Tag Archives: France

L I F E, photography

Shootin fish in a barrel…

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A few days ago the family went to the zoo/amusement park known as PAL.  PAL is about 30 minutes outside of Moulin France and for a zoo/amusement park it wasn’t too bad.  Being August and all, it meant that the entire nation of France would descend on the same place at the same time.  I knew the day would be full of walking and riding rides so I came equipped with the D70 with the 18-135mm lens, which is my best travel/snapshot set up.  I brought along the Quantary 2x converter, which does not work well with the lens but I wanted to attempt close up shots of the animals.  I have horrible eye sight and manual focus is not good for the nearly blind but I think some of the photos came out OK.  No art will be found here, just snapshots of the zoo and having fun with the family.

Momma elephant protecting her baby from the American paparazzi…

Elephants at the French Zoo

A seal having fun with the little bit of room it has.  Difficult shot, the lighting was awful, this is luck and playing with the camera.

Bored kitty cat, hanging out.  Shot with the 2x converter on the 18-135mm, good manual focus.

Portrait of an ostrich.  Also taken with the 2x converter and not as good manual focus.

Portrait of a cute goat.  The petting zoo was completly unattended by any staff, imagine that, an entire population of people who might be killed by a free roaming goat.  It could never happen in America.

Enough pictures and words for now.  Enjoy and leave long-winded comments about your love of goats.

cycling, photography

Portraits of Fast Men…Tour De France 2008

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Saturday July 26th my tour group along with our guide Darren and myself spent the day watching the Tour de France time trial in Saint Amand Montrond France.

Shooting fast moving sporting events has always eluded me and my photography skills. The time trial is an excellent chance to photograph these elite athletes one at a time. The speed is higher but with the riders singled out they provide excellent portrait opportunities.

All shots are with my beloved Nikon D70 and Nikon 80-200 ED 2.8 lens at various manual and automatic settings.

Below are a few of the riders and what I beleive to be fairly good photos of them…

One of the most aggressive and prolific riders of the tour. Jens Voigt

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

Bernard Kohl beginning his sprint from the last corner of the course.

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

Either Andy Schleck catching Kim Kirchen(sp?) or vice versa???

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

Carlos Sastre in his yellow jersey keeping ride!

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

The man, the myth and the legend…Eric Zabel

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

George Hincapie looking at the camera during his ride.

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

Top American GC hope Christian Vande Velde smiling for his portrait in the final straight.

Tour de France Stage 20 Time Trial Saint Amand Montrond France

All for now, I’ll be posting a few pictures from Paris in the next few days but I still have some interesting portraits of these amazing cyclists in my gallery

L I F E, photography

Provence #2

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Today we revisit our vacation to Provence with our second day in Orange. We were there for a Thursday market, let me tell you…The southern French markets are what the hype is all about. Super fresh food, amazing quantities and selection of everything. We went to the market in Orange for supplies for the night’s dinner of stuffed zuchini blossoms with grilled eggplant and sauted Girole mushrooms and fresh goat’s cheese.  No Recipe, I made it up as I went along…

The eggplant.

Auburgine Photo Provence 2008

The girolle mushrooms.

Girolle mushroom photo Provence 2008

The assembly line.

Fleur de Courgette photo Provence 2008

A really old door and entrance way.

Doorway Orange Theatre France Photograph

An old door and entrance way.

Doorway Orange Centre Ville France Photograph

Nothing more to write.

L I F E, photography

Provence #1

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This is the start of a few short posts from Provence. We start back up next week with 4 and a half weeks of tours so the postings will be sparse.

Provence is absolutely beautiful! I’ve said it, it does not need to be said again. It is a photographers paradise, everywhere is amazing color, ancient architecture, blooming botanics and plenty of people. I brought as big a kit as I would on vacation, with the D70, the Nikon 18-135 3.5-4.6, Nikon 80-200 2.8 ED, Sigma 10-20 3.5-5.6, SB-600 for lighting and the Manfrotto for all of those tripod shots. A whole lot of gear and I didn’t see any of it! I left the 18-135 on the front and the rest of the stuff in the bag. I’ve come to the realization that when your not very good at the taking the pictures part of photography, you don’t need a bunch of gear, it’s neat but it’s too overwhelming. Composition, exposure, ISO, lighting, F-Stop are what I want to perfect, so down with you Nikon and all your toys, I’ll buy you later.

