Photo tours 2010
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Photo tours 2011 |
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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!
2010 marks our 20th year of leading photo tours. 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. 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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Update July 2010...
The economy continues to improve in fits and starts and the good news is that the dollar is 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. It also means that I can dust off some of the tours to Britain that I have filed away. 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 1.30 (the million dollar rate, which you or I never get). This is far better than the rate of 1.60 it was last summer. The British pound is currently trading at 1.53. 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.
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Tours for 2011...
For Spring 2011 I am working on our second "Ultimate Thatched Cottage Roses Round the Door Tour", which will take place at the end of May/beginning of June. This tour will take us to the most beautiful villages in southern England including counties such as Wiltshire, Devon and Cornwall, and you will photograph not only the iconic flower covered thatched cottages of these lovely regions, but also quaint seaside fishing villages and towns; the dramatic coastal scenery of Cornwall and the evocative landscapes of Bodmin Moor and Dartmoor. For participants' images from our last "Ultimate Thatched Cottage roses Round the Door Tour" in 2004 click here .
Then, back by popular demand will be a late spring tour to Provence, a return to some of our most favorite places of all time. For images from our last tour to Provence in 2008 click on the links under the red car on the right. For the fall, if the pound stays low I am planning a tour to the The Yorkshire Dales & Fishing Villages . More details on these tours 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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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...it is now the Icelandic volcano with the unpronounceable name of Eyjafjallajokull that regularly disrupts 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. 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 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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