Blossoming trees in the garden and a few words about the recent Blogger problem

Blossoming trees in the field

This image is about one month old (april 12) and now the flowers are gone.
This field is just under my house and that's where i often go to drink my morning coffee :)

I've promised to post a weekly commented photo on this blog every Friday (see here).
As i'm not in the office every friday, i often use the schedule posts function in Blogger.
So, on Thursday i had a few time to write my WCP #19 post and schduled it for the next day.

But, during this period and until this morning Blogger encountered some big problems during a maintenance operation.

• It was first impossible to save correctly my post. After a few times it finally worked.
• Then Blogger went to read only mode.
• Then they "deleted" a huge amount of recent posts.
• When Blogger came back to normal mode this morning, i could see that my post was in the deleted batch.
• A few hours later it was still not published but it was restored in the admin panel and i just had to correct the schedule date and reenter the tags.

I use Blogger since 2007 and that's the first time i experienced a real problem. For me, they did a good job. I didn't loose anything but tags and they gave many information on their Twitter account.

Colors in the field

Colors in the field

Rural landscape around Frangy

Rural landscape around Frangy

This afternoon i went out to make a few more images for my serie These rural landscapes around my home (introduction here)

I was on the hill where my home is and shot the hills on the other side of the Usses valley.
Frangy is the name of the city in the valley and i can't find the name of the village in the picture :)

Weekly commented photo #17 : Cereal field in the wind

Cereal field in the wind

On wednesday i wanted to go to the mountains of the Valserine valley to make images of the fresh green leaves inthe forest.
I left home under a cloudy and windy weather and arrived on the place about one hour later under an impressive rain. I hesitated a short time and decided to go back and continue my office work.

So one hour later i was not too far from home when i noticed a cereal field along the tiny road i was driving on.
The weather was still cloudy giving a very nice light on the landscape and the cereals were dancing in the wind.

I parked my car, walked to the field and the was a little disapointed because a high voltage power line was crossing the sky just here.
I abandoned the idea of a landscape with the field overhung by a stunning cloudy sky and decided that the day was definitely not good for photography.

I was about to walk back to my car when i had the idea to try some closeups. The wind was strong and getting a sharp image looked impossible.
After a few shots, i mounted my Hoya ND 400 filter on my lens and decided to let the wind play with the grass.
On this image, the exposure was around one minute long.

Spring light on the country

Spring light on the country

Around Arcine, the Rhône river makes the boundary between 2 departments : Haute Savoie and Ain.

I returned there a third time, still looking for the best point of view on the river. The place where i stopped also offered a nice view on the rural landscapes on the other side of the Rhône ...

Another rural landscape at springtime

Rural landscape et springtime around Arcine - Haute Savoie

Another one done around Arcine, on my second day on the place.

Rural landscape at springtime near Arcine

Arcine is a village above the Rhône river near where i now live.
I went there yesterday evening for the first time and while i was waiting for the light on the river, i turned my (long) lens to the landscapes all around.
I think i missed this fresh green during my 15 years in Provence.

Rural landscape in the mist on Vuache mountain - Another version

Rural landscape in the mist on Vuache mountain

You can see here another version of this scene.

While this first one was done in a very deep mist and without any filter, the one posted today was done with a little more sun and the difference of lightness between the sky and ground was compensated by a soft gnd filter, giving different atmospheres in these two images.

Weekly commented photo #11 - These rural landscapes around my home

Rural landscape in winter on the Plateau des Daines

With this week commented photo, i introduce a new serie i'm working on for a few months and titled : These rural landscapes around my home.

The concept around this serie is something new for me.
I know live in a very rural place where people grow cows to produce milk. They cultivate cereals to feed their cows and to sell, they cut the woods to heat themselves during the winter, ...
The landscapes all around are not really impressives. There are flat areas, hills with vineyards, some little mountains and some high voltage power lines.

Since we arrived there last summer i spent many times walking and exploring our new surrounding. Although there is nothing very spectacular and the place can look very common i've started to photography these landscapes, with their trees, their rivers, etc.
In this work i don't try to chase the most impressive light, i just want to make images of this country where people live and work.

Why do i do that ?
I'm not really sure but i think that's because i feel that all these people wouldn't be what they are if the place wouldn't be what it is (not easy for me to write it in english) and my grand grand parents were living there ...

When i started with these photos, i thought i would keep them personnals.
Nothing is organized, i've no real shooting plan and i still don't know what i will do with the serie but i will continue.

A few of these landscapes are ever available in my stock on my french website and i start today to shwo some of my favs here.

First outing in the Massif des Bauges, not a success

Massif des Bauges landscape around Les Aillons

Some days ago i went for a first outing in the Massif des Bauges natural park.
It was not a good photographic day : The light was dull, i drove a lot,i was tired, i walked, i waited but could'nt get a better image than this one.

