Arc de Triomphe - Fini

 These are the last two photos of the Arc I processed.

Fun Fact #1: The Arc de Triomphe (in English: "Triumphal Arch") honours those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.   

Fun Fact #2: The Arc de Triomphe is so colossal that three weeks after the Paris victory parade in 1919, (marking the end of hostilities in World War I), Charles Godefroy flew his Nieuport biplane through it, with the event captured on newsreel.  

Fun Fact #3: Beneath the Arc is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I. Interred here on Armistice Day 1920, it has the first eternal flame lit in Western and Eastern Europe since the Vestal Virgins' fire was extinguished in the fourth century. It burns in memory of the dead who were never identified (now in both world wars). According to a 2008 television programme, presented by Griff Rhys Jones, “the flame has only been extinguished once, by a drunken Mexican football supporter on the night that France beat Brazil here in Paris,” most likely referring to the1998 FIFA World Cup Final.

Fun Facts courtesy of Wikipedia.

Arc de Triomphe - Part Deux

 Here is a couple more of the Arc de Triomphe. The one to the left here had some major lens  flare but I personally think lens flare is beautiful and I love how the colors of the flare where magnified by the HDR process, in the finishing touches I purposely turned up the green, aqua, magenta, red and  blue to really make the flares pop. And I am finding out that the best HDR photos are taken with the sun to my back. The sun always blows out the sky and you don't get those beautiful blues.

I love how the sun light bounces off the inside of the Arch in this picture. I get excited every time I take a photo involving statues or stone structures, the process brings out such beautiful detail in them.

Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile

These are a couple more photos I took while my wife and I where on vacation in Europe. Specifically of the "Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile"  (in English: Triumphal Arch of the Star). I really like the colors of the one to the right. Not exactly realistic I know, more surrealistic. but hey, to each his own.

I was surprised at the amount of detail I was able to bring out of these. These were created from three copies of a single jpeg at varying levels of darkness and light. This monument is in the north west of Paris, France.