HDR photography might be better called “HDR digital processing” because there is nothing out of the ordinary about the actual photographs you capture with your digital camera, and virtually any digital camera is capable of capturing images that can be used to process HDR photographs.

HDR photography is a way of taking several shots of the same subject and merging them into one image that, ideally, will retain the best aspects of each photograph. It thereby greatly increases the range of tones and colors that are visible in the finished HDR. The final result looks like the colorful and vivid post cards you see for sale all over Paris.

The different shots that are used to make HDR images are normally shot at drastically different exposures, a technique that is called “bracketing” in photography jargon. Typically you would work with at least three shots of the same subject. One of the shots would be exposed correctly for the given lighting conditions, one would be significantly overexposed and the other would be significantly underexposed.

In order to successfully align these shots into a single, sharp photograph they have to be shot from exactly the same position with exactly the same zoom setting. The only really reliable way to do this is by using a sturdy tripod, but HDR programs usually come with alignment tools that are able to correct for minor differences in the camera position between the different shots. I have found that, in a pinch, I can capture usable HDR images by bracing my camera against a stationary object like a lamp post or a Velib pay station and very carefully aligning the focal marks in my viewfinder with some feature in the scene I am shooting. This works best with a subject like a building where you can line up with something like the corner of a window frame.

You have to pick your subject carefully when capturing images for an HDR because there is always some time lapse between the different exposures even if you are using a camera with an automatic bracketing feature. Consequently, it is rather difficult to produce HDR images of a subject containing moving objects. HDR photography is notorious for producing vivid and dramatic images of skies, but on a windy day, I have found that the clouds often move too quickly to be correctly aligned when trying to produce an HDR photograph. The slight movement of the clouds between exposures leaves them with rather nervous-looking, multiple edges that do not translate into attractive images.

In addition to a digital camera and a tripod, you will need a computer with an HDR image-making program in order to produce these vivid images. I have used two HDR programs that are available as free downloads. One has the unpronounceable name, Qtpfsgui, and the other one is called FDR Tools Basic. Although the graphic structures of these two programs are quite different, they both have essentially the same features. The steps to creating an HDR image are as follows:

1.    Capture multiple images of a single subject.
2.    Download images to your HDR program.
3.    Align the images.
4.    Create the HDR image.
5.    Tone map the image. Without getting too technical, I must mention that true HDR images are not viewable on normal computer screens because they contain much more information than can be displayed on a monitor. Consequently, if you wish to view them on your computer, you have to convert them back into low dynamic range images (LDR’s), but even so, a much greater range of visual information will be contained in the final image. The process by which the HDR is converted back into an LDR is called “tone mapping”. Each HDR program offers different tone mapping algorithms that can produce drastically different results.
6.    Edit the image. Both programs I have tried contain some basic editing features along with the HDR generating tools, but I normally give my HDR images a final tweaking using Photoshop Elements 7 or some other dedicated photo editing software.

An enormous amount of information about HDR photography is available on some of the many internet sites dedicated to digital photography. Of course, like any technical/artistic field, there are people who are REALLY, DEEPLY INTO THIS STUFF! I have been able to find HDR images on the internet that are so amazing they have caused my brain to leak out my ears!  Some of them use as many as sixteen images to produce a single HDR! That being said, I am reasonably satisfied with the results I have been able to obtain thus far with some basic knowledge and adequate equipment, including those images in this blog post.

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Firearm regulations tend to be stricter in Europe than in the United States, but France has a long tradition of hunting and target shooting, and individuals who avidly participate in these sports constitute a strong political force.

It might surprise you to learn that the private ownership of shotguns and hunting rifles by individuals with clean criminal records is very common in France. There are numerous shops right here in Paris where you can buy guns and ammunition.

In order to purchase them you have to be in possession of either a hunting license (permit de chasse) or a sport shooting license (license sportif de tir). The hunting license is more difficult to obtain in France than in the United States because it requires you to actually know something about hunting, gun safety, and shooting. You have to pass a fairly rigorous test before you are granted a hunting license in France. The sport shooting license is much easier to obtain. You merely have to have a clean criminal record and be a member of one of the many shooting clubs in around the country. There are special exceptions to these rules for foreigners who are coming into France for a specific hunt or to compete in an international shooting tournament.

