I took this photograph twelve years ago during a summer trip to French Brittany, in the Finistère region—right at the westernmost tip of the French coast. I remember waking up unusually early that morning, drawn by the hope of catching the first light of day. The weather had worked in my favor: a soft fog had settled over the landscape, creating a quiet and slightly surreal atmosphere.

I made my way through the village while it was still asleep. The streets were empty, and the air was cool and damp. When I reached the beach, I felt instinctively drawn to a narrow footpath winding through the dunes. There was something quietly inviting about the way it disappeared into the fog. I followed it, not sure what I was looking for, just guided by a feeling.

That’s when I came across this scene. On a rise above the shoreline stood three cypress trees, leaning slightly, shaped by years of wind and salt. Something about them stopped me in my tracks. The fog gave them a kind of presence—isolated, exposed, and quietly dignified. There was a gentle melancholy in the way they stood there together, as if caught in a slow process of fading, holding their place as the landscape shifted and changed around them.

I took the photo, but I wasn’t happy with it at the time. The mood I’d felt didn’t come through in my early edits. So it stayed on my hard drive for years, untouched and forgotten. It wasn’t until recently—twelve years later—after I’d grown more confident in my editing and more attuned to what I truly wanted to express, that I came back to it. This time, I was able to bring out the atmosphere I remembered: the silence, the softness, the sense of things slowly disappearing.

What I see in the photo now is more than just a coastal morning—it’s a quiet memory of time passing, and of learning to see more clearly, even years after the moment has gone.

What are the TWO most impactful features that make your image a good photograph? Don’t be shy!

First, I am drawn to the atmosphere brought about by the light and the mist, and second, I think the visual rhythm created by the 3 cypresses makes for a compelling image.

If you could make this photo again, what would be the ONE thing you would like to do better or differently?

Honestly, I wouldn’t change anything, I love this image as it is, but I do wish I had taken it on a more capable camera, the 12 megapixels of the 5D is quite limiting in terms of printing size.

Alexandre Turpin shared this photograph with the FRAMES Facebook Group.

Photographer

Alexandre Turpin, French Brittany

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Equipment and settings

Canon 5D + EF 24-105mm @105mm
ISO 100, 0.6 sec., f/14 (handheld)