tuition....exploring....learning....conversation...fun....sharing...
Photo Tours 2012
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Photo Susette Willhite |
Normandy Monet's Garden, thatched cottages and the D-Day Beaches |
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Paris Extension three day |
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The Beaujolais |
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Summer in Provence 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
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2012 marks our 22nd year of leading photo tour to Europe's most beautiful (and off the beaten track) destinations, making us one of the longest running and most experienced photo tour organizers in the business.
WHAT WE DO: 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. The aim of our tours is to take you to places you would not ordinarily find by yourself and to provide you with unique photo opportunities. The tours are about making photographs and improving those photos through on the spot tuition. 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.
WHAT WE DO NOT DO is plan tours that cover vast areas or involve long distances traveling in the van. We try to limit the time spent traveling as much as possible, so we tend to stay in the same hotel or B&B for several days, driving out each day to photograph the surrounding areas. We usually stay in a maximum of three places but occasionally we stretch that to four including the airport hotel the night before the departure day. Therefore we do not plan tours that go from one end of a country to another or that incorporate more than one country.
The last few years have been difficult for all of us and the future is still an unknown quantity. Everybody lost money and lost confidence for a while. 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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June Tour 2012... France - The Best of the West
Next year in June we are escaping all our problems and driving to the End of the Earth and Back in Western France, a tranquil and isolated region that seems totally untouched and untroubled by the woes that are affecting the rest of the world. This tour will take us back to Brittany the piece of France that juts out into the Atlantic, and a region we first visited back in 1997, before the digital age! We haven't taken a tour there since so it is time.... Also on the itinerary will be a first visit to the Briere region just south of Brittany, which is famous for its wild life and thatched cottages, plus a return to our favorite island The Ile de Re and the western Loire Valley. On our way back to Paris we will explore the medieval "City of the Plantagenets" in Le Mans, as well as the Old Town (Unesco listed) and gothic cathedral of Chartres. Other photo ops include plenty of tiny fishing villages and seascapes in the isolated Breton region of Finistere and sunflowers in the Loire Valley. To read details of the tour click here.
October Tour 2012... Alsace and Champagne - From Wine to Bubbly
In October 2012 we will be re-visiting the eastern wine region of Alsace, a beautiful area of vines and Hansel and Gretal colored houses. We last toured there ten years ago (hard to believe) so it is time to go back there too. Fall will be a time of gold and red in the vines, and geraniums in the enumerable window boxes. Also on this tour is our first visit to the Champagne region where we will visit some of the grand Champagne houses and maybe learn how to "sabre" a bottle of champagne. More details of this tour coming very soon.
Doom and Gloom? Or Lemonade?
The economy continues to improve, then it doesn't, then it moves forward, then it is slowing down... then we have revolutions and catastrophes that threaten to stall the recovery for everyone. This is not going to be easy for anyone is it? The good news is that the dollar is still much stronger against the euro and the pound than it was this time last year. This is great for all of us who have put on hold our travel plans while waiting for the world to be a happier place. The fall in the value of both currencies against the dollar makes trips to Europe much more affordable for the cash strapped American tourist.
The future outlook for the euro is that it will remain weaker against the dollar for the foreseeable future so tours to France will work out much less expensive too. Currently the euro is trading at around 1.39 (the million dollar rate, which you or I never get). This is better than the rate of 1.60 it was last summer. The British pound is currently trading at 1.59. Contrast this to the 2.2 rate it reached last year. This means that travel to Europe is much less expensive this year and most probably next year also. 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.
News
In case you missed the hoopla, on November 16 the French gastronomic meal was officially declared an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, right along with Luxemburg’s hopping procession of Echternach, Spain’s flamenco, and the music and dance of the Oman Dhofari Valleys. It is the first time that gastronomy has made the list. The "repas gastronomique français" was one of the 46 intangible cultural heritage practices that were cited along with Alençon needle lace-making from the region of Normandy and compagnonnage-the fraternal associations of craftsmen that date back to the 18th century.
Complete list and description of these new intangible world heritages - www.unesco.org
France boasts 35 World Heritage Sites and ranks fourth in the number of sites after Italy with 45, Spain with 42 and China with 40. We have visited many of these sites during our tours to France and will continue to do so in future tours. To consult the full list of World Heritage Sites visit whc.unesco.org
Comments on recent 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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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. Nature continues to provide interesting challenges to travelers... last year it was the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name of Eyjafjallajokull that regularly disrupted travel to and from Western Europe. Nothing worthwhile ever comes easy does it?
With 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 or nature throw in our path. It's admirable. My thoughts are that flying has always been dangerous and tedious. 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. 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 twenty one 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.
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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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