End of the day on Vuache mountain

"End of the day on Vuache mountain

That's an image frome exactly one month ago.
It was done the same day than this one but a few time later really just before dusk. I ended the day walking down the forest path by night :)

Weekly commented photo #9 - The dead tree and the clouds

The dead tree and the clouds

It was a long week without blogging. I spent days and days driving in regions between the Alps where we live and Provence. The few time i had at home was for some office work. The weather was not really nice anywhere but i could at least make some garden images for one client but could'nt find some time to make photos for myself.

I arrived at home this night after a 1000 km long drive and spent an important part of the morning to solve a routing problem between my linux boxes.
After that i started to think about the image i could show and comment here today.

There were 2 or 3 nice ones in my most recent archives but i keep them for the days to come. Diving a little deeper in the old files, i found this one from november.
This field is just under my house and i often consider it as my own garden. It's a nice place very well exposed and i think i will be a perfect one for some spring naps.

In the last week of november i was making some work on our new but old house. The weather was sometimes cloudy, sometimes sunny and the wind really fresh, announcing the huge snow falls we had the weeks after.
In the end of afternoon, the light was more and more nice and i was more and more tired of carrying stones and concrete ...
I washed my hands, changed my clothes, took my usual photo gear and went to that field.
OK, the light was nice but what to do in this empty field with electric lines and houses in the background.
After a few minutes of intense thinking i decided that the light and wind would be perfect for a long exposure game with the clouds.
I found this old dead tree to have a nice silhouette and composed the image around him. Beeing without leaves was a good point for the long exposure.

Here comes the technical words, if you're not interested you can skip :)
The image was done with wide angle zoom (Sigma 10-20) at about 12 mm.
I used 2 filters :

• A 0.9 soft GND to balance sky and ground.
• A Hoya ND 400 for the long exposure in day light (a little more than 90 seconds).

Last words : The tree is now really dead, he was torn by the wind last week.

Post last words : This post is also a contribution to the Skywatch Friday meme.

Mist and clouds on Vuache mountain

Mist and clouds on Vuache mountain

Rural landscape in the mist on Vuache mountain

Rural landscape in the mist on Vuache mountain

I love this mountain because i can climb to the top while leaving my car at home.
Just perfect when you need a breath of fresh air after some hours on phone with clients.

I went there on friday afternoon. Our house was in the mist and i guessed that the top of the mountain would be sunny ...
After about one hour walk i was still in the mist (and did this image) but a few moment later and a very few meters higher i had a very short time of sun with a beautiful view on a nice sea of mist and clouds bathing the mountain forest.

When the winter looks like spring

Winter afternoon on the Vuache mountain

Click on the image to get a larger size :)

Yesterday afternoon i went to the Vuache mountain. It's elevation is about 1000 meters and at the end of november it was looking like that.
On the upper left corner of the image there is the Tournette mountain (more than 2300m high). I've ever seen it with more snow in july ...

For being honnest, the amazing weather we have for about one week is really pleasant and hiking the mountains wearing just a T shirt is not so bad. Most of all i had a very beautiful light at sunset time :)

Rural landscape in the mountains

Rural landscape in the mountains - Col de la Forclaz

About ten days ago i spent an afternoon at the Col de la Forclaz above Annecy lake. It'a a very well known spot from french paragliders and it offers a stunning high view on the lake.
Unfortunatly the day was cloudy and light really dull so i didn't made the images of the lake i expected.
I went to the forest, did a few tree photos and waited for dusk when i could do this image and another very similar but with a slightly different composition.
None of these images are outstanding but i love how they represent these rough places.

BTW you can notice that we didn't had too much snow for a long time.

White landscape in the mist

White landscape in the mist

Another from the same serie than the one presented one week ago.
I think this one is my favorite.

This is my second contribution to SkyWatch Friday.
Click on the image to see it larger :)

Trees in the mist and snow - First contribution to Skywatch Friday

Trees in the mist and snow

Early this morning we had our first time without any falling snow for some days.
I could grab a few images of the rural landscapes around the houses while the light was still soft. Walking in more than 30 cm of fresh and virgin snow was a real pleasure.

This image is my first contribution to Skywatch Friday.
Click on the thumbnail to see it larger :)

Snow on the Vuache mountain

Snow on the Vuache mountain

Another one from my friday walk on the Vuache mountain. It was done just near the oak tree shown in my previous post and a little before the real summit. The autumn snow was really not high and didn't hide totaly the grass and and bush in the fields.

When i left the house and started to climb i was sure to be alone but arrived there i met another hiker, walking back from the summit and worrying about the fact i could be caught by the night in the steep forest path we both had to take to rejoin our cars. So he waited for me :)

Light on the landscape

Rural landscape around Chilly in Haute Savoie

Something different of the kind of landscapes i usually do. That's really rare for me to use a 300 mm.

This morning i was around Annecy lake at about 6 am. It was cold and i had to remember quick how to shoot with frosted hands and how to warm batteries.