Friday, November 03, 2006

Big Achievement


I took this photo at Le Palais Royal where I took this one the other day. There were lots of children out that day but it was particularly cute to watch this one trying to climb up one of the Buren columns (OK, with a little help from his father!) and finally make it.

37 comments:

  1. Today a small column - tomorrow the 14 8000m peaks - go boy go!

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  2. http://www.philtube.com/?id=27

    Hey Eric, I'm sure you seen this - but i saw this and thought of you.....

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  3. Ah, good! Glad to see these columns put to good use! :-) And it's a lovely picture, too. You go, kid!

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  4. Clear details; can even see the shoelaces clearly-nice. His shoes are SO white on such an active child. Appealing photo.

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  6. I'd love to see the next pic, when the kid stands up, stretches his body with his arms wide open and then shouts with a big smile on his face: I am the King of the World!!!

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  7. Great sense of timing on your behalf. Your work reminds me of another photographer. Perhaps you have heard of him; Alfred Eisenstadt. Keep clicking!!!~rick

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  8. cute photo.
    i wander is he exercising parqour?

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  9. Oohh...lovely photo of a parisian boy:)?

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  10. tres belle photo, un instantané de la vie. tu as un tres beau coup d'oeil. bravo

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  11. Eric, this photo and your caption reminds me of the movie Les Choristes...and particularly the little kid who wasn too small to be in the choir but was appointed assistant choir master...he's so cute.

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  12. The photo suggests the kid is way up on top of a column. When I checked out the Buren columns link, I see the columns are rather short. I can understand the controversy. I prefer a non-mix. However, one must go with the flow, I guess. They are a great improvement over a parking lot.

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  13. How high up was this one Eric? I love the photo, as always.

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  14. Actually Johnny, the columns are of all different heights. We'll have to wait for Eric to tell us how high this boy climbed.

    Welcome back Tomate. I've missed you!

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  15. Such a nicely composed capture of this wonderful moment. You've succeeded in doing it AGAIN: bringing us a view of a much photographed place that is uniquely your own. I've seen hundreds of photos of the columns, and this is immediately recognizable, yet very fresh. Kudos!
    -Kim
    PS-I love the red details of his sneakers.

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  16. Somebody help me. Is the Palais Royale behind the Louvre? Is the Louvre part of the Palais Royale? Are the Palais Royale and the Louvre side-by-side? Are they in two different places? I am sorely confused. Mon Dieu!

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  17. Not quite across the street. Rue Rivoli runs along the Louvre, and across that is the Hotel Louvre. On the north of the Hotel Louvre is the Comedie Francais theater, next to that is the Palais Royale and its garden. It's all a hop and a skip. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a great Pissarro painting of the place in front of the hotel. It's at http://www.artsmia.org/viewer/detail.php?v=12&id=129 . The Palais Royale is to the right of the scene in this painting. By the way, l'Hotel Louvre has a "Pissarro Suite", where the painter lived for a while.

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  18. Rue St. Honore, that's the street on which Palais Royale fronts. Oh, for...here I am on the other side of the bloody world giving directions. Right.

    Au revoir, au revoir, bon chance.

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  19. Quite frankly Jeff, you do a prett good job. If I'm ever lost in your neck of the woods I'd certainly call you.

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  20. One new thought to add, Eric: with a bit of cropping you have the perfect picture for the December theme day photo: a Bob shot! :-)
    -Kim

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  21. Haxo and Jeff, don't forget this photo of the same metro entrance. Eric would never let you forget it!

    The funny thing is that I notice that it is one of Eric's very early posts. Zero comments! Imagine! It must be a virtual collectible!

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  22. Stu and jeff - thanks for the directions. I know where they both are now.

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  23. Fred summed it up perfectly for me..."Life in the City...What fun"!! Being a "City Child" [Once upon a time]myself...I thought the same thing; and to be a "gosse" in the most beautiful city in the world...what could be more exciting? This will be a favorite shot for many people I think. Perfect Eric!!
    I always enjoy watching the Parisian children when I'm in Paris[in the parks etc..]and they seem to have a different way of being mischievious than American kids...one afternoon we just laughed and laughed at two small boys near the Champ de Mars making faces at tourists.

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  24. kpgallant said, "I always enjoy watching the Parisian children when I'm in Paris [in the parks etc..] and they seem to have a different way of being mischievious than American kids"

    You might be interested in a book by Pascal Baudry called French & Americans - The Other Shore. This French guy who lived in the U.S. for a long time has one of the best books out about the different cultures, but not from the typical cross-cultural point of view. Here's the link to where you can download a free version of several chapters that might be interesting for you. I've given it to so many people at work and everyone has the same, positive reaction.

    One of the points he makes in his book is around how French and American mothers treat their children differently at a very young age. American mothers say, "Go on, have a good time". Whereas French mothers might say, "Don't stray too far away". Just a teaser, but I found it to be a very good book.

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  25. Good thing you mentionned Pascal Baudry's book Michael for I think it is really great if you want to understdand the two cultures.

    Thank you "GPS Jeff", your explanation is absolutely perfect!

    Welcome back Tomate, where have you been ;))

    Rick, no, I don't know this photographer, but the photo looks really nice. the only thing is that you're not allowed to show people without their consent and even less children. I posted this one because one cannot see the face of the child, but otherwise I would not have done it. Before the law was not that strict so photographers did not bother too much...

    And yes the columns have different heights. This onre was pretty high (for a kid) the size of a man (actually the size of his dad's shoulders...)

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  26. Michael,

    Thank you for the link! I have read some of this before and am very glad to have found it again! I have read about 40 pages and have saved it on my hard-drive for future reading.

    I emphatically agree with everything I've read so far.

    I am wondering if any others have read this and what their reactions are to it.

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  27. Susan...glad you found it interesting. I re-read my post and it sounds like an advertisement for Baudry, but I've seen him speak and he's even better in person. He makes no judgements about the two cultures, and it's not that typical "in France you give a kiss on the cheek, in America you shake hands" stuff, but really insightful information.

    The biggest thing I took away was the difference between Implicit (France) and Explicit (USA) cultures. Quite fascinating.

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  28. That is an excellent link michael. Thank you. I downloaded what I could and have already finished half of it. It's really an interesting perspective.

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  29. Bonjour Eric, existe-t-il un 'making of' de cette ascension ?

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  30. Matthieu, il y en a, mais je ne peux pas les publier car on voit le visage de l'enfant et c'est interdit de le poster sans l'accord des parents.

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  31. Eric, just a new idea of caption
    "The new thinker", or even better, "the upcoming thinker", or the "upcoming columnist thinker". All this with a reference to Rodin's sculpture, "the Thinker".

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