Category: Visits

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 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 store. Or from the menu above, or even buy your art directly below.

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 store.

You can also click on the widget below.

Thank you

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 store. Or even buy your art directly below.

You may also like:

Visit Rouen

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 store or  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.

3 stages in the life of a poppy

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

A purple poppy caught my attention. A change from all those red poppies we see everywhere. When I looked around there were a few in different stages of their lifecycle. I wanted to capture the delicate petals and a sense of the short time they flower. So here are three images that show 3 stages in the life of a poppy.

Opening

Prior to open the flower, all enclosed in green, swings upwards in a smooth curve. You can see 2 on their way up in this image. Here the petals are opening and this the first of the 3 stages in the life of a poppy.

In bloom

In the second image I wanted to capture the delicateness of the petals and the bright colour. There are only 4 petals. In this image I focused on the edge of the nearest petal. as the focal length is short the next 2 perpendicular petals are gently blurred. The final fourth parallel petal is almost lost. The details on the petal show the creases in the delicate petal as it unfolds. Origami nd laundry come to mind.

Seed distribution

Once the petals are gone the beauty of a poppy is not over. The next task is to distribute the seeds for the next generation. The final image of the 3 stages in the life of a poppy shows part of the reproductive system. The Stamen and Anthers (the home of the pollen and male part of the plant), have all fallen away with the petals after pollination. The Style and Stigma sit on the the melon like ovary which is the main part of the image. These three items together form the pistil.

All those lovely shades of green make a very calming image.

Technique

These photos were all taken using a 100mm macro lens, f/4.5 using ISO100 at 1/200s.

I have other posts about poppies and flowers, for example Catch them while you can about red poppy fields. I also have a gallery Flowers and Plants.

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

Other posts that may interest you are:

Where to purchase my work

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or directly via the menu, below.


Capturing birds in flight

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

My afternoon introduction to capturing birds in flight tool place at the Étang de la Galiotte. This translates to Galiotte Pond. When you visit you will see that is an understated way of describing a large mass of water in Carrières-sous-Poissy. Capturing birds in flight professionally requires specialized equipment. I need to verify that I am interested enough to make that investment. So with my existing equipment I see about capturing birds in flight.

You can see from the map the lake is quite large. The town of Carrières-sous-Poissy, which translates to Quarries under Poissy, gives a good clue to the origin of the Étang de la Galiotte. The Paris region is made up of layers of sand, limestone, mixed with various amounts of clay. Being by the river Seine transport of the quarried sand was easy. Subsequently the Étang de la Galiotte was filled with river water to make a lake.

The lake is a major feature of the new park du peuple de l’herbe which covers 113 hectares.

Today, the lake and surrounding park are the host of birds, fish and people. There is a small island in the centre to help birds nest and breed. Making it a good site for capturing birds in flight. This protected natural space hosts a village of about 30 floating homes on the southern shore of the lake. There is an active residents association.

The Yvelines region published a detailed study, in French, about steps taken to avoid the risks associated to natural disasters in the region linked to the river, the geology and other potential threats.

Now to my visit. What did I see and how did the afternoon go?

Getting There

First of all if you arrive from Paris take to the train or RER to Poissy. You can walk from the train station at Poissy. It’s a fairly level walk over the main road bridge. It will take 20 minutes, about 1.5km. If you arrive by car, then I suggest you park in the Parking du parc du peuple de l’herbe. There are several bus services which use the road bridge to get to the Poissy station. The town of Poissy has also a project to build a new footbridge (site in French) linking the station to the park.

For the less nimble on their feet, I would recommend sticking to the path that run along the river Seine, rather than those by the lake which end up as a narrow track in the woods.

Bright sunshine and water

Bright sunshine can make photography complicated. On the good side everything is brightly lit, but with that comes shadows. And the contrast can be hard to manage. Add to that water, and to a slightly lesser degree the bright blue sky, and you have bright reflections and dispersed light from the sky and water. This can make the blue sky appear grey, the beautiful water dull and opaque.

Polarization

The solution to this is a polarizing filter. You may will be familiar with polarizing sun glasses. The same filter on your objective will filter out light which is dispersed in all directions. It will leave nicely aligned light rays. The advantage that the filter has over sunglasses is that you can spin the filter to choose exactly which direction the light rays should be. This allows you to choose the blue colour for your sky and optimize the view of the water so you can see the fish etc. Unfortunately my filter was not with me on this trip.

Freezing motion

So I chose to focus on the bird-life. In June the young ducks and geese still look cute and fluffy. They become a natural subject for cute photos. There are also plenty of terns here. They fly quickly over the water’s surface before diving into the water to capture fish. And the fish don’t have much chance as they are so fast. This speed also makes them difficult to photograph.

