I’m on my way to the Camargue France (July1st). Because of scheduling overlap due to COVID postponements I must go straight from Edinburgh to Marseille with no time in between. That really isn’t a bad thing because it ends up saving me an additional flight. However, my original plans were to spend some time in Edinburgh on my own.
I have a connection through Brussels which is a bit time consuming but hey, I’ve never been to Brussels so I’m hoping to taste a bit of the local fare while at the airport… like chocolate!
When I was in Seahouses in Northumberland, I managed to squeeze in a few walks at night through the countryside. Someday I hope to buy a cottage there and get another dog and spend my days walking near the sea and along the country roads. Of course, I’m hoping to spend some time with the seabirds as well. Also, I’ll be a little closer to the Scottish Highlands-which is on my bucket list.
Back to the Camargue. I always love visiting France and seeing my guide again. We have become friends over the years, and he is a terrific photographer, and we have a lot to catch up on.
Usually on our first day we see several sunflower fields and stop to photograph at one or two before checking into our hotel. It’s hard to pass them by when they are calling our name except this time we did as the light was too harsh. Our guide promised a better shooting session with better light for the sunflowers- and who doesn’t love a sunflower field.
During our time in France, we have several photo sessions lined up with the beautiful white horses of the Camargue. The photo oops include a couple of beach runs, some local private ranches and pond areas.
A lot of times, the horses are led through the water while we wait on the other side. They are prompted to run straight at us. This can be a bit intimidating but if you stay together, it is perfectly fine. One of the problems I’ve found is that if the horses stand around to long between shoots, they will roll in the mud… there goes the clean white horses <wink> but it’s all good. The images are compelling, and I’ve had many clients produce award winners over the years.
Next year, I have two back-to-back workshops scheduled. Donna Bourdon, who is an avid equestrian, will be leading both trips. Donna loves to work with horses, birds and flowers. She enjoys using slow shutter speeds to create pleasing blurs. She also loves tack sharp flight images, captured using fast shutter speeds. Donna has been working a lot with high-key imagery, so she’s a perfect fit for the workshop.
In addition to our sessions with the horses we will spend some time exploring and photographing abbey’s that are steeped in rich history, we’ll walk through towns surrounded by ramparts and photograph a couple of historic bridges at night for blue hour. In addition to all of that we will visit a bird rookery complete with nesting herons and flocks of flamingos.
We’ll finish the tour with a trip to the lavender fields in Provence. There we will have several photo sessions with the beautiful lavender that laces the countryside. We’ll also visit an old and quaint town on the top of a hillside-complete with French pastries and more.
Update—-I wasn’t able to publish the blog when I first wrote it because of the spotty internet. Today is July 7th and we finished up with the horses and will be photographing lavender fields soon! I’ve included a few of my shots so far but many more to come…
1/20 second pan blur.
A high-key image converted to B&W
A high-key capture
1/8 second blur
A twist and zoom blur, I had to add a little canvas and fix the tips of the flower in Photoshop.