Captured4Ever A Camera is for Life, Not just Christmas

Well this is a bit of a catch up from 2007, In July I ended up in the wonderful French Alps for a bit of a get away holiday. A small group of friends had already been there a week on a mountain biking holiday when I arrived.

More photos can be found here.

We stayed at a place called Morzine which is just an hour from Geneva, so easy to get to by plane which was lucky for me as at the time driving wasnt possible.

As with most of the alps during the winter it’s a Ski resort but during summer months it has turned into a haven for downhill mountain bikers, who use the ski runs and ski lift’s meaning its more of a year round resort now. Even with these crazy loons going down the mountains at silly speeds (with no soft snow to cushion falls) the landscape as can be seen below is beautiful. This picture was taken at the top of one of the two mains lift’s out of Morzine.

A basic 5 picture stitched panoramic as you find it hard to express the size of the Alps without taking wide angle pictures to help.

Below is yet another of the views from the top of the mountains. Once at the top of a lift you can usually walk along the ridge line to find another lift leading down into another valley. In theory you can do this all day.

Dont let the clouds fool you, at this height the sun is warm and burns easily. Cool breeze because of the height yet warm sun, being new to this I took too much the first day that I didnt need.

Two of those mad fools I mentioned. Stu and Steve. Half way down a mountain waiting for the slower ones to catch up.

Now onto the last day which was one of surprise.

Myself and Stu went to try and catch a glimpse of Mont Blanc which meant jumping in the car and bombing up those typical twisty mountain roads. Not knowing exactly where we were going, what we found was a small mountain lake that was mirror still, which provided us with a view of Mont Blanc in the background. Stu being Stu, he had to have a picture of his car and I have to say it looked good with the two of them reflecting in the last bit of sun.

Was that the end of the holiday, noooo. What we had forgot was that it was Bastille day in France. By the time we got back to the challet it was dark, food was ready (which was mmmm) beer ready and then……. From the valley we were staying in came explosions and light.

Firewoks lighting up the sky… But to see them you will need to view the holiday pictures on flickr.

This picture was taken around the time I really started to get into photography. I cant remember the exact year but it was close to 1995.

Even tho I had owned cameras for years before this and have various pictures going back to the 80’s taken by me on camera’s I owned, I was only just starting to use cameras more and more for fun around this time, not just when on holidays or special occasions.

That was until one day I went and got a BnW film and tried it out. Looking back on this now I need to force myself to take more pictures in BnW as it does make you focus on the way light falls and the different contrast in a picture. A different style of composing a picture as what looks good in colour wont always make a good BnW picture.

Before it clicked that I liked this photography thing, I had looked at and read up on photography (yes I do read) and it came accross some wise words which I thought I understood at the time but only really understood around the year 2000. Its strange how 7 words can be important

The subject is irrelevant - Photograph the light

I can see when I mention this to people, the look they give me must have been the one I had when I first read those words, they dont understand it fully as all they see are the subject and cant grasp that the subject is nothing without the right light.

A picture can be good when taken by lifting a camera and pressing the shutter. But moving say a person to the left 5deg will make the light fall over the face a different way and enhanced the picture to make it a great picture, yet the subject is the same person. It was the light that made the picture better. This is the same for landscapes, waiting for the right light, be it the sunrise, sun setting or just the sun moving behind some cloud. Its the light that can make or break a photo.

Its all about the light. Now all say with me…. I see the light………

But hang on, is that all there is to photography, Noooooo. This is a rule to help, it’s not the holy grail of answers and does not improve all photographs but helps. It’s one of the many rules which you should think about when taking a picture.

And on that final note I am off out to try and get some BnW pictures.