Wandering with my camera

I have been quite bad this week with my updates. Maybe I should rename my blog as it seems difficult to publish one photo per day when I have so much work… I just don’t have much inspiration when I come home. But I will try again and see how things go when I am in Paris for work next week.

The photograph I selected for today was taken in the Parc Montsouris, in Paris this summer. We had a picnic with my brother, his wife and Emma and Alex and his brothers were there too. Summers in Paris are quite awesome for that. You can stay outside and enjoy the warm night and drink some good wine and have excellent cheese without freezing… which is simply not possible in San Francisco.

Emma playing in the park, Paris, France

Emma particularly enjoyed the evening and kept running around and playing with all her toys. I love this shot of her running with the big balloon as it makes it full of life and colors.

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France, Paris, Uncategorized by Marylise

Today, it is my brother’s Stephane’s birthday so I wanted to publish a little photo of him. I took this photograph for Christmas last year. His little baby girl, Emma, had been sick for a few days and she just wanted to cuttle with her daddy. I think they are very cute together.

Stephane & Emma, Christmas 2008, France

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France by Marylise

Coming back from an awesome week-end of climbing in Yosemite… I am quite exhausted and didn’t take many pictures this week-end as I was more focused on my safety and the safety of my partner on the multi-pitch climbs than on photography… it is unfortunate because I could have taken amazing shots but my hands were busy belaying my friend Nathan or climbing up the granite cliff.

So, I will not take you to Yosemite today but to Paris. I discovered this really cool restaurant this summer and took a few random shots there. I remember liking this light bulb while we were walking out so I tried to take it. I like the result a lot… the details inside the bulb are quite awesome…

Light Bulb, “Derriere” Restaurant, Paris

Just a simple random shot I wanted to share from a great night out in Paris with my brother and his wife and Alex and his brothers. The restaurant is called “Derriere”. It is located in an old private house and is worth trying. I highly recommend it for the food, amazing setting and the atmosphere.

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France, Paris by Marylise

This week-end, I am going climbing in Yosemite with my friend Nathan so I wanted to post a fun photograph related to that… I took this shot with my wide angle lens… I think you start to see how much I like this lens and how funny I think it is to take close ups with it.

This shot is one of the funniest of my “Mushroom Heads” collection because the fact that Nathan is wearing his climbing helmet makes his head even bigger.

Climbing Helmet, Yosemite, California

I am going to take off soon and head to the park. I will not post anything tomorrow as I will be camping and climbing some granite cliffs and gladly leaving my computer at home but I will catch up when I return on Sunday!

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California, Yosemite by Marylise

Back to the Galapagos, this giant tortoise is one of my favorite shots from the trip and I took it the very first day I got there. After landing and taking the local bus to town, my friends and I decided to go check out the Darwin Station on Santa Cruz. The station is home to a lot of the protected species and especially, the famous giant tortoise.

Before even seeing any of the tortoise, I had planned to take a close up with my wide angle lens and was able to try right away. The great things about the tortoise is that they move very slowly and as long as you don’t scare them, you can go fairly close to it.

Giant Tortoise, Darwin Station, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands

I love the way the wide angle lens distorts the subject when you place it very close to it. It magnifies the subject and makes it really imposing. In the case of this tortoise, it is already quite big animal by itself but this angle gives it a very impressive look.

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Galapagos, Santa Cruz Island, Uncategorized by Marylise

I was looking at my former posts to figure out what I wanted to publish today and realized that I have been blogging for a few weeks now and have not even posted anything about my other huge passion: Rock Climbing!
Most of my published photographs are from the past 18 months and I have not been climbing outdoors as much as I used to for many reasons… so I will need to go through my archives to pull out some great climbing shots.

