Paris—No 5

 

When people talk about things that are “over the top,” I think of Palace of Versailles, which is about twelve miles outside of Paris and an easy train ride.  

The court of Versailles was the center of political power in France from 1682, when Louis XIV moved from Paris, until the royal family was forced to return to the capital in October 1789 after the beginning of the French Revolution.  Versailles is therefore famous not only as a building, but as a symbol of the system of absolute monarchy of the Ancient Regime.

According to one of the write-ups within the Versailles, at its high point, to run and maintain this palace, it took about 20% of all the taxes collected by the French government—now that is living in style.

Today’s photo is of the hall of mirrors.  I manually focused my camera about one third of the way into the scene and then held it over my head and clicked away.  My main concern was keeping the camera level.

Enjoy.

Camera settings:  Nikon D800, 28-300mm f/3.5~5.6 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 at 1/60^th of a second. 
Post Processing: 
Lightroom 4—applied Vivid preset during import, set white and black points, increased shadows and decreased highlights and added vibrance and clarity.