A little street in Puget Thenier

A little street in Puget Thenier

Puget Thenier is a little village above Nice in the Alpes Maritimes region. We went there for a mandolin festival and i took a few shots to post here.

For this one i did 3 things i very rarely do :

• I shoot right in the middle of the day.
• I didn't use any tripod.
• I exposed the shot for the highlights and then did a HDR processing with 3 exposures from the same raw file.

Cabanon in Provence

Cabanon in Provence

Cabanon is the name given here to these tiny houses built in country field to keep the tools when workers are gone and to provide a fresh place for lunch or nap.

This one is just a few km far from my home and still has it's initial function but today must of them are either abandonned or bought by some people and transformed in week end houses.

This image is a mix of HDR and "normal" exposure. The cabanon itself and the foreground field are from an HDR image done with 3 exposures and the other parts are form one of these 3 exposures.
The mix is mainly because the photo was done by a very windy evening and tree leaves where moving too strongly to build an HDR image without ghosting artifacts.

Another HDR seascape at Bau Rouge beach

HDR seascape at Bau Rouge beach, Provence

Just a very short post to say that i have to move to the northest place of Provence during a few days and so i'll be offline until next week.

Big sky over the sea, other versions should come

Big sky over the Mediterranean sea

One image from monday evening.

The sky is an HDR work from 4 exposures, softly tonemapped and the ground and sea is from one of these four exposures.

I also have another one done with a HOYA ND 400 filter giving a really other look to the sky (and of course to the sea). I'll try to post it in the next days.

A narrow street in Collobrières - HDR

Traverse Montesquieu - Collobrières - Provence

This is an old street of my village, near the Place Rouget de l'Islse.

Some english friends live in the houses on the left so we come there very often but i had never done an image here before :)
I was walking there yesterday morning with my daughter when i had the idea of this HDR shot. So after the walk i came back with a camera and a tripod.

HDR at the river and the first sales of the Ghost Forest

Malière river - Provence

This photo was done the same day and is very similar to the one posted here some weeks ago. Today (it can change) i prefer this new one with almost no sky and giving so a more underwood impression.

I was very happy 2 days ago because i sold the first two prints of my recent Ghost forest image.

Usually when i work for a garden or pool maker i don't meet the villa owner. It happens only from time to time.
One interested in photography wanted to see me on tuesday. I went with my favorite kind of portfolio : a large box full of 18x12 (45x30 cm more precisely) prints. The man took 2 seascapes, ordered a 36x24 print of the Ghost Forest for his house in London and also took the 18x12 print of the same image to hang here in Saint-Tropez. Nice day :)

HDR in the Douglas forest

Douglas pine tree forest in Provence

The Douglas pine tree aka Oregon pine tree is really not a Provence tree but some people had the idea to grow some of them here.
On may 1rst, i crossed this little forest while i was walking through the hills around my village. It's a very dark place, the light is so low that nothing grows on the ground and only the top branches have needles.

I took the 6 exposures used for this image mostly to see how HDR could be worthwile in such conditions. After processing i was about to delete the files as i often do, when i thought i could post it here to show another aspect of the nature we have here.

Note : If you're interested in HDR landscapes, you can have a look at my tips here.

Another green shot - HDR in the forest

Cork tree in La Plaine des Maures

The bad weather of the previous months seriously disturbed my work and put me in a real hurry. So i had to work all the week end and even on May first which is the biggest non working day here.

Yesterday evening i needed to breath a little fresh air. I took my camera and drove to a place where there are red rocks on the ground, wild lavender and some little streams and ponds. I arrived a little before the good light and decided to explore a little bit the cork tree forest just near. Although it was a little walk to wait for the light i took the four exposures used in this image thinking it would give me the occasion to practice tone mapping a little more.
10 minutes later it was raining again :)

The road through the forest to Notre Dame des Anges - Springtime HDR

The road through the forest to Notre Dame des Anges

The church of Notre Dame des Anges is at the end of this road, a few km far from this place.

