Blog Posts

Statue of Liberty

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: < 1 minute

I wanted to take a current view of the statue of liberty and try to show the felling it might have on someone who was arriving in the USA today but with the conditions of 100 years ago. No idea what was happening, what was being said, what the process was but a belief that the future was bright. To help show that brightness I decided to take a Black and white Statue of Liberty image.

The photos were taken in colour and can be found on my 500px page (opens in a new tab). I felt that a Black and white Statue of Liberty was more imposing and a better fit with the idea I had.

You can buy these direct from my online store in the menu above.

My art features on the pixels.com web site too, check it at the link below

statue of liberty art

Buy this Statue of Liberty image here

All my work can be bought below


The Sentier des Douaniers

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

One of the most predictable routes to get fantastic views of the beautiful French coastline is to walk along The Sentier des Douaniers. The path was created 100s of years ago to allow the coast to be monitored and prevent smuggling. The path runs along the Mediterranean coast by Toulon. Here The Sentier des Douaniers is referred to as the sentier du littoral, a less adventurous name.

Not for everyone

The path is no longer a wild track for the most part and has been made safer and more accessible. Around Toulon work is still in progress and part of The Sentier des Douaniers is currently closed (May 2022) for work. You should also be aware that it runs along the very edge of sea, close to cliffs at some stages. If you take the route you will have to walk along beaches, along the cliffs and may get wet feet.

My walk

I took the bus 6 from the centre of Toulon, direction La Terre Promise. Bus is the best way to get around Toulon and I recommend the 10 trip pass which I installed on my phone. All the information is on the Reseau Mistral website (opens in a new tab). Time was limited so I got off at Magaud to start my walk back to Toulon from the Anse de Magaud. Anse is the French for a small deep bay.

From the bus stop I took the chemin de la mer. It is a single track road down to the east end of the anse. Although I didn’t, there is a restaurant on the beach here should you wish to start with lunch.

Fabulous rock formations

I was surrounded by the sea and rugged rocks along the walk. I keep my eyes open for interesting shots and different perspectives. Here are a couple of the photos and one that I think captures the tranquility of my day.

From the anse I walked around the pebble beach to the fishing village of Cap Brun.

Cap Brun

Walk up through the village and car parks to the promontory. Here you have splendid views of the Anse de Magaud that I have just walked along and to the west the Anse de Méjean, with Toulon in the distance.

At Cap Brun the Sentier des Douaniers offers spectacular views.

Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Cap-Falcon

On Cap Brun there is the Chapelle Notre-Dame-du-Cap-Falcon which is not open to the public. There is an impressive statue of the Virgin Mary which was installed in 1975. The statue itself dates from the second world war.

Work in Progress

Unfortunately the work on The Sentier des Douaniers is still in progress from here tio Toulon. So I had to walk up to the road via the chemin de la Batterie Basse. I walked to town but you could take the 23 bus to town (it is only 4 stops). This takes you to Mourillon, and its beaches. There is also the Tour Royale, which is closed at the moment, and its park. There are public toilets here too.

Back to town

Because of the presence in Toulon of the large naval base its not possible to follw the coast to town so head back to the Av. des Tirailleurs Sénégalais and had back to the Mayol Stadium.

As a little treat I used my mistral travel pass to take the boat across the bay to Sablettes. The pass is valid on both the bus and boat services. There was no other reason than I wanted to take é boat trip. I then took the 8 bus back from the other side of the bay to see the town.

How to purchase

Some of these photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.


Other pages that may interest you

There are many pages with photos of the sea and landscapes for example

Please, take a look and tell your friends about my work and sites.

Natural gardens help protect nature

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

More and more we need to leave our gardens to grow unhindered in spring to help nature – birds, insects and plants. Natural gardens help protect nature in contrast to the over tendered lawn, fertilized flower beds and treated plants. This year I have been resisting the temptation to overwork the garden and I have tried to leave it as a natural garden.

Could I have a rarity?

This May may have been the warmest on record and it’s taken it’s toll on the lawn. It’s also meant that I’ve had to water some of the plants that I have planted. My potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes in particular. However there are some other plants that I never see normally that are thriving. Most impressive are 2 plants in the middle of the dry grass that must get mowed every year normally.

I am not an expert but a bit of research leads me to think they might be Pyramidal Orchids ( Anacamptis pyramidalis) Apparently, quite rare if it is. You can read more about it on Wikipedia (opens in a new tab).

