Category Archives: photography

My hobby that has went way too far…

L I F E, photography

Inspiration

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Sometimes the world seems to have a body down. No matter what life you lead or what you do, life will remind you of how insignificant you are. It will remind you that the world will exist without you and function as well as it did before you. Is this is a dark thought or a positive one? I’ll look at it from a positive, if I do not matter then every good that I bring to another is something that should not have happened. I’ve made someones day better than when they started, therefore I’ve affected someone and I’ve made a change in another insignificant life.  I suppose I’m trying to say, live your personal life the best you can and make as many positive impressions in others and you may or may not find a purpose.

I look for inspiration in my life to keep on rolling, I have a beautiful wife and daughter that keep the wheels on the truck but sometimes I need a non involved friend.

Gehard, Patinge France Bicycle

All of the time I need to look back to the beautiful wife and daughter though…

M & M Patinges France

Sorry for the arty, philosophical post, I’ll be back later with something else…

L I F E, photography

Provence #1

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This is the start of a few short posts from Provence. We start back up next week with 4 and a half weeks of tours so the postings will be sparse.

Provence is absolutely beautiful! I’ve said it, it does not need to be said again. It is a photographers paradise, everywhere is amazing color, ancient architecture, blooming botanics and plenty of people. I brought as big a kit as I would on vacation, with the D70, the Nikon 18-135 3.5-4.6, Nikon 80-200 2.8 ED, Sigma 10-20 3.5-5.6, SB-600 for lighting and the Manfrotto for all of those tripod shots. A whole lot of gear and I didn’t see any of it! I left the 18-135 on the front and the rest of the stuff in the bag. I’ve come to the realization that when your not very good at the taking the pictures part of photography, you don’t need a bunch of gear, it’s neat but it’s too overwhelming. Composition, exposure, ISO, lighting, F-Stop are what I want to perfect, so down with you Nikon and all your toys, I’ll buy you later.

We drove down to a camping club outside of Remoulins which is right close to Uzes (ooz -es) and took our time on the drive. It’s about 500km from Patinges to Provence so we stopped to visit and take some photos along the way.

Roadside Ruins on the winding climby road down to Provence.

Roadside Ruins almost Provence

We stopped for lunch in the town of Florac and had a nice little wander around this beautiful town.

Waterfall Photo Florac France June 2008

Thelma thought a drink of this water would be a good idea on a 33 degree day!

Thelma drinking from the source Florac France June 2008

That’s it for day 1.  I took quite a few photos of this leg and they’re on my gallery page if you care to see more of my photos.  Check back for more soon!!!

L I F E, photography

Miscellaneous photos from my world

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Everything is fairly status quo around the Old Mill this week. We had a super fun week again with our guests here, the weather was not at it’s photographic prime but great for cycling through the countryside of central France. We are on vacation for the next two weeks now, we’ll be heading to Provence in the next couple days to decompress and hangout in all that is good and right with the world. I should have a ton of photos to put up on the gallery when I get back. Here are a few for now…

Interesting wood work in the chateau of Ainay-Le-Vielle. The oak wood is from the Foret Troncais.

Architecture in Ainay-Le-Vielle tower

Just to have no rhyme or reason for this post, a shot of some strawberries from the market in Sancoins last week.

Fresh Strawberries at the Market

Purple flowers blooming in the new butterfly garden at Le Vieux Moulin

EDIT from Michelle:  Silly Dad, even the 4 year old knows this is a Buddlia Davidii !!

Purple flowers in the butterfly garden

Another picture of a lily pad flower in the L’Aubois river

Lilly pad flower Le Vieux Moulin

Interesting (to me at least) photo of a red pillow sitting on the chair.

Red Pillow Photo

I’m working on a ton of photos that are on the hard drive now and I’ll be shooting up a storm in the next few weeks. Have fun!!

