First snow in Zurich today

SmugMug statistics from November

Again, quite an high traffic on my visuals this month :-)

Second time over 100’000 views per month. And more than 600’000 pictures & video viewed since January…

Wow, thanks for your interest, don’t deserve that!

My Canon EOS 5D MarkII & lens EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

Wow, that’s cool :-) I have received today my new camera and lens.

After quite a long comparison phase between the new Canon 7D and the “old” 5D MarkII, I have decided myself for the full-reflex, i.e. the EOS 5D MarkII.

More on this comparison later on but the full-reflex capability was decisive ;-)

As you have to use EF lens (this camera is not compatible with the EF-S series) and I was interested to shoot with a fix 35mm, I have also acquired a new Canon lens (from far the most expensive I have), the 35mm f/1.4L USM.

My first attempts (please be indulgent ;-) are quite exciting.

 

Slideshow function in SmugMug

SmugMug is evolving very well, nice new features are published very regularly. Really a great service. From far better than Flickr…

An example of the embedded slideshow feature below:

Crash landing in Saint Barth

Sometimes, shit happens :-)

Speed too high, but SUPERB ground-effect!

Not enough petrol to “touch-and-go”.

crash SBH from Mo Po on Vimeo.

Leonard Cohen, a fantastic artist and poet

On last Sunday evening, I had the chance to take part in one of the best concert I have ever seen. Mister Leonard Cohen (Wikipedia, official website) was giving a concert in Colmar, France. And what for a concert!

Fantastic. Emotional. Elegant. Enthusiastic. Moving. Entertaining. Exciting.

7’000 fans and connoisseurs of Cohen’s works, supporting and respecting the musicians on stage, that was just impressive. As usual during concerts, I find that silences are really showing how far an audience is enjoying (or not) a concert. An this one was full of silences :-)

The current band features:

• Sharon Robinson : co-writer with Mr. Cohen of Everybody knows, I’m your man, Waiting for the miracle, etc. / background vocals
• The Webb Sisters : background vocals. Listen to the little miracle on “If it be your will” below. Crazy and perfect duo.
• Roscoe Beck : musical director & bass. I know Roscoe Beck and I have listened to Roscoe for years, especially with the blues-guitarist Robben Ford.
• Neil Larsen : keyboards & Hammond B3 accordion
• Bob Metzger : electric, acoustic & pedal steel guitar
• Javier Mas : bandurria, laud, archilaud, 12-string acoustic guitar
• Rafael Gayol : drums, percussion
• Dino Soldo : sax, clarinet, dobro, keys

I shot some videos during the show, low video quality but the sound is not bad. Have a try.

Saint Barth – Part XX

And now, the Lorient beach!

Some pictures

 

A video

 

 

And two panoramas!

 

Saint Barth – Part XIV

Surely our favorite beach in Saint Barth, Colombier Bay. You have to walk about 20’ to access the beach, with some fantastic views on the ocean. And there, a marvelous place for snorkeling! Some underwater pictures to come!

On the road…

 

Arriving at the beach…

 

On the beach…

 

And a small video…

 

Saint Barth – Part IX

And today, Saline Beach, I think the largest in Saint Barth. Very nice actually, we like it a lot! Some pictures and as usual now, a video (a bit longer this time) realized with MS Windows Movie Maker. It is not Adobe Premiere for sure, but not sooo bad for a small sequence.

Saint Barth – Part VIII

The Saint Jean Beach, as usual with beautiful colors. Lots of families are coming here, as the beach is quite protected from the swell and the biggest waves.

And a short video taken from this beach!

Saint Bart – Part IV

Yesterday, before the Saint Barth carnaval, a good time at the Shell Beach.

Saint Barth – Part II

Short video message, taken from the Gouverneur beach (sorry for my “French” accent ;-).

Saint Barth – Part I

First news from St Barth!

The travel…

…was quite long this time ;-) We first took a flight from the EuroAirport to Paris-Orly, then from Paris to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe (about 7.5 hours and 6’800 km). Flight on time, quite good, only about 1/3 of the plane was full, as there are some heavy strikes in Guadeloupe since weeks now. When we arrived in Guadeloupe, we were “informed” (in the French West Indies, the proactive information has another definition as in the rest of the world, i.e. you *have* to get information by yourself, customer or not, it doesn’t matter!) that our direct flight from Pointe-à-Pitre to Saint Barth was canceled and that we have to take a flight to Saint Martin and then, from there, to take a boat to Saint Barth. This cancelation was clearly due to the strikes.

Actually, it was funny because we had flight-tickets with Air Caraibes, which has delegated our “canceled” flight to Air Antilles Express. After a while, Air Antilles didn’t have any plane left, so they had to delegate themselves to … Air Guyane Express! The flight was very nice (some pictures below), the landing extremely tough (lots of wind and turbulences). On the other side, we have discovered the second (super small) airport of Saint Martin, Grand-Case…

After that, we had to take the so-called Voyageur (high-speed boat) to Saint Barth. The trip takes about 1.5 hours, but this time, the sea was really awful, with a very strong lateral swell. A nightmare, specially for my wife and my son, who were both sick during the whole trip.

