An Eye In The European Sky

If you have ever wanted to invade France but without having to join the German Army, now is your chance. You can do it with a camera, amongst friends, have a good time, and learn a great deal.

Eye In The Sky is a photographic company from Western Australia that is dedicated to providing photo tours of the Tarn region of southern France. Their current prospectus lists the next tour between April 28th and May 4th - when the spring should be making France into a landscape photographer's paradise.

The tours are run by Western Austalian Jon Davidson and his wife Jude, and this time you will have our favourite Rockingham photographer - Kingsley Klau - along to help your photo development.
The tour is packed with visits to ruins, monasteries, galleries, castles, chateaux, vineyards and restaurants. The thing is all-inclusive - you are not going to be shelling out Euros right, left, and center for transfers, meals and accommodation. It is the easy logistics approach to a wonderful time.

It's not just wonderful - it's useful. You'll get daily lessons as you travel from the professionals and learn the importance of Lightroom and Photoshop post production on your images.

But description without images is useless - the best way you can see the lay of the land and the sort of opportunities that you'll have is to go over to the website now and follow their planning links. It is a picture-rich site and well worth just ogling over.

 Go to:

eyeinthesky.com.au

or email:

 jon@eyeinthesky.com.au

The tours are not crowded - there will be ten people as well as the photographer guides. That means time to learn, space to move, a chance to soak up the wonders of the Cathar country.

Going On Safari? Come Up And See Me Sometime...

The Safari Season is upon us. People are gearing up to look at the wild animals in Africa, Alaska, and Europe*. As we speak tourists are packing backpacks the size of refrigerators with DSLRs, lenses, flashes, laptops, and waterproof apple corers. Because you never can tell when you will need to can apples in Constantinople in a rain storm.

Wise tourists who have done this before and have the chiropractor's bills to show for it may elect to take a smaller rig this time. Consider if your ambitions and plans might well be suited with a camera that has a 30X zoom lens, 4 second to 1/2000 second shutter, manual aperture and shutter wheel, and GPS built-in. And a Leica lens. And a proper viewfinder on the LHS of the body. And full HD video with stereo sound.

And fits in your top pocket as you go through the door of the airplane. And for which you have not paid excess baggage.

Panasonic TZ-60.

You may not know which wine to drink with your biltong or cheese fries, and you may not know a bear from a banjo, but you can capture the fun and the scenery without making a guy or a mule of yourself. You will be less likely to attract the attention of the local pickpockets, or at least they will concentrate on your passport and wallet, if you are not carrying a camera shop on your neck. The grizzlies and hyenas will be less likely to demand a fee for posing if you do not shoot with a DSLR.

You'll still have to deal with the Europeans, but at least you will have your hands free while you do it.