Oh I’m sorry… Did I hint towards a trip to New York City a couple of posts down? Woopsie! I meant to say EUROPE BABY!!!!!!!!!!!
A few days in Paris, a few days in London, a few days in Belgium, a few days with my brother in Cardiff and a few days in Rome.
I should mention however, that I went with my little Mason, who is just under four years old right now, so although I really wanted to pull out my camera more often, go in more places and get a lot more artsy-fartsy… Well I just couldn’t. He wanted to be everywhere I was, all the time, doing everything I was doing, including taking pictures when I did.
And I’m going to begin with that.
I know that as a father, I’m biased in saying this, but my son is a photographer. And a spectacular one at that.
Aside from a few not-so-good ones, and hey, he’s friggin’ FOUR, he captured three shots that I wouldn’t hesitate to put in my portfolio, HAD THEY BEEN MINE!!
What REALLY blows my mind though, is that whenever he would take pictures, I could see him searching for an image. He wouldn’t be content with snapping a picture of whatever, I could see him aiming the camera at his surroundings, actually searching for what he considered a good image, never taking a shot until he’d found it, then he would really pause and take the care to not shake while hitting the shutter button.
Dude…
And then the results speak for themselves. Just LOOK at the composition on those!! Are you friggin’ kidding me?!?!?!?!
These were shot with my iPhone, and I think that had something to do with him finding an image because he could really see what he was doing as he was doing it.
Here’s the last one he took that I really love, although I think it was more of an accident. It was unbelievably cold in Paris, and that night was colder than that. This was an attempted shot at the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t have a tripod and in my shots remained as still as I possibly could and set the camera on as stable an object as I could, but I don’t think Mason realized the camera had been set to such a slow shutter speed, so after he felt the camera shutter open, he figured he’d taken the picture, and started bringing the camera down.
Accident or not, that’s cool:
Ok, onto the rest. I’m not going to differentiate between my Canon shots and my iPhone shots and I’m going to split the trip in at least two parts.
Day 334/365
My trip to Belgium was long and turned bad by the end for me. By the time I landed, I wasn’t feeling well at all. By the time I got to my mom’s, roughly two hours later, I was about to throw up and in a cold sweat. Oh and United Airlines was kind enough to lose my luggage. Thanks.
A glass of water I sipped on and a slice of fresh bread was what helped me get through
Oh and with time “moving faster” going so far east, I technically missed a day for pictures. I headed out on the 14th of December and got there on December 15th even though the trip was about 15 hours altogether… So I don’t know. I’m just gonna add another day to my 365 days.
Day 335/365
The next day, it was off to Paris! I know it’s winter, but I was surprised at how unbelievably cold it was out there…
Oh how I loved the quaint little streets of Paris…
Day 336/365
To my Utah readers, snow isn’t a big deal. In fact, to many here in the States, snow is normal.
In Paris though, and in Europe in general, snow was complete and utter chaos. This is primarily because most of the European countries that had been hit with snow, hadn’t had THAT kind of snow in about 20 years. So I was told at least.
That day, we couldn’t go up on the Eiffel Tower at all, so we went to the Louvres.
Day 337/365
The Passages Couverts (Covered Hallways), the Centre George Pompidou, the Arc De Triomphe and finally, the Eiffel Tower again, illuminated.
Day 338/365
The Eiffel Tower again. This time we were able to go up, but only to the first floor. The second and third floors were still completely frozen… Bummer.
Notre Dame de Paris
On the train back to Belgium for a couple of days.
Upon our arrival back to Belgium, we went to see some friends for dinner. Mason got to play with their parrot, who apparently doesn’t take kindly to strangers. Not with Mason! Our friends were very surprised and Mason had a blast.
Day 339/365
Mason watching the giant snowflakes coming down in my old home.
Day 340/365
I missed the second day of being in Belgium. This was the last time I forgot to shoot for the 365 project. So I think the total ended up being four missed? Make it five just to be safe, so I’ll shoot every day until the 15th of this month, how’s that?
This was when we got to London
Day 341/365
The London Eye.
It takes 30 minutes to complete a full revolution on it and get this, you can get married on it! They said that it costs £2,000 which is just over $3200. I’m not sure exactly what they provide, if anything, besides the 15-minute ceremony which starts at the bottom when you get on, and ends when you seal your union with a kiss at the top! How cool is that?!
Any future brides on here wanna book me for that? 
Day 342/365
Pigeons are tons of fun, especially when you can lure a ton of them to you. It’s not hard, just throw some crumbles of rotten food on the ground and you’re set.
Throw a four-year-old in the mix, and you have yourself a par-tay!!
Day 343/365
We got to my brother Ramzi’s house the evening before and had dinner with his fiancée and her father. It was great.
And then we went to their impeccably kept house. Here’s their Christmas Tr –… Sorry… Holiday Tree. Commemorating… stars… and lights… and glass balls…
Oh I don’t know what to call it anymore…
Day 344/365
The next day, we went shopping. Everything was half-off and this one looked like it was in good shape, so I thought what the hell, let’s get one of them!
Day 345/365
I haven’t been in every part of the world, so I can’t be sure these really were the best fish and chips in the world, but they tasted good to me.
By the way, fish is pretty self-explanatory, but chips are fries. What do they call chips? Crisps… So to recap, fries are chips and chips are crisps. Cool? Cool. Try saying that fast by the way. Not possible.
The UK is known for its drizzly, grey, depressing weather. So is much of northern Europe actually. But what I’d forgotten is how cool their clouds are when the sun does break through a bit. Clear skies forever here in Utah does get boring after a while.
I love the architecture there.
Day 346/365
Another day of shopping. This time, outdoors. There was a Merry-Go-Round. And I had a four-year-old. What did you think was gonna happen?
Day 347/365
Shopping for food. Well, us adults were. Mason was busy.
Day 348/365
I bought a pair of Reeboks on that outing…
Made in Vietnam… Yes. As evidenced by the BRITISH FLAG SHOWN BEHIND IT!!!!!!!
And that gets me wondering, did anyone at Reebok get fired?
A rainy country means lots of fun in puddles.
Day 349/365
Running through the backyard.
Taking a walk through the neighborhood.
Happy New Year!!!
Day 350/365
And the next day, it was off to Rome!
No joke, this was the entrance to the building of our hotel.
Best pizza I’ve ever had and one of the best I had in Rome.
Day 351/365
Rome has some cool, colorful architecture and lots of churches.
Ok, see these stairs? I went down every single one of those while pushing a stroller that Mason didn’t want to get off of. Oh yeah. Highlight of my vacation!
Mason and I took a break, then a walk along a river where the water had receded enough that we could. My brother, his fiancée and my mom chose the road above us. Psh.
Day 352/365
The road leading up to the Vatican was PACKED with people who were going to see the Pope.
Find the Pope.
Give up? There he is! In the window!
The ledge to the river and Mason sitting on it.
Day 353/365
The Colosseum is the epitome of Italy’s past architectural grandeur. You get there and like many other places, you can’t believe how grand everything feels. Everything feels like it was built with excess and more importantly, luxury in mind.
But if there’s one image that I shot in Rome that I would use to represent it, it would have to be this one:
Chaos. Total chaos. I didn’t get that feeling from Paris or London. Only from Italy. Can anyone back me up on this?
Day 354/365
At the airport on the way home to Belgium. Yes, wood flooring in an airport. The Italian police also manage to justify Lamborghinis for some of its officers. Not making this up.
Part 2 along with the last images of the 365 project coming up soon!
