Photo tours 2010
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Another Summer in Provence For full details of our 2010 photo tour to Provence click here |
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The Pilgrims' Way September 19 -29, 2010
For full details of our 2010 photo tour to southwest France click here |
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Optional Three-Day Extension to the Cathar Castles and Carcassonne September 28 - Oct 1, 2010
For full details of our 2010 extension to the Cathar Castles click here |
2009 tours |
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Normandy Monet's Garden, thatched cottages and the D-Day Beaches June 14 - 24, 2009
COMPLETED - PHOTOS COMING SOON |
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Paris Extension the ultimate June 24 -28, 2009 for full details of our photo tour to Paris click here COMPLETED - PHOTOS COMING SOON |
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The Beaujolais October 12 - 22, 2009 COMPLETED - PHOTOS COMING SOON
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Comments on 2009 tours: "I decided to use the Normandy and Paris shots for the new photos for my 2010 exhibitions and sales. It was a terrifically productive trip and I believe the best so far."... T.S. Kalamazoo, MI "You put together another fantastic tour. Many of my successful images come from your tours. I am pleased with the great photographic opportunities you provided for us."... MW. SAnta Cruz, CA "The trip is with me almost every day as I pour over my production... this has to be absolutely the best tour I've been on with you. You found great spots and we all seemed to get along as a group. Maybe it's because not having warm clothes made me Suffer For My Art, but I have a warm feeling remembering the shooting and the conversations, and I have lots of photographs to work on."... K.B. Quebec City "The trip was the best of the six trips with you (since 1997 in Bretagne). As Bill was mentioning, we seemed to be quite compatible and very interested in the kind of shooting opportunities you were offering us. Thanks for everything."... J.B. Quebec City. "Thanks for creating such a human ambiance throughout. Indeed I owe you an even bigger thank you for providing such a capital experience of photography. You are very good at what you do. Though I often travel alone for my photography, I could never have had such an intense experience as I had with this tour. Your extensive research and experience made all the difference. So too your non-judgmental way of helping me correct my mistakes and learn to seek perfection rather than 'good enough'. I could go on, but just be assured that I am so very grateful for this extraordinary tour."...W.C. Canada. |
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Summer in Provence tour 2008 |
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client image galleries for client and tour leaders' image galleries from our previous tours click on the links or pictures below: |
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barbara's polaroid manipulation gallery |
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Welcome!
2010 marks our 20th year of leading photo tours. Since 1990 when we organized our first photography tour to France (Burgundy to be precise), Europa Photogenica Photo Tours (formerly known as France Photogenique) has been dedicated to providing carefully planned, high quality, small group photo tours to Europe's photogenic destinations. The tours are designed for photographers of all levels who wish to improve their photographic skills using Europe as their classroom. We do not offer a long list of photography tours because we are, after all, professional photographers with work commitments to fill. However, as we really enjoy the group experience of shared photography, travel adventures and laughs we choose to organize a few original, highly researched and planned photo tours each year to be sure to offer the best photo tour experience possible. We aim to provide the highest standards of photo instruction when needed, out of the way locations with lots of varied and UNIQUE photo opportunities, comfortable accommodation, great food, small groups (between 3 and 12), destinations that change every year and above all LOTS OF FUN, all at affordable prices.
2009 was a difficult year for all of us and the future is unknown. Everybody has lost money and lost confidence. So invest in pleasure, travel experiences and your own well-being, by creating good memories and great images that you’ll keep for a lifetime. Unlike stocks, great photos do not lose their value, and give you happiness forever. In these times of financial uncertainty, a photo tour is a great investment!
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Update January 2010...
We returned at the end of last October from our tour to the Jura Mountains and the Beaujolais regions of Eastern France having taken hundreds of photos of the golden vines and wine villages in both these lovely regions. The weather was unseasonably cold for the first half of the tour which we were not prepared for, but we had no rain until the last day. Below is a photo of the group bundled up against the cold. Watch these pages for photos from this trip and our spring tours to Normandy and Paris, as well as news of our tours for this year: Another Summer in Provence and our fall 2010 tour to "The Pilgrims' Way in Southwest France".