I took the 3 exposures for this image a few days ago just after dawn and just before the rain. After all my complaints about the weather we have i thought i had to show what the current springtime looks here :)

HDR at the river and an update on my tips for HDR landscapes

Malière river - Provence

That's just the kind of image which is difficult to make with a single shot without blocking the shadows and or burning the highlights...

I've updated today my old tips for using HDR photography in landscapes. You can have a look here.

HDR waterfall in the forest

Waterfall in Provence forest

The bad weather is still there and i stuck with my archives.
I took the 3 exposures used here in 2008 december and they where sleeping on an hard drive. Today was their day.

Notre Dame des Anges - 2 HDR outside views

By a rainy day ...

Notre Dame des Anges, a curious church in Provence - HDR

Notre Dame des Anges

Notre Dames des Anges is right on the top of the highest mountain around my village. This place is dedicated to a saint who had the power to cure people diseases. The walls are covered with gifts that peoples offered to say thank you or ask for a cure. Not only the walls, some special and bigger gifts also hang on the ceiling. When i did this shot, over my head were a little boat and ... a dead crocodile.

Click on the picture above to see it at a better size or click here if you want to visit the big file with zoomify.

If you often come here, you may know that i like and follow the work of Michelle Basic Hendry an canadian painter. Twitter just told me she had terminated a church painting and wrote about it. If you're right brained, you can beleive that ideas cross the oceans :)

Hesitating

Le Pradet near Cap Garonne - Provence

I was not totally happy with the previous version of this image. I can't really explain why in english but i would say that today i find it a little too much. So i reprocessed my 3 exposures in Photomatix and finished with this one.

A rainy morning at the sea - HDR

Le Pradet near Cap Garonne - Provence

Same scene, no GND filter but HDR from 3 exposures.
I didn't try to keep a similar rendition, this one is darker with more saturated colors.

Clouds over Toulon - HDR seascape or HDR skyscape

Some clouds over Toulon - Provence

That's always the same story : Today was supposed to be a sunny day and i expected a beautiful pink daw on the buildings you can devine on the right of this image. So i jumped out of my bed at 5 am, prepared a big little coffee and drove to Toulon where i arrived at dawn. Light was really not as expected :) I decided to wait some hours walking on the beaches and at around 9 am (i guess) the sun said a little hello threw the clouds in my back. As this kind of sky can always be interesting for HDR works i rapidly shot 3 exposures and after that one more with a soft GND filter.

The one you can see above is the result of my HDR work and i have to say that it was a real pleasure to process. I'll show you the flitred one in the following days.

In the house of God - HDR

Notre Dames des Victoires, Collobrières

Nikon D200 + sigma 10-20, HDR from 8 exposures done with Photomatix.

That little path in the forest - HDR

Forest path on the Presqu'île de Giens

After many days of rain, it finally stopped on saturday morning. As my wife and daughter took a little holidays with friends, i spent most of the week walking on the coast. Light was not awesome but sometimes the sun poped out of the clouds and let me get some interesting pics. You'll see more soon :)

About this one, it was done from 6 exposures with my most usual workflow : NEF files processed with SilkyPix, HDR work with Photomatix and resulting image reprocessed with SilkyPix.
Note : I've also done a first version using only 4 of these exposures but obtained really more artifacts in some small branches against the blue sky. Introducing the 2 other exposures gave more informations to Photomatix and strongly reduced these defaults.

Evening contrasts

Two more images from my most recent trip in La Plaine des Maures.
The first one (above) was done using a soft grad nd filter, the second is a hdr work from 4 exposures.
As usual local contrasts are more impressive in the hdr version but today i prefer the most natural one ...

Other church, other dream

Notre Dame des Victoires - Collobrières

Nikon D200 + Sigma 10-20. Hdr from 9 exp. Nef files processed with SilkyPix. Hdr work with Photomatix.