Winged Victory of Samothrace

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Back from a bit of a break from blogging, decided to put it aside while I focused on school. 

I recently dropped my old iPhone 3G for the thousandth time and finally cracked the screen so I picked up a new SIII. I was going through the old photos on there and doing some interesting but simple editing in Picasa. 

This is a mobile shot I took of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, also referred to as Nike of Samothrace, at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. 

It is a 2nd century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre. 

The Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863 on the island of Samothrace (in Greek, Σαμοθρακη — Samothraki), is estimated to have been created around 190 BC. It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery through its features which the Greeks considered ideal beauty. 

The sculptor is unknown.

Virgin of the Annunciation - The Louvre, Paris, France

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This was taken inside The Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Or as they call it; Musée du Louvre.
Everyone should visit the Louvre when in Paris, regardless of their level of interest in art. The building itself is incredible, and huge. They say it would take about six days to fully explore the Louvre and all it's exhibits. I purposely focused on the room because I felt it was just as interesting as the sculpture. Most of my pictures while at the Louvre are of the building itself. Sadly my camera battery died shortly after entering so most of said pictures were taken by my old iPhone 3G, not the best quality. I tried the camera once more and was able to snap a few more pics while in this room before it shut down again.       
      This statue is the "Virgin of the Annunciation". It is a wood carving (originally polychromed), by Nino Pisano .

      The "Annunciation" refers to the Christian celebration of the announcement by the angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary that she would conceive and become the mother of Jesus, the Son of God, marking his Incarnation.       

       Nino Pisano (fl. 1349 – 1368) was an Italian sculptor, the son of Andrea Pisano. 

      He collaborated with his father in sculptures for the churches of San Zanipolo at Venice and in Santa Caterina at Pisa, and provided some panels for the bell tower of Santa Maria del Fiore. 

      Nino succeeded his father in the works of the Orvieto Cathedral in 1349.

      Works he made alone include a Madonna with Child in Santa Maria Novella, Florence, a Saint Bishop in the Cathedral of Oristanoand a Monument to Bishop Scherlatti now in the Museum of Pisa Cathedral. His other attributed works include a Madonna of the Rose in Santa Maria della Spina and a Madonna del Latte in the Museum of St. Matthew, both in Pisa. An Annunciation, once in Santa Caterina, is now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Pisano

http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=2270&langue=en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_du_Louvre

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.