We've arrived, and it's still pretty surreal to be back in Syracuse. It's been a busy busy time, but we're slowly getting our feet planted. It took about a week to get over the jetlag, and now we're getting our apartment organized. We've already got a few projects to take care of to get things the way we want them.
It'll be a little while longer before I get back to regular posting, but I'm working on it.
We made the journey from Geneva to Syracuse yesterday. It took about 20 hours, but everything made it with us, and we were only delayed a little. I'm very happy to be here!
I may have even got enough pictures to do a photobook of the flight for SoFoBoMo!
I've been taking one last long look at the beautiful countryside that is the corner of France (and edge of Switzerland) that we live in. In less than a week we move back to upstate New York.
The picture above has been on my list for a while now, maybe not that particular vineyard, though this hill has stood out to me for some time, but one like it. I'm pleased that for a few minutes while I was out the sun and clouds played a little, and gave me this wonderful dance across the fields, and that the sunflowers are blooming beautifully this summer.
I'll keep my eyes open, but we lose a little of our mobility this week, and I imagine it'll get pretty hectic making sure we're completely ready to leave. I'm glad I took some time to look around yesterday and make a few more pictures. I'd like to do some documentary of the move itself, we'll see how it goes.
Oh, and one more thing. I'm getting ready to make the jump to self-hosting this blog at my own domain. I'm posting both there and here, sort of "preview mode." If you'd like to check it out, it's at justing-pictures.com/blog. I'm haven't completely settled in yet. Some things are still undecided, like whether to keep the pictures on flickr or on my blog too, or both. A few tasks to work on still, and I'll make a bigger announcement when I to transition.
A few things completed yesterday, came full circle.
We saw that the donkeys next door had two new foals, a dark one and a light one, a prefect matched set for their mothers.
We saw the cows across the rue come in for the night, and the bull make a display (pictured above). The herd had two calves also, a very new one and one a couple of months old. We've seen the cows go out a few times, but had never seen them come in. It was a good show, the fermier encourages his dog to go (a lot of 'Allez! Allez!'-ing) and he rounds them up to come in. Of course, they mostly know the drill and already the leader is coming in when she sees him. The fermier uses his staff a little, mostly display, to keep the cows in order and on the move.
The horses also had a foal. Normally there are three, but yesterday only one horse and one baby.
We had been wondering where all the animals had gone lately. They have been reshuffled for calving time.
The goods have to get from the sponsors to the crowds somehow.
After the first few cars/floats passed, I started trying to get pictures of the throwing of the goods. I had a few misses, but more successes than I thought I would. It was one of the things that made it a lot of fun!
I think this lady spends some time at raves, or DJ'ing parties:
Using the force:
Jambon'ing it up for the camera:
The Magician:
I have a few more pictures, and a big set of less good shots than these and yesterday's post that I'll make public on flickr tomorrow. Here is all my TdF "coverage".
Le Tour is nearing the finish, it's looking good for the Brits this time, the first time for them in tour history. There are lots of pictures of the cyclists around, but I didn't find as many of the publicite caravane.
Before the lead riders and peloton come by, there is a parade to warm up the crowd. They really know how to get everyone excited, they pass out lots of water and party favors. There is entertainment and more water. Did I mention that they give out water and spray the crowd down with a fine mist of water?
I don't feature any pictures of water today, but there are lots of pictures of the caravane.
I have another theme for a post tomorrow. Today's pics are a selection of the more fun ones that I saw. I'm trying to get most of these processed before the tour finishes, I probably won't be able to revisit them until later this winter. I'm expecting a very busy fall, both with work and with lots of other photographic opportunities.
That's not quite right, the yellow and green on the Le Coq Sportif van didn't look so faded before I exported it! I'll have to figure that out.
I suppose its not so difficult to get good shots in a situation like this, there was tons of color and lots of action! I had a great time taking all of these pictures!
These are all from last Wednesday, stage 10 of the tour.
Winner of Stage 10 of the 2012 Tour de France was Thomas Voeckler for team Europecar. The stage was 194 km through relatively flat and mountainous terrain from Mâcon to Bellegarde-sur-Valserine.
Bellegarde is only about 30 minutes from where we work, so going here was a no brainer.
This was the first serious mountain stage with the Col du Grand Colombier in the Jura mountains. It really spread the riders out, more than I've seen in previous stages this year. There were eleven (!) groups of riders that went by.
More to come of this festive event, both the riders and the caravan before. This year I was ready for the spectacle and got some good shots of the entertainment caravan that proceeds the actual race proper.
Just a couple of pics from Annecy a couple of weeks back. I really liked the old windows, and olde-tymey glass that they put in them. I don't think it's possible that any of the glass is "original".
It was difficult to capture the window panes themselves, I tried a few different things, but wasn't super successful. These seemed to be the best of what I tried.
By the way, these pictures are from inside the Chateau d'Annecy, the 12th century (through the 16th) home of the Counts of Geneva. Incidentally, that link is fine, but I prefer the machine translation of the French language wiki page, it's got a lot more details (as long as you can tolerate the idiosyncrasies of the translators skill level).
Athletes migrate to the start line for the swim. The water was a confortable temperature, and luckily it wasn't a scorching hot day. Saturday it had been almost 30 (~90F), but Sunday was a much cooler 19 (mid 60s).
Fans gather on the shore, some had signs to cheer on there favorite competitor (probably spouse, or special someone).
Swimmers pass under the famous Pont des Amours into the river Thiou.
