We had some strong rain during the past weeks. It stopped yesterday and i decided to explore a part of Valserine river i had never visited before.
Just before the city of Bellegarde sur Valserine, the river suddenly plunges in a narrow and deep canyon so that it seems to disapear from the surface. This place is named Pertes de la Valserine.
Yesterday, due to the high water level, the spectacle was impressive, for the ears as much as for the eyes.
An image from about one year ago of this beautiful waterfall on Bronze river.
I returned there some weeks ago after a few days of storms and strong rain, the waterfall was unrecongnizable and looked like small Niagara falls.
When i went to Surjoux to make images of Pain de Sucre waterfall, i noticed a little place with a nice point of view on the Rhône valley.
I came back a few weeks later by a rainy afternoon with short appearances of sun.
Weather was really awful when i arrived, so i first spent a long time driving all around to explore this part of the valley i don't know well.
When the rain stopped to fall continually, i returned to this place overhanging the river where i could make a short serie of images under the warm light of a few sunrays making the green forests really beautiful.
The complete serie was published yesterday on my french website.
Note :
If you're interested in french geography, Rhône river is here the boundary between 2 departments, Ain on the right side of the image and Haute Savoie on the left side.
Rain had a short break yesterday. I decided to spend the afternoon with an explorative walk of the lower part of Fornant river.
My first idea was to go to its junction with the Usses river in Frangy.
Walking the forest path overhanging the river, i first made a few stops to make some images of all these lush greens. With all the recent springtime rains, every forest here looks to be a tropical one.
Then i just had to go on a little more to discover a kind of deep and green canyon were the river was running tumultuously.
The point of view "from above" was not very interesting so i started to search one way to reach the river. I finally found one scary but direct access to the other end of the canyon. The place was green wet and wild and filled with the noise of this small but powerful waterfall.
I don't know the upper part of Vézéronce river but from Pain de Sucre waterfall to the junction with the Rhône, the river bed is large and the water runs on a kind of limestone rock.
On my first visit in April, i was surprised by the low water level despite the unstopping rain we have here for months.
The water was running quietly and sometimes falling in such little "cracks" in the tender rocks.
I thought this closeup composition could be interesting and just had to set up my tripod over the "crack". The limestone was very slippery and I wasn't in the most comfortable position while making this image but i'm very happy with the result.
It was very late in the afternonn and light was low enough to give this silky water effect without any ND filter.
Still posting images from my last outing to this waterfall. This one was done in the very late afternoon but i needed my Hoya ND 400 filter to get a long enough exposure for this effect on the "lake".
As we have an awful weather almost every day, i spend a lot of time browsing the net and looking at maps, searching for some interesting places to photograph and i found yesterday another waterfall named Pain de Sucre in Ain department. Actually, like Jura, this department really has many and many rivers and falls and is a very good photographic destination at spring and autumn.
An image from last week done during my visit to Pain de Sucre waterfall.
Although the main goal was to make images of the waterfall i took a little time for a few photos of the river which was running nicely underwood before the junction with the Rhône river.
An image from yesterday while i was exploring Vézéronce river near Surjoux in Ain department.
This river is a small one with just a few kilometers long but goes to the Rhône which is one of the main rivers in France (it starts in Switzerland and finishes the mediterranean sea)
This waterfall is just a few hundreds meters far from the junction between the two rivers. Access is really short and easy and i guess it's a famous place for family walks.
I know there is at least one more fall above this one but i couldn't find any path through the cliffs. I asked to someone living just near. He answered that he wasn't sure about the path and that it should be dangerous.
An image from today, in this "secret place" i discovered in february along Fornant river.
I returned there this afternoon, expecting some colorful autumn leaves on the white rocks over the green water. Unfortunately, they were really rare and i spent a few times making some wide views of the river (like this one) and some closer ones of a little waterfall running between the rocks.
About one week ago along Fornant river.
I was not very active here during the past weeks. One of the clients for which i make architecture images about wood made buildings asked me to design an application to show my images on a large multitouch screen in Paris during the next days.
I had in a very short time to choose and buy hardware and software and develop the presentation.
I choose a 46 inches Samsung display with a multitouch overlay from PQ Labs. About software, after a few tries and as i was in a hurry, i went for IntuiFace Presentation. It's a very nice application, really user friendly and which doesn't need any real programmation. It has of course a few limits but it made the job.
Yesterday afternoon i returned to Parnant river for some new images of the canyon surrounded by the autumn forest and came back with a few ones i like (including this one) and which will soon increase my stock about this place.
An image from May in Haut Jura Natural Park.
This mountain stream runs all over the year through the forest but spring is probably its most beautiful season.
A wider view of this place can be seen here.
An image from end of spring, done during my first exploration in Massif des Bornes.
One more view of this place where whe can see the entire waterfall.
After a long time without visiting this lovely place under my home, i returned there a few days ago.
Arrived at the end of afternoon, i waited for the sun to be low enough but after some tries, the contrast was still a little high to give some files of a very good quality with a single exposure.
So, i went for HDR and the image above results of two photos blended and tonemapped with Picturenaut.
