazing photographer Trey Ratcliff named his photo of the same location “The Wormhole”. I’m not sure if I had some unconscious memory of his title embedded in my brain from previously reading his post or perhaps, I named it that just because hey, it looks like a wormhole… In any case, you can see his photo here:
This is actually a rather kitsch but fun train called “The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel” that runs under the river between the Bund in Shanghai & Pudong. It is obscenely touristy but nevertheless something I would recommend.

It’s extremely rare that I re-post a photo. However, one of my readers informed me that George Whitman, the American born owner of the iconic Paris bookstore “Shakespeare & Company” passed away yesterday. Of my thousands of photographs I have published, this would have to be one of my very favorites. I love Shakespeare & Company and I feel my photograph “Shakespeare’s Chair” does a decent job of conveying the spirit of the shop. Thank you George Whitman for creating so many wonderful memories and to your daughter Sylvia for continuing the tradition. Click here for a link to a New York Times article published yesterday December 14th, 1011  about George Whitman & Shakespeare & Company.