Weekly commented photo #13 - Annecy lake and Tournette mountain in the early spring

Annecy lake and Tournette mountain in the early spring

So, this photo is obviously a long exposure done in full day light. As usual for this kind of images i used my Hoya ND 400 filter and as often i added a 0.9 soft GND filter over the sky and snowy mountains.

The photo was done just before the end of the afternoon one day i was exploring the west side of the lake and i think i'll have to return in one or two months when the forest will be more green.
I started the day with a drive on the road of Semnoz mountain overhanging the lake but didn't found any very interesting place for landscape photography. The road offers some nice views on the lake but also on the high density of villages and houses all around.

After this little excursion in the mountain, i returned closer to the lake at one place i had noticed in the morning. I stayed there until dusk, did this image and a few other with softer colours (One can be seen here).

Weekly commented photo #12 - Sunset light on the Massif des Bauges

Sunset light on the Massif des Bauges

On monday i had an appointment with a client in the Massif des Bauges area. After my first and unsuccessful attempt a few weeks ago (see here) i was decided to give this place another try.

I was expecting my shooting job to finish early and to have time for personnal landscapes after, just at the better light.
As things don't always go as expected, the job ended just before the end of afternoon and i had to spend a little time with the client to speak and have a drink. BTW it was a nice piece of time but when it ended it was too late to drive to the mountains where i wanted to go and so i took the shortest road to my home.

After less than half an hour on the mountain road i arrived to a little pass where i discovered this sunset view.
I stopped the car along the road, unpacked my gear and made this image.

I had to use a 1.2 (5 stops) soft gnd filter to keep the sky correct without darkening too much the shadows.
It was ok for the exposure but the sun was not completely set and when processing the file i discovered a flare mark that i couldn't remove completely so that's just another image which will never be printed.

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.

Weekly commted photo #10 - Wild and peaceful

Wild and peaceful - Le Pradet

If you look at my seascapes, you will easily notice that most of the photos where done on the same place named "Bau Rouge beach".

Why ?

I really love wild and natural places and to sand beaches i prefer rocks with nice shapes and where the waves can break nicely.

Such places where really rare in the part of Provence where i lived and where all was done for a comfortable tourism.

Bau Rouge beach was one of them and so i went there really often.
I think that many photographers know this feeling : You always think you can return and capture some other light, some other composition. That's true but one day you feel the need to change.

So after some months of shooting at Bau Rouge beach, after looking the maps, after asking many people i decided to move a little and give a change to another rocky beach not so far.

This new place was a few kilometers from Bau Rouge beach and had no special name. I also went there many times but my favourite image of this place is this one and it's the really first one i did there.

This first day was intended to more to explore the place than to really make images so i just had a light bag with a litlle tripod. Rare thing, i left all my filters at home.

The image was done just before dusk and the dynamic range was a little too high for a single exposure without filtering.
So i took three exposures that i manually and patiently blended (without tonemapping) in the digital darkroom.

As said over, that's my fav from this place but you can have a look here to see another one i also love.
It was done by a stormy morning where the waves were so huges that i could'nt access Bau Rouge beach.

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.

Weekly commented photo #8 - A high resolution view of Collobrieres village in Provence

Collobrieres village in Provence

So, this a view of Collobrières village in Provence. I lived there during 15 years.
The photo was done in march 2004 and is about 7 years old.

In 2004 i was mainly using a Nikon D100 for my landscape work but i've always loved smaller cameras for family images or holidays, etc. During the film era, i was really often using an Olypus XA2 with Velvia or Provia slide film. When time cames to digital i tried many compact cameras but was never really happy with their image quality. My favourites non DSLR cameras were the Dimage 7i and A1 from Minolta.

This view of Collobrières was done with the Dimage A1. It was a 5mpx bridge with a 28-200 f2.8 zoom. The sensor was smaller than the one of my DSLRs but really larger the the ones in compact cameras. The lens was a high quality one done by Minolta and i've to say that in many circumstances this camera gave me some amazing raw files.
Of course it was not the camera for low light images but for most common images it was a very good one. It was also compatible with the very good Minolta flash system and i often used it with a 5600 HSD flash with a real pleasure.

So, let come back to the photo :
I was at home and saw the beautiful light of this end of afternoon. My Nikon gears were at my office about 30km far. I grabed the A1 and a tripod, climbed the hill above the village, made a few single shots and as the light became better and better, i decided to make a stitched high resolution image.
It was something i often did in these old years because DSLRs cameras didn't had all the pixels they now have.

So, i took 11 images with the Dimage A1 and the zoom at its longer focal length.
I gave me 11 raw files that i processed with SilkyPix and stitched with PTGuiPro.
The resulting image weights about 20 mega pixels and when i look at the full resolution file i can't distinguish it from a file done with a HD DSLR.

Weekly commented photo #7 : An autumn game with multi exposures

Autumn leaves

It was in october. At the end of the afternoon i was fed up with my office job, took my camera and went out to explore the surrounding meadows and forests.
I found no great combination of place and light for a nice landscape image. Perharps because i was tired, in the forest i just saw a big bunch of branches and trunks.

I started to play with my camera and autumn leaves without any real idea, without any real motivation ...
Suddenly i had the idea to try this old game of multiple exposures i loved to play when i was shooting on film.
I decided to test it with my DSLR and to make an in-camera composite of three shots of the same leaves with my 70 mm lens wide opened and changing focus. I wanted to see if sharp and soft parts of the images could blend in something interesting.

So, what is the answer or more exactly, what is my answer ?
In fact i don't really know :)
Some people find this image really beautiful but personally i don't like it a lot.
Of course it's not a bad one but i feel something is missing here. Too sharp, not enough, not magic enough ? I don't know but if you have an idea, i'm interested :)

Weekly commented photo #6 - Winter light in Provence

Winter light on the Lac des Escarcets

This image was done in february 2008 so she's now 3 years old.
While i was living in Provence, this place was one of my favourite winter spot for photography. In summer it's really less interesting because the lake is dry or almost and, another important point, winter light is very better here.

This lake is a protected natural area managed by the Conservatoire du Littoral et des Rivages Lacustres. Many and many birds are living in the vegetation all around and it would probably be a very interesting place for a wildlife photographer.

Since the day i've discovered this place, i've loved the colours of it's red ground. Under some special lights these coulours can be truly amazing and make me think to some american or australian deserts.

My first image of the lake was done about one year before this one (and you can see it here)
After this first one done just before dusk, the winter ended without letting me coming back in really good conditions but at least i could explore many places around the lake.

In 2008 by a sunny winter afternoon i decided to make a new try on this very little but colorful beach i had noticed one year before.
I was a little disapointed when arriving because some huge white clouds were standing above the lake making the light really dull. I decided to go for a little more scouting and about 2 hours later i remarked that a small wind was clearing the sky.
I ran back to the beach and arrived when the afternoon was about to end, just for this clear and beautiful view.
In these days (and i still do it), i was often stitching two or more photos to make some 5x4 images without loosing too much pixels.
As i was using a panoramic head my setup was a little long but i had the time to be ready before the light turns too dark.

Technical details :
Two vertical images were used to make this photo.
They were taken with a Nikon D200 and a 17 mmlens.
I also used a tripod, a Nodal Ninja panoramic head and a remote shutter release.
Raw files were processed with SilkyPix and stitching was done with PTGui.

Weekly commented photo #5 - Visitation basilica by night in Annecy

Visitation basilica by night in Annecy

I've to say the truth : i've never liked this monument. But when i arrived back in Annecy in july i saw it by night and thought it could make a beautiful photo.

I love night images but that's not what i'm doing most. I usually prefer the special lights of dawn or dusk. So that's only in january that i decided to try this image.
One afternoon i went to the lake for some dusk shots on the Imperial beach and took a long lens with me for the basilica.
When the night started to fall, i left the beach and walked along the lake until i found a nice point of view.
After one first test, exposing the shot for the highlights on the bell tower, i was sure that HDR would give a relly better image.
Keeping in one single exposure all the details in the highlights would give dark shadows on all the left part of the church. So i did 5 shots at f11 from 4 to more than 80 seconds.
As the evening was a little windy, i weighted my tripod with my bag and as usual i used mirror lockup plus a remote shutter release for each exposure. Getting sharp images with long exposures while using a long lens in the wind can be a little tricky but this night, i was lucky.
After this 5 shots, i walked deeper in the city to make images of some other monuments and also to warm me up.

I processed the raw files 2 or 3 days after with silkypix and Photomatix, trying to keep the tonemapping at a soft level.

Weekly commented photo #4 - Parasol pines forest in dusk light

Parasol pines forest in dusk light

This image is now more than 10 years old as it was done on 2005/10/01.
Since this day, i've moved my office twice but one large framed print of this photograph is always on my walls and i can see it every time my eyes leave my computer screen.

