A winter day on the Mediterranean coast

A winter day on the Mediterranean coast

 

An old image from when i was living in Provence.
The Mediterranean sea around Giens Peninsula (Presqu'île de Giens).

I just have a few images of the peninsula, you can find them here.

Weekly commented photo # 49 - Mediterranean dusk at Gigaro beach

Mediterranean dusk at Gigaro beach

This end of autumn is rainy and from a photographer's point of view, the landscape all around is not really exciting. I only made a few images in the past week and spent most of my time working on files from the preceding months. I'm also negociating with a TV channel which want to buy some of my photos but doesn't seems ready for the price i ask :).

So, this morning i was wandering about which image to feature here today when i receive an order from my french website for a print of the above photo.

I was a little surprised because that's an old image and because there is another one just near in the gallery that i find most beautiful. But after all a sale is a sale and one more time i was happy not to post only my own favourite images but all the "correct" ones.

Gigaro beach is a famous place in Saint Tropez area but i've just a few images from there. I think you can now retrieve most of them on this blog through this link.

Weekly commented photo # 32 - Breaking waves on the Mediterranean coast

Breaking waves on the Presqu'île de Giens - Provence

No, i'm not back in Provence and this image was done a little more than 2 years ago.
It was a very windy day under dull light on the Prequ'île de Giens and i remember to have walk more than making images.

I choose this one for my Weekly commented photo exercise because i found it to be a good example of the difference between shooting for print and shooting for stock.

Most of my print sales come from images with impressive light and vivid colors (like this one) while most of my licensed photos have a more common looking. Please, note that's not an absolute rule.

Some days i shoot just for prints and some days just for stock but most often i tend to share my time between exploration, making photos for my stock when the light is OK and making images for art prints when the light is at its best.
I don't know if it's the best way to oragnize a photographic day but it works for me for many years.

I've never sold a print of the image posted above but it was licensed at least 3 times since it was done. So i really don't regret my day walking in the wind and flying sand.

In conclusion i invite you to read a very good article from Guy Tal about waiting the light.

Weekly commted photo #10 - Wild and peaceful

Wild and peaceful - Le Pradet

If you look at my seascapes, you will easily notice that most of the photos where done on the same place named "Bau Rouge beach".

Why ?

I really love wild and natural places and to sand beaches i prefer rocks with nice shapes and where the waves can break nicely.

Such places where really rare in the part of Provence where i lived and where all was done for a comfortable tourism.

Bau Rouge beach was one of them and so i went there really often.
I think that many photographers know this feeling : You always think you can return and capture some other light, some other composition. That's true but one day you feel the need to change.

So after some months of shooting at Bau Rouge beach, after looking the maps, after asking many people i decided to move a little and give a change to another rocky beach not so far.

This new place was a few kilometers from Bau Rouge beach and had no special name. I also went there many times but my favourite image of this place is this one and it's the really first one i did there.

This first day was intended to more to explore the place than to really make images so i just had a light bag with a litlle tripod. Rare thing, i left all my filters at home.

The image was done just before dusk and the dynamic range was a little too high for a single exposure without filtering.
So i took three exposures that i manually and patiently blended (without tonemapping) in the digital darkroom.

As said over, that's my fav from this place but you can have a look here to see another one i also love.
It was done by a stormy morning where the waves were so huges that i could'nt access Bau Rouge beach.

A view of Toulon and some personal news

Morning light on Toulon

This image is a little more than one year old and she waited until today to be processed. That's not my usual workflow but sometimes i like to keep the raw images untouched, look at them from time to time and one day process them.

Now an important thing : In 2 weeks we are going to leave Provence and go to live in the Alps. I won't explain all the reasons here but that's an old project and we are very happy (and busy) with that.
So this post is probably the last one here before a while. Until July 24 i'll keep my current DSL connection here but i'm not sure to find some time for another post. We will arrive in the new house on July 25 but nobody really knows when my new connection will be up. I can hope it won't take more than 10 days ...

Sea, Rocks and Sun

Sea, rocks and sun at le Pradet in Provence

Mediterranean colors enhanced by a long exposure in full day light.
A one year old image just added to my RedBubble shop.

