Rita Crane Photography's photostream  

Beautiful on Black! Click on photo.

[Still reposting....for contacts who probably never saw these photos, and continuing this theme of Trees. Can't seem to get Flickr to work these days.....hopefully my internet connection will improve soon. The company says they will be adding bandwidth this month. We will see.......For now I wish you all a happy weekend and will respond to your comments as my connection allows!]

[Scroll down for another view of the quai, below.]

This brisk winter afternoon in Paris, I was very much excited to take some pictures because it had rained and my favorite conditions were showing up. The low lying winter haze of the last 9 days that had prevented me taking the pictures I had hoped for, was finally over. I had extended my visit to Paris -- changed train reservations and hotel arrangements to stay an extra day in the hopes that there would be beautiful rainclouds and light. I was not disappointed: after visiting the Musee D'Orsay at midday, I came out onto the quai to a fabulous sky!! Slowly making my way towards Notre Dame I shot an entire set. The sun, being low in the west created a rosy golden wonderfulness, throwing winter shadows on the wall. The magic time of day was here!

[J'etais a Paris deja depuis neuf jours sans avoir eu l'atmosphere que j'attendais pour mes images, car l'hiver nous avait donne que des ciels couverts. Donc, avec l'esperance qu'un orage qui devais arrive pendant la nuit allait bien se produir, j'ai change mon itineraire pour pouvoir rester a Paris encore une journee. Je n'ai pas ete decue. En sortant du Musee D'Orsay j'etais heureuse de decouvrir un ciel emouvant et une lumiere de fin de journee splendide. Vous aurez deja peut-etre vu mes autres photos de cet apres-midi: Le Henri IV, Le Quai de Conti au coucher du soleil, Le Quai des Orfevres, et La Vue du Louvre et le Pont des Arts au crepuscule. Je posterai d'autres dans cette serie, en les ajoutant a celles de Paris dans ma serie sur la France.]

note: Nadine: you asked about the lens. for this shot I was using my Fuji Finepix S7000 6.2 megapixel camera whose lens is a 35 mm equivalent (35 mm - 210 mm range). I am currently using only a CANON EOS 50D with two lenses for my landscape and urban landscape shots: a wide angle (28 - 88 mm equivalent) and zoom (45 - 215 mm equivalent with image stabilizer feature for tricky exposures.) For my commercial work taking pictures of interiors, I use a 10 to 20 mm lens.

[This is the first of a set of four photos, continuing my theme on Trees this month. I'm reposting for contacts who may not have seen it, and because I'm still too caught up with work to process a new image. New satellite connection is also making Flickr almost impossible to navigate, or is it Flickr that is difficult? Anyone notice problems using tabs in Flickr? Let me know! Thanks!]

Il y avait presque personne dans le parc cet apresmidi d'hiver. Mais c'etait comme si on aurait pu entendre une conversation entre amis. L'un parlait du musee d'Orsay en face, et l'autre ecoutait tranquilement, en fumant sa cigarette et en regardant les gens passer. Parmis les arbres par contre, c'etait ou un argument ou une fete!!

It was a chilly winter afternoon, night was fast approaching, and few people were out in the park. By the Jardin des Tuileries just south of the Louvre one can walk along this terrace that runs just opposite the Musee d'Orsay, by the Seine. When I saw these two chairs, so empty, almost forlorn, it was as if there was still a conversation in the air. One could almost see two friends sitting here, enjoying the afternoon. Certainly the trees had plenty to say. Their wintry silhouettes seemed to be having quite a lively time!! In all this silence, and seeming emptiness, something was speaking to me and I had to take out my camera to record it.

The photo was taken with a camera I am no longer using, the Fuji Finepix S7000, several years ago. It begged to be uploaded today, so here you are! Now let's go have an espresso together. It's getting cold standing here in the park. :o)

Reposting this for contacts who may not have seen it before.....part of my series on Trees and Gardens. I'll return to photos of my California trip when I have time to process them. But for now, another image of trees!

