I was walking through a garden in Paris and stopped because something about it felt familiar. Couldn’t place it at first. Then I remembered my grandmother kept flowers like these on her windowsill. I haven’t thought about that window in years.
Street photography is strange because most of the time you don’t really control anything.
You wait.
You watch the light.
You notice the lines.
You hope the city gives you the missing piece.
And sometimes it does.
Sometimes I don’t even know why I stop.
There’s just a bit of light on the ground, or someone walking through it, or a shadow that makes the whole scene feel different for a few seconds. It’s never much, but somehow it’s enough.
I guess that’s what I like most about photography. It gives me a reason to pay attention before the moment disappears.
RAW doesn’t show what it felt like. Editing does.
The original image was warmer, flatter, and less atmospheric than the mood I remember from that rainy night in Bangkok.
So I used my Cyberpunk preset as a base, then refined the image with a few local adjustments, making certain areas softer and brighter, adjusting the temperature selectively, and subtly bringing more attention to the subject with the umbrella.
Presets are not a magic button. They are a starting point, a color direction, a way to get closer to the mood faster.
My Complete Collection is now available for €49 instead of €72: 33 Lightroom presets for desktop and mobile.
I loved how flowers in Hanoi weren’t just sitting quietly in shops or windows. They were moving with the city, passing through traffic, becoming part of the rhythm.
#hanoi #vietnam
While we wait on the residency permit, France has become our whole map for a while. So lately we’ve been exploring closer to home, mostly within a couple hours of Paris.
Chartres was a recent one and it really stayed with me. Something about it reminded me of Bruges, the small bridges, the canals, that quiet cozy feeling. A good escape from the city, even just for a day. Soon we’ll go further, once we find someone to watch the dog.