Mediterranean rock detail

Detail of a mediterranean rock in the sun

It's a one year old image from past summer. I went really soon to the sea on one place i didn't know very well. Arriving i hiked a long time in the rocks, looking for a good place, took a few seascapes, walked in the rocks and when the sun was too high for good job i decided to come back and on my way i found some nice orange rocks sunbathing in the morning light. After this closeup i came back home where i left the images sleeping on my hard drives until last night where i found this one and a few seascapes no too disapointing.

Clouds over Casabianda beach - black and white HDR

Clouds over Casabianda beach - Corsica

A peaceful morning at Casabianda beach - Corsica

A peaceful morning at Casabianda beach

For about one week we have a decent weather. So past monday i decided an early visit to the sea. Wake up before dawn, drive to the coast and 3 km walk to the beach.
Casabianda beach is an endless white sand beach. I guess it's not to much known by tourists because it's on the land of a penitentiary ... Walking there at dawn was a little strange ...

Another HDR at Bau Rouge beach

Cloudy morning at Bau Rouge beach

Another old file just processed.

Done from 2 exposures, processed with SilkyPix and Photomatix.
Original images are from september, a few minutes before the rainbow.

If you're interested in HDR photography, you can have a look at my Tips for HDR landscapes.

A springtime reminder - Peaceful dusk at Bau Rouge beach

Peaceful dusk at Bau Rouge beach

That's an "old" shot from may, same day that the one posted here.

Cloudy morning at Bau Rouge beach - HDR

Cloudy morning at Bau Rouge beach - Provence

An image from September, just finished to process.
Done from 3 exposures with Photomatix.

Same place and same day that this one and this one.

Note : My tips for HDR landscapes are here.

Playing with tonemapping on a tif file and a real HDR seascape

Mediterranean storm at Gigaro beach

When i processed the image of my previous post i wanted it to look natural.
The result was what i wanted but after a few days i found it really too flat for my eyes. So i processed the 48 bits tif file in Photomatix to add a little of tonemapping.
You can see the result just above. I prefer it to the previous image.

Just under, you can find a real HDR version of the same scene, also done with Photomatix but from 3 exposures.

Gigaro beach, the day after

Mediterranean storm on Gigaro beach

Some days the sea looks like the ocean.

End of the day at Gigaro beach - HDR

End of the day at Gigaro beach

It looks like i don't have posted any HDR image here for a long time.

This beach is a famous place in the Saint-Tropez area. I recently spent 2 days here. The first one was with a beautiful weather as you can see but the second one was really not the same ...

The other side of Bau Rouge beach

Morning light at Bau Rouge beach

Regular readers will easily recognize the cliff in the background.
Here we are still on Bau Rouge beach but not on the part of the beach where i usually go. This one is some hundreds of meters more to the west but we can't move from one part to another by feet while carrying some photographic equipment.
This place is less wild and looks more to a real beach than the other one. I hope i'll find a way to go still more to the west.

On the beach before the rain - HDR

Bau Rouge beach before the rain

A few time after the rainbow posted in my previous post.
And for the newest readers, you can have a look here at my tips for HDR landscapes, they also work for seascapes :)

Rainbow over the sea

Rainbow over the Mediterranean sea

I wake up a long time before dawn to make some images of a mountain around Toulon.
While driving i saw that the sky was really not the one i was expecting.
So i decided to change my destination and to go the the sea.

After some hours of typical images of cloudy dawn i was about to leave and go back when the rainbow appeared. Sometimes, photographers are just lucky :)

Golden rocks at the sea

Morning light around Le Port du Niel

Just around Le Port du Niel, same day than the one in the previous post but about one hour later.
This islands all around are called Golden Islands ...

A very soft dawn on the Mediterranean coast

Mediterranean dawn at Le Port du Niel

During the second part of august, we went twice to sleep at the sea. To park the van we choose the little pier of Le Port du Niel on the Presqu'île de Giens. That's a very peaceful place and you can't see it on these images but the coast all around is really wild and beautiful. I hope to return there before the end of summer for a more serious photographic work.

Morning light on Le Port du Niel