Touring the garden

Having may curiosity piqued by such a find I set off to tour the flowers in the garden on a random May afternoon. I have planted tomatoes, fuchsias, geraniums, honeysuckle and roses. But there are many others. The hot sun kept the daisies closed but below are the others.

There are chives, some sort of tiny pea, wild strawberries and climber in amongst the honeysuckle.

Hopefully I can get as much pleasure from the natural garden, maybe save some time, money and back ache at the same time give nature a boost which in turn should help us all. Some of the wild flowers are discrete and you need to taker a closer look, but small is not necessarily less beautiful. We shall see how the garden develops. In parallel I will continue to look after my potatoes, strawberries and tomatoes.

How to purchase

Some of these photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.


Please, take a look and tell your friends about my work and sites.

Other pages that may interest you

There is the Flowers and Plants album, and there are 3 blog posts relating to flowers

Waterfalls always impress

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

It doesn’t matter what the size and scale is, waterfalls always impress. It may the noise, the spray, the pull of the rushing water or the sheer scale of the waterfall, in the end waterfalls always impress. I realized looking through some photos that I have visited 4 different size waterfalls and in each case I loved the visit. Why? Is it the overall experience, the beauty, the context and the feeling of power?

Big or Small, Which do you prefer?

Let’s start small; I have posted a blog post on the smallest and closest waterfall earlier, you can see it here where I was discussing shutter speeds. It still has a lot of charm and makes this small park a lovely place to visit.

The same stream continues to a smaller fall maybe 50m downstream

It is clearly not the size of the river or the height of the fall that makes these waterfalls always impress.

Yorkshire, UK: The Dales

I visited Yorkshire and in the Dales came across 2 falls of significance. They are a big step up from those discussed above. The West Burton Falls. The Cauldron Falls, on Walden Beck, pictured here, were painted by Turner and are just a short walk from the village. Nearby there are the Cray Gill falls but I didn’t get to see them. Maybe next time.

Instead I drove a short distance to the Aysgarth falls. These are on the River Ure (W3W location) and have also been painted by Turner. They consist of three stepped waterfalls and are easily accessed by a footpath. They have featured in the cinema blockbuster movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

Mortain, France

Mortain-Bocage is situated in Normandy, in the Manche department of France. There are 2 waterfalls in Mortain. I talked about my weekend in Normandy in this blog post. The larger falls are 25m tall and are impressive and the tallest in Northern France.

Quebec, Canada

Parc de la Chute‑Montmorency, the Montmorency Falls in Quebec are in a totally different league. They are located on the Montmorency river just before it joins the St Lawrence river. In the past there was a power station here. The most impressive aspect of these falls is tehri height. The falls are 83m, over 270 feet, and that is a significant 30m more that the famous Niagara Falls.

There are several things to see here besides the thundering falls, the suspension bridge, the panoramic staircase (which was closed when I went in April) and the Via Ferrata (opens in a new tab) which is only for adrenalin mad people. The panoramic photo I have here was taken from the cable car station at the lower car park. I don’t feel I missed much by not taking the car, it soon becomes expensive when you are not travelling alone and that cost is outweighed by the fact that the car park fee covers both car parks. The lower one by the station and the upper one by the Manoir Montmorency.

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Some of these photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.

The role of white balance

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

This March has seen a wide range of weather, more than usual I think. Early Spring warmth and late winter coolness. Spring weather photography can inspire and to benefit we must always have a camera handy. There was even a good coating of sand from the Sahara giving exceptional sunsets. In March the sun is still relatively low in the sky which helps with the lighting. So why am I talking about the role of white balance? Because as I mentioned, the early spring warmth and winter coolness, and white balance is all about the warmth and coolness of light. Here are three examples where different lighting can make a big impact on the results.

Let me draw your attention to a camera feature that you may rarely look at: White Balance.

What is White Balance?

It can simply be put as the colour of the light, and this is defined by its temperature. If we use the noon sunlight to be the standard some light appears more orange, for example candles, and some appears bluer, for example modern car headlights. These are also referred to as being warmer, being orange, or cooler when bluer like a cold tap.

White balance values

Your camera, and phone are, by default, set up to take pictures using an automatic setting for white balance, AWB. You will find it in the menu, or expert menu. The role of white balance is to adjust the camera to compromise lighting conditions to take a good image in most circumstances.

