Looking at Mont Blanc mountain

 

During the winter, i posted a few images of Aravis massif. This mountain range is cut in two parts separated by a large pass named Col des Aravis between Merdassier and Borderan mountains.

On friday, i was on Mont Baron mountain, waiting for the light on Annecy lake.
The sky was very clear, and looking to the east, i had this beautiful view on Mont Blanc mountain through the Cold des Aravis.
I did this panorama by stitching with PTGui, 6 vertical photos done with a long lens.

Dusk light on the mountains

Dusk light on the mountains

A cold time at Annecy lake

A cold time at Annecy lake

 

A reminder of the very cold 2012 winter we had here.
I stayed really late on that place this evening, waiting for a deep blue hour and i still remember the cold in my bones.

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 ...

First snow and autumn light on the Veyrier mountain

First snow and autumn light on the Veyrier mountain

The Veyrier mountains is 1291 m high and above the east coast of Annecy lake.
I've a special relation with this mountain because it's where i've learned rock climbing and i've spent many years on the little cliff just above the lake in the middle on the image.

Chaumont village and the Fornant river running under the woods

Chaumont village
Here are 2 recent shots from our new place : the village near which we live and the Fornant river just before the nice Barbennaz waterfall.

Note 1 : The panoramic view was done by stitching 20 images taken with a long lens. The job was done as usual with PTGui.

Note 2 : I'm still busy with building my new office and working in the house so you will have to wait a little more for the return of regular posting here.

The Fornant river running under the wood

Corsica, another panoramic view of Corte

Corte, the citadel and the city

Another very high definition image done by stitching 6 vertical images with PTGui.

Corte, the citadel hit by the light

Corte, the citadel hit by the light

We are now back in Provence for about one week. I've started to setup a new galery on my french website with some images from Corsica. You can have a look here.

Corsica - Corte HDR panorama in the morning clouds

Corsica - Corte in the morning clouds

Some words about the making of :

This is an HDR panorama made from 6 frames with three exposures for each frames so 18 images done with a long lens where used to produce this one. The result is an about 24 megapixels file.

As most often when shooting for HDR with a long lens i used a remotre controler plus mirror lockup instead of the intervalometer function of my camera, it avoids vibrations.

The nef files where first converted to 48 bits tif files with Silkypix. The only adjustments done here where just white balance and sharpening. For color and tones i prefer to work on the entire image.

The tif files where then stitched into a real HDR file with PTGui pro.

The HDR file was tonemapped in Photomatix, i find it easier than tonemapping in PTGui.

The tonemapped resulting tif file was lastely processed with SilkyPix for tones and colors adjustments.

Note : my general tips for HDR landscapes are here.

Vezzani village in winter - Corsica

A typical mountain village in Corsica.

Three images stitched with PTGui.

Salagon - A panoramic view

Same place and same day than the one in the previous post but early in the morning with a really more classical light.
Done by stitching 15 images taken with a long lens to obtain a very detailed result.
The image under is a detail of the walls. If you're interested, you can click to see this detail at 100%.

Dont fall in love, you may be changed to stone

Pénitents des Mées - Alpes de Haute Provence

This is a famous place in the north of Provence.
It was on my way while i was driving back from the Alps. I stopped the van, walked a little in the country and took a dizain of views which i just stitched with PTGui. (Click on the thumbnail for large view).

A legend say that these rocks are monks changed to stone by Saint Donat because they felt in love with some slaves captured during a crusade.

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.

Alpilles, another part of Provence

Cliffs and hills around Aureille - Alpilles Massif

Provence is a large and i think not really defined place and one could beleive that every town or village in south of France claims to be in Provence :)
We can probably say that Provence center is around Aix en Provence and its famous Sainte Victoire mountain which landscapes has been painted by Paul Cézanne.

The place where i live is in the south-east of Aix en Provence. It's still wild and natural and became famous because of a small village named Saint-Tropez. It looks to be very similar to Corsica.

The north part of Provence goes high in the Alps and was beautifully featured by a french writer : Jean Giono.

On the close west of Aix en Provence comes the Alpilles Massif which is the country of an other writer (and actor) : Marcel Pagnol. It's a country of beautiful hills covered by olive tree fields and sometimes it makes me think to Tuscany.

I had a hard working week and needed a little break. So on Friday i left my office and we took our van to the Alpilles for a 3 days week-end that we spent playing with our daughter and climbing these beautiful white cliffs. I was really not there for photography so this one was done 2 hours before the best light and with my familly week end gear : An old Nikon D100 fitted with a Tamron 17-50 zoom lens and PTGui to stitch 2 frames. At least it could make a typical postcard of the place :)

PS : I think i start a little addiction to google translator :)

A few more parasol pines under the blue sky

Parasol pines panorama in La Plaine des Maures

A mediterranean panorama

Giens and Porquerolles

Another view from my little trip on the Presqu'île de Giens.
I'm waiting for good weather to return there. This morning we had sun but now it's cloudy again ...

2 images stitched with PTGui after being processed with SilkyPix.

Threat around the Barrage de la Verne

Barrage de la Verne - Provence

This dam is in the hills around my home. It's a kind of tank of drinking water for the Saint-Tropez area. I made this shot by a beautiful morning in 2006 springtime and since it's on my french website.
Today looking at my server's logs i've noticed that a big bunch of people where looking for images of this dam. Checking the news i understood it was because they were afraid about a risk due to the incredible rain we have for this week end.

Tech note : this photo was done from 3 Nikon D100 shots stitched with PTGui.

Autum dawn on the sea

Autumn dawn on the Mediterranean sea

Large view here

On the road

Panoramic landscape in Provence mountains

That's another old shot just published for not being too boring with my most recent seascapes.
I remember this day. It was during 2006 springtime. After several days of rains a strong Mistral was blowing on the mountains around my village. I walked the 7 kilometers from my house because cars are not allowed to use this road.
I arrived on the place in the late afternoon just with this beautiful light and could shoot this pano and a few other frames before darkness.

For the tech addict readers, the pano was done from 6 nef files from my Nikon D100 converted with SilkyPix and stitched with PTGui.

Large view here.

Roquebrune panorama

Rocher de Roquebrune sur Argens

This one was done from 16 NEF files, processed in SilkyPix and the stitched with PTGui.

I love this place for a long time. This image was done in April 2007 but i still remember the feeling of this end of afternoon alone in this little bush, waiting for the light with my tripod and camera.