For now, I have a few photographs from a wonderful week-end in Yosemite. It was nearly exactly a year ago that my friends Emmy and Eric got married and had the party in a cool hostel close to the park. Among all the activities for the week-end, we initiated Emmy and Eric’s families to climbing. It was a tone of fun. I took this photograph while hanging out by the climbing area as I was one of the assigned photographers for the week-end and wanted to capture everything. I think the climbing rack looks awesome from up-close.

Essential Yosemite Gear, Yosemite National Park, California

I am quite excited because I am heading out to Yosemite to climb with a very good friend this week-end. We are going to do some famous multi-pitch climbs and enjoy the park. It has been so long! I am really happy I will get to touch some granite before the rainy days arrive.

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California, Yosemite by Marylise

Today, I will share one of my night shots… one of the rare ones I was able to get in Yosemite. When doing a night shot, if you face north, you will get the North Star in the middle and all other stars turning around it. I wanted to get a unique shot with the north star in the middle and had thought about the Yosemite falls location and realized that I could find a perfect spot to get them under the north star… result is below.

The other cool element in the composition is the path that leads to the falls… I found it while trying to setup my tripod and I think it is a great addition to the photograph. I still have more noise that I wish but it give me a good project for next year…

Yosemite Falls under the North Star, Yosemite, California

To make this photograph, I did a 40 minutes exposure and my camera took another 40 minutes to process it. One hour and 20 minutes to make a single shot! Crazy… but so rewarding!

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California, Yosemite by Marylise

Today, I went to a barbeque down south of San Francisco. We had a great time with great people, great food and a bunch of kids running around… so it reminded me of my little niece, Emma. Emma is 2 years old and I simply thinks she is one of the most adorable kids I know. Well, I guess, I can only think so because she is my niece but in any case, I love playing with her and taking photographs of her running around and discovering the world.

I took this shot in August 2009 at my cousin Laurianne wedding. It was a great day where I had a chance to spend special time with my family and walk around with my camera to take photos of the people and the kids around.

Emma, Laurianne’s Wedding, Gironde, France

Emma was running around the gardens by the city hall and the flowers were beautiful and colorful which was an ideal setting for some great shots. I particularly like this one even if it a little blurry because it shows Emma while she is running, her hair in the wind… she happy and excited to play outside. Kids are just fascinating… so simply excited and joyful… it is just a blast to be around them….

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France by Marylise

I have always liked weddings… Not really because of the ceremony and the stuff around it but because I think it is a great opportunity to have a big party and see old friends and family that you have not had a chance to talk to in ages. In the recent years, I have started to take my camera when attending weddings and I have had a lot of fun tracking people and especially kids playing around. It is such an amazing opportunity to find great subjects and get candid shots.

I would not do this as a full time job because you have to take all the traditional shots and I would get bored with that, but walking around and catching a fun conversation that makes people smile or kids running around is a lot of fun.

Kids at a Wedding, Gironde, France

This shot was a very unexpected one for me. I was tracking down the little kid on the left while he was playing in the grass and he saw me and started to look at the camera and when the second kid saw that, he came to be part of the shot. They were so cute together and were so fun to take. I love their expression in the photo. Very focused on the camera to look great on the photograph.

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France by Marylise

As you might have noticed in the earlier postings, I not only like photographing animals but also love to find the tiny insects and take macros of them. The photograph I chose for today was taken close to San Francisco in the gardens of an amazing place called Filioli. Filoli is the house of an old millionaire and it was donated to the state of California when the owners passed away. It is an incredible place, amazingly well maintained with gorgeous gardens and thousands of flowers.

On a warm summer day, Alex and I decided to drive down and spend the afternoon there. We walked in the gardens, taking photographs of the flowers and I was so happy, I took my macro lens with me as there were so many insects and bees flying around.

Busy Bee, Filoli, California

Bees are not easy to catch as they move so much all the time but with some perseverance and good amount of patience, you can get to incredibly beautiful and colorful results… so my conclusion for today would be to keep your eyes opened to the small world evolving around us… it is simply fascinating!

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California by Marylise