On my way to visit Notre Dame it started to rain. When I saw this scene, I had to stop and spend some time in this little garden right next to the magnificent cathedral of Notre Dame. It was a peaceful Paris afternoon....grey weather....yet what a visual feast I had just encountered unexpectedly! The patterns and shapes were inviting me to photograph them, and it was remarkable to find such color in winter! The ornamental cabbage's magenta contrasting dramatically with the juicy green grass. I enjoyed a good hour here, taking many pictures. (There are two others below.)

En francais, il y a ici de l'information au sujet de ce petit jardin.
ecrits-vains.com/ballades/balade10/balade10.htm balades de Paris:
Square Jean XXVIII ( ou square de l’Archevêché) A l’origine, il se trouvait entre le chevet de Notre-Dame et l’actuelle fontaine une église appelée St-Denis-du-Pas (où la tradition situe le supplice de Saint-Denis et de ses compagnons, on parle de supplice du gril !). Le square actuel date de 1837. A l’emplacement de la fontaine qui est l’œuvre de Vigoureux, en faux gothique, se trouvait la rue de l’Abreuvoir où vécut Boileau ; il y mourut en 1711 à 75 ans.....

Continuing my current series of images of trees....here's a repost of one of my favorite photos. It was taken in the gardens of the Ephrussie de Rothschild Villa on a beautiful peninsula that juts out into the sea, near Beaulieu, along the French Riviera. It was too early in the year for flowers, but the trees.....they made up for it all!!

I fell in love with this one as it caught the soft, slightly misty afternoon light by the sea.....of early spring. A silvery leafed olive tree in the foreground sparkled in the soft wind and a deeper leafed pine contrasted with both.

C'etait l'apresmidi pres de Beaulieu, dans ce beau jardin qui fait partie maintenant d'un musee et ou je pensais faire des photos d'un jardin fleuri. Mais c'etait encore trop tot dans l'annee. Les arbres par contre etaient merveilleux!! Celui-ci m'a emporte' dans une autre epoque! On aurait dit une peinture du 18 eme. siecle! Vous pouvez rechercher l'histoire du Villa d'Ephrussie de Rothschild sur l'internet: www.wikipedia.com

Here's an excerpt of ancient - and modern - history of this lovely spot, as explained in Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

"Known to the ancient Greeks as Anao, the site of present day Cap-Ferrat was first settled by Celto-ligurian tribes, then by the Lombards at the end of the 6th Century. Sant'Ospizio (or Saint Hospice), a hermit friar, is said to have inhabited a tower on the Eastern part of the peninsula. In the 8th Century, the Saracens occupy the site and use it as a base for pirating until the 11th Century.................."
.............In 1905 Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild also chooses Cap-Ferrat to build an opulent and exquisite Tuscan style palazzo, now known as Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild museum."

[See large on black. Click on photo.] I was here not long ago as part of my California tour....starting close to home, in Mendocino. The experience of this kind of unique habitat......such a majestic presence and utterly peaceful. Mountains are majestic of course, but to be among these kinds of trees is like nothing else I know.

Until the mid 1800's much of the coastal Pacific Northwest of the U.S. was covered with these huge redwoods that had been growing untouched for millenia. Then the Gold Rush of 1848 brought thousands of young men to the West Coast, seeking their fortune. One of these discovered the pristine forests of the north, laid claim to the Mendocino Headlands and began a redwood sawmill operation. It was not long before more settlers arrived, the native Americans inhabiting these lands were either killed or rounded up into so-called 'reservations' and - in a matter of just decades - the forests were cut down and milled, then shipped down the coast of California to build the city of San Francisco, as well as railroads in Mexico and Latin America.

Now there are only a few protected groves of the old growth trees left. Montgomery Woods is one of these treasured and rare stands of trees. A magical place.

Montgomery Woods: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Woods_State_Reserve

Sequoia semperverins: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoia_sempervirens