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Normandy, Paris, June 2009
We returned from France at the end of June after having completed our June tours to Normandy and to Paris. The Normandy group at Monet's gardens can be seen in the photo below. We were blessed with fine weather all the way through, alternating blue skies, white puffy clouds and the odd overcast day with lovely diffused light. The D-Day beaches and American cemetery above Omaha Beach were very moving, leaving us all silent and contemplative. Roses were everywhere, as were cows, sheep and animals of all types. We had a wonderful time, very relaxed, had lots of fun and got lots of great shots! I am working my way through the photos, and the galleries from these tours will be posted soon.
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The dollar continues its roller-coaster ride against the euro. In recent months it has reached a high of 1.25 and a low of 1.55 and is currently trading at around 1.48 (the million dollar rate, which you or I never get). This is better than the rate of 1.60 it was last summer. This means that travel to Europe is much less expensive this year. However the dollar exchange rates change daily and its future is unpredictable. All the more reason to book your tour now so that I can watch for the most favorable rates and keep your dollar price as low as possible.
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At Europa Photogenica we, like everyone else, have had to deal with Mad Cow disease, 9/11, and the London bombings of July 2006 all of which took place just before we were due to depart for a tour. But when the going gets tough the tough go traveling. None of the participants of any of those tours backed out, with the exception of one gentleman whose flight connections were too numerous and too short to allow for the extra security measures put in place after 9/11.
Now with these extra security precautions, extensive examinations of our luggage and shoes, and luggage limitations etc, air travel has become an uncomfortable experience. However, we grit our teeth and put up with it because the rewards of getting somewhere exotic and different are many, and the experiences we enjoy while being in a different country create lasting memories. We seem to be able to adjust to whatever the airlines throw in our path. It's admirable. My thoughts are that flying has always been dangerous. During the sixties, seventies and eighties (and beyond) it was the technology that couldn't guarantee the plane would stay up (as well as several terrorist high-jackings). Now it is mainly terrorism that threatens us. It remains true, however that statistically you stand more chance of being killed in a car accident on the way to the airport than being involved in a terrorist incident. I don't enjoy flying but I take my chances. It is the inconvenience of not being able to fly with hand-luggage containing camera equipment, laptops etc. (not to mention the lamentable situation of the dollar) that may one day seriously threaten the whole concept of photo tours abroad...
Travel while you can I say...you never know what will happen in the future to prevent world travel all together.
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our tour archives - group photos from past tours
When I started organizing photo tours nineteen years ago, personal computers were not around. We typed everything on a typewriter and made photocopies. We thought we were lucky when Kinko's came along. The Internet had not been invented yet, everyone used film and I spent hours intoxicating myself in a dark room trying to create perfect prints. When I started taking photographs in college I had a Praktika Nova 1B manual SLR camera and each frame had to be wound on manually. It is hard to believe that we have come so far with the technology in such a short time. Now we are geeking it up as if we had learned it in kindergarten. The Internet is our oyster and film is "SO last Millennium"...(at least for some people. I still shoot film for my more "arty" work).
Well, history may be well and truly in the past, but for alumni of France Photogenique and Europa Photogenica photography tours who want to wax nostalgic, or for those of you who are interested in seeing what we have been doing for the past twelve years (I think that is far enough in the past for our archives...), I have created an Archives page, where I have put up some group pictures from past tours. The photo collections are by no means complete. I have lots of photos from more recent tours but for some tours I have no group pictures, and I still have to look through several more shoe boxes full of photos to find others.
I will add more pictures as I find them, and if any of you alumni out there have any pictures of any tours that you want to share please send them in. You can e-mail them if you like, just format them to 300 pixels across the top edge and send them as a high res JPEG. (The photo right is of Barbara several years ago. Organizing photo tours hasn't aged her at all..... !) To visit our Archives page click here.
personally... during our research trip to Paris in November 2006, my husband and I stayed in an apartment in the Latin Quarter. We rented it from "A Haven in Paris" and we had such an outstanding experience that we rented it again last year. To see their web site click here: www.haveninparis.com The apartments are run by a charming Franco-American couple, Erica Berman and Alain Ollier and they also have rental villas in Provence. To see the apartment in Paris that we rented click here: www.haveninparis.com/rental/ecoles.php
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the last word... "On the road you meet people you'd never meet at home — people who highlight different cultures. I meet a greater variety of interesting people in two months in Europe than I encounter in an entire year in America. " Rick Steves.
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