Nouvelle collection sur le site, bien que présentant des photos peut-être déjà connues : "Still Life", ou Nature Morte en français.

Cette collection un peu hétéroclique rassemble mes photos d'un sujet beaucoup plus statique que les avions par exemple. On y trouvera ainsi, pèle-mèle, des photos de chou, de glaçon ou de verre à bière!

La photographie de nature morte semblera simple, accessible. Ca l'est en partie, puisque le sujet est immobile, souvent de petite taille, on peut le manipuler à loisir et placer le point de vue où on veut, ou presque. La difficulté reside plutôt dans la lumière et, pour une composition, l'assemblage harmonieux des éléments qui la constitue. C'est un art à part entière qui est largement représenté depuis les premières peintures, dans les musées...

J'espère ainsi que mes propres compositions vous plairont. Bonne visite!

New collection on the site, although it does display already released images : "Still Life".

This collection a little bit motley gathers my pictures of a subject a lot more static than airplanes! Here one will find coliflowers, ice cube or bier glass!

Still Life photography may look simple, accessible. It is, partly, as the subject stands still, is often of a small size, one can handle it easily and put its point of view alway everywhere he likes. The true hard part is lighting and, for multiple objects composition, the way to arrange and rig everything. This an art in its whole that is largely presented in museums...

So I hope you will enjoy my own images. Have a good visit!

At last today I was able to put no less than 145 pictures online in the new NZ South Island collection! This was quite a difficult task to go again through the hundreds of images I brought back from two trips in New-Zealand and only select 145. This country is so beautiful! And I went there only in autumn. I still have to see winter in Otago for instance, or spring in Canterbury. One day maybe...

Anyway, for the time being, let me invite you to a 4000km journey through New-Zealand. Now that the South Island and North Island collections are online, you can make it as we've done it back in 2006 and 2010. On those two occasions we began our trip in NZ at Christchurch. Landing at the International airport, we picked up the camper van and then on the road!

Christchurch has been badly hit during the February 2011 earthquake in NZ. Many buildings collapsed or were damaged beyond repairs. Sadly, the beautiful Cathedral has been damaged also, with its spire completely destroyed. This adds to the emotion I feel while looking at my images from downtown Christchurch...

Apart from Christchurch, the other large urban area in the South Island is Queenstown. This place is simply gorgeous! Surrounded by moutain ranges such as the Remarkables and on the shore of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown is a small but dynamic city. The city center is charming though it lacks the historical dimension europeans are used to. But many sport activities can be planned from there such as skiing, paragliding, speed boat riding... It was also the departure city for our scenic flight in 2006, when we booked a plane to go directly to Milford Sound and back, over the Southern Alps.

Don't miss the pictures and panoramic views from Poolburn Reservoir. This was a truly moving moment when we spend the night there. In the middle of nowhere, surrounded by dark rocks evenly spread on the plateau, not a single sound could be heard. Disturbing. No plane, no car, no bird, no city sound. Only your heart beats in your hears! And what a light at sunset and sunrise!

Many more images are available in the South Island collection, and I still have few more in the archives that will need to be added too.

So enjoy the ride and if you like it, spread the word and share with your friends!

Another new collection on the site is now online. The theme is "France" and it gathers few of my favorite shot from various area of France. The gallery is not complete, as I still have few older images I wish to share also.

For the time being, you can find images from the Comminges and Cousserans, at the foot of the Pyrénées moutains; images from the Alpes and especially the Maurienne valley; images of the Vercors from above; images from the Canal du Midi, near Toulouse, and more...

I let you have a look at all this! It in the "Landscapes & Cities" super-collection.

Encore une nouvelle collection est maintenant accessible sur le site. Le thème est "la France" et elle rassemble quelques-unes de mes photos préférées faites dans divers coins de France. La galerie n'est pas encore complète, il reste certaines images un peu plus anciennes que je voudrais partager également.

Pour le moment, vous pourrez trouver des photos du Comminges et du Cousserans, au pied des Pyrénées; des images des Alpes et en particulier de la vallée de la Maurienne; des images du Vercors, vu du ciel; des photos du Canal du Midi, près de Toulouse, et plus encore...

Je vous laisse donc jeter un oeil à tout ça! C'est dans la super-collection "Landscapes & Cities".

The new collection "Portrait" is now online. One can find there my tests in the portrait photography field. This is very different of course from shooting aircraft or landscape. Especially when it comes to set up the light and background and pose etc...

Nevertheless, I have to thanks my kind friends who accepted to get portrayed and authorized me to put the resulting images online. I must admit this activity is very interesting and I'm very happy of the result.

La nouvelle collection "Portrait" est en ligne. On pourra y trouver mes essais dans le domaine de la photo de portrait. C'est bien sûr très différent de la photo d'aviation ou de paysage. Surtout quand on doit installer la lumière, le fond, les poses...

Quoiqu'il en soit, je dois remercier mes ami(e)s qui ont accepter de se faire tirer le portrait et qui m'ont autoriser à partager les images. Je dois dire que cette activité est particulièrement intéressante et que je suis vraiment content du résultat.

This is the english version of the previous "Nouveau Site" post.

So welcome on my new personal website. Let me just thank you for having landed here. And now let me explain you a bit how you can use this new photo & graphic art showroom.

First of all, you may have noticed the images/pictures are sorted into three main categories, three super-collections : "Landscape & Cities", "Aviation" and "Graphic Arts".

Landscape & cities

This first super-collection will let you see my pictures from travels, rural and urban treks. You will be proposed with images from China, the US or Toulouse, pictures from countryside of France or New-Zealand. It's the best area for panoramic views of rural land or big cities. Great highlight from this collection is the architecture theme.

Aviation

The second super-collection "Aviation" gathers my airshow pictures or airliners shots. I also created a collection called "Air-to-Air Photography" in order to share specific images made from the air. An interesting collection for some of you may be the "museum" one where I put pictures of preserved aircraft in various museum all around the world.

Graphic Arts

The third super-collection is the vault of my graphic work, be it photomontage, digital paintings or computer generated images. Here also you'll find aircraft but not only!

Tags

Each super-collection is populated with collections and albums. You just have to click to navigate through them. But you also have the possibility to use tags. The majority of the images here have one or more tags. Click on one and you jump to a specific page showing all the similarly tagged images on the whole site. Click on one of these images and the new page will show you a bigger version of the picture with all the associated tags beneath. Up to you then to jump to another tag or come back once to the complete image list.

Navigate

While we are talking about navigation through the site, you may notice three ways to navigate though the pictures of an album.

• from the album front page, clicking here and there on the maxi-thumbnails (the mid-sized images)
• from a picture to another after having clicked on one, with the "previous/next" buttons. Below each image are proposed tags, we know it, but also "neighbors" pictures thumbnails.
• using the lightbox, if you click again on a single image page. The Lightbox is probably the best way to see the pictures as they are then proposed to their best resolution to fit your screen. Especially useful for panoramic views.

Finally, from the top navigation bar, you can have acces to my favorites pictures, a kind of "best-of" which will evolve with time.

Don't forget you can share everything you like here on Facebook, Google+, Twitter. Every pictures, every album has a "like" button of a sharing button so don't hesitate to show your friends what you like.

So now enjoy your trip on stephanebeilliard.com, I hope you will like my work and this new site.