Lorriçois Gilles and Éric Tricheux are both passionate about nature and the surrounding fauna, which they capture in their photos in the Orléans forest.
In the silent woods of the Orléans forest, at the time when dawn begins to break through the darkness, Gilles and Éric Tricheux, from Lorricois, are already in place, motionless, their cameras in hand, ready to capture the wild magic that surrounds them.
“We don’t move, we let nature come to us”
These two brothers, aged 56 and 63 respectively, have made wildlife photography a true passion. Since their childhood, spent on a farm near Lorris, nature has been calling them. And they respond to it today with patience and passion.
Self-taught photographers, Gilles and Éric started with film photography more than twenty years ago, before switching to digital around a dozen years ago. “It’s a real change that allowed us to refine our work, while maintaining our love of images,” explains Gilles.
In a decade, they have recorded more than 170 species of birds in the Orléans forest. Among their regular encounters, there are also foxes, deer, majestic deer and wild boars, animals that inhabit the Orléans forest.
Gilles remembers with emotion their best memory: a face-to-face encounter with an imposing deer, three years ago, a moment of unforgettable intensity. But for him, a dream remains unfulfilled: “Photographing a great bittern would be the holy grail. It is an extremely rare wading bird, a very endangered species, its population has declined by almost 50% in France in thirty years. »
Their technique is based on a golden rule: patience. Every weekend, before sunrise, the two brothers take their place in their post, waiting, sometimes for hours, for the animals to parade in front of them. “We don’t move, we let nature come to us,” confides Gilles. This approach, which requires discipline and respect for life, allows them to capture incredible moments.
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In one year, they produced an average of 500 photographs of animals and around 1,000 of birds, each photo being the fruit of a long wait and an unconditional love for wildlife. For them, photography is not just a hobby, but a testimony to the fragile beauty of the Orléans forest.
For these two brothers, it is not only a playground, but a sacred place where the invisible becomes visible, where the fleeting moment is transformed into an eternal memory. And perhaps one day, the great bittern, this rare wading bird that they hope to photograph, will finally cross their path, bringing a priceless treasure to their image collection.
