I had plans to put together a couple of posts organized either chronologically or geographically from our trip. However when I process my images I don't work that way. I tend to scan through and pick out a few favorites then take weeks/months to finish culling the rest. So rather than wait weeks/months, I figured I'd go ahead and post of few of my favorites from the trip. So what constitutes a favorite? Well regardless of how many photos I take, I still have emotional attachments (for various reasons) which cloud my judgement on what may be generically considered a "good" photo. But it's my thread so here goes.
One place we visited was the Clinique van Goch in St.Remy de Provence. Formerly known as the Saint-Paul Asylum, this is where Vincent van Gogh voluntarily admitted himself after cutting off part of his own ear in 1889. Originally a priory, some of the buildings were built in the 12th century. They are constructed of the locally quarried limestone/marble. We were on a guided tour led by an historian who has spent years studying van Gogh and his work (frankly when I look at his paintings I understand why he was in an asylum but that's for another discussion). Whether done intentionally or by chance, the lighting in some of the exterior halways was just beautiful. Plus I was struck by the thought of van Gogh and heaven knows who else had walked on these same stones over the past eight centuries. I attempted to capture the lighting. This was shot at mid-day. The yellow tones are due to the light reflecting off of the stone.
This is one of the times during the trip I regretted not having better gear with me.
Nikon V1, 24mm(65mm equiv), f/8 @ 1/50, ISO 400, handheld
My other favorite was shot in the harbor in Cassis. For one thing, having been on/around the water all my life I'm a boat nut. I actually learned to walk aboard a ship which I blame from my life long affliction (i.e. boat lover). We were in Cassis four days/three nights with mostly varying degrees of overcast skies. Our last day cleared up and that evening I got the lighting I'd been looking for to shoot some boats. These are working fishing boats. There are probably 30-40 of them in the harbor along with various more modern craft. Had this been morning light the one boat name would have been a perfect title. Aurore is French for dawn.
NIKON V1, f/11 @ 110 mm(300mm equiv), 1/500, ISO 200, CPL, handheld