Visitation basilica in autumn light

Visitation basilica in autumn light

 

Evening light on Musieges village

Evening light on Musieges village

 

Morning light on Musièges village

Morning light on Musièges village

 

Verne monastery in Provence

Verne monastery in Provence

 

Tiles and bells in Provence

Tiles and bells in Provence

 

A closeup view of Salagon priory near Mane village in Alpes de Haute Provence department.
All my images of this monument are here.

Cathedral and old houses in Saint Claude

Cathedral and old houses in Saint Claude

 

A closer view of Saint Claude with its cathedral and some old houses.
The cathedral is more than 8 centuries old and has a very long name : Cathédrale Saint Pierre, Saint Paul et Saint André.
The Maison du Peuple that you can see in the foreground is also an old building used today as a cinema. You can read more (in french) about its history here.

Sainte Anne chapel in Belleydoux

Sainte Anne chapel in Belleydoux

Belltower and roofs of Chaumont village

Belltower and roofs of Chaumont village

 

One of the 12 images about this village i've uploaded yesterday on my website.
A classic composition using the trees as a natural frame for the village.

Light and clouds on Chaumont village

Light and clouds on Chaumont village

 

An image of the rural landscape around my home, done in the first weeks of may.

Springtime around Chaumont village

Springtime around Chaumont village

 

I first noticed this view with the church framed by the trees of the beautiful hedgerow during a walk with my daughter. I just returned yesterday after the rain with a camera.

Franclens church illuminated at dusk

Franclens church illuminated at dusk

 

Yesterday, i spent a part of the afternoon exploring the Rhône valley between Ain and Haute-Savoie departments. I was lucky enough to be able to make a few images under a correct light between rain showers.

In the late dusk, i was driving back home and crossed Franclens village when i saw the church illuminated. I stopped for a few shots before the night became too dark.

Grande Riviere church near Abbey lake

Grande Riviere church near Abbey lake - Haut Jura Natural Park

 

I left this blog during some long days because i had to work for some clients in Provence and i'm just back home since this night.
Before this little trip, i expected to find a few free time for some new seascapes but in fact i had absolutely no time for some personal photography.

I share today this other composition around the beautiful church of Grande Rivière from my last visit to Haut Jura Natural Park a few weeks ago.

I've also posted some images from Massif des Bornes on my french website.

LINKS :
My landscapes photo gallery.
All my images from Jura department.

The church near the lake

Grande Rivière church near Abbaye lake - Haut Jura Natural Park

 

I had a long drive yesterday through Haut Jura Natural Park to explore some new places around Abbaye Lake.
I noticed this lake one year ago while i was driving back from Hérisson waterfalls under a pouring rain. It's one of the most important lake in Jura department and the surrounding looked really wild in the storm.

It took one year before i had the opportunity to come back with a decent weather. I arrived there in the afternoon, walked along the lake, drove around the lake, climbed some hills but interesting points of view were rare and difficult to find.
In the evening, when the light started to be nice, i finally had 2 or 3 interesting spots in mind, this image of the church was done from the first one.

LINKS :
My landscapes photo gallery.
All my images from Jura department.

Weekly commented photo #5 - Visitation basilica by night in Annecy

Visitation basilica by night in Annecy

I've to say the truth : i've never liked this monument. But when i arrived back in Annecy in july i saw it by night and thought it could make a beautiful photo.

I love night images but that's not what i'm doing most. I usually prefer the special lights of dawn or dusk. So that's only in january that i decided to try this image.
One afternoon i went to the lake for some dusk shots on the Imperial beach and took a long lens with me for the basilica.
When the night started to fall, i left the beach and walked along the lake until i found a nice point of view.
After one first test, exposing the shot for the highlights on the bell tower, i was sure that HDR would give a relly better image.
Keeping in one single exposure all the details in the highlights would give dark shadows on all the left part of the church. So i did 5 shots at f11 from 4 to more than 80 seconds.
As the evening was a little windy, i weighted my tripod with my bag and as usual i used mirror lockup plus a remote shutter release for each exposure. Getting sharp images with long exposures while using a long lens in the wind can be a little tricky but this night, i was lucky.
After this 5 shots, i walked deeper in the city to make images of some other monuments and also to warm me up.

I processed the raw files 2 or 3 days after with silkypix and Photomatix, trying to keep the tonemapping at a soft level.

Saint Jean chapel illuminated at night

Saint Jean chapel illuminated at night

I stopped last night in front of this little chapel. The sky seemed to be black but as usual, i was surprised to see the light a one minute long exposure could reveal.

Of course if one minute was perfect for the sky, it was also really too long for the snow ...
So i did a bunch of exposures from 2 to 60 seconds. Once in the "darkroom" i choose 4 and processed them with Photomatix.

Note : There is a road just near and the people driving there last night seemed surprised to see a crazy man with a tripod and a camera standing out in the cold :)

Annecy - Autumn colors on the city

Annecy - Autumn colors on the city

An image from a few weeks ago, when the trees still had some colorful leaves.
The big church is the Visitation Basilica and was built in 1909 to 1930. I think the monastery on its left is really older but i'm not sure :)

Today in the evening, we had the first snowfall just around the house. I hope a nice view tomorrow morning ...

The Verne monastery in Provence hills

The Chartreuse de la Verne in Provence

If you use the search box of this blog, you will probably find some other images of this monastery. As you can devine from its name, it's located in the hills above the valley of the Verne river i show in many previous posts.

Notre Dame de Pitié

Notre Dame de Pitié at Collobrières in Provence

This little chapel is about 100 meters far from my home.
I've ever posted another HDR view of its interior some years ago, this one is really more quiet :)

For people interested in the technical side of photography, the final image was obtained by tonemapping the same HDR file once with Photomatix and once with Picturenaut. The 2 resulting TIF files were then blended.

Snow falls in Provence

Snow on Collobrières roofs

A view from my bathroom's window this morning.
It was just a short snow fall but that's unusual enough to deserve a photo.

HDR from 3 exposures, tonemapped with Photomatix.

Some will ask why to use HDR when the scene doesn't need a large dynamic range.
Just because i was sure at shooting time, to love the effect of tonemapping on this image and a tonemapped image is always cleaner when done from multiple exposures instead of a single one.

Saint Isidore church - another HDR interpretation

Saint Isidore church

A little more fun than the previous one.

Done from 5 exposures, with Silkypix and Photomatix.