L I F E, photography

Photos from Patinges…Again…

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We’re coming of a super busy three weeks now with time to breath before another weeks tours before the first vacation to Provence this year. We’ve had an amazing bunch of clients so far this year at Le Vieux Moulin It’s a bummer how fast time flies when you’re having as much fun as we did. I haven’t had much inspiration with the camera lately, but still shooting at interesting things for fun.

Wednesday was a family trip to the market in Sancoins.  Fresh strawberries were in season along with the beginning of cherry season.  The Loup de Mer and Coquille St. Jauques were very fresh from the fish monger and made for some delicious suppers the following nights.  I went very simple with the Loup and pan seared it to medium rare and had it with some simple butter/cream potatoes with glazed carrots fresh from the market.  It’s amazing how good food is when it’s in it’s natural freshest state.  No photos of it though as I’m still working on lighting for food shots, not enough time in this world to learn everything we want.

Here are some photos from the week in my life…

Baby chickens from the live animal room at the market in Sancoins

Baby chicken photo Sancoins France 2008

Monster rooster across the isle from the babies, might have been Daddy.  Probably not but he did start posing when he noticed me taking his photo.

Monster Rooster photo Sancoins France 2008

Slugs and snails are a bountiful pest here in central France.  We caught this one in the garden the other day and decided photographing him before relocation to the forest down the road was a good idea.

Huge snail caught in the garden

Wandering around the island at home, waiting for the dragonflies to come back on a gray day.  These are the first lillies to come up after the flood last week.

Lillies on the L'Aubois river Patinges France June 2008

One of the first apples from the tree we planted in Tree’s memory.  The label said it would not produce fruit for 3-4 years and his tree has about 20 of these soon-to-be delicious specimens on it.  Pommier r Blanche du Canada is what the tree is called, with sweet/slightly sour fruits.

POMMIER r Blanche du canada Patinges France

I suppose that’s all for now.  I’ll be back in a couple weeks with more updates on Julien and photos from Provence.

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Floral/Botanic/Landscapes Appremont Sur-Allier France 2007

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Nothing new today. Working some shots from last fall taken at Appremont Sur-Allier France. For those of you who have no idea where that is, it’s in central France about 2.5 hours south of Paris in Centre. About a 25 minute bike ride from Le Vieux Moulin

I’ve been working with the black and white on these shots as I’ve deemed them deep enough in contrast and clarity to be good black and whites. They are not this way for the sake of bad photos trying to look good. Though they may be bad photos, the b/w did not make them that way, I did.

I’ll be on a short holiday to La Rochelle France tomorrow and Wednesday, taking the baby girl on her first field trip with school away from us. Yikes… Will be back on Thursday with what could be many more shots but heck, i’m still working on the last trip to Belgium. No time…No Time…

Appremont Sur Allier Chinese Bridge

#2 Some Cows

Cows at Appremont Sur-Allier

#3 Macro Botanic (Love this one!)

Botanic Macro Appremont Sur Allier France

All for now.

photography

Photos from Patinges

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Still nothing in my head to write about the Bruges trip. I can’t wait to go back there but I’m trying to think of something profound for a photo story of the trip.

I did feel the need to mention the food at La Main Bleue in Lille, France…Freaking fantastic is all I can say. It’s of the Moroccan variety with possible the best tagine of lamb that I’ve ever had and I’m a huge fan of baby sheep cooked for hours with vegetables in a clay pot. The most unique thing about this dish was the eggplant fried in cinnamon with it, out of this world flavor. Spicy, Sweet, Savory, everything a man can use. Michelle & Brad had an amazing buffet with 20 different cold dishes and a hot lamb and a citrus chicken with olives that was good but in no way comparable to my lamb dish.

Here are some photos taken this morning on a quick spin around the neighborhood…

A road ridden so many times by me...

A shot of the Berthun farm on the other side of the river from the Moulin

Berthun Farm in the Fog

My trusty dusty Gerarhd packed for a neighborhood photo shoot

French bicycle out on the road

No more for today…