Warm clouds over Taurignan-Castet

And here's the bridge I was talking about in my previous post, it's crossing the river Le Salat and is bringing you a little closer to the Midi-Pyrenees mountains. It's sunset time and some parts of the sky have warm tones and atmosphere. Although the snow already covers the top of the mountains, it didn't reach the village yet.

ISO 200 - 28mm - f/4.0 - 1/500s

Taurignan-Castet

I spotted a nice place for a panorama the other day, just after crossing this river (Le Salat) but didn't have the time to notice this little beauty on our right side, an old part of the village (Taurignan-Castet) by the river. We were just passing by then (by car). Not much people there, about 160 inhabitants in a 7km² village. I wish I had an ND filter to give the water a silky effect... maybe next time.

ISO 200 - 18mm - f/3.5 - 1/400s

Can't decide? When in doubt, keep them!

As digital photographers, we have this opportunity of shooting a lot of pictures without worrying about development costs or poor quality photographs except maybe for the space on your hard drive (which can be tremendous). Should this be an advantage or not, if you shoot loads of pictures (like me) and can't really decide wether to keep a photo or not in your collection... keep it and process it on another day!

I often shoot at anything, not that I take thousands of images each time but I rarely go out, take one or two single pictures then go back to the computer for post-processing. At the end of a big day I might end-up importing hundreds of pictures into Lightroom and of course, I will not keep them all. Some (many?) of them are usually unworkable or even useless and are for sure to be deleted and forgotten (yes, sad end for them).

Lately, I've been focusing quite a lot on landscape photography but as I didn't move a lot (I stayed in the same region), I made many similar shots and couldn't decide which ones were keepers and which ones to get rid of. I usually start by getting rid of crappy shots and keeping those I'm 100% sure I want to keep. However, there are some doubts for the rest... "I already have that kind of image", "It's very similar to the other one I kept", "Hmm not sure what to do about these" and this goes on and on. This is exactly what happened here for those three images.

I kept them and I'm glad I did it. At first, I was not sure how to process them, I turned the first one into black and white which worked fine (in my opinion) as the mountains are sharp and contrasty. The second one with the birds was just not one of my favorites and after working on it, I simply liked it. And same story for the third photograph. All of these three photos were taken in South of France, close to the Pyrenees mountains. That was a nice journey...

Another day, another mood, fresh inspiration :-)

Image #1: ISO 800 - 115mm - f/5.6 - 1/640s

Image #2: ISO 800 - 63mm - f/5.0 - 1/640s

Image #3: ISO 400 - 31mm - f/11 - 1/160s

Panorama, why you should keep your focus steady

Photography is a huge (fantastic) world and a way of learning photography is also making mistakes, trials and errors. I didn't upload that panorama of Saint-Lizier before because I made a mistake by not keeping the focus the same during the whole photo shooting process but finally decided to upload it to share with you that little tip.

So, what's wrong with this panorama? Let's have a closer look at the picture...

Saint-Lizier Go Round!

I like making this! Another kind of panorama, the panorama planet at 360 degrees! Fun to do. This one has been done in the small village of Saint-Lizier again, in France, Midi-Pyrenees. You can see the cathedral, the Prince-Bishop's Palace (the big one on the right with the towers), the village itself and part of the Pyrenees mountains.

Basically, to have this small world in one single picture, I have done a 360 degrees panorama with 12 photos which I merged together with a software, made the final image a square (e.g. 3000x3000px, don't bother keeping the aspect ratio then, the picture will be highly distorted), gave it a 180° rotation and applied a Polar Coordinates distortion filter. And voilà!

I noticed one small issue though. The little green place right in the middle of the planet (where you can see the bench) is distorted/warped on the lower side. This is right where I was standing with the tripod which means that if you are too close to an object (in this case the small surrounding) wall, it will be heavily distorted and everything around (and close enough) will be like... sucked in!

Fundamentally not really an issue but I prefer the center to be clearly round

Feeling upside down? That's ok! ;-)

Any question, feel free to ask, I'll be glad to answer you!

Enjoy!

For each individual shot: ISO 400 - 18mm - f/8.0 - 1/13s

Panorama from Saint-Lizier, a wider view

Here's the panorama I was talking about in my previous post. It has been made with five (vertical) photos merged together with the help of a software. It is mainly showing a sunset, a dramatic sky and the (very) small commercial area of Saint-Lizier. Please click the image for a larger view.

