Weather forecast for Paris: blurry with intermittent sweet spots

One of my favourite lenses these days is the Lensbaby. It creates the most wonderful blur, and gives you a great deal of control over where the sweet spot is (the part that's in focus). Not only that, but it is one of the strangest looking lenses out there, and I always get a few perplexed glances whenever I have it on my camera. Plus, it's fun to use. You get to twist it, press buttons, and turn knobs. It takes a lot of work to get blurry photographs people.

Paris was the perfect place to play with my baby. To be continued. J'en suis certaine.

Little fluffy clouds

The first part of my vacation was spent in Les Landes in the Aquitaine region of France. It's along the Bay of Biscay, very close to the Spanish border. The town I stayed in is a surfer's paradise. I never really associated surfing with France. It makes perfect sense of course. It's along the Atlantic coast where there are waves galore. But somehow, surfing seems so um, un-French to me. So it was wonderful to see a side of France that I didn't know existed ... a very casual, beachy surfer culture, completely unlike what I imagine the more famous, meditteranean beaches along the Cote d'Azur to be like.

And the clouds, when they came out, were to die for.

Return

I returned from my vacation in France last Thursday, but needed a few days to recuperate from jet lag and sore bones from carrying all that camera equipment around.

I had a wonderful time and my eyes were treated to a variety of landscapes. I explored a region of France I'd never been to; Aquitaine, along the Bay of Biscay. Here I photographed seascapes with crashing waves and beautiful morning light along sandy beaches, as well as still lakes and misty forests. Then it was off to Paris to photograph an especially photogenic city.

I also decided to purchase Adobe Lightroom before beginning to work on my photographs. Normally after uploading my photographs to my computer, I just want to headily dive in and start working on them in Photoshop. But, as my collection of photographs grows, it becomes more and more unmanageable. So, Lightroom to the rescue! Now I can create a true library of images that's easy to manage. That means a bit of a learning curve and retraining myself to be more disciplined in my approach. So, the images will begin to slowly trickle out over the weeks (and probably months). Stay tuned!

Taking off

Tomorrow I'm leaving on vacation to spend a couple of weeks in France. I'll be in the Aquitaine region in the south west (also known as Le Pays Basque, which borders Spain) as well as my favorite city in the world, Paris. Le sigh.

It won't be much of a restful vacation as much as a photographic orgy (of landscapes and cityscapes, I assure you). But it certainly will be enjoyable. Meh. Rest. There'll be plenty of time for that when I return.

I'm not sure how much Internet connectivity I'll have while away. If possible, I'll post a few times, though I'm looking forward to saying goodbye to my computer for a while and hello to my camera. Have a wonderful July!

Yesterday, as the sun went down

The light was glorious. Just wanted to share.