The setting of white balance is creeping into everyday life too. This should make understanding it much easier. When you purchase LED lights they are defined by their temperature. Temperature is defined by 3 scales: Celsius (C), Fahrenheit (F) and Kelvin (K). Ice is defined as 0°C, 32°F and 273.15K. LED lights and White balance use the Kelvin temperature scale. For your cameras, a little counterintuitively, warmer candle like orange light has a lower temperature than the bluer clear sky. Typically the light from a candle will be 2000K and a cloudy sky 6500K.

How to set white balance

Why modify the AWB setting? Simply we want a white sheet of paper to look white when we photograph it. If we take the photo of the white paper in a candle lit room the paper will appear orange. The role of white balance is to tell the camera that this orange colour, the 2000K, is in fact white, which is about 5500K. The camera then has a simple addition/subtraction of some Kelvin to do to make our whites really white.

In the menu of the camera you may not find the Kelvin scale, but terms which relate to the typical light source for that temperature. So 2000K will be referred to by incandescent. 6500K as cloudy.

Using RAW is better

If you can take your photos in RAW, rather than JPEG, you have the added advantage that in post processing you can modify the white balance easily. This can be very useful, for example, when you are taking a series of photos of the same subject. A wedding is a classic example where the bride is dressed in white and you are photographing her in the garden, in sunshine and shadows, inside dark a building, around a candle lit table, in camera flash. All very different lights and therefore temperatures. If you don’t modify the white balance the dress will change in colour during your day.

Learn more

There are many resources on the internet which can explain all this in more detail and go further to explain how to set the white balance manually using the white object that you want to appear white in specific lighting conditions.

Take a look here, photographylife.com (opens in a new tab) for example.

Other photos

I have some other different lighting photos on my site, for example: Evening sunlight and lighting and shadows.

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or the link in my fine art store (opens in a new tab).

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Reflections on water

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

The early part of 2022 has seen a lot of rain. The river Seine is rising once again and puddles are everywhere. The wide well maintained easy walkways are turning into muddy cross country challenges. Water is an unpredictable medium and can give surprising images. On this day I decided to focus on reflections on water. I returned to the Étang de la Galiotte and walked around the parc du peuple de l’herbe. I have published a post about this park before when I visited in June 2021. This post is here and here you will find information on how to get there.

Today I was travelling light, no tripods, filters, spare objectives, and went by chance just to see what the river was doing at the end of the day following a lot of rain. As I have said before (in my post on Urban Settings) I like to set myself a theme so today it was reflections on water.

The Étang de la Galiotte

The lake is separated from the river Seine by a thin strip of land. This forms part of the walkways around the park. The first photo is taken from the viewing platform here looking away from the river. The second from the northern pathway looking towards the south and the floating buildings.

River Seine

Looking the other way, to the west is the river Seine. Paris is upstream (left) from this point. As it’s been raining a lot the river is rising and encroaching on the river banks and viewing platforms.

The parc du peuple de l’herbe

Heading back inland and trying to stick to my theme the paths were wet on sometimes underwater. There are many seating areas and picnic tables and these would be great for summer days out. But in winter after a lot of rain these chairs and their reflections should give you an idea of the general state of the park.

You will find other photos of reflections in many pages, for example Beautiful Landscapes, Using a zoom lens, Spring walk along the Seine.

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or the link in the menu.

You can also click on the widget below.

Weekend in Normandy

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

I had great plans to travel over the holiday season in 2021 but the emergence of the omicron variant quickly changed my plans. In the end a Winter weekend in Normandy was an excellent compromise. It meant less driving and an opportunity to revisit some classic sites and see some new places. I would recommend Mortain as a base for a Winter weekend in Normandy as it’s no more than an hour drive from numerous sites.

Honfleur

The beautiful, but busy, port of Honfleur was our first stop. It’s a wonderful town and I recommend the all day parking at Gallien (links open in new tabs). While talking of recommendations I am not a big fan of the, often industrial, food found in tourist sites. So we had lunch at the SaQuaNa saison 3 restaurant. The set menu is excellent value. However the main purpose of visiting Honfleur is the historic town and the port.

If you are interested in large bridges and a view of the Seine estuary then head to the Pont de Normandie, it is worth a closer look .

