This photo was taken at Le Boel on January 20, 2024, after an episode of intense cold. Le Boel is a small valley on the course of the Vilaine, the river that runs through part of Brittany in western France. This deep valley lies about 30 minutes south of Rennes, where I live. It's bordered by high cliffs, some 80 metres high in some places, but only stretches for a few kilometres. As very cold days are rare in my region due to the oceanic climate we enjoy, it was the ideal place to take advantage of these exceptional conditions due to the configuration of the site. As the highest cliffs were to the east of the valley, they would protect the frost from the first rays of the sun, giving me more time before it disappeared completely.

So, I arrived before sunrise to avoid the bulk of the walkers and other sports enthusiasts. It was a Saturday, and I assumed that, given the particular conditions, a lot of people would be out on the Boel trails. I first stopped to take a few photos from a viewpoint above the parking lot where I'd parked before making my way to one of the promontories overlooking the valley.

The cliff sides in this area are densely wooded, and I had in mind photographing the interlacing frosted branches with a telephoto lens. However, due to the verticality of the cliffs at this point, these areas are totally inaccessible. My only option was, therefore, to photograph these trees from a promontory.

I started by looking for compositions with my 24-70mm. Still, the top of the cliffs was already catching the sunlight, and the gap between high and low light was such that I would have needed several exposures to compensate for these gaps, including a foreground. And I have to admit that the more time goes by, the less I like to spend assembling photos on my computer. So, I concentrated on my initial idea, which was to take photos at 100-400mm in order to isolate details while keeping the light even.

Here's a photo from the series I took that day.