Tag Archives: france

My Favorites of 2010


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As the year is drawing to a close, I thought I’d put together a short list of what I consider my  most memorable shots of the year. The selection is based on both viewer feedback and my own attachment to a particular shot. For behind each photograph is a story to tell, a little something for me to remember them by, and some have proven to be more memorable than others. If you have not followed my work on Flickr, this is a good sampling of my work.

I’ve decided to categorize them into such : (1) REFLECTIONS (2) BRIDGES (3) FOUNTAINS (4) LIGHT TRAILS and  (5) MY PERSONAL FAVORITES.

I hope you enjoyed my photographs this year and I thank you for taking the time to look at them and making my every bit of effort worthwhile by making nice comments. To my fellow photographers, I wish you lots of GOOD LIGHT this coming year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR all!


#5 MY PERSONAL FAVORITES OF 2010

I have no criteria for choosing my personal favorites of 2010 – it does not necessarily have to be technically or artistically appealing or both, I just simply like them for whatever reason. It could be that the selection is influenced by the memory behind it, or that the shot just felt right at the moment of capture, or a part of it could be because I received good feedback on the photo. These photos make me happy when I look at them and I hope somehow they do the same thing to you.

LYON, FRANCE - St. Jean's Cathedral and Bonaparte Bridge on the River Seine. Truth is, a perfect reflection never fails to make me happy and I always pack up for the night satisfied. The Saone river that night looked like a mirror had been laid underneath the bridge. It was a perfectly still night, something you have to see to believe.

[...Click for the rest of My Favorites of 2010...]


The Best of 2010 – Light Trails


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As the year is drawing to a close, I thought I’d put together a short list of what I consider my  most memorable shots of the year. The selection is based on both viewer feedback and my own attachment to a particular shot. For behind each photograph is a story to tell, a little something for me to remember them by, and some have proven to be more memorable than others. If you have not followed my work on Flickr, this is a good sampling of my work.

I’ve decided to categorize them into such : (1) REFLECTIONS (2) BRIDGES (3) FOUNTAINS (4) LIGHT TRAILS and  (5) MY PERSONAL FAVORITES.

#4 MOST MEMORABLE LIGHT TRAILS

It’s no secret that successful photographs are the products of perfect light and perfect timing. Capturing great light trails definitely needs perfect timing, and obviously, it helps to be in a location with a good flow of traffic, but not necessarily. Sometimes, all it takes is one bus to come at the right time. But there are other factors to a successful light trail shot other than perfect time – and those are – lots of patience and being on the safe side of the road.

My Top Ten Most Memorable Light Trails of 2010:

VALENCIA, SPAIN - Torres de Serranos. The flow of traffic was not ideal on this night so I had to wait quite a bit; in the meantime, the light in the sky was changing fast. I knew that buses, instead of cars, would complete my vision here, and fortunately 2 buses came to a halt just when the last bit of blue hour light was fading away.

[...Click for the rest of my Top Ten Light Trails...]


The Best of 2010 – Reflections


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As the year is drawing to a close, I thought I’d put together a short list of what I consider my  most memorable shots of the year. The selection is based on both viewer feedback and my own attachment to a particular shot. For behind each photograph is a story to tell, a little something for me to remember them by, and some have proven to be more memorable than others. If you have not followed my work on Flickr, this is a good sampling of my work.

I’ve decided to categorize them into such : (1) REFLECTIONS (2) BRIDGES (3) FOUNTAINS (4) LIGHT TRAILS and  (5) MY PERSONAL FAVORITES.

Starting off with my Top Ten Favorite Reflection shots of the year.

#1 MOST MEMORABLE REFLECTIONS of 2010

I love to shoot where there is water – rivers, canals, rain and puddles, fountains, moats, pools, even a baptismal font as I’ve recently discovered. So I have many photos to choose from in this category. If I had to guess, I’d say about 80% of my shots has water in it, and probably half of that involves rain before or during the shot. When planning for travel, I usually go where there’s lots of water; if there’s none, I’ll find it. Or sometimes it finds me, in the case of rain.

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN - View of Gamla Stan from Slussen. Stockholm is without any doubt a beautiful city, but by nightfall it loses its luster, at least to a photographer. I would have liked to have seen more light in the city. This shot of the popular district Gamla Stan was taken on my second night after a disappointing rainy previous night. Scandinavian countries have long blue hours and I must have shot non-stop for at least an hour-and-a-half this night, walking about a mile and a half from Slussen to Skeppsholmsbron with hardly any people on the streets.

[...See the rest of my Top Ten Reflections...]


Twilight in Caen


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I was editing some photos of mine from last summer and came across these from Caen, a city off the Normandy coast. It is a port city located 15 kilometers inland from the English channel where one can hop on a ferry across to England. I remembered it had rained in Normandy that afternoon while visiting the American cemetery in Omaha beach, but luckily – as what seems to be the story of my life – the skies cleared in time for twilight and gave me nice cloud textures and overall beautiful tones.

Caen is a nice quiet town with its own share of antiquated structures and was said to be the favored residence of William the Conqueror. It was devastated during the second World War but a few of its important structures remained, such as what you see here:

The ruins of St Etienne le Vieux or old St. Stephen's was one of the structures that was devastated during the war. The nave and south aisle are completely gone, but the north aisle, transept and crossing tower still stand.

The Abbaye aux Hommes or the Men's Abbey is dedicated to Saint Stephen and is considered to be one of the most notable Romanesque buildings in Normandy.

One of the most imposing structures on the main square of Caen is the Palace of Justice, the court building, which dates from the last half of the 18th century.


Scenes from Mont Saint-Michel, Jewel on a Rock


Posted by Yen Baet

[...Beauvoir & Mont St. Michel, France - Taken on August 2, 2010...]

The long wait for the light! It seemed like forever for the light to change this day, it was almost torture - lying on the grass, looking at the clouds, every now and then getting up to jump around to keep warm. It was unbearably windy and chilly that night. The mountain did not light up until past nine, and I still had to wait for it to get a little darker to get a nice glow. Blue hour did not come until about half past 10. Shot at f/14 at 1/20 sec, ISO 100, with a soft 3-stop GND.

Oh, those flower shots that I simply hate! I really went out of my way for this one, almost lying on the grass to get really low. I tried different apertures on this shot to get what I wanted which was to draw emphasis on the flower, yet still show a little bit of the windmill in the background. This scene can be found in a nice little village called Beauvoir, right on the steps of the beautiful Mont Saint-Michel. (And yes, I did get dizzy after shooting this scene.) Shot at f/2.8 at 1/3200 sec, ISO 200.

The rounded diaphragm opening (9 blades) of the Nikon 24-70mm makes for a more natural-looking bokeh. This happens to be my favorite lens; I use it about 90% of the time.

This shot was taken just before noon with an ND110 (10-stops). It took me about a dozen tries to get my desired effect before they turned the spinners off. I experimented quite a bit on the shutter speed, and settled for a shorter one to still show the blade movement. I think this one turned out to be the best (actually the only one from the bunch that pleased me). It's hard to see it, but Le Mont Saint-Michel is on the lefthand side of this image. I also thought the woman made for a good scale comparison.This was shot at f/8 at 2 seconds, ISO 100.

Golden late afternoon light shining on a bale of hay and the windmill of Beauvoir.