19 Jan 2012
December 2011 – France, St Etienne
On a cold winter day I went for a walk with some friends and their kids, we walked by some horses in a field who ran towards us. Far from being afraid the kids also ran towards them to touch and feed them. There were two horses and that little girl really liked this one, she was fine giving it some grass which explains her dark fingers, but was still a bit cautious and nervous to touch its nose. I almost missed that moment… I was busy taking photos of something else and was trailing behind as a result. when I saw the horses + kids + light from the sun going down, I ran towards them while setting my aperture and ISO. My first few shots of the group of kids and horses were all either too bright or too dark, they were running around and it was difficult to focus on anything… so I focused on the horse, and based my lights settings on its face. As I did that I noticed she was coming back to touch it and I chose to compose the photo so you would only see part of the horse head, the main subject being the little girl and her gesture towards the animal. I like how you can see a mixture of joy and apprehension on her face, the colour of her hair in that light also match those of the horse. What made this even cuter was the fact she was whispering to the horse, having some sort of conversation with it, and after everyone else had left and being called by her parents to leave for the last 5 minutes she did so and said a very quiet “good bye horse”. That photo was taken just moment before she left, as I said, I almost missed it…
18 Jan 2012
January 2012 – France, St Etienne
Taking photos of kids can be difficult, and this was no exception! that little kid was full of life and running around with his toys. I must have taken 50+ photos and most of them were blurry! He loved his wolf costume and I liked that shot, where you can see him playing on the breakfast table and his dad looking at him in the background.
9 Jan 2012
December 2011 – France, St Etienne
This little boy was in his father’s arm and the sun was shining outside the window he was moving his head all the time and it is one of the rare occasion I had when I managed to catch his attention. One disadvantage of having a heavy camera is trying to take a shot from one hand and moving you hand above your head with the other! In the end I liked how the lines on his father’s jumper continues with his little left arm, I feel it helps to give some depth to the photo.
3 Jan 2012
December 2011 – France, St Etienne
This was quite a dramatic moment, at around 5pm on Christmas Eve there was a huge fire in St Etienne. It was a cartoon box company I believe. It required 150 firemen and over 50 vehicules to stop it! The flammes and smoke was quite impressive. I could see many cars going closer to it, but I chose to stay right here. As I took a few shots in about an hour, the sky was getting dark (and my hands were freezing!!), and I started to noticed those christmas illuminations, providing another point of focus in the photo; and more importantly a sureal contrast between the quiet of the street with a festive theme and the nearby danger and misfortune for some people the day before christmas. I also chose this shot because this is when a person came out of the house, not aware of what was happening. It took him a few minutes to first notice the smoke in the sky and then look back on the right corner of his house. There was no casualty, so that’s the positive thing out of it.
2 Jan 2012
December 2011 – St Etienne, France
Walking in the St Etienne Country side on a cold day I noticed those plane trails in the sky all leading to the sun. As the sun was low, although it was still very bright you could start to make out that “comet” look. I therefore decided to take a photo with a high shutter speed to accentuate that illusion. In the end it does look as if a failling star was about to hit earth…
1 Apr 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
This was a great find. Probably something that my great grand father used. It is a train table board. Although I tend not to like to place objects to take photos, in this instance this was just resting in two pieces on a side wall… Earlier that morning I took a few shots of that light coming from the window and onto the bare walls… but I was not satisfied with any of the shots… something was missing, it was not that interesting. When I saw that old black board charged with history, and furthermore, familly history! I broke my rule and placed that board so its shadow is also projected onto the wall… the overall triangular light helps shaping the photo and give the black board some depth, almost a 3D effect as it comes out of its light frame.
31 Mar 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
I took quite a few shots to get this how I wanted it… I did not want a fully split in the middle photo, but at the same time, the focus of that photo, the bannister, is in the middle of the staircase!
I wanted to show a divide between the upper and lower stairs, this is enhanced also by the difference in color which is much more intense and warmer at the bottom right rather than at the bottom left… and I like the fact that the bottom left is in fact the top of the stairs :)
The banister on the right also acts as some sort of arrow pointing to the exit and helping the viewer to to know where to look… In the end I think all this gives some dynamism to the photo, a sense of movement, half a circle from the bottom left to the bottom right.
30 Mar 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
This apparently belonged to my great great grand mother. It was laying there among the debris of a house being renovated. What I truely love about it is that you still have some work on it that was just started… probably around 100 years ago!
29 Mar 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
That wall of clementine just makes me think about summer, even though this photo was taken in early March! Because it was early in the morning the sun was just at the right angle and intensity, making the contrast of the colors even more intense.
28 Mar 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
As I always shop in supermarket I tend to forget how nce some very simple things are… such as an old basket full of eggs :).
What was interesting is that opposite to this stand was a vendor who asked me question about my camera and especially my lenses… to my surprise he knew a lot about lenses!
27 Mar 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
What I tried to do with this photo is to slightly hide what is very obvious. So I focused on the meat rather than what it is called. I never came accross that type of sausage before! but I had to try… and it is quite good :)
26 Mar 2011
March 2011 – France, St Etienne
This man is a small producter, he only has a few cattles and produces everything with his wife. It contrasted with some of the bigger farmers who had very high tech and large vans. All he had to offer was some dry sausages (Saucisson) and some Pâté… but his face was just showing goodness and simpleness. And that… is priceless!
