Walking, walking, take pictures

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cousins, New York, photography, postaday2014, tourism

Today was a full day spent with my cousin Francoise and her three fellow photographers and good friends. As the title tells you; we walked and walked, took pictures and walked some more. We were so lucky with the weather today, they had warned us of rain and potential thunderstorms later on and they never materialized, it was breezy, a little warm but the breeze too care of that and made our walking much easier to do.

I actually fit in very easily as a tourist, this morning bright and early we took the subway down to South Ferry in order to hop on the Staten Island Ferry to take advantage of the morning light to take pictures of the Statue of Liberty and the downtown skyline. I had never taken the Staten Island Ferry before, I wasn’t even too sure how to get there, but since I am never shy in asking for directions, I didn’t hesitate to ask whoever was in front of me for help. One of the nice men who helped us out, told me that I spoke pretty good English and asked me where I was from. I told him that I grew up in New York City and he said that my accent was hard to place. That sent my cousin who can understand English into a fit of laughter, I followed because I thought it was hilarious.

Everyone got some amazing pictures during the ferry ride and I learned a lot more about photography, which if ever I decide to take it up as a serious passion, I know who to call for any questions.

Later on we walked over the Brooklyn Bridge to get to the waterfront to replicate the setting for an iconic nighttime picture taken of the Manhattan skyline and that was another first for me; I had never even thought to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge, but now that I have, I see why, the views of Manhattan are spectacular. As we were chasing the setting sun, we even climbed over huge rocks to get into the best position to be able to capture that elusive setting sun and the blue light. I think that my cousin and her friends were successful in that regard.

I know that everyone agreed that today was a day perfectly spent finding and capturing many great shots of New York.

The beginning of adventures in New York City

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New York, postaday2014, tourism

I am so excited! My cousin Francoise is arriving tonight in New York and I am going to get to spend a week with her as she travels around New York City with her photography club snapping pictures of this wonderful city, the city that never sleeps.

I am majorly excited because I haven’t seen her since 2012 and we get along like gangbusters. I have written about her before when I wrote a post involving the Daily prompt’s question of “who is your mentor, idol, model?” She is so talented and is a great person, wife, mother, grandmother and does everything so well. She is amazing.

I am also excited because this is a great opportunity for me to learn even more about New York City because I’ll be seeing it through tourists/photographers eyes.

I’ll be keeping you abreast of our adventures as it happens.

The final leg of my French journey

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family, pictures, postaday2012, tourism, trains, travel

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Actually this wasn’t the last train ride for the baby girl and I, this train ride was the one bringing us to the last stop at a relative’s house. We left Avignon and headed out to Sainte-Etienne to stay with my cousin Vincent, the doctor, and his lovely wife, Veronique and their children. We were invited to celebrate my Tonton and Tantine’s fiftieth wedding anniversary and we also got to see my cousin, Anne who is Vincent’s little sister, and Frederique and their nine children. The baby girl and I really loved looking around the table, seeing all these relatives speaking over and amongst each other, laughing despite huge age disparities and being included within all the loving chaos. Makes you feel real good and happy.

 

The train ride was also eye opening, I had to capture the terraced fields of crops and vineyards, I had seen it before with vegetable and flower gardens but I had never seen it done with vineyards. I thought that aside from being brilliant in terms of efficient cultivation, it is beautiful as well. One thing that I have found to be true of all of my train rides, the French countryside is incredibly beautiful; from sunflower fields that extend for kilometers to olive tree groves and lavender fields and kilometers of vineyards. I know that here in the States and in every country in the world there are gorgeous countrysides and I am reminded with every picture that these are our gifts and it should be our duty to try to watch over our beautiful bounty.

A word on my hematoma, it took three weeks for it to heal, that is how bad I banged my leg against the side of a boulder, all in the efforts to climb up higher to get a view of the magnificent countryside that is shown in quite a few pictures. Thank goodness my cousin, the doctor, who has a gorgeous office by the way, was on hand to treat my wound. He took excellent care of me as did Veronique, she grabbed a huge steak out of the freezer that did wonders in reducing the swelling. The things we do in the name of sightseeing, lol.

 

The dried sausage was included in the photo fest because it is not every day that you see a homemade six foot long piece of dried sausage made in honor of a fiftieth wedding anniversary and my cousin who was showing it off for pictures is a cutie as is young Kristen, one of my younger cousins from Anne and Frederique. The whole celebration was a hit, good food, great company and a flurry of young hands to help serve and clear all the merriment.

It saddens me to think that these are the last photos that I will be showing you of my trip to France but there you have it. My 2012 trip to France, the one that lasted 36 days, the one where I dragged my daughter through old streets, ancient ruins, train station and bed and breakfasts. I loved this trip and I loved writing about it.

The last in the series of Avignon in pictures

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Avignon, France, photos, pictures, postaday2012, tourism, travel

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This being the last batch of pictures of a most wonderful city, Avignon, I will say that I think that I saved a few of the best for last. One of my big fascinations is the ever present marche in French towns and cities and the one in Avignon did not disappoint, it wasn’t out in the open as in many other places but its exterior with the living plants making up the entire facade more than intrigued me, I was so impressed by it. I find it very encouraging when communities, even when steeped in centuries of the old ways, still look ahead to th future and incorporate green technologies into the day to day.

I was also taken with the inner city canal and the unique architecture surrounding the area, it felt very different from the rest of the city but still beautiful in its own way. The outer walls were also majestic in their strength and agelessness. You can sense that they have withstood the test of time and of men. It is hard to explain how differently a new country feels after you have spent time in the old country. I am not deliberately trying to be clumsy with my words when I’m trying to share the thoughts and feelings behind my pictures, it’s just that the feelings are hard to translate into words.