We drove down to a camping club outside of Remoulins which is right close to Uzes (ooz -es) and took our time on the drive. It’s about 500km from Patinges to Provence so we stopped to visit and take some photos along the way.

Roadside Ruins on the winding climby road down to Provence.

Roadside Ruins almost Provence

We stopped for lunch in the town of Florac and had a nice little wander around this beautiful town.

Waterfall Photo Florac France June 2008

Thelma thought a drink of this water would be a good idea on a 33 degree day!

Thelma drinking from the source Florac France June 2008

That’s it for day 1.  I took quite a few photos of this leg and they’re on my gallery page if you care to see more of my photos.  Check back for more soon!!!

L I F E, photography

Photos from Patinges…Again…

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We’re coming of a super busy three weeks now with time to breath before another weeks tours before the first vacation to Provence this year. We’ve had an amazing bunch of clients so far this year at Le Vieux Moulin It’s a bummer how fast time flies when you’re having as much fun as we did. I haven’t had much inspiration with the camera lately, but still shooting at interesting things for fun.

Wednesday was a family trip to the market in Sancoins.  Fresh strawberries were in season along with the beginning of cherry season.  The Loup de Mer and Coquille St. Jauques were very fresh from the fish monger and made for some delicious suppers the following nights.  I went very simple with the Loup and pan seared it to medium rare and had it with some simple butter/cream potatoes with glazed carrots fresh from the market.  It’s amazing how good food is when it’s in it’s natural freshest state.  No photos of it though as I’m still working on lighting for food shots, not enough time in this world to learn everything we want.

Here are some photos from the week in my life…

Baby chickens from the live animal room at the market in Sancoins

Baby chicken photo Sancoins France 2008

Monster rooster across the isle from the babies, might have been Daddy.  Probably not but he did start posing when he noticed me taking his photo.

Monster Rooster photo Sancoins France 2008

Slugs and snails are a bountiful pest here in central France.  We caught this one in the garden the other day and decided photographing him before relocation to the forest down the road was a good idea.

Huge snail caught in the garden

Wandering around the island at home, waiting for the dragonflies to come back on a gray day.  These are the first lillies to come up after the flood last week.

Lillies on the L'Aubois river Patinges France June 2008

One of the first apples from the tree we planted in Tree’s memory.  The label said it would not produce fruit for 3-4 years and his tree has about 20 of these soon-to-be delicious specimens on it.  Pommier r Blanche du Canada is what the tree is called, with sweet/slightly sour fruits.

POMMIER r Blanche du canada Patinges France

I suppose that’s all for now.  I’ll be back in a couple weeks with more updates on Julien and photos from Provence.

photography

Floral/Botanic/Landscapes Appremont Sur-Allier France 2007

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Nothing new today. Working some shots from last fall taken at Appremont Sur-Allier France. For those of you who have no idea where that is, it’s in central France about 2.5 hours south of Paris in Centre. About a 25 minute bike ride from Le Vieux Moulin

I’ve been working with the black and white on these shots as I’ve deemed them deep enough in contrast and clarity to be good black and whites. They are not this way for the sake of bad photos trying to look good. Though they may be bad photos, the b/w did not make them that way, I did.

I’ll be on a short holiday to La Rochelle France tomorrow and Wednesday, taking the baby girl on her first field trip with school away from us. Yikes… Will be back on Thursday with what could be many more shots but heck, i’m still working on the last trip to Belgium. No time…No Time…

Appremont Sur Allier Chinese Bridge

#2 Some Cows

Cows at Appremont Sur-Allier

#3 Macro Botanic (Love this one!)

Botanic Macro Appremont Sur Allier France

All for now.