Remembering the Verne river

Dark water in the Verne river

 

Because of a client asking for one of my old images, i recently had to browse through a big bunch of photos from when i was living in Provence. It gave me the idea of posting here a summary of my favorite shots of this beautiful little river.

 

Springtime flow in Verne river

 

Verne river running through the rocks

 

Dusk light on Verne river

 

Verne river dam

 

Verne monastery in Provence

Verne monastery in Provence

 

Little waterfalls in the dark water of the Verne river

Little waterfalls in the dark water of the Verne river

 

A six years old image of a place i loved when i was living in Provence and a few words to say i've uploaded this morning 30 new Provence images on my french website.

Weekly commented photo # 48 - Powerful stream in Provence hills

Boulin stream meets the Verne river

An image from my last year in Provence.
I've spent about 15 years living in Massif des Maures and the last year was certainly the most productive in term of river and stream photography.
It's possibly because i wanted to make the most images that i could of these places i loved and also because in 2010 the conditions were exceptionally good for such photos.

Hum, ... conditions were good for photographers but not for everyone. The stream you can see above is dry most of the time and really unlikely to run in june. The day before i made this image we had some flash floods killing around twenty people and destroying one of the big cities of the department.

In the natural area where we were living it was just an impressively strong rain. Probaly the strongest i've ever seen even in tropical areas. Our village was crossed by a river which is usually quiet but this day it was noisy and carrying some big trunks just broken by the tempest in the forest.

The day after, the weather was really nice and i went at dawn to the Verne river expecting some interesting views.
Curiously, the place looked quiet and really untouched by the recent floods. The only unusual thing was this strong water running in this little stream.

Weekly commented photo #1 - Dark water in the Verne river

Dark water in the Verne river

We are now back in the Massif des Maures for this first edition of my Weekly commented photo.

I made this image during our last months of life in Provence. We had a rainy spring and so the rivers still had nice water in the last days of May. If you search this blog for the Verne tag you will find many other images of this place mostly done into the river. Of course silky water and dusk light always make popular images but i also wanted to show more classic views including the river's environment.

This one was done in the late afternoon. I left the river bed a moment before dusk and climbed some overhanging rocks until i found an interesting point of view on this little valley.
I then spent a little time to search the best place for my tripod allowing this wide angle view including the rocks, the trees, the dark water and also the colorful vegetation in the foreground. The real trick was to avoid seeing the tripod legs in the viewfinder whithout falling down in the river :)

After this one i also tried some other compositions for my stock (including vertical ones), packed my equipment and went back to the river for some long exposures at dusk.

Although it's not the most spectacular, this image is one of my favourites done around the Verne river. Of course some affective reasons could be evoked : I was about to leave this wild and beautiful region and it was one of my last occasion to shoot here ...

If some are interested by some technical informations, here are a few ones :

• Nikon D200.
• Sigma 10-20 at 10 mm.
• Manfrotto tripod.
• Remote controler.
• Exposure : 0.7 second at f14.
• No filter.
• NEF file processed with Silkypix.

Flow in the Verne river and 5 sites to discover

Flow in the Verne river

It's an image from our last months of life in Provence done the same day than this one but a few hours later. I had ever left my place in the middle of ther river bed and was walking back to the path climbing the hills to my car when i stopped on some rocks hoverlooking the water with a nice perspective. I started with a few "normal" images and finally did this one with my Hoya ND 400 filter.

The 5 sites to discover :
They are the 5 very nice websites of 5 amazing nature and landscapes photographers.
If you don't know them, have a look you won't waste your time :)

• Maria Stromvik
• G Dan Mitchell
• Jaspal Jandu
• Chris Corradino
• Chip Phillips

The Verne monastery in Provence hills

The Chartreuse de la Verne in Provence

If you use the search box of this blog, you will probably find some other images of this monastery. As you can devine from its name, it's located in the hills above the valley of the Verne river i show in many previous posts.

Some new images of the Verne river

Waterfall on Boulin stream
just before it's junction with the Verne river

In my last post about this place i was saying that i would probably not return there this year because of the low water level at the end of spring ...

But last week we had some impressive flash floods killing more than 20 peoples in our department. Fortunately, the huge forest were we live seems to have some very good natural protections and although some huge amounts of rain nothing realy bad came in our area.
That said, at least it puts some water in the rivers. So this morning i woke up before 5 am and went to the place where the Boulin stream joins the Verne river.
Climbing at 6 am on little cliffs covered by wet moss is always an amazing experience when you wear rubber boots but nothing went wrong and i could make a few interesting and i guess rare images before 8 am.

I love this place because it's wild and unknown and probably also because my inconscient knows that these little streams and rivers are the life sources of our country : A few kilometers far from these little waterfalls, the Verne river is "closed" by a dam and it's lake is the main source of drinking water for the Saint-Tropez area ...


Junction between Boulin stream and Verne river

Back to the Verne river

Dusk light on the Verne river - Provence

About one week ago i decided to come back to the Verne river and see if it could do some interesting dusk images.

I arrived on the place a few time before the real dusk, started to make some shots from some rocks overhanging the river (you'll probably see them one day) and when the light started to be low i went to the middle of the river bed where i could install my tripod on a little rock.

I took my most wide lens, choose my GND filters and after a few test shots decided to wait a little bit. So i looked in my back and was seduced by the scene of the dark river running through the rocks. So i changed my lens for a longer one, moved the tripod a little on the rock and took this image.
After that i just had the time to remount the wide angle plus filters for the dusk shot and climb back to my car with my head lamp.

This image of the river running through the rocks is not the one i was looking for when i came there but now i really like it. I would have liked to go back one more time for some more prepared images of this scene but didn't had any occasion at the right time and in this end of spring, the water level decrease strongly every day ... So i think i'll have to keep this one :)

The Verne river running through the rocks

The Verne river at spring

The Verne river by a cloudy springtime day

Yesterday was the first non raining day for about one week.
I spent the afternoon hiking i this little river in the hills around our home.
Was a good test to see if my rubber boots were still waterproofed :)

Dusk time in the forest

Dusk time at the Chartreuse de la Verne

I've spent many time shooting during these last three days. That's a photo from yesterday in the late evening. The long exposure (125 seconds) really helps to retrieve some colors in the scene under a really low light. Of course such an long exposure can't give very sharp leaves in the forest but today i don't think that's really a problem. Some years ago i would probably not have done this shot. I was working in a photo agency and we were reviewing slides from photographers on a light table with a strong magnifying glass. This one OK, this one no ... I guess we wouldn't have accepted any forest shot if we couldn't count the leaves on the trees :)

Today i spent most of the day shooting paintings for a painter and after that i rapidly went to the beach for some seascapes at dusk time. Shooting paintings is an usual part of my job and i have to say that it's a real pleasure. It gives inspiration and it's always a good lesson about composition and colors.
A painter i often work with became a friend and 5 years ago for the birth of my daughter she offered her a large beautiful painting and told us Put it where she can see it, touch it, play with it. That's done whith Liquitex acrylic and it can't be damaged by a child. Five years after i can say that it's true and Liquitex on canvas can resist to many things :)

Winter dusk over the Chartreuse de la Verne

Winter dusk over the Chartreuse de la Verne
Yesterday, i spent some time hiking in the forest around this place looking for streams and waterfalls. I took this image just before the night when i was on the way back.

This monastery was build for the first time in 1174 if i remember well. It's in the middle of a deep and wild forest. Today some nuns are still living there.

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.