All in all, and as usual, I must say that the service and the people from Air Caraibes were just *extremely* bad. And I am not talking about customer-orientation, just about the minimum level of politeness we should all have among human-beings… These Air Caraibes employees just deserve … nothing! On the other side, the Air Antilles Express people were informative, polite and have really tried to find a solution for everybody. Our detour through Saint Martin was properly organized, we had to pay nothing, and we had also the full excuses from the company. Well done!

Anyway, we arrived at St Barth “by night”, in the harbor instead the airport, with about 4 hours delay, which is definitely not catastrophic ;-) We had also the chance to see some great sailboats before entering the harbor, illuminating in a fantastic way! Great experience.

 

The flight between Guadeloupe and Saint Martin

We had the chance to have a marvelous sunset before landing at Saint Martin.

 

 

And a good view on Saint Martin before landing.

 

The villa…

…is really cool, with a nice swimming-pool and fantastic views on the ocean!

The back-side of the villa, which is called “L’Abricotier”:

 

And the main terrace with the “infinity” swimming-pool, and the view on the Lorient beach, Saint Jean Bay and the airport, plus the Anse des Cayes in the background:

 

Gouverneur beach today

This morning, we were at the Gouverneur beach, one of our preferred. Fantastic colors, and the ocean and its waves were quite … interesting for having fun with my son ;-)

The weather is typical for Saint Barth at this time: 28°C during the day with a very strong sun, 23°C during the night, 26°C in the ocean. Some sudden rains this afternoon, but during perhaps 10 minutes.

Click on the different pictures to see the full-sized versions!

More to come when I will have time again!

4th HD video from Saint Barth – Some sunsets

Some of the fantastic sunsets we have seen last year, from the villa Ella.

In about 10 days, we will there again, so I don’t know if I will publish new ones or not till then ;-)

Let’s see!

As usual, you should have a look at the high-res version here.

3rd HD video from Saint Barth – Colombier beach

After the short presentation of the the villa Ella, a third HD video about Saint Barth, this time concerning one of our preferred beach, Colombier. One of the must of the island and a marvelous location for snorkeling!

As usual, you should also have a look at the high-res version here.

And still not the last video.

The next one will be for Laurent.

2nd HD video from Saint Barth – Villa Ella

As mentioned in this post, I am publishing some HD video (720p, i.e. a 1280x720 resolution) on SmugMug.

Below, the second one (embedded in DVD quality). Topic is still Saint Barth, this time, with some views of the villa we were in, and the fantastic panoramic views on the Saint Barth airport and the Saint Jean Bay.

You should also have a look at the high-res version here.

Some other new HD videos to be published in the coming days!

Vincent Laforet is just great!

via Marc Silber

Marc Silber, who is regularly bringing very interesting information and inputs concerning photography and visuals (his blog, his portfolio, his press-room), has posted a link to a video from Vincent Laforet.

I haven’t known the work of Vincent before and … what for a visual shock! This is a MUST-HAVE-SEEN to my mind. Very innovative, fresh, emotional, and just beautiful at the end.

“Waiting for the swell”

 

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

“Taking off”

 

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

Who is Vincent Laforet

 

From his blog, impressive bio!

Vincent Laforet is a New York based commercial and editorial photographer who is regularly commissioned to work on a variety of fine art, advertising, corporate and editorial projects. His approach to aerial photography has been singled out as one of the most unique and interpretive amongst photographers today.

At the age of 33, his work has been published in most major publications around the world and he has been sent on assignment by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, and Life Magazine. In 2006, Laforet modified his staff position at The New York Times to become The Times’ first national contract photographer. 

Vincent’s fine art prints are exhibited in galleries internationally including the International Center of Photography in New York City, and Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, and are part of numerous private collections.

Vincent was recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine in 2005 and was named one of the “30 photographers to watch under 30″ by PDN in 2002. He and four other photographers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for their post-9/11 coverage overseas in 2002. His work has been recognized in the Communication Arts Annual, PDN Annual, The SPD Magazine Cover of the Year, The World Press Photo Awards, The Pictures of the Year Competition, The Overseas Press Club, The National Headliners Awards, The Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Vincent is a Canon Explorer of Light and Canon Printmaster and serves as consultant to companies such as Apple, Bogen, Lexar, and X-Rite.  He and his work have been profiled on CNN and Good Morning America.

Vincent has been invited as a keynote speaker by a variety of organizations and universities from around the world. He has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the International Center of Photography. Vincent is represented by the Stockland Martel Agency. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, Amber, and son, Noah.

What you should look at

 

A lot of great visual material are available online on the portfolio website of Vincent Laforet.

Have a look, for example, at the Paniolo cowboys Hawaii in the Adventure section, or at the Golf digest in the Sports section.