Swimmers make their way down the canal toward the exit.
The swimmers bottleneck around the corner of the canal as they approach the exit. It was much less crowded just off the top of the frame, of course you have two swing a much wider arc.
Athletes are helped out of the water, up the stone steps and immediately into the transition area.
Photographically speaking, I think I enjoyed the swim the best. It was very crowded (many athletes), somewhat unusual and in a very nice location. You can see people biking and running a lot of places, but not so often do you see a thousand people (there were ~1100 athletes competing) in wetsuits with funny colored hats at such a close distance. I'm not sure when the next time will be that I will have such good access to the swimmers as this. It was really great!
Two things I would have liked to be different: 1) a longer lens, possibly the 70-300, and a wider lens for that corner (it was a real maelstrom in there!). 2) Being able to get more usable images at higher ISO would have really helped in this situation. It was kind of dark that day (a good thing for the athletes), but it meant I really had to jack up the ISO.
Also, I'm still learning how to get the white balance right. Sometimes it can be very difficult to judge what the right color should be. In those cases that I can't seem to make an improvement, I trust the camera settings. Some of the images above look like they were taken on different days, but they were all taken within about one hour of each other.
Thats a lot of swimmers!
Gettin' kind close in there!
Just a ton of bikes!
More pictures of this great event to come. Both Alessandra (the athlete!) and I (the photographer) can report that the Annecy triathlon is very well put together! A+!
Yesterday was a Red letter day. A multitude of errands were accomplished, fun was had, clothes were bought, household goods were donated, even a spontaneous romantic evening walk on the lake was had! See photo above.
This literally never happens. We must be getting the hang of this expat thing. I'll try not to focus on the fact that this is occurring as we are heading for the door, coat in hand and car keys out. We've got less than six weeks until we repatriate back home.
Today was not so great, but I'll keep my focus on yesterday's awesomeness. I suppose it seems even better now that there is such a contrast. See Ali's rant about today here.
The weather has been absolutely beautiful the last few days.
Much nicer than the last couple of times I was in Nyon. It was a great day to go for a walk.
Today we went to Nyon to do some triathlon shopping, tri gear is a little harder to find than one might think around here. There is a very nice shop in Nyon for running and swimming gear: Sportmax. It's triathlon oriented, but they don't have any cycling gear. The attendent was very friendly and helpful, not pushy at all.
After our shopping errand was complete, we took a nice walk along the lake front, by the marina out to the point at the end of the jetty. As we were walking, a very nice looking boat came into the marina and then turned around. After that, it began to dock against the jetty at the tie-ups there. I helped a little with the line to secure it, and then took a few photos. I don't know these people, or their boat, but I did help them dock at the Nyon Marina.
It was mid-day, the light isn't so great, but I'm still very happy with the pictures.
One of the things that I'm working on is so-called working the scene. I still haven't worked out exactly what type or style of pictures I prefer to make, but I do know that I want to be more thorough in photographing the places/scenes/events that I feel compelled to photograph; when something catches my eye. In the past I've made a few photos of what I thought that was. Now I'm trying to get a selection of things that hold my attention. Previously I've been less than satisfied with the photographs when I get home and take a look. There were things missing. So, I'm trying to find those missing things.
This beautiful bridge was dedicated in 1839, and is known by three names: Prince Albert Bridge, Charles-Albert Bridge, and Pont de la Caille (Quail Bridge). Both this bridge, and the new bridge that replaced it (built in 1929), are historically somewhat significant primarily for their construction. Prior to this there was a Roman bridge, Ponte Vieux (Old Bridge), at this location. The Usses river and an abandoned spring are 130 meters below. For more information, see the machine translation of the French wikipedia page.
Thats all for now.
Work has been busy, but it's more that I'm feeling frustrated and limited photographically. I'll get over it at some point, maybe even this weekend. I expect in general things will get more busy before they get less, at least until some time in August. It may be kind of slow until then. Sorry about that. Regular photo-blogging will resume at some point this summer.
Two versions of the same picture. I clicked on the conversion button just to see, and I rather liked it. I hadn't expected to because I really quite like the color version mostly for the color of the light, and how it fills the space beyond the trees with a warm glow. The black and white version I like for it's texture and there is still an glow throughout, it just isn't golden, but there is still has a warm silver aspect to it.
I'm not sure which I like better, it might just be the black and white version after all.
A little sunset action to get things started off. We're moving into lightning season here, so there are thunderheads about, even if there isn't actually any lightning today. Here, at least.
The afternoon was nearly perfect today, the sun was shining, the wind was blowing a warm breeze, the temperature was magnificent, and there was a possibility of thunderstorms in the sky.
Syracuse University, New York, 2012
North Atlantic Ocean, 2012
Last Look - Meyrin, Switzerland, 2012
Maconnex, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Le Tour de France, Bellegarde-sur-Valserine, France, 2012
Annecy, France, 2012
Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France, 2012
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France
2012 Annecy Triathlon, Annecy, France
Versoix, Switzerland, 2012
Seurrois, Nyon, Switzerland, 2012
Seurrois, Nyon, Switzerland, 2012
Seurrois, Nyon, Switzerland, 2012
Cruseilles, France, 2012
Cruseilles, France, 2012
Chevry, France, 2012
Meyrin, Switzerland, 2012
Maconnex, France, 2012
Maconnex, France, 2012
Meyrin, Switzerland, 2012
Maconnex, France, 2012
Maconnex, France, 2012