Mont Saint-Michel

The absolutely unmissable monument is very popular with French and international tourists alike. No real weekend in Normandy would be complete without a visit. It’s on the frontier with Brittany too. Mandatory parking has been implemented and shuttles run to and from the car parks to the island. At low tide there is a huge area of sand to explore. The key part of the visit is the Abbey, a UNESCO world heritage site. Check the visiting times on their web site. You can pre-book tickets here too, It’ll take an hour to get from the car park to the Abbey entrance.

As I said about restaurants in Honfleur, Mont Saint-Michel is not the best place to sample high quality French food and you will quickly notice that restaurant to restaurant the choices and prices are almost identical.

Domfront

Moving away from the 2 must-sees, there are many other places to visit. I mentioned Mortain, but first on my weekend in Normandy was the Medieval city of Domfront. The city itself is compact and pretty and is adjacent to the ruins of the castle. Over 1000 years ago the castle was built of wood around 1010. It was rebuilt in stone it was the castle of Henri 1er, the son of William the Conqueror and King of England and Duke of Normandy.

Mortain

There is a 2 hour sign posted walk around the town that you should do if you can. It’s not too difficult but when you get to Mortain you won’t be surprised to hear that it has some steepish climbs and uneven stones to overcome. It takes you around all the important sites of the town. In particular the Abbey which has the potential to be something extraordinary if the projects come to fruition and the the small and large waterfalls. The big waterfall is the tallest in Northern France, with a 25m drop. I’ll leave you to discover that in person.

You can see some of my landscape photos here. There are also more waterfalls here.

Some of these photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.

You may also like:

Visit Rouen

Late evening sunlight

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

The late fall/autumn evenings announce the arrival of a sun that is lower in the sky and gives a warmer glow to your images. Late evening sunlight is often enhanced by a sprinkling of cloud in a crisp blue sky. I particularly like it for creating silhouettes, sunbursts and warm panoramic scenes.

The sunlight early in the morning is also a desirable commodity and gives wonderful lighting to your photographs. Late evening sunlight, like early morning sunlight, takes a different, longer journey through the atmosphere before reaching the subject of your photograph. The blue light tends to get dispersed on this longer journey leaving more red and oranges.

The Golden and Blue hours

As the quantity of blue light is reduced the Late evening sunlight has a more golden colour, and this gives rise to the popular term of the Golden Hour. The golden hour occurs shortly after the sun has risen and before the sun sets. As the sun sets and sinks below the horizon all those red and orange lights are fired over our heads and the light turns bluer as we head towards night. Likewise in eth morning, before the sun rises the light has a blue tinge to it. It isn’t difficult to understand why these periods are known as the blue hours. It’s worth noting that neither the blue, nor golden hours actually last rigorously an hour. Their duration depends on the time of year and where you find yourself on the planet.

Position of the sun

The lighting around dawn and dusk are determined by the position of the sun. During the golden hour the sun’s position is low. The late evening sunlight of the golden hour gives you :

  • more reds and oranges
  • longer shadows
  • lower intensity light
  • side or straight on lighting

The midday sun would be the opposite lighting. The sun gives

  • bright whites and dark blacks
  • short shadows
  • bright bleached washed out colours
  • top down lighting

So the golden hour is the prefer time for many photographers.

Morning and Evening

There are two golden hours each day. In summer, the closer you live to the poles, the earlier or later you have to be out taking photographs. That can be a considerable advantage of the winter golden hours for the late risers. Taking advantage of the both golden hours is not always required. Choose the best one for your subject. The sun won’t be totally opposite in the morning and evening golden hours but if the sun is the wrong side of your subject in the morning, there is a good chance in the late evening sunlight you will have the shot you are looking for.

As the day turns to night the photographs are transformed with the changing light. The last few minutes of the late evening sunlight give beautiful sunsets.

Some of these photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.


Other posts that may interest you

End of the day – the Eiffel tower

Low light needs a tripod and patience

Urban settings

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Urban settings can provide you with a refreshing new environment and different stimuli to get your creative juices following. On the western edge of Paris is the large urban development of “Paris La Défense”. It spreads out over three towns: Courbevoie, Nanterre and Puteaux. It includes a large pedestrian area surrounded by huge office towers, a few residential buildings, dozens of works of art and a large shopping centre. It’s a great place for an afternoon’s photography.

Urban settings provide a wide variety of potential themes and can be overwhelming. When I head to an urban setting I give myself a theme and try to use that to get myself on a roll. Inevitably I get distracted and wander off topic and that’s exactly what I want!

My visit took place on a sunny afternoon. Much more pleasant when walking around outside. But wet and cloudy weather should not be a reason to cancel. It could actually be the subject of another urban setting post if I remember.