HD Video from Saint Barth

I have published my first HD video (720p, i.e. a 1280x720 resolution) on SmugMug, with our last Saint Barth winter break in February 2008 as “topic”. I will continue to regularly publish some short sessions about this travel in the coming time.

The embedded version below is the so-called DVD version (640x480 resolution).

You may like to have a look at the HD version here.

I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 as a video editing software (yes, I have a license…) and my Sony Handycam HDR-HC3.

The music used to illustrate the video is coming from ccMixter.org, very nice source for good-quality Creative Commons licensed tracks!

Steve Lukather

For a while I had a discussion about the guitarist Steve Lukather with a friend of mine and I have discovered that Steve is not the most well-known guitarist, although he has played on over 1’000 albums in the last years!

Some information about

 

WIKIPEDIA /

 

Steve "Luke" Lukather (born October 21, 1957) is an American Grammy Award winning guitarist, singer, songwriter, arranger, and record producer best known for his work with the rock band Toto.

Lukather has also released several solo albums and, as a studio session guitarist, has arranged, composed, and recorded on over 1000 albums.

Lukather was recently voted #1 guitarist worldwide in over 40 countries at VoteNumber1.com.

While his work with Toto is predominantly based on pop rock music, Lukather's solo work spans many genres including rock, prog, jazz and funk.

Lukather has been nominated for a Grammy twelve times, and has won five awards.

[...]

Influenced by blues-rock guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, jazz guitarists such as Larry Carlton, and jazz fusion players such as Al Di Meola and Frank Gambale, Lukather is known for fast, melodic lines that often combine blues phrases with jazzy 'out' notes.

His vibrato is very pronounced and his exaggerated wide bends are instantly recognizable.

Well versed in theory, Lukather can follow chord charts and changes as a jazz musician would, and this enhances his value as a session musician. In interviews, he has explained how he thinks of the guitar in a "chordal cluster" format, and not the typical "linear scale" format.

 

INTERVIEW /

 

You said many times that your heros are Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Stevie Ray Vaughan, George Harrison and so on... You also got to work with Jeff Beck at one point... I just wondered if you ever got to meet these "heros" you've mentioned as being so important in your (musical) life and how it was to finally be "face to face" with them?

Luke: All these players are so awesome and have inspired me more than words. Jeff Beck... I have known him and played with him many times. We did a record together that never came out 'cause he wanted to get into electronic music but he's a main influence and a great friend. Jimi... Well I never met him but if he was alive I would most certainly know him. Major influence. Clapton... I did his Behind the sun record and played live with him with Elton John at the Hollywood Bowl. WAY cool. Jimmy Page... What a gentleman. He made a point to take me aside and tell me that he really dug my playing, I have never worked with him but I would love to sometime. I felt up my first girlfriend summer of 1969 listening to Led Zepplin 1, hahaha. SRV... never met him but I LOVE his touch. What a player! George Harrison... Well HE is the reason I play the guitar. I met him right after we lost Jeff Porcaro and I talked him into playing with us at the tribute at the Ampitheatre in L.A. What an honor. He took me out to dinner that next year and Bob Dylan was there, Jim Keltner, Jeff Lynne and we had a jam at Jeff Lynne's house after. What a trip that was.

 

SHORT-LIST OF ARTISTS HE PLAYED WITH/FOR /

 

Among others, he has played with/for:

• Jimmy Cliff
• Alice Cooper
• Gilberto Gil
• Elton John
• Eric Clapton
• Lee Ritenour
• Barbara Streisand
• Aretha Franklin
• Donna Summer
• George Benson
• Al Jarreau
• Quincy Jones
• Herbie Hancock
• Michael Jackson
• Joni Mitchell
• Lionel Richie
• Diana Ross
• Joe Cocker
• Paul McCartney
• Chet Atkins
• Rod Stewart
• Trilok Gurtu
• Van Halen
• …

 

PART OF HIS DISCOGRAPHY /

 

http://www.stevelukather.net/Discography.aspx

 

SOME INTERESTING VIDEOS /

• 6:14 of chorus, alone with his Ovation electro-acoustic (specially around 1’45 and 2’45, pure technique!)
• http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/steve%2Blukather/video/x1job_steve-lukatheracoustic-live

• Steve Lukather playing Purple Haze (J. Hendrix)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Eklqbovpw&feature=related

• Steve Lukather playing Little Wing (J. Hendrix)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6amczqaEfc (Live in Paris, absolutely great)

• Steve Lukather playing Smell yourself (fusion!! With Simon Philipps on drums)
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GEFfx29Njs

• Other videos listed there:
• http://www.stevelukather.net/Live.aspx

Flickr video

I have started to play a bit with the new flickr video extension. An example below from my travel to St Barth (with my htc touch cruise):

Some information about the new service:

• only the pro accounts can upload videos
• each video file must be smaller than 150MB or 90s
• formats supported: AVI, WMV, MOV, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, 3gp
• video player based on Flash

Not bad ;-)