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.

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.

Falling water

Water falling against the moss near Septmoncel


We are back to a few weeks ago with this closeup of the waterfall on the syncline fold near Septmoncel in Haut Jura Natural Park.

Running water in Septmoncel forest - Haut Jura Natural Park

Stream running through Jura forest around Septmoncel

Another view of this little stream i discovered last week around Septmoncel in Haut Jura Natural Park (First image here).

This water running wildly in the green forest makes me think to another place i discovered two years ago around Saparelle in Corsica.

Weekly commented photo # 38 : Cascading water near Septmoncel in Haut Jura Natural Park

Cascading water in Jura forest


In july, our visit to the famous Hérisson waterfalls was shortened by the arrival of huge rains. We left the place at dawn and drove back home.
While on the mountain road between Saint Claude and Septmoncel i noticed a big waterfall on a spectacular syncline fold. The weather was really too bad and the rain too strong for a valuable photographic stop.

On wednesday, we had a beautiful autumn day and i decided to come back to this area and make images of this waterfall and geological particularity.
I arrived on the place in the end of afternoon under a beautiful light but i had two deceptions.

• The waterfall was really less impressive than under the rain.
• Access to its bottom was quite impossible.

I started to make some images from the road and finally found a kind of little path between the rock and green vegetation with which i could bring me a little closer.
My motivation was not really high because of the very few water falling from the cliff and after a few more shots i packed my gear and went back to my car with the idea to explore some other places in the area.

I stopped a little more closer to Septmoncel village where i could see from the road a stream cascading in the deep forest.
After a short trip along the stream i found this little place where i could make three or four images like this one. The light was low enough to give some long exposures (many seconds) without any filter.
After that i tried to explore the forest and stream a little more but night was falling and i rapidly came back to my car for a two hours long drive to home.
I expect to return there soon and hope the decidous trees will take their autumn colors for my come back.

Running water cascading in Fornant river

Running water cascading in Fornant river

Another one from this recent outing to Fornant river.
It was in the late evening and the long exposure (more than 1 minute) didn't need any filter.


Note : I've added yesterday 26 new images on my french website about the rural landscapes in Haute Savoie department.

Saut Girard waterfall on Herisson river - Jura

Saut Girard waterfall on Hérisson river

Another one from my very short visit to Hérisson waterfalls in July.
Thos one was done in the very ultimate sunrays of the day.


Today in the early morning, i went once more to Haut Jura Natural Park.
It was better than the last times : I could make a few landscapes images before the rain was too strong :)

Gour Bleu in Herisson waterfalls - Jura

Gour Bleu waterfall in Jura forest

Another view of this beautiful waterfall on the Hérisson river.

Unlike the preceding one, this one was done without any filter and has a very shorter exposure. The most obvious difference in on the river and not on the waterfall itself.

Gour Bleu in Herisson waterfalls - Long exposure with Hoya ND 400

Gour Bleu in Hérisson waterfalls

If you want to read a little more about the Hérisson range of waterfalls you can have a look at my previous post.

Gour Bleu is my fav from the 2 waterfalls i visited during these first days.
This image was done in the end of afternoon and the long exposure of 123 seconds was obtained with a very dark ND filter (Hoya ND 400).

Weekly commented photo # 29 - Saut Girard in Herisson waterfalls

Saut Girard in Hérisson waterfalls


Hérisson river runs in Jura mountains and offers one of the most famous range of waterfalls in France.

If you look for an english translation of the word Hérisson you will find things like Hedgehog or Urchin but the name of the river doesn't come from this pretty animal. It comes from Yrisson which means sacred waters in old jura language.

I wanted to visit this area for a long time but i never took any time for that when i was living in Provence. Now i'm closer and it's easier.
I went there for a few family holidays at the end of the past week. It was not intended to be a photography trip but decently i couldn't go there without a camera.

From top to bottom of the river, there are seven main waterfalls :

• Saut Girard
• Moulin Jeunet
• Saut de la Forge
• Château Garnier
• Gour Bleu
• Grand Saut
• Eventail

The river runs mostly in the forest and autumn is probably the best season for beautiful photography. In summer beautiful lights are really shorts in time and i didn't want to spend most of my days running from top to bottom, looking for nice point of views and trying to guess when the light would be at its best on each waterfall.
So, before leaving home i did some internet searches and decided to work in two places :

• Saut Girard, because the access is easy.
• Gour Bleu, because it's really in the forest and i love that.

We arrived on Thursday evening and it was easy to find a place for our van not too far from Saut Girard.