Enjoy the wide view in France, Midi-Pyrenees.

For each individual shot: ISO 200 - 18mm - f/3.5 - 1/500s

The blue sky is gone

So I'm still on that nice little spot in the small village of Saint-Lizier, very nice spot where the only thing you want to do is making a super giant panorama as the view extends in front of your eyes offering you a beautiful sunset. I made that panorama which I'll upload soon. This one is just on the left of the sunset, sun is hiding behind the mountains, throwing away its golden light and with a bit of tones manipulation the blue haze turned into that amazing brownish haze...

This is one single image cropped with a 16/9 ratio which is a ratio I like for landscape photography.

Saint-Lizier, Midi-Pyrenees, France.

ISO 400 - 40mm - f/10 - 1/200s

Hiding behind the mountains

The sun is now slowly setting down, leaving you with warmer tones and astonishing colors, sometimes revealing a ray of light throughout the clouds. A call between meditation and contemplation.

Above image: ISO 400 - 35mm - f/11 - 1/125s

Bonus :) Here on the left is a zoom (just a few minutes later) on the right bright area of the sunset. The effect is pretty cool, it looks like the forest on top of the mountains is on fire.

Click the image (as all the other images) for a larger and better view.

Left image: ISO 400 - 134mm - f/8.0 - 1/80s

Sunset in Midi-Pyrenees

I went a bit lower in the village until I reached that spot, I had to hurry before the sun went down too much. And that goes faster than you may think ;-)

ISO 400 - 40mm - f/16 - 1/640s

The old hunter and his dog

- "I was a hunter you know. Yes yes I still have my guns. Yes yes over there, I was hunting the wild boar... but that was the good old time."

Saint-Lizier, Midi-Pyrenees, France; the old hunter and his dog.

ISO 200 - 18mm - f/3.5 - 1/640s

Fluffy above the mountains

Fluffy dark clouds dancing in the sky above the mountains. Another beautiful fall season sunset in Midi-Pyrenees, France.

This is actually a small panorama, I used only two photographs to make this one, both in landscape orientation on top of each others.

For each individual shot: ISO 1600 - 63mm - f/5.0 - 1/125s

By the Cathedral

By the Saint-Lizier Cathedral. France, Midi-Pyrénées.

ISO 800 - 40mm - f/4.5 - 1/200s

Any zombie there?

6.08pm. Driving on the national road from the airport of Carcassonne to Saint-Lizier. It's probably too early yet to see any zombie arising from the darkness. Uff! I'm safe...

France, Midi-Pyrénées.

A fall season sunset

Beautiful sunset in France, Midi-Pyrénées. A particular atmosphere in the heart of the fall season.

Lower and upper town, the two faces of Elne

 

Elne is a small village located in France, Pyrénées-Orientales, close to Perpignan (12km) and even closer to the Mediterranean Sea (5km). The left image shows the lower town, the "modern" one while the right image shows the upper town in the historical heart of the village. The upper town is of course the one where you enjoy a little walk...

The 'Sainte-Eulalie-et-Sainte-Julie' Cathedral

In the small village of Elne, there's this impressive cathedral.
The Sainte-Eulalie-et-Sainte-Julie Cathedral; France, Pyrénées-Orientales.

A room with view on the mountains

Landscape scenery from the South of France, somewhere on the road between the villages of Lasserre and Saint-Lizier in Midi-Pyrénées, moments before the evening.

After picking up the chestnuts

Harvesting is done, the chestnuts have all been picked up, it's time to go back home and cook them the way you like them. Roast chestnuts, yummy... "Chauds les marrons, chauds!"

Saint-Lizier, its cathedral. France (Midi-Pyrénées).

It's a beautiful warm day of Autumn in the South of France today, there is no need for a chunky sweater and that's a good thing I like. The building you see on the right side of this image is the top of the cathedral of Saint-Lizier seen from the court of the Palace of the Prince-Bishop. Mmm... lovely.

While we were picking up chestnuts

Fall is there, friends and I were harvesting, picking up some chestnuts, itchy hands now... Meanwhile, Humphrey was kind of a well-behaved (what a miracle?) puppy. Autumn, a nice season for photography.