Goursac at night - tribute to Magritte

In early June, I spent a week photographing (and staying in!) the beautiful 18th century chateau that is Goursac.  Living in a converted barn across a beautiful Lime-tree-lined lawn is Betrand Davezac, whose family bought the chateau when he was a boy.  An art historian, he abandoned his own painting at 16, and his adult life was spent almost entirely in the US, where he was curator to a number of collections, including Houston's Menil Collection.  Within the Collection, there are a number of paintings by Rene Magritte, and I'm a fan.  A number of paintings by the artist which I find particularly intriguing are of a large house at night, with yellow lamp-lit windows, including 'Fin du Monde'.  'L'Empire des Lumieres' (1954) depicts what appears to be a nighttime scene of a house, but with a daytime blue sky above.  Wondering around the delicious cricket-chirp-filled Goursac gardens at night, when I tore my gaze from the millions of stars, I noticed that the chateau had a similar feel to the Magritte images, and I wanted to create a Magritte- and Betrand-inspired image of the place.  Below are a couple of my favourites, as well as a portrait of the amazing Betrand Davezac on his drive.  Many more pictures of Goursac to come, but in the meantime these will have to do!  I am really happy with the way the night images turned out, and they have not been manipulated to improve in post-processing - what you see is what I saw on that summer night.

Oxford photographer

Ghostly!

Betrand Davezac - a wonderful and fascinating host

Buddhafield, 2012 'Doorways to Freedom' - festival photography

Wow, this year's Buddhafield Festival was electric.  In fact, I was a little disturbed by the effect it had on me.  I was in a field, with mud, a tent and a toddler; it rained pretty much incessantly from the Wednesday to Saturday (yay for the sunny Sunday - but sun, a bit late, non?); and I was working the whole time, as festie photographer, in a team of two, so I felt a bit stressed (internal monologue: 'must catch every moment of beauty and significance'.  'must catch every moment of beauty and significance'. 'must catch every moment of beauty and significance.').  And yet, as I was leaving, I dragged my feet with a familiar reluctance to rejoin the outside world of central heating, TV and service stations; I was grinning from ear to ear at everyone around me, and from the heart each time; and I had the feeling I had been lying on a hot beach listening to the waves for a week - I felt rested.  At this point, it's worth mentioning that this is a dry festival - not the weather, evidently, but it is a drink- and drug-free space.  So nope, it wasn't that.  And I have managed to function more or less as before since my return (possibly with a few more smiles and a bit more lurve), so it is not that something snapped, cracked or popped.

The team behind Buddhafield Festival know what they are doing.  For five days each year, they create an event that stimulates minds, opens hearts and tickles the occasional bare backside - it's magical, and this year, rain and all, was to be no different.  They simply wouldn't allow it - no-one there would.  So, sandwiched between two wonderful ceremonies (think: lots of dress-up; flight attendants; stilt walkers; brass band; drums; gratitude and snippets of profound Buddhist teaching over loud speakers) was a deliciously tasty treat.  Key ingredients: workshops; ecstatic dance; juggling; Small World hot choc with cream; music; fires; saunas, hot tubs and solar showers in the woods; fresh pancakes, pizzas, curries, waffles; falafel; brilliant kids' area; two slightly lost looking ponies; the fabulous and amazing ear gong; drums; massages; yoga; permaculture; and lots of very lovely people.  Thanks to all for joining me on the ride, and thank you to all that make it happen, especially to those behind the ceremonies - they get me every time.  And remember dudes, freedom is not elsewhere.

I have thousands of images to work through, but I've whacked 60 unedited favourites in a gallery (you can also find links to last year's Buddhafield and Green Gathering galleries there too), and below are a few of my favourites.

Right, back to editing la France...

My favourite

Juggling workshop

Experimenting with how to photograph a juggling workshop - and that's mud on my hand - do I remove it and remove the authenticity?

Wet Buddha

Stunning face paint by Susu Mama

Bottoms!

View from the loo

The Bee and her bunches

The best kind of security

Beautiful face in the rain

mmm! freshly baked in a clay oven

There were some of these about

festival photographer

Monet's Garden at Giverny - travels en famille (first of the Goursac photos)

The highlight of June was a ridiculously exciting trip to the Dordogne, