Autumn in the canyon

Autumn in the canyon

 

A one month old image, done in the canyon of Chéran river.

Springtime glory

Springtime glory

 

Another image of a beautiful hike along Chéran river. Not the most easy place to reach but the view worth the effort.

Want to see more images of french rivers ? Click here.

Shining springtime in the canyon

Shining springtime in the canyon

 

Two days ago i returned to the canyon of Chéran river. That was the first time since i discovered this beautiful place five years ago.
The path to the river is not really easy to find, i lost myself in the forest and finally arrived to a place i've searched but not found 5 years ago.

Springtime in the river

Springtime in the river

 

An image very similar to one published some weeks ago, the most noticeable difference being the longer exposure time due to a dark ND filter.

All my images of this beautiful river can be seen here.

Green water under the bridge

Green water under the bridge

 

My previous image of Cheran river was done from a little bridge named Pont de Banges. For this one, i found a little steep path to the rocks overhanging the river under the bridge.

Early springtime around river Cheran in Massif des Bauges Natural Park

Early springtime around river Cheran

 

First post here for many months. Some little problems kept me busy far from my cameras during the first part of this year.

Yesterday was my first outing for personal work and i went to visit a part of river Cheran i didn't have photographed before.

Spring tints on river Chéran

Spring tints on river Chéran

 

Springtime dusk on river Cheran

Springtime dusk on river Cheran

 

River Chéran running through the forest of Massif des Bauges Natural Park.

You can have a look here to all my images of this river.

Autumn river

Chéran river in autumn

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 # 47 - Autumn in Cheran Canyon

Autumn in Chéran Canyon

When i went to Chéran river two weeks ago, i made an image very close to this one.
It was not the best time of the day and i was thinking too much to scout this new place so i did a little composition mistake.

Back to the office and editing the images, i looked at the file and decided to delete it and to re-make the photo with better conditions if possible.

I returned last week but it was in the early morning and this image needs to be done in the late afternoon.

So, i returned once more this afternoon. Arrived in the canyon, i ran directly to the right place and started by a few shots with normal exposures around 0.5 seconds.
Looking at my camera LCD, i found the water movements and the sky reflections unsightly and decided to make a very long exposure with my Hoya ND 400 filter. The result is the image posted above and for people interested in such details, the exposure was a little more than 200 seconds long.

After that, i walked a little along the river, did some photos of the water running between the rocks and about one hour later, i went back to my initial place under the very low light of the autumn dusk.
Without any filter, i could do two or three more images with exposures around one minute. After a close look on my computer display, i really think that my favourite is the first one done with the Hoya ND 400, just after my arrival.

Weekly commented photo # 46 - Autumn morning along Cheran river

Autumn morning along Chéran river

I spent most of the week preparing the house for winter.
No blogging and almost no photography. I just took some time today in the early morning to return to Chéran canyon.

The drive before dawn to Massif des Bauges natural park was a little longer than usual because of the frosty roads and the path to river was more slippy than last week.

I started by some other images of the little waterfall posted here last friday but with a shorter exposure to give more details in the falling water.

After that, i climbed some rocks to pass over the waterfall. I wanted to explore more deeply the upper part of the river but i discovered it was not possible without a little and cold bath. Not prepared to this kind of game, i decided to stay a little time just on the top of the waterfall where i made the today image.

This one is the result of an HDR work done from 7 exposures and tonemapped with Picturenaut and Photomatix. I also have another one done with a strong GND filter but the left side of the image is really dark and i prefer the HDR one.

As i couldn't go higher i went back to the lower river bed, walked a little to another waterfall i noticed last week, did a few more photos and walked back to my car when the sun started to be really too high in the sky.

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.

A gray morning along the Cheran river - Massif des Bauges Natural Park

A gray morning along the Chéran river

Weekly commented photo #24 - Cheran canyon through Massif des Bauges forest

Cheran canyon through Massif des Bauges forest

For my second morning at the Chéran river i wanted this overview of the canyon from the Abîme bridge but arrived on the place it was not really easy to realize :

The bridge is really narrow and the sidewalks too tights for the 3 legs of my tripod. I had to fold completely one of this legs and just put it on a diagonal metallic beam. It was not the most stable setup i ever had but it worked.

The bridge is hanged by many big red wires and i couldn't use a lens wider than 28 mm without including one of them in the frame. I could take some photos of the river but not this general view i wanted.
I was about to renounce to this image and go directly to the river when i had an idea :

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may know that i'm a long time user of PTGui.
Ten years ago i was using it very often to stitch images for classic panoramic landscapes but also to get more resolution that the old digital cameras could give.
Today any DSLR give enough pixels for most of my needs and i still make stitched images but only from time to time.

So before packing all my gear to go to the river, i took 4 horizontal photos with my 28 mm lens, panning the camera vertically between each.
Once back at the office, stitching these 4 images with PTGui was easy and it gave me a 20 megapixels file.

Wild forest in Massif des Bauges Natural Park

Wild forest in Massif des Bauges Natural Park

An image done one week ago during my second day of exploration along the Chéran river.

Running water in Cheran river

Running water in Chéran river - Massif des Bauges Natural Park

Another view of the water running just under me while i was standing up on my little rock in the river bed (read the story here).

Silky water in the Cheran river - The vertical one

Silky water in Cheran river

Another addition to my long exposures with Hoya ND 400 collection.

If you're an usual reader of this blog, you will surely recognize this image as the vertical version of this one.

Trees in Massif des Bauges forest

Trees in Massif des Bauges forest

Some trees in the forest along the Chéran river in the Massif des Bauges natural park.

I've published yesterday 12 new photos of this area on my french website, if you want to have a look that's here.

I also returned in that place really soon this morning for more images of the river and forest.