Some starting steps

Time needed: 30 minutes

Capturing flying birds

  1. Before you go

    Empty the memory card, and take the fastest card you have. It might be worth checking what file types you are storing. In general I write RAW and JPEG files to the card. Doing this means writing takes longer and uses more space. You could just save high quality JPEG for this session.

  2. Select objective

    Use a zoom, I would say at least 135mm, preferably 210mm, or more

  3. Use auto-focus

    Set the auto focus to AI servo. You will not be able to focus manually on the fast moving birds, use the camera’s intelligence o track them in flight

  4. Choose the ISO setting

    Consider setting the ISO to 100, or 200, depending on the aperture of your objective. The smaller the aperture the less light will be collected and therefore a higher ISO can help.

  5. Set speed

    In order to freeze the movement of a bird, or anything moving rapidly, set the speed to a maximum of 1/800s

  6. Review and modify

    After your first series of photos review and adjust the settings. Too dark check the ISO and aperture. Blurred reduce the speed.

  7. Repeat

    There will be many missed shots so just keep going

SD Card speeds

There are many sizes of SD cards, but I would suggest 32GB or 64GB. Which gives plenty of room and not a totally unmanageable volumes of photos to sort through when you get home. When the technology was launched it supported a 12.5 MB/s speed. At this speed it would take 2 seconds to write a typical RAW image. Making continuous shooting for a bird in flight impossible. The technology now supports up to 3940MB/s however not all cameras support such speeds, nor do they need them. There are 3 common ways of describing the speed that the card can transfer data.

Look for card with the U3 class. These can support up to 30 MB/s which id ample for video and photo recording. There is more information on the classes on the SD card Association website.

Good luck capturing birds in flight. If you further inspiration try this external website.

Return visit

It’s a great park and I went back in the winter. You can read about it here.

I have other posts about my visits along the River Seine, for example Spring walk along the Seine

Purchase my art

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

Or by clicking on the widget below.

Catch them while you can

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Poppies flower for a short time, you need to catch them while you can. They are short-lived perennial plants and have brightly coloured flowers. The petals appear crumpled and very fine. Spreading out as they straighten. There are many species and many colours. The one I see most, is the 4 petaled red poppy. It grows in and around farmer’s fields of wheat, corn and barley. I expect it’s the Papaver rhoeas, or common poppy I see most. I think it’s this one because of the name and its description. It has 4 red petals. The other famous poppy is the Papaver somniferum, commonly known as the opium poppy. This one I never see. The common poppy will flower from late spring to early summer but each flower doesn’t last long so catch them while you can.

It’s hard to imagine how soldiers in the battlefields of the first world war would look upon such a field of poppies. But the poppy fields of Belgium became a symbol of the conflict and feature in a poem from the front line – In Flanders Fields by John McCrae.

Remembrance

The poppy maintains that link today as the symbol of remembrance for the Commonwealth Remembrance Day. This is held annually on November 11th. It marks the end of First World War hostilities. In the UK the date is an important fund raising event for veterans and organised by the The Royal British Legion. The poppy is not the only flower associated with the end of World War 1. In France it is the cornflower, which is often found growing next to poppies.

Follow this link if you want to see more of my photographs of Flowers and Plants. There is also another blog post showing 3 stages in the life of a poppy flower.

Some of my photos are available for purchase on my Adobe Stock store or directly below. There are other landscape photos here.

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Walk along the Seine from the river Oise

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Last week I walked along the river Seine towards Paris, starting in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine. Walking the in the other direction, towards the sea, Conflans is home to the confluence of the rivers Seine and Oise. So today I decided to walk along the Seine from the river Oise. There are few parking spaces at the confluence of the two rivers.

Both rivers have a path so you have to choose, today I decided to take a short walk along the Seine. The river Seine is a major transportation route and large barges are almost always moored in Conflans. Important road and rail links are also a feature of the town. Alongside the river, the landscape and nature I wanted to capture the transportation links.

The cycle bridge is part of the itinerary from Paris to London. The segment from Maisons-Laffitte to Chaussy, some 48.71km. The rail bridge is part of the RER A line running from Cergy le Haut to Paris and in Conflans fin d’Oise the station also serves the railway line from Paris St Lazare to Mantes la Jolie. From the footbridge you have a lovely view towards the historic town centre of Conflans Sinte-Honorine. You can also witness local birds looking for a meal.

HDR photos to bring out hidden features

I wanted to compare a colour photo of the underside of the rail bridge with a black and white version. Industrial sites lend themselves well to black and white images. I also wanted to capture the clouds and the metal structure. This called for a high dynamic range. Something that many cameras offer today. It builds a single image out of several, often 3, images of the same object. Each image is taken with different exposure settings to capture different lighting and details.

I also took a walk this spring around Villennes sur Seine, which is just a short distance away, on the way to the sea!

Going the other way towards Paris, I have a post about Urban Photography at La Défense.

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