Winter stream in Massif des Bauges natural park and a selection of my favorite images from 2011

Winter stream in Massif des Bauges natural park

Another image from my recent and short outing in Massif des Bauges natural park.
While the previous one was done at dusk in a widely open area, this one was made a few hours before in a little valley between the mountains around Aillon le jeune. I'm not absolutely sure but i think the name of this stream is Lindar.
The place was very cold and i was surprised after a long exploration, to find just a very few ice stalactites in the river. Doesn't matter, i loved the winter mood here.

Note : I've posted yesterday on my french website a selection of my 20 favorite images done last year.

Icy bells in Valserine river

Icy bells in Valserine river

Last year, i did many images of ice stalactites in Fornant river just near my home.
As this year the winter is not cold enough for such photos here, i went yesterday to Valserine valley in Haut Jura Natural Park. That's a very cold place and i spent there the afternoon until late dusk. I could make many images of the cold and powerful river including landscapes and a few closeups like this one.

These closeups where done with the tripod head really low over the water surface and while i was preparing all the stuff for a good composition, my remote shutter release had a little bath and stopped working. I was able to continue my work with the camera integrated self timer but i was a little worry for the next hours because the self timer is really not the solution for very long exposures. Fortunately, about one hour later my shutter release was dry and worked perfectly again.

Blue hour on the mountains of Massif des Bauges Natural Park

Photograph at blue hour of the mountains of Massif des Bauges in winter

A photo from yesterday.
I was in Massif des Bauges Natural Park to make images of a large building entirely built with local wood. This work was finished in the beginning of the afternoon and i was able to go to the mountains for a few personnal images under a beautiful light.
The only trouble was that i was really not dressed to stay out by a winter dusk in the mountains. I just had somme rubber boots in my car. The snow was not too deep and hardened by the cold. So, i could hike a little in the snowy fields to find some interesting point of view but a moderate wind was blowing from the north ...

Winter in Valserine valley

Winter in Valserine valley

Snowstorm impression in Valserine forest

Snowstorm in Valserine forest

One more of these few days in Haut Jura Natural Park at the end of last year.

From the house where we were staying, i had to walk in the deep fresh snow to come to this place. After all these years spent in Provence, i forgot how difficult but funny it could be. My tripod helped me more than once and not only to make images ...

That said, this photo was done hand held with moving the camera during the exposure and i really love this effect here.

Note :I've added this afternoon one new gallery dedicated to snow images on my french website.

Snow on the coniferous trees of Jura forest

Snow on Jura forest

I've uploaded yesterday 24 new images of snow in Valserine valley.

Most of them where done on the left side of the valley and are so from Ain department. This one was done with a long lens and these trees are on the other side of Valserine river, they are so in Jura department.

Snow on the branches

Snow on the branches

We have spent the end of 2011 with our friends living in the heart of Valserine valley. While it was raining for more than one week around my home, their house and the landscape all around were under a huge amount of snow.

I just retreived my office and computers this morning and couldn't wait to wish you a wonderful new year with this abstract image done with no other effect than camera shake during the exposure.

Autumn river

Chéran river in autumn

Autumn dusk in Valserine forest

Autumn dusk in Valserine forest

The weather conditions are still awful here and i'm still processing and posting some images done sooner in the autumn.

Powerful waterfall in Cheran river

Autumn waterfall in Chéran river - Massif des Bauges Natural Park

One more from the autumn days i spent along Chéran river.
That's obviously the vertical version of the waterfall image i've posted one month ago.

The natural light in the canyon was low enough to give a very long exposure without any filter.

Note : I've uploaded yesterday 17 new images of this place on my french website. Don't hesitate to have a look.

Long exposure along Cheran river

Along the Chéran river

Another image from a few weeks ago in the canyon of Chéran river. Done the same day than this other one.

The long exposure (around 168s) in day light is due to my Hoya ND 400 filter.

Springtime greenery in the forest

Springtime greenery in the forest

An image from about 6 months ago when i was exploring the forest along Chéran river.

Weekly commented photo # 47 - Autumn in Cheran Canyon

Autumn in Chéran Canyon

When i went to Chéran river two weeks ago, i made an image very close to this one.
It was not the best time of the day and i was thinking too much to scout this new place so i did a little composition mistake.

Back to the office and editing the images, i looked at the file and decided to delete it and to re-make the photo with better conditions if possible.

I returned last week but it was in the early morning and this image needs to be done in the late afternoon.

So, i returned once more this afternoon. Arrived in the canyon, i ran directly to the right place and started by a few shots with normal exposures around 0.5 seconds.
Looking at my camera LCD, i found the water movements and the sky reflections unsightly and decided to make a very long exposure with my Hoya ND 400 filter. The result is the image posted above and for people interested in such details, the exposure was a little more than 200 seconds long.