In 2005, september was unusually rainy in this part of Provence.
On october 1rst we had an almost dry day and i ran in Saint Tropez to make some images of a client's garden.
At the end of afternoon while i was driving back home, some dark clouds started to take more and more room in the sky.
I decided to make a little stop in la Plaine des Maures, more to enjoy the beauty of the place than to make images but as i don't like to let my photo gears in the car, i took them with me for this little walk in the nature.

I spent about half an hour hiking in the blowing wind, camera and lenses in a belt bag and tripod on my shoulder. The ground and bush had a strong smell, red colour of the rocks was enhanced by the wetness of the preceding weeks and clouds were more and more darks.

I decided to walk back to my car before the next huge rain.
I was about half way when the wind suddenly stopped. I also stopped and looking around me i discovered this little parasol pines forest bathing in one sunray filtred by the clouds.
I just had the time to set up my tripod and make a very few images before the arrival of the storm. I ran to the car under the rain and drove back home under a weather looking more to a tropical mousson than to a provence rain.

I don't even remember the other photographs i did there this day but this one is really one of my all times favourite although there is no dramatic light, no effect and no heavy post processing.

Weekly commented photo #3 - Annecy, dawn on the Imperial beach

Annecy - Dawn on the Imperial beach

This beach is named Imperial beach because it's in the park of the Imperial Palace.
It's a very well know and appreciated place for all the people living in Annecy. They bath here in summer and have some walks in other seasons. When i was a child, what is a palace now was an old and derelict buildind but the diving boards were ever there and i loved to play with them. It was a frightening but very exciting game.

When i moved back to Annecy in july, it was one of the first places where i wanted to come and make photos.
The two first times i arrived there at dawn, the gates to the beach where locked by chains. A little disapointed i made other images of the lake and abandonned the project waiting for the doors to re-open.
Recently, while speaking with a friend of mine, he told me that the gates were no more locked and seemed suprised because he had some walks here almost every day. Perharps did i just arrive too soon in the morning ...

On saturday morning, i arrived in Annecy at about 7 am, found the gates opened and did a few tests searching for the best point of view.
The image presented here was done about one hour after my arrival and is my real fav from this day.
I have others with the same composition done a little time before but the light is a little more dull and others made later with different framing but the blue is a little too intense for my tastes.

On the technical side, the photo was done using a Nikon D200, a 17-35 zoom, a Hoya ND 400 filter for the long (more than 100s) exposure and a 0.6 soft GND filter to balance sky and foreground. Raw file processing was minimal and done with SilkyPix.

If you like long exposure photography with or without filters, you can click here to find all my posts about it or here if you just want to see the ND 400 in action.

Don't forget : click on the image to see it large :)

Weekly commented photo #2 - Ferns in Provence forest

Ferns in Provence forest

For this second post of my Weekly commented photo serie, i also choosed an old photo from Provence.
This one was done at the end of spring in 2004. I was living in a small village named Collobrières and had my office in Cogolin, just near Saint-Tropez. The road i took every day was a tight one through a deep forest.

One evening, while driving back home, i noticed a nice bunch of green ferns where some were starting to turn to yellow. I don't really know why they caught my attention, perharps because they were a sign of life in all this dry forest.

So during one week, i looked at them every day waiting for the colors to be really nice. One day, thinking it would be the good one i took my camera when leaving the office, drove and stopped at the ferns. Unfortunately the evening was windy in this place and i knew i wouldn't be able to catch a sharp image. The wind blowed during 2 days. The first quiet evening i could setup my tripod, try 2 or 3 compositions and finally made this photo.
The day after, while processing the images i was very happy to see that they were all very sharp. I was a bit anxious about that because i had to use some really low shutter speeds and even a little air can result in blurred photos.

We are now about seven years later and i don't remember all the technical settings but i know that this image still sells prints more than once a yaer.

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.

2011 project - The weekly commented photo

The Tournette mountain and Annecy lake from Menthon Saint Bernard

Every post here is done with one image and a little (sometimes very short because of my bad english) text.
Sometimes i speak about the photo, sometimes about my life, sometimes about other things i've found on the web.

In 2011 i'll give me a little assignment : Every friday i'll write a post showing an image (old or new) and explaining why and how it was done.
Why will include things like personnal mood or commercial reasons. How will give some technical informations about the making of.

One year is 52 weeks so i can hope to find the time to play that little but serious game.