The forest under the clouds

The forest under the clouds - Massif des Maures"

A morning view of the Provence forest in the Massif des Maures.
Taken a very few hours after dawn the light was changing every second.

This one was done from 3 exposures with Photomatix.
Some other with a most impressive sky but no HDR should come in a few days.

Place Rouget de l'Isle

Place Rouget de l'Isle in Collobrières - Provence

For the peoples interested in technical things :

This image was created from 3 exposures blended into one real HDR image with Picturenaut.
A first tonemapping was done also with Picturenaut and then the HDR file was also tonemapped with Photomatix.
The 2 tonemapped images were then blended to give the final result.

The most difficult thing is to wait for the wind to stop :)

The Verne river at spring

The Verne river by a cloudy springtime day

Yesterday was the first non raining day for about one week.
I spent the afternoon hiking i this little river in the hills around our home.
Was a good test to see if my rubber boots were still waterproofed :)

Green spring

Green springtime on the Massif des Maures - Provence

Early on Monday morning i had some photos to make for a client in this part of the hills around my home.
I could work before the sky was too cloudy and after i had a little time to make a few shots for me before the rain.

I like this one showing all the green hills. Colors will change quickly in the next months ...
It was done from 4 exposures processed with Silkypix and Photomatix. I also have one done with a 0.6 GND filter but i prefer the HDR one, i think it gives a better rendition of the green nuances.

Still exploring the natural HDR landscapes capabilities of Picturenaut

Winter afternoon in La Plaine des Maures

As told in some previous posts, i've recently discovered a new HDR tool : Picturenaut. It looks to be a very good tool to produce some natural looking HDR landscapes.

This one was done from 5 exposures taken one year ago and reprocessed this morning with Picturenaut. The result was realy easy to obtain and it very difficult to see any differences with one image i took from the scene with my GND filters.
Highlights are perfect, shadows are clean and detailed, the sky is artifacts free and i can't find any ghosting.

Does it mean that i will sell my GND filters ?
Certainly not. In some cases GND will work better, in some other cases they can't be used and last point, mounting a filter holder on some recent Nikon wide angle zooms is a little tricky. That's still the photographer choice to use the best technic for each image...

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.

A natural japanese garden in the red rocks

I'm a little late for the first post of this new decade but after a bit of celebration i spent the first days hiking and shooting in the cold.

We have two important projects for this new year. First we will be traveling in Corsica from the mid of january to the end of march. Traveling is not the real word because we'll have a house and some animals to take care but i hope some beautiful photographic opportunities.

The second project is a bigger one and i think you will know more at springtime.

Happy New Year to all !

The little river with the little waterfall - HDR

The little river with the little waterfall

In the late autumn i like to visit this little river in the forest around my village.
We didn't had too much rain this autumn and i could stand up in the middle of the river bed and add a new point of view to my image collection.

This one was done from 3 exposures processed with Photomatix and Silkypix.

The chapel in the forest - HDR

Malière chapel - Provence

I've ever posted a very similar image and some words about this place here.

As you can devine, this one was done the same day but from 3 exposures processed with Photomatix. I love the rendition of the stone walls given by the tonemapping process.

Autumn light in the forest

Autumn light in Provence forest

Same path that the one shown in this post.

Autumn path in Provence forest

Autumn path in Provence forest

I've complained many times about the fact that most of the trees here are evergreen but now you can see that i'm a liar :) In the hudge forest we have here, some places are filled with chestnut trees and can offer some typical autumn images.

Autumn light on red rocks in Provence

Autumn landscape around the Rocher de Roquebrune

I just have to say Thank you to my soft GND filters :)

Colorful houses in Provence village - HDR

Rue Galilée in Collobrières - Provence

As many of you seem to like this kind of pictures, here's a new one :)

Same place and same day than this one.

Abstraction in the forest

Eucalyptus barks on forest ground

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.

Little Africa sold for a book project

Little Africa in Provence

I report this sale here because i've told many times in my comments that i rarely work with the tourism industry.

That's a strange thing : France is one of the most visited country in the world. Provence is probably the second destination for tourists visiting France and tourism is certainly the first source of income in the region where i live.
But when it comes to buy a photo, tourism offices are always short of money so they are not the best clients for photographers.
At least i don't have to shoot crowdy sand beaches under the sun :)

That said, the image above was not sold to a tourism office but to an editor making a tourism book about extraordinary landscapes in France.
The price for this kind of usage is always really low but that's an old image and the editor also works with one of the biggest travel magazine.

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.

The hills around my village

Mountain road through the Provence hills

When i spend long times in the office i often need a little outdoor at the end of day.

This place is 7 km far from my village and really higher. The village is in the valley you can devine through the darkest hills in the background.
The little trick is that no car is allowed to take this road for many years. So last wednesday in the end of afternoon i thought that a little walk to these hills would be a nice way to change my mind after a full day of file processing and of administrative tasks.

A very narrow footpath climbs the hills through a deep forest. I took me a little more than one hour to get there and i've to say that once on the place i spent more time looking a the wild nature than making photos :)

I decided to go back at dusk and of course arrived in the forest by a dark night. The last kilometers in the narrow and slopy path covered by roots and stones were a little tiring. Arrived at home, i realized that i had a head lamp in my backpack :)

This panoramic landscape was stitched with PTGui Pro from 4 images taken with a soft ND filter. I tell that here because i've read that many people have problems while stitching images done with some ND grads. I really think that the problems don't come from the filters because i do that for many years and never noticed any trouble.