Photographing the shores of Lac Léman: A tasty lake

Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) offers many breathtaking lake views and photographic opportunities. Visiting the shores of Lac Léman to photograph is therefore always worth your while. I explored most of the shores of Lac Léman by now, and I am still not done with this beautiful lake. A long list of locations to re-visit, to shoot alternative compositions during a different season or with other weather conditions, is the proof of that.

Yesterday, I visited Vevey. Vevey is a small town at the northeast shores of Lac Léman. I wanted to shoot various objects in and around the lake. An odd but fascinating object found there is a giant fork stuck in the water of the lake. It is located in front of the Musée de l’Alimentation (Nestlé Alimentarium), a museum devoted to the history of food products. The fork is a work of art by Jean-Pierre Zaugg and commemorates the 10th anniversary of the museum. In the back of Lac Léman, you see the silhouette of the Alps of the Haut-Savoie in France.

It was a sunny but hazy day with a bit of wind. So, I decided to go for a long exposure of 30 seconds. As a result, all the ducks that were swimming around this work of art disappeared, and the wrinkles in the water became smoother. In addition, I opted for processing the photograph in black & white, to achieve an even more minimalist look and feel. I hope you like it!?

I used a Nikon D3x with a Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 lens. The settings were: 48mm – ƒ/16 – 30s – ISO100. The light was quite bright. Therefore, I had to use a graduated ND filter to balance the exposure.

Click on the photograph to read more about it or to buy a print or licence.

Cheers, Johan 🙂

A Tasty Lake, a minimalist lakeside photograph of a fork

A minimalist lakeside photograph in B&W featuring a work of art in the form of a fork in the water of Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) in Vevey in Switzerland, with the silhouette of the French Alps in the background.

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This photo is part of the Lakes landscape photography theme, which also includes:

The theme includes many more photographs taken at the shores of Lac Léman. Please visit our Black and White Photography portfolio to see more lake landscapes in black & white. Alternatively, visit the Minimalist photography theme for more minimalist lakeside photos.

65 thoughts on “Photographing the shores of Lac Léman: A tasty lake

  1. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Marek: 🙂 Thanks !
    @Olga: dank je wel Olga 🙂
    @Sweedon: thanks Sweedon. This is for real you know 🙂

  2. Richard McGibbon says:

    I love this shot, very surreal. It reminds me of the stages that they set up in Bregenz on the Bodensee for the operas

  3. Charles Lupica says:

    Johan – thanks for explaining the technical side. I only have the ND8 and no ND Grads. I feel some gear acquisition fever coming on.

  4. Charles Lupica says:

    Johan, when I first saw this I thought, “Wow, I thought Johan didn’t have PhotoShop”. 😆 All the better that this isn’t PhotoShopped.

    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Thanks Charles. This is more or less how the image came out of my camera (used a 10stop filter and a 2 stop grad to hold the sky back a bit). I only added a bit of contrast and turned the saturation to 0. No I don’t have Photoshop. I do have Silver Efex. Didn’t use it as I felt the image didn’t need further processing.

  5. Dean Sonneborn says:

    I did not like it at first, but now I find myself coming back to it over and over and now I am enjoying it. This is a classic image.

    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Lol thanks Dean! That fork really looks like that in real life. I tried to put it in a more appropriate minimalistic surrounding 🙂

    • Johan Peijnenburg says:

      Thanks Ron. That’s a very nice compliment! This is something very different from what I usually publish so I was a bit insecure … but liked it enough myself to post anyway 🙂

      • Ron Clifford says:

        Trust your instinct. This is an image that no matter the opinion of the viewer, they will always remember it. very iconic. Such a pedestrian object can be so memorable!

  6. Johan Peijnenburg says:

    @Kim: thank you! Glad you like it 🙂
    @Darren: thanks! Just dropped the sat to 0. The exposure and the hazy day did the rest 🙂

  7. Johan says:

    @Viviane and @Stephane: merci !
    @Jenn: tnx. You should do a sunrise or sunset from there 🙂
    @Neil: thanks. I appreciate it!
    @Athena: yours will look great too. You stole the best spot as always remember!

    • Athena Carey says:

      I never steal those spots. You always give them to me because you are such a gentleman. Of course then you proceed to mountain climb down big, slippery rocks and find better locations. 😉

  8. Athena Carey says:

    I love it Johan. I’ve got to get mine downloaded and processed too! But might have to wait until I get back next week. Maybe with new filters! 😉

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