Pic Spocket

I was for 3 weeks in France last month (September). I had 2 weekends to wander around, so I took a lot of pictures. Therefore I will split this in several articles. Here is the first post, about my first free Saturday over there.

With the car, I headed in the natural area of ‘La Camargue’. This is an area with a lot of marshes and lagoons. It is very well known for the special breeds of ‘Camargue bulls’ and ‘Camargue horses’.

I stopped at the ‘Paul Ricard’ domain, where I saw a lot of dragonflies during a short hike. I also witnessed a small demonstration of cowboys playing with a bull.

I stopped and visited the ornithological park of the region. The Camargue region is also well known for being one of the rare habitats of Great Flamingo in Europe.

See more pictures from the Camargue area.

Then I headed all the way to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, a small town also in Camargue. I had the opportunity to climb on the roof of the fortified church in the center of the town, which offered some very nice views. I particularly like the HDR processed version below.

See more pictures from Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer

Finally, drove a little bit in the country roads towards Aigues-Mortes. On my way, I noticed this private little chapel in the middle of a vineyard. The subject was well suited for the combination of dramatic skies and the side lighting conditions offered by the setting sun. I think that these are my favorite pictures of the trip.

See more pictures of the chapel and Aigues-Mortes.

I arrived at the fortifications of Aigues-Mortes as the sun was setting. Therefore, I only snapped a few shots before heading back to the hotel. Not bad for a one day outing.

Larger image versions and many more pictures are available in the ‘travel >> France Sept 08’ section of the photo album. I will post short stories with a selection of pictures such as the one above for other portions of the trip in the coming days. Come back!

I took the plunge and ordered the very newly released Canon 50D digital camera. It’s a body slightly larger than my current Digital Rebel XTi, but more robust and sporting many more features. Here’s the 50D:

My Rebel has now over 21 000 clicks on it, and still works great. Will the new camera make me a better photographer? Surely not… But it will make my life easier and I will enjoy many of the additional features:

• Larger viewfinder;
• Larger screen on the back,  with better resolution
• Increase from 10 to 15 megapixels
• Lower noise at high ISO sensitivity
• Live View (rear screen active for composition, like pocket camera)
• Spot meter
• and many others…

To read more on this newly released camera:

• Release note on Dpreview.com
• Preview, on Dpreview.com

Here’s a video of newton when he has the ‘zoomies’. It happens to him every once in a while. If you wonder what ‘zoomies’ means, here is a scientific explanation, from urbandictionnary.com:

Zoomies:

When your dog runs around the house like crazy jumping anywhere and everywhere, running up and down the stairs, and all over the house. It usually ends with them falling to the floor, panting like crazy and taking a nap.

Increase the volume and enjoy…

I am still processing the pictures of my trip to France last month. In the meantime, here is a panoramic view of the Bay of Cassis, viewed from the route called ’Route des Crêtes’ which runs along the coast between Cassis and LaCiotat. This is also an awesome area for hiking. Click on the image to open it in the photo album.

See the GPS location on a map where this picture was taken. GPS coordinates were recorded by my GPS Data Logger.

note: The panorama was assembled from 10 individual pictures taken in ‘portrait’ orientation. The result is a 38 MegaPixels image in its full resolution.