Sunday, October 5, 2014

Long exposures

A friend of mine lent me a ND 1000 filter for my vacation in California. What this filter does is very simple: it reduces the light coming through the lens by a factor of 1000. It means, in daytime even with a bright sun, you can have an exposure of several seconds. Then, the sea and the sky are altered significantly and it is possible to convey unique ambiances. Of course, this trick has been known for a long time. I tried to play with it and you can see some examples below. The pictures were shot from North to South, from Fort Bragg to Point Reyes. The filter has a side effect as a kind of color cast, so it is important to shoot in raw format. I also tried black and white processing to enhance the contrast and the texture.








Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Architecture

Even if I was more in the mood for wildlife and nature photography, I could not stay in the Bay Area without taking some pictures in San Francisco.
Architecture has always been difficult for me. For the first picture, I missed the ideal blue hour, so I decided to take some advantage of the clear sky and the full and bright moon to make something spectacular maybe somehow exaggerated. The next three pictures are taken in late afternoon. Is it really called the sentinel building ?





Friday, September 19, 2014

Some photographs shot in the bay of Monterey

Do you really want to swim there ? There were some courageous people on kayaks ... According to the biologist on board, some big sharks live in this area too. They are just invisible from the surface but the scars on the seals make no doubt. However, this place is an amazing place to see a wonderful wildlife. It reminds me Yellowstone.





Other creatures are more friendly




Thursday, September 18, 2014

Some pictures from Northern California

Hi

Some examples of the beautiful landscapes and the wonderful wildlife of Califonia.







Sunday, March 16, 2014

Spring is coming

Some pictures taken around Versailles. I played a little bit with my 300 mm without the 1.4 converter, I use most of time. The sharpness can be really good.





Friday, March 14, 2014

Some colours now

Taken the same day in Paris






Thursday, March 13, 2014

Some views of Paris

Yesterday, a colleague organized a tour in Paris to take some pictures, following Brassaï's spirit. He defined an interesting path around l'île de la Cité. It's always difficult for me to think in black and white. But I tried to convey the pleasant ambience of yesterday evening. It was a rather warm day for the end of winter: a weather more often encountered in May here. A lot of people were outside.