Tag: river seine

Explore underground Paris

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

A few weeks ago I went to the Eiffel tower, got there late, but still took some nice photos. You can see the post about this visit here. I decided to go to the same starting point to explore underground Paris. Firstly there are 2 dedicated museums that allow you to explore underground Paris: the sewers and the catacombes. They are almost as far from each other as you can get in Paris. Obviously that doesn’t matter if its a lovely day. Of course if its raining skip all the walking and enjoy an unusual dry visit.

The starting point.

Take public transport to the Eiffel tower or pont Alma. You may recognize this image from the earlier post as its the same church near the Eiffel tower.

Looking in the other direction, eastwards, there is the Quai d’Orsay. It is famous for its large museum. Not for the Sewers museum. Give yourself an hour to visit this inexpensive museum. It’s part of the sewer system and can come with the expected odours.

What is interesting is to see the scale of the system and various tunnels. Being underground the temperature varies less than at street level.

A little over an hour later I am out. I decided to walk along the river Seine to the splendid Pont Alexandre III. Taking in the sights and fresh air. The pont Alexandre III is easy to recognize by it’s golden flame-like statues. On the way you pass the Archipel des Berges de Seine Niki de Saint-Phalle which is a nature reserve built on 5 barges moored on the river. It protects birds and fish from people whilst allowing us to get close by crawling across the netting.

I continued walking along the river, past the Assemblée Nationale. There’s plenty of time to be underground later. I continued a little further so I could get a direct bus, the 68 bus. The 68 runs from near the musée d’Orsay, rue Solferino, which you must visit one day, to the large place de Denfert-Rochereau. This is just a 2 minute walk from the entrance of the Catacombes de Paris.

Visiting the Catacombes de Paris

You must reserve online before you go. They are limited to 200 visitors at a time. There are a lot of steps, and plenty of uneven pathways. It also has a stable temperature year round. It is quite humid. Some people may fine it claustrophobic. But it is unique and is a mixture of the old quarries and the bones of deceased Parisians that have been moved over time. Therefore you should avoid treating it like a museum and more like a church or sacred place. You also should note that the exit is a good 5 minutes walk away from the entrance.

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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

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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.


Spring walk along the Seine

Posted on by SteveH
Estimated Reading Time: 2 minutes

Spring is having a slow start this year. So when I took a spring walk along the Seine at the Quai de Gaillon, in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine there was still a wintery look to the scenery. The trees were budding and the mistletoe was still clearly visible.

I was surprised to see a snail cross my path.

The walk down to the river seine banks is relatively steep. There are several routes down from the town to the riverside. This is the rue de la Fossé du Moulin. It is for the most part inaccessible to vehicles.

But the peace and quiet of an early morning walk along the banks of the river Seine is worth it. It was a great source of inspiration for the impressionists. Camille Pissarro did some painting there in the 1870s for example this one. This was probably painted in the summer nearby, rather than during a Spring walk along the Seine at Quai de Gaillon.

Here you can see mistletoe clearly in the tress on the far side of the river Seine.

There are also many areas to stop, relax, exercise. There is no doubt in my mind, in the summer it will be busier. Get there early if you want to avoid the weekend crowds.

Next week I will explore some other area of the town. The confluence of the river Oise and River Seine.

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

I have other posts about my visits along the River Seine, for example Capturing birds in flight, or 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.