The color scheme was something that drew my eye, the deep blue of the sky, the deep green of the water and the various shades of gray in the stone made for an artist’s palette and needed to be captured on what would have been film a decade or more ago and now it’s called pixels. I wonder if people lament the vanishing use of film like people lament vinyl in the c.d age of music.

Beyond my garden, I should take my cell phone in search of good picture opportunities around here. It would be a good contrast to my pictures during my vacation. I will have to keep that in mind for future posts.

Scenes about Avignon, part 3

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Avignon, France, pictures, postaday2012, tourism, travel

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Looking back through this batch of pictures, I can hardly believe that the baby girl and I only spent one night here in Avignon. The only way that I can explain the vast number of pictures taken is that my eye was overwhelmed by the possibilities for interesting and thought provoking shots. The hodge-podge of different influences, different era’s and different building materials makes for a gorgeous canvas that cries out to be painted or taken as pictures, you want to share what you see, it is that amazing.

Reading the history of Avignon after having spent but just two days there, I can understand why Avignon was instantly popular and I mean popular in the sense that Avignon attracted commerce, trade, population growth and success. Its proximity to the mighty Rhone river, its placement between Toulouse, Marseille and Arles, all mighty cities throughout history and its wide open spaces within the city gave the townspeople a sense of well being and quality of life. When the environs surrounding you are well kept and harmonious, it gives you the feeling of bien-être, that is precisely what the baby girl and I felt the entire time. There are certain places that have that effect, you can’t explain it but you feel at home in a place that you barely know. This is what I felt here in Avignon, I hope that these pictures convey how wonderful Avignon is as a place to live and to visit.

Avignon part 2, pictures from within and without

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Avignon, France, Papal Palace, pictures, postaday2012, tourism, travel

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These pictures of Avignon are for the most part centered around the Papal Palace or Le Palais des Papes. The pictures that show Avignon spread out below were taken at the summit of the mount upon where the Palace was built. There were so many breathtaking vistas that I couldn’t stop taking shots. I am not sure what mountains are in the distance but I doubt that they are the Alps, they look too small.

I know that I haven’t done justice to the majesty of the Palais des Papes, it is so grand that a rinky-dinky cell phone can’t capture the grandiosity of the whole compound. That might be the wrong word but I can’t think of another one, the Papal Palace may not be in the same league as the Vatican but it is still impressive nevertheless.

You might wonder why I took pictures of the ground but I thought it might be interesting to show everyone the ground that the baby girl and I were walking on, the same ground that has been walked on by others for centuries before us. I suppose the reason why I am so preoccupied with the beautiful old stone roads of Europe is because here in my town of Blandford, our roads don’t last two seasons before potholes erupt to destroy the shocks on your car. Why is it that roads built hundreds of years ago can withstand the punishment of time and our country roads here fall apart so quickly?

Enough with the horrible roads of Blandford, my mind is turning once more to the wonderful days in Avignon. The baby girl and I had drinks in the cafe featured in the picture of the Place des Papes that I took from up above. The heat was fairly unruly, we would walk for a bit and then we would feel the need to drink and sit in the shade immediately, we made quite the tour of cafe’s in Avignon, that is how hot it was during those two days.

I must admit that the baby girl and I didn’t go inside to visit the Papal Palace. There are two simple reasons, one was the admission price of twelve euros, we both felt that it was a little high in price, and two, it was just too hot, we were dripping with sweat and the thought of walking along a series of corridors for who knew how long was too much to bear at that moment. When we went to visit my cousins at Sainte-Etienne, I was embarrassed to say that we wimped out, but I did own up to our wimpiness, they didn’t judge, they were kind.

I am warning all in advance that tomorrow there is part 3 coming. It will be pictures from yet another side to Avignon, I have to unravel the issues I encountered with uploading the photos from my cell phone to Facebook. My blackberry and I had serious issues and a deluge of duplicate photos ensued onto Facebook, so I need to delete the duplicates and make sure that I don’t inadvertently delete the originals. My adventures in technology are quite mind boggling at times, I tell you.

Avignon in pictures, part 1

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Avignon, France, Palais des Papes, pictures, Pope of Avignon, postaday2012, tourism, travel, walking

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As I discovered with my cell phone in Arles, I was really getting interested in taking pictures, not just of monuments or beautiful buildings, but of contrasts in shapes, lighting and textures. I think that I was even discovering perspective. I have taken pictures before during my previous travels but never with a goal in mind. I have found that having a specific goal in mind changed my way of taking pictures and of seeing through the cell phone camera lens.

I was looking for scenes with a story to tell, I was also seeing shadows in a new way, how they emphasized the surrounding light and vice versa, the light illuminating the darkness from afar. The blues and greens came into sharp relief against the constant stone in Avignon’s backdrop. Avignon had trees and plants galore and coupled with the intense blue made for a very light and airy ambiance that permeated the entire city. Picture taking here was a real pleasure, everywhere I turned there was something beautiful to shoot.

The series of pictures that I took at the Place where the baby girl and I had a wonderful meal was to show not only a wonderful little restaurant, Gilbert & Muriel, but a great dessert and the perspective from where I was seated. I’m not sure if the perspective idea was very successful but I am learning and now that my thinking on photography has changed, I’ll be practicing a lot more.

I know that when I had written about Avignon while we were there, I had expressed a lot of appreciation for the wide open spaces within the city, especially when coming directly from the city of Arles. Avignon is a city that I plan to revisit in the future in order to get to know Provence better.

As my title suggests, tomorrow I will be posting part 2 which will show other sections of Avignon, just as beautiful just a little different in character. I hope that you enjoy the slideshow.