Luxury cruising on the Canal de Bourgogne

[Donald]

Another one of the images from my holiday/vacation in the Burgundy area of France in which the intensity of the light was something that I'm just not used to.

Apart from the fact it was a luxury bespoke barge rather than an old one hauling barrels of wine towards Paris, I liked the traditional feel of the way this came out as a B & W.

This is luxury touring. This thing even had a swimming pool on it (just at the front). A swimming pool - on a barge that goes along a canal! That's really got to mean something about how we live our lives today. If you want to swim just jump off the damn thing into the canal. I mean ... !

Anyway, I'd welcome your thoughts, views, comments and critique on this image.

I've made up a gallery of the images from Burgundy that I think are fit-to-show. It's in my own website. If you have nothing better to do, then please do have a look here. Your comments on that would be welcome too.


40D, 24-70mm f/2.8L @ 24mm. ISO100. 1/90s@f11

[Brownbear]

Hi Donald,

Beautiful image! The images on your web site that I'm in love with are 1,2,5 and 8,9 and 10. Beauty in powerlines. With #1 being my absolute favourite.

I went on a river cruise of the Duruo Valley (Portugal) a few years ago, and yes it is a wonderful way to travel that I hope to experience once again (scenery, castles, wine, port). On a boat but with tons of freedom to go where one wishes.

[Mike Buckley]

It works well for me, Donald. I look forward to reviewing your other images at your website.

If the waterways of Europe are polluted as much as in America, swimming in them will often not be advisable. Besides, if you swim in the pool on the barge, you don't get left behind and a glass of wine is always at the ready.

EDIT: I just now remembered that large bodies of water along one of our mountain hikes in Norway had signs prohibiting swimming.

[ied]

Very beautiful. I visited your web site and really like #2 for the composition. I'm going back to study it some more .
Irene

[MarieV]

Sounds like a wonderful trip Donald and I trust you got to 'sample' lots of sumptuous wines....!! Your images are wonderful (particularly No.1) and I keep being drawn back to 'the old stock shelter' - which has a certain mystery to it and most carry lots of stories of bygone years!

[Mike Buckley]

Your photos at your website not only work well standing on their own, they also make for a very nice collection. Well done!

[Donald]

Thank you for your comments.

Your photos at your website not only work well standing on their own, they also make for a very nice collection. Well done!

Thank you for that observation, Mike. Having compiled a gallery, of which I am quite proud, from my trip to the Beaujolais area of France in 2011, I began to appreciate what a putting together a portfolio was about and I tried quite hard to think about that during this trip.

I feel the pictures in Beaujolais (which you can see here if you want) do stand up on their own reasonably well. But it is of them as a portfolio of a wonderful two weeks that I am most proud. So, thinking about the set as you go about shooting is, I think, a good discipline to try and get to grips with.

[Mike Buckley]

You're absolutely correct about your Beaujolais portfolio. I thought sure that I had seen all of them but apparently not. Thanks for redirecting me to them!

It's interesting that I recently commented to a good friend that I could be very happy doing nothing but monochrome photography the rest of my life. Your portfolios make me think that I should consider doing that.

[dje]

I liked the traditional feel of the way this came out as a B & W.

That's what I like about it too Donald, nicely done.

Dave

[bnnrcn]

Hi Donald. I looked at the links you gave above and I find your photos lovely. You should post more and teach us more about B&W photography if you have time

[Manfred M]

Another beautifully executed monochrome, Donald. Without your description, I would have thought it was just a barge heading along a canal, rather than a cruise boat complete with pool and bar. That spoils the shot somewhat.

When I first looked at it, it reminded me of some of Le Lorrain's idyllic country landscape paintings. The setting (minus the boat perhaps) and your execution of it, is certainly fitting of that genre...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Lorrain