*The Birch is Dead*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak Portra 160
One of the things that really impressed me in the wilderness of the Nuuksio forest was the number of fallen trees. In a forest as dense as this, it gives you a sense of the violence of the storms that must strike the forest in the winter. I was particularly stoked by the white bark of this dead birch against the deep green background of the forest.
*Fertile Boulders*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak Portra 160
There is something verging on the abstract when you’re looking at a forest from the inside with an eye for composition. Instead of trees and leaves and soil in a see of green you start seeing lines and curves and try to make do. I loved the big boulders covered in moss in Nuuksio, and so a lot of my compositions attempted to use them.
*Ganagobie Abbey*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Ilford Pan F
Ganagobie abbey is an old monastery and abbey located in upper Provence. It’s lost in the middle of the dry, sparse forest characteristic of that region. I’m not sure it was all olive trees and lavender, but that’s what the legend would probably say anyway. I was quite taken by the alleyway leading to the majestic entrance, and I wanted to give it the XPAN treatment, so there you go.
*Goodnight, Rhune!*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak Ektachrome E100
By the time we headed back to catch the cable car down from the Rhune, dusk was just round the corner. This last shot I took already had dimming light, emphasized by the limited dynamic range of the slide film. It’s a wonderful place though (I wish I could do a dawn from up there) and I highly recommend if it you’re in the area.
*Sheep Pen on Top*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak Ektachrome E100
There was a stone sheep house at the top of the Rhune as well as rocks, cairns, pottok ponies and (of course), sheep. I took this wide shot to get a better sense of how it all fit together, with a nice hazy delineation of the mountains in the background.
*Pottok & Rock*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak Ektachrome E100
If you followed the rest of this XPAN series of shots from the top of the Rhune mountain in the Pyrénées, you must have seen that it combined subdued but gorgeous colours of grass and sky, rocks and ponies. This shot perhaps summarizes the whole experience.
*Pyrenean Cairns*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak E100 Ektahcrome
At the top of the plateau of the Rhune, many many little stone cairns were set up. I don’t think there’s anything authentic or traditional about it, I got the impression it was just something that some tourists started doing, and others followed suit. But it gave the landscape an interesting quasi-mystical vibe that I really liked.
*Grazing Pottoks*
Fuji XT2 (XPAN) + Kodak E100 Ektachrome
In order to get to the Rhune summit, you can take a famous cablecar that’s been running for close tu 100 years, or you can walk. We did the former. On top is a flat, rocky expanse where the Pottocks and some sheep graze peacefully. I don’t know how full of tourists it normally is, but when we were there is was quiet and very peaceful. That’s what I tried to reflect in this picture.
*Pottok in the Mountains*
Fuji TX2 (XPAN) + Kodak E100 Ektachrome
The Pottok is a semi-feral breed of ponies found only in the Pyrenean mountains, and more specifically in Basque country. They’re quite big (as ponies go) and you’re not supposed to approach them too close lest they get angry. Some tourists had gotten close to this one and I waited ages for them to leave before I could take the shot. I kinda wish the horse had attacked them, would have been quicker !
*From the Rhune*
XPAN 2 + Kodak E100
In August I spent a week in the Basque country, probably one of my favourite places in France. We went up the Rhune, one the low peaks west of the Pyrénées, near the Basque coast. It was still magnificent. It was my first ever roll of new Kodak E100, and to be honest it came out way more subdued than what I expected. I still like the result a lot all in tones of greens and blues.
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