La Bâtiaz in Martigny is an old castle build in the beginning of the 13th century mainly for military proposes. Anyway if you want to learn more about this middle age structure visit this link: http://www.batiaz.ch

I visited this castle, went all the way up to the top of the main tour to take a look to the wonderful panorama of the valley of Wallis. When I went down I was running late but I saw how the castle was shining in the night. I very nice night photo directly came to my mine. I knew I had to come back.

Yesterday I went back to shoot the photo I had in mind since then.

As you maybe noticed I have refreshed my website :-D

Now the site is simpler, doesn’t use Flash anymore so the photos can be seen on an iPad/iPhone/iPod. The layout changed as well: Now my different portfolios are well presented at the top of the homepage.

Coming soon:

• I found a very nice studio to rent in Montreux. Very nice atmosphere and perfectly equipped ! A new shooting with Rubis is already planned for this Sunday!
• As the studio is so great I start to plan other shootings with different models. I’m already in touch with several ladies. This time I will make it the other way around: Find the model and plan a shooting theme fitting the best with her body, outfit and personality.

Tune in again soon to see the results ;-)

Last week I went to Lausanne with lovely lady to teach her some stuff about photography. She’s quit new to photography, but she got a really good eye.

We were not that lucky the weather wasn’t really great for photography, the sky was white and foggy. Anyway, we spend some time going trough the basics: Iso, aperture, shutter speed, how the reflex camera works, how does it measure the exposition, which mode to use in which situation. It kept us busy for a while :-)

Finally once it was twilight time I decide to show her a quick introduction to night photography ! Night photography isn’t that hard to learn and the result is often quit surprising.
The upper photo is what I brought back.

Last week-end I did a shooting for a friends band: Hellevation. As it’s a Metal band I took the opportunity of “my” warehouse to do the shooting. The industrial surrounding was just perfect.

It was kind of challenging as they were 4 people. As you know in photography group people is a kind of pain because it’s very hard to do it well.

Without my 2 assistants it would have been even harder. Working with assistants really improve the quality of the photos and makes life so much easier!

Go take a look to their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/hellevation

However the result is good and we had a lot of fun :-D

The good thing about carrying you photo gear with you all the time is that when you get some spare time you can shoot some unexpected photos in the location you’re in.

Today, while my girlfriend was busy, I had some time to spend. It wasn’t planned at all, however I was close to the Château de Chillon. It’s an amazing castle at the end of the Geneva lake close to Montreux (See map at the bottom).

A block of towers on a block of rock

- Victor Hugo -

It was actually a bad day for photography, it was one of these gray white days, you know when the landscape is medium gray and the sky light gray, everything looks washed out. However the overcast reflected quit nicely the lights from the urban life during the twilight and the long exposure brought out the remaining blue from the dark twilight sky.

Afficher Château de Chillon sur une carte plus grande

Based on the question I got from other photographers during the two first PhotoWalk I think it’s a good idea to start sharing here some photography tricks.

What is the Magic Hour:
Today I will share the photography Magic Hour, sometimes also called the golden Hour. Most people say it’s the first and the last hour of day light. Personally I would say that the magic hour is half an hour before the sun breaks the horizon and half an hour after.
When I say horizon it’s not only the flat line when you’re at an ocean border but also edge of the mountains, the edge of the buildings of cityscape…

When is the Magic Hour:
There is a Magic Hour in the morning and one at the end of the day, the exact time of course changes with the seasons. The easiest way is to check the sunrise and sunset times in the newspaper or on the net (http://www.earthtools.org/).
Be just a bit careful because the given time is when the sun breaks the horizon but this isn’t always useful. For example when you live in Switzerland, you got mountains all around you (unless you are at the top of the world). So it’s good to have some spare time, being to early isn’t that bad, at least it’s far better than being late.
Note that often in the morning you get less people around.

What is the Magic Hour good for:
Basically during that time period you get better light! Due to the fact that the sun is low, the light cross more atmospheres so it gets often more diffuse and warmer in the tones. With the sun over the horizon you get longer shadows, your landscapes get more shadows, its makes them less flat and they look more interesting.

Useful information:
Think to scout out your spot, especially if you want to use the sunset Magic Hour. Because it’s make no sense wasting your time looking for the right spot, right composition while your light changes and the Magic Hour fades away.

Happy photography and don’t forget, have fun !

Yesterday I was leading the second PhotoWalk in Lausanne. This was the first time I invited people from Facebook, deviantArt, colleagues and friends all together.
Unfortunately this time the weather wasn’t with us. Well to be honest it was quiet bad.

I was surprised to see 2 people joining me at the meeting point. Even with bad weather there is a lot to photography: People fighting the snow, people freezing, details, …
But it’s hard to stay in photo mood. So after some shots we decided to go to the pub.

We spend the most time speaking about photo, about what we like to photography the most and how we do it. I learned some nice tricks :-) Sharing knowledge as meeting others are a big parts of a PhotoWalk !

After enjoying ur drinks we finally went out of the pub to try some night shots, specially because one guest never tried some. As expected the baseball hat and the lens hood was really help full keeping the rain drops away from the front lens. Super wide angle lenses are also trickier to use. To protect them from the rain and snow it’s far more tricky as you are very quickly in the frame. Anyway we still shot some nice stuff.

I’m looking forward to organize the next PhotoWalk. This time it will probably be during the week-end, maybe at the lake. Will see …

Busy ! These days everyone is very busy ! Working 12 hour a day to pay the bills, rushing home to do the housekeeping, stopping at the shop to get something for you empty for the empty fridge. At the end you figured out that you have no more time left for, actually, want to do.

At least this is happening to me, even in the 12h of work I spend some hours planning a photo shooting or actually doing a photo shooting. However it’s not the free photography I would like to do.

To fight about this I do now the 15 minutes photo challenge ! And I have to say it brings me a lot of pleasure.

It’s easy, you go somewhere, maybe just where you are, grab your camera, a lens and your tripod and start creating photos for 15 minutes.

The time span is quiet short to get out a good result, however this force you to focus, think about the result, think about the composition you want, use your actual location. It’s make you think about your background, your subject, your foreground and all this in a really effective manner !

I discovered that during that game I only think about photography it’s free up my mind and I have to admit it, it’s a great pleasure ! :-)

The photo at the top of this post is part of what I brought back today. I tell you give a try to the 15min photo challenge !