Mid june 2018 I spent a few days with some photographer friends in the Haute Pyrénées.  Each day we hiked in the mountains, starting at around 1400m, the highest you can normally take a vehicle, then following trails to around 1800/1900m.  Magnificent, but very tiring, in part due to carrying a ton of camera, several lenses and a tripod !  We ate in restaurants each evening, then an hour or two to sort the day's photos before an early night.  The weather was magnificent, between 25 et 30°C with a refreshing breeze.

One night we camped out at 1500m (just a sleeping bag, no tent) so as to see and photograph the sunrise.  Unhappily it was rather misty, but an unmissable experience just the same. 

The 4th edition of the Engie Open in Limoges runs from 4th to 12th november 2017 at the Palais des Sports de Beaublanc.  It is ranked the third womens' tennis competition in France after Roland Garros and Strasbourg, and is the number one indoor competition.  The 2016 edition attracted over 13 000 spectators !

I went on the afternoon of 10th november with three friends from the club PhotoLim.   The Palais des sports is well lit so it was possible to photograph with a 70-200mm at f2.8 and 1/500s without exceeding ISO 1600.  Capturing the ball however was not so easy.  130km/hr (the services often exceed 160km/hr) translates to more than 30m/s, so even in burst mode (7/s) the ball has moved over 4m between frames - totally useless.  The only option is to time the shot manually by anticipating the moment that the ball is hit...

An hour of general photography around la Tremblade (at low tide) was followed by the big moment of the day : the seafood restaurant and lots of oysters.

The weather forecast was not at all promising for the weekend of Legendair 2017, but despite a foggy morning with a few showers on sunday, after an improvised lunch together the afternoon turned out much better than expected and we were able to take photos of the historic aircraft with our models Marilyne, Stéphanie and Glwadys.  Shop Photo in Limoges had loaned us a number of Tamron lenses to try out : the 150-600mm for example which was superb, but oh so heavy !!

The most memorable moment of the day : a demonstration of aerobatics by a glider, elegant movements in total silence - superb !