The sky was really cloudy and i started to try different compositions on one side of the waterfall. Suddenly, the clouds left some place for the late evening sun and all the area wath painted with this beautiful golden light.
I mounted my Sigma 10-20 on my camera and ran with my tripod to the middle of the little lake. It's probably the best place to show the waterfall and its neighborhood but it's impossible to find an interesting foreground. That's why the photo is cropped to 16x9 aspect ratio.

The contrast was huge between the sky, the bright rocks and the shadows under the trees. After a few tries, i decided to go for an HDR work and the photo posted here was done from 4 exposures processed with Picturenaut and Silkypix.

Weekly commented photo #26 - Cascading water in Valserine river

Little cascades in Valserine river

I just had a very long and busy week since monday and i really had no time to blog since my last weekly commented photo. If it was a bad week about blogging, it was a good one on the money side.
I have closed two big clients projects : all the shooting is done and all the files processed. Another nice thing is that i had many nice print sales in june. In fact, i can note a real increase of these sales from 3 months. I can just hope things will go on like this in the future ...

On june 24, i returned at dawn to the Valserine valley.
Four days after my first visit, i wanted to explore more the river banks.
That was a nice walk. Sometimes in the water, sometimes in the forest but it ended with a little canyon surrounded by two small cliffs that i couldn't pass safely with my rubber boots and all my photo gear. I think i'll have to find another path to discover the next part of the river.

The image shown above is one of the really first place i found in the river.
On my first day here, there were some big branches across the rocks and the cascades but between my two visits some big rains have cleared the place.
I now have a little ton of raw files from this place and this one is the first and only one i had the time to process during the past week. Things should go better in the next days ...

Weekly commented photo #22 - A little waterfall in Provence hills

A little waterfall in Provence hills

This is probably one of my very first images about the little streams running through the hills and mountains of the Massif des Maures in Provence.

These streams and rivers keep the life in this wild natural area but many of them (like this one) are dry most of the time. Water only runs after big rains like the ones we had in the first days of september 2005.
I was driving back from my office when i noticed this little waterfall in the forest (i could say bush) along the road. I stopped the car, walked a little through some sharps brambles and arrived at the "river" where i could make this image and a few other ones.

When processing the files, i realized that images of these streams should be rare and could interest many people working around environment, climate and global warming.
So i started to work more seriously on that subject and it was a good idea :

• I licensed about 10 images of this serie for different uses.
• It made me discover more deeply this wonderful area.

These images must be really rare because someone had the bad idea to stole one of my fav on my french website to promote a commercial event.
I don't know how they upsized the original 640 pixels wide photo but they used it in A3 and A4 prints, flyers, PDFs and websites.

They were unlucky because i found a flyer at the post office. When i contacted the event oragnisation they started to say it was not my image, when i showed the original they say they bought it on a microstock site but then, they were of course not able to give any proof.
Finally they had no other choice than paying the full rights for all their uses plus a 100% increase for the theft ...

Wild water in Corsica mountains

Wild water in Corsica mountains

Another one just processed from our 2 months trip in Corsica last year.

Waterfall in a spring stream - Cévennes National Park

Spring waterfall in the Cévennes National Park

A wider view of the waterfall posted yesterday.
It was just near the house where we spent three days during our recent trip in the Cévennes National Park. I'm not sure this stream runs all over the year.

Back from the Cévennes National Park

Waterfall closeup in the Cévennes National Park

I'm just back from a one week trip in the Cévennes National Park.
Although it was more a familly trip than a photography one i had the opportunity to make a few images. They will be posted here in the next weeks.

Mossy rocks at Barbennaz waterfall

Mossy rocks at Barbennaz waterfall

Cold water in the Fornant river

Cold water in the Fornant river

An image from monday morning after another serie of ice closeups you'll see soon.

I think it was a very cold monday and not only because i was tired after spending 6 hours in the night driving on snowy roads. If you don't know how to keep your feet fresh, just spend a few hours making such images :)

Corsica - Cascade in Saparelle river

Corsica - Saparelle waterfall

ABOUT THIS IMAGE :
A reminder from our trip in Corsica during the past winter.
You can see more of these streams and waterfalls if you look this blog for the Corsica tag.

SOME NEWS FROM HAUTE SAVOIE :
I just had some few times online since my previous post here.
The weather changed once more. After the huge snow falls of the first days of december, we had some heavy rain and all the snow is now gone. So, photographic conditions are really less exciting.
I hope to be able in the next days to publish some older images of trees in the mist and also one or two of Annecy lake ...

Barbennaz waterfall, another view

Barbennaz waterfall

I think it's (until now) my favorite image of my favorite neighbour :)

Note :
I've posted today an article on my french website about how to photograph waterfalls.