The last time I spent an extended period in France, I brought my favorite shotgun with me and obtained a sport shooting permit after I arrived. I even bought another gun while I was here and brought it back to the United States. I didn’t bring a gun this time, however, because of a sticky new regulation requiring anyone in possession of firearms of any description in France to have a gun safe in their home. Well, our apartment in the Marais came with a great coffee machine but no gun safe, and I was not interested in buying a 500 euro safe for a stay of only one year, so this time I left my guns at home. That doesn’t prevent me from shooting in France, however, because I either borrow or rent a gun at my club, le Ball-Trap Club de Gonesse.

Ball-trap is the French word for what we call “clay target sports,” which include skeet, trap, and the various forms of sporting clays. The club is located in the middle of vast grain fields in the town of Gonesse, about 14 miles northeast of Paris, not far from Charles de Gaulle airport. The town of Gonesse was prominently mentioned in the news in 2000 because that was where the Concorde supersonic jet crashed. When the planes take off from de Gaulle, they pass directly over the shooting club. Shooting clubs tend to be located in places like that. We have a club in Atlanta that was built directly on top of a former landfill.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the BTC de Gonesse is that I can get there from Paris using public transportation. Granted, I do have to walk about a mile from the last bus stop, but for me, that just adds to the appeal, because I get to mix some exercise in with my shooting. Everybody else who shoots at the BTC de Gonesse is a permanent resident of France, and they all have cars.

On previous stays in Paris I would rent a car, at a daily cost of about 100 euros, every time I wanted to go shooting, but when visiting Paris once on a ten-day trip, without a gun or any ammunition to carry, I figured out by pouring over the metro map and consulting Google Earth that I could take the #7 metro to Fort d’Aubervilliers followed by the #250 bus to its final stop in Gonesse, which brought me within easy walking distance of the club. In addition to saving a huge amount of money on my shooting, this mode of transportation has allowed me to see parts of the working class suburbs of Paris that I would otherwise have missed.

The BTC de Gonesse is a shotgun shooter’s paradise. It has three or four combination international skeet and trap ranges as well as five or six sporting clays (parcours de chasse) layouts and a running boar target. It offers very inexpensive gun rentals, and reasonably priced ammunition is available. There are also experienced instructors on hand for beginners or for experienced shooters who want to perfect their skills. The staff and the other members of the club are friendly and helpful. I’ve yet to meet anyone there who speaks English. For someone who doesn’t speak French, or someone who is not very familiar with all of the clay target sports, a trip to Gonesse could prove to be a confusing and frustrating experience. My French is far from perfect, but I made it a point to learn all of the vocabulary involved in shotgun shooting before my first outing to a French shooting club. In addition, I am a very experienced shooter and I serve as a referee for shotgun tournaments and even write a blog for my club back in the United States.

Even so, they simply do things differently at a shooting club in France compared to back home. It takes a while to catch on to all the procedures, but I was able to do that just by watching what everybody else was doing. For example they have a really fun shotgun sport in France that they call match po’. They shoot it when a large number of people want to shoot at the same time. The shooters are divided randomly into teams of perhaps ten shooters each. Each team lines up behind its first shooter at two different spots on a sporting clay layout. A series of targets is thrown from the different traps on the layout, and the two teams alternate shooting the targets from their respective positions on the field. After every shooter from each team has shot twelve targets from the first position, the teams switch places and the target sequence is repeated. Usually an additional target is thrown at the end to make for 25 total. At the end of a round of match po’, there is an individual winner and a winning team. Even though you may not know half of the people you are shooting with, a sort of team spirit is instantly created and you naturally root for the other guys on your squad, and of course, deride the guys on the other squad.

At the end of a day of shooting at the BTC de Gonesse, I asked some other guys in the clubhouse why the sport was called match po’. They consulted with each other in very rapid French that I was not really able to follow and finally came up with a satisfactory answer: “That’s just what it’s called.”

BTC Gonesse: Route de l’Europe, 95500 Gonesse. Tel: 01 39 87 52 03

A list of ball-trap clubs in the Paris regions: http://www.balltrap-idf.fr

The post The Borrowed Gun: Sports Shooting in France appeared first on France Revisited - Life in Paris, Travel in France.