After that, i walked a little along the river, did some photos of the water running between the rocks and about one hour later, i went back to my initial place under the very low light of the autumn dusk.
Without any filter, i could do two or three more images with exposures around one minute. After a close look on my computer display, i really think that my favourite is the first one done with the Hoya ND 400, just after my arrival.

Autumn landscape in Valserine forest

Autumn in Valserine forest

An image from the last days of october.
I've stopped there a few days ago and all the leaves are gone. The weather is really cold in Haut Jura Natural Park now and i've ever seen one car accident because of the frosty roads. In a few weeks, the place will probably be under the snow.

Weekly commented photo # 46 - Autumn morning along Cheran river

Autumn morning along Chéran river

I spent most of the week preparing the house for winter.
No blogging and almost no photography. I just took some time today in the early morning to return to Chéran canyon.

The drive before dawn to Massif des Bauges natural park was a little longer than usual because of the frosty roads and the path to river was more slippy than last week.

I started by some other images of the little waterfall posted here last friday but with a shorter exposure to give more details in the falling water.

After that, i climbed some rocks to pass over the waterfall. I wanted to explore more deeply the upper part of the river but i discovered it was not possible without a little and cold bath. Not prepared to this kind of game, i decided to stay a little time just on the top of the waterfall where i made the today image.

This one is the result of an HDR work done from 7 exposures and tonemapped with Picturenaut and Photomatix. I also have another one done with a strong GND filter but the left side of the image is really dark and i prefer the HDR one.

As i couldn't go higher i went back to the lower river bed, walked a little to another waterfall i noticed last week, did a few more photos and walked back to my car when the sun started to be really too high in the sky.

Weekly commented photo # 45 - Autumn waterfall in Cheran river, Massif des Bauges Natural Park

Autumn waterfall on Chéran river

I spent yesterday afternoon in Massif des Bauges natural park scouting for some new spots along Chéran river.

I didn't want to return to the place i visited at springtime and then i went deeper and lower in the canyon.
After about one hour drive from home, i left my car at the end of a tiny rural road, crossed meadows and woods and finally found a steep slippy path going to the river bed.

Since we had no serious rain for a long time, i had a few hesitations before leaving home because i wasn't sure to find enough water for interesting photography.
Once on the place i was very happy that the water level was so low because if it would have been higher i couldn't have walk in the canyon.

So, i started to hike on the wet and mossy rocks, stopping from time to time to make some images of the river running in its lower bed.
After some times rambling once on the rocks, once in the woods i arrived to this little but powerful waterfall.

It was more than 5 pm. The light started to be very low, i had no headlamp and i knew that walking back the river bed in the darkness wouldn't be a very good idea.
So i decided to stop the exploration here. I made two photos of the waterfall, this one and a vertical one and then started to walk back to my car.

As the light became lower and lower, i was a little nervous about finding and climbing the little path i used to get down.
Fortunately, halfway i found an other one larger and more comfortable climbing through the forest and leading to the road where i left my car.

Note : I've just uploaded 22 photos of autumn around the Rhône river on my french website. Some typical landscape works and some more abstract images.
You can have a look here.

Dark silhouettes in the golden forest

Dark silhouettes in the golden forest

Very nice autumn light in Valserine forest.

The camera shake technics removed many distracting details and just kept light and shapes.

Autumn morning in Valserine forest

Autumn morning in Valserine forest

Flaming autumn

Flaming autumn in Valserine forest

Two days ago, i returned to Valserine forest to get a little more of the beautiful autumn colours before all the leaves are gone.
Between some more typical forest images, i took the time to play a little more with my camera shake technics.

Weekly commented photo # 43 - Autumn mist in Valserine forest

Last week end we went to visit some friends living in Haut Jura Natural Park. The main purpose of such times is obviously not photography but they live in a really beautiful place, just a few steps from Valserine forest and i can't imagine going there without a camera.

My friend is a wood sculptor and we spent the saturday evening looking at his recent work, at my images, commenting each others ...
On sunday morning we both woke up early. He went to his workshop and i took my camera for a little walk in the forest.

It was a nice, quiet misty morning. I had spent the night speaking with a good friend and i was walking alone in an amazing natural forest. So it was a very beautiful moment.

As you may know, its difficult to have a really free mind and instead of contemplating the amazing forest around me, i was looking for autumn colours.
So i probably missed a lot a photo opportunities before i told me you're in a pine forest and their autumn colours are green not orange.

Then i started to look around me differently, to breath the morning mist and finally seated on an old mossy tree stump. After this short stop i continued my walk during a least two hours and got a few nice images.
This one is the result of a light tonemapping done with Picturenaut on a HDR image produced from 7 exposures.