Photo tours - 2008
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Summer in Provence Only one room left (for one or two people sharing) |
Photo tours - 2007
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Welcome!
2008 is our 18th 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 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. For 2008, a difficult year for tours what with the devalued dollar, the election, the economy and general universal doom and gloom, we have decided to cheer ourselves up and visit one of the sunniest, most cheerful and delightful places in the world...PROVENCE! We are going in the early summer when sunflowers and lavender are in full bloom, when the days are longest and sunniest and when opportunities for photography are infinite. Read on...
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"Summer in Provence", June 23 - July 3, 2008
Update March 2008: Price reduction on Provence tour!
Because of the free fall of the dollar against the euro, last November I renegotiated the prices for our tour to Provence so that the tour remains within a reasonable price range. The new prices (different from thos in our original brochure sent out last fall) are shown on the Summer in Provence page.
I am delighted to report the start of a close collaboration with my friend and photo buddy, Provence-based photogrpaher Julien Lautier (bottom right). It was Julien who so kindly shared with me all his secret corners of Provence before our last tour in May 2002 to that gorgeous region and we are collaborating on the photo tour to the lavender fields of Provence that we have planned for June/July 2008.
Julien's photography can be seen as postcards in just about every gift shop and grocery in Provence, and he has had several books of photography published. Julien and his partner Danielle, live near a luxury bed and breakfast, le Portail Rouge near Rousillon in the Luberon Valley, where we will be staying. Every day we will drive out to shoot the lavender fields and sunflower fields that will be blooming both at the same time - at least we are planning the tour for the season when these two flowers usually bloom together. Sometimes nature has a way of thwarting our plans.. Julien will be joining us for five days during the tour as our guide and mentor, introducing us to the people and places he knows so well. Also, a FIRST for us, we will be taking a hot-air balloon ride over the lavender and sunflower fields to photograph them from above. Julien runs photo workshops in Provence all year round. Check out his web site (a work still in progress) at: http://www.julien-lautier.com. Details of the photo tour to Provence 2008, called "A Summer in Provence" can be found here. For some of Julien's photos of Provence click here.
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. 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. I guess we are all just adjusting to this new situation. 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 or film (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.
Member of the Better Business Bureau
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in memorium
So sorry to report the loss of one of our most regular and well loved alumni, Gordon Gainer, who died September 30th, 2007. His humor, patience, intelligence and gentle philosophy are deeply missed. He was always most willing to share his extensive knowledge of photography, digital techniques, life in general and the meaning of the universe. He has many galleries in our photo galleries section, including images from the last tour we took together, to the Dordogne and Lot valleys in May 2007. Our sincere sympathies to Donna and his family.
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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:
photos of France - photos of England - photos of Greece - photos of Italy - photos of Spain
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barbara's polaroid manipulation gallery
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Those of us who enjoyed Polaroid manipulations are still in mourning for Polaroid's aptly named Time Zero film. Polaroid ceased production of this instant film a while ago and have no plans to start making it again. I have created a gallery of some of my Polaroid manipulations. I print these manipulations onto fine water color paper and then enhance the print with color pencils, pastels or whatever takes my fancy. If you would like to buy a print just contact me for a price list.
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our tour archives - group photos from past tours
When I started organizing photo tours eighteen 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 eleven 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 on the 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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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 I want to recommend them. 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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