Themes

What sort of themes can you choose to help you get going in such an environment? Well there’s no real limit. Some of the easier, and larger topics, include :

  • Reflections and Shadows
  • Curves and Straight lines
  • Art and Graffiti
  • People
  • Buildings and bridges
  • Skyline and towers

You pick your favorite and then go where it takes you. It’s very hard not to be distracted by the things that catch your eye. I think I started with curves and lines.

As you can see it didn’t take long to get into shadows, reflections skylines, and people. What is important is to be imaginative. A couple of my favorites from the afternoon out are the reflection of people and the cube, more properly referred to as the Grand Arche de La Defense.

Preparing your trip

So what do you need to do before heading out to ensure you get the best of the visit?

Time needed: 2 hours and 30 minutes

Tips to help you organize your day.

  1. Camera and Equipment

    You’ll need an empty SD card and a full battery. A zoom lens, maybe a polarizing filter. If you’re going to be there late, pack your tripod. Some protection against the weather if you have a doubt.

  2. Getting there

    There are a large variety of transport infrastructures at La defense, including many car parks. However I would avoid cars if you can and prefer Overground or underground rail, bus, or tram. The parvis is also designed for bicycles, and scooters. Which also means getting around if you are less able is not a problem.

  3. The visit

    There are no rules here. But I like to do a loop. For 2 reasons, firstly it gets me back to my transport system, and secondly I get 2 chances to photograph everything in two different periods of the day. I start at the western end, near Nanterre where the tram and overground SNCF stations are. You can do it the other way by starting near Paris in the east at the metro station Parvis de La Defense. The RER station and buses are in between these. Also note the RER train tickets are more expensive that the metro.

  4. Useful web sites

    La defense French and English with all the latest news and events, and maps
    Le 4 temps and CNIT shopping
    Public transport In English and French

While you are there

If you really want make a day of it, and evening. there are other things to do including:

  • The Paris La Défense Arena which hosts concerts and sporting events.
  • La Grande Arche, which is itself a spectacular building, but also has an exhibition area which often has photography exhibitions

I hope that helps you have a successful day.

There are some photos of bridges in my walk along the river Seine post and more of La Défense from a more recent visit.

Other photos of mine are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or via the store below.


Walk around the Ile Grande

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

If you have half a day for a walk and find yourself in Brittany, north-west of Lannion, there is a beautiful walk to do around the coast of the Ile Grande. And it’s a loop so you can start and finish at the same point. Where do you start? As it’s a loop you can start your walk around the Ile Grande almost anywhere. If you are in your car almost every time the road gets close to the coast you can park and join the coastal walk there.

A classic choice of starting point for your walk around the Ile Grande would be Port Saint Sauveur in the west – a small port, with toilet facilities. So my walk around the Ile grande started there at low tide in the summer.

Port Saint Sauveur

I decided, arbitrarily, to walk anti clockwise around the ile. And this takes you past the marshland and the road that accesses the ile Grande. For almost the entire walk the path is clearly marked and easy to follow. It does get a little narrower on the north side.

As you walk around to the east there are dunes which are protected and being restored. But there also beaches and water sports should you wish to make a day of it.

East coast

There are plenty of flowers and plants to photograph too, although looking back over my images from my Walk around the Ile Grande I was clearly drawn to the sea and the majority of my photos were of the sea and coastline. Just for good measure here is a cauliflower lookalike, a Bishop’s flower I believe.

Northern coast

On the northern coast there are several historical references to the old granite quarries of the past. This includes old rail lines, statues and a short explanation. There are small hidden beaches and impressive rock formations. Also it is worth noting that the white stones are there to protect the coastline from erosion.

As I headed back southwards to my starting point I passed the bird protection centre. they use an old quarry as a very large bird cage for birds who have almost recovered. Check if you can visit it.

Back to the start

And back to port Saint Sauveur, some 7.5km and between 2h30 and 3 hours, depending on how many photos you take.

If you are interested in visiting the region there is a website, in English, run by the tourist dept here. There is also an app on google play or apple.

I am a big fan of the area. My sunset was taken nearby. As was the mist in the landscape gallery.

How to purchase

Other photos of mine are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store, in the menu above or  via the store directly below.


Please, take a look and tell your friends about my work and sites.

Other pages that may interest you

There is a post about my walk along the sentier des douaniers near Toulon.