So the other night I was walking down the street in the rain and I passed two surly looking middle aged french men that where obviously into the bottle. We exchanged glares and I continued walking. Just after I passed them, they shouted at me,”monsieur! monsieur!” and I turned around and started talking with them. It turned out that they had locked them selves out of their second story apartment. They then pointed out that had left a window open and to my surprise they asked me if I could climb up and let them in. I asked them why they didn’t do that themselves and they said that they had both tried but had fallen, one of which had fallen quite badly injuring his knee. He was limping so I believed him and I didn’t ask them why they would then ask a total stranger to do something so stupid that had just hurt them. I looked up and assessed while these guys actually rushed me! A first story window had shutters that opened out and above was a body length of smooth concrete to the 90 degree ledge of the window sill and open window. My first thought was: why would I risk hurting myself to help these guys, but then I thought what are the chances that these two individuals would first have the nerve to propose such a stunt to a stranger and second what were the chances that they would propose it to me (a person who spends most of his time practicing climbing). As we all know there are no coincidences in life so it had to be an omen and therefore I was obligated to try and help them. I grabbed the vertical prison bars in the first story window and high stepped on top of the moving shutter while the two men steadied it. Then hoping that the shutter would support my weight I stood up with no hands and extended barley latching the slick dirty window sill as my feet cut. Twenty five feet above the concrete sidewalk I mantled into the bed room of these strangers.
I pasted some images from a recent shoot in the medieval town of St. Maximin. I went there simply because I liked the name of the town!
TRAVEL
- The town of St.Maximin is located about an hour east of Aix-en-Provence. The Basilica (La Basilique) of the town of Saint Maximin is the largest gothic edifice in the South-East of France. It is 73 meters (240 feet) long by 37 meters (121 feet) wide by 29 meters (95 feet) high. Work began in 1295 and lasted for 300 years!
PHOTOGRAPHY
- Tripod vs no Tripod. In some instances (such as low light) a tripod is of course mandatory however some photographers still use a tripod in situations where there is enough light to shoot handheld. There is good reason for this: putting a camera on a tripod forces you to slow down and take a good look at your composition and this can help to produce better results. The down side to using a tripod when there is enough light to shoot handheld is off course it restricts camera placement and sometimes when you slow down you actually miss shots.
CLIMBING
- Always remember to wash your hands after buildering.
