Jet d'Eau

 

 

Hello World! I'm back posting after a brief hiatus.

 

The Scene:

 

The Jet d'Eau (French: Water-Jet) is a large fountain in Geneva, Switzerland, and is one of the city's most famous landmarks.  It is also one of the largest fountains in the world. Situated at the point where Lake Geneva empties into the Rhone River, it is visible throughout the city and from the air, even when flying over Geneva at an altitude of 10 km (33,000 ft).
Five hundred litres (132 gallons) of water per second are jetted to an altitude of 140 metres (459 feet) by two 500 kW pumps, operating at 2,400 V, consuming over one megawatt of electricity. The water leaves the nozzle at a speed of 200 km/h (124 mph). When it is in operation, at any given moment there are about 7,000 litres (1849 gallons) of water in the air. Unsuspecting visitors to the fountain which can be reached via a stone jetty from the left bank of the lake may be surprised to find themselves drenched after a slight change in wind direction.

 

I loved the story of how the fountain was first conceived. It was apparently first installed in 1896 as a safety valve for a hydraulic power network. However, the people of Geneva liked it so much that they made it a permanent installation.

 

The Story:

 

I shot this many months ago during a week-end trip to Geneva. A macro and a couple of shots from the Palais de Nations made it to my photostream whilst this was left on the queue - not because I didn't like this shot, but mostly due to the fact that this is not what I wanted from the shoot. After a long day roaming the streets of the city, we finally arrived at the fountain. After a short stroll around scouting for locations to shoot and I made up my mind to shoot the fountain from the far end of the platform (in the middle fo the waters) from a low angle. While the fountain was definitely high, my 10mm did allow me to get the entire fountain into the frame. I did account for the perspective distortion in the shot, but it was a little too much to my liking when I downloaded it onto my computer. So it will stay there and will probably never see the light of the day.

 

This is my insurance shot. We took a ferry across the lake and I shot this from the pier where we alighted. From this of the bank, I like the way that this scene is laid out with the housing blocks and the French Alps in the background.

 

The Shot:

 

ISO 100 | 20mm on Canon 10-22 | f/14 | 1/60 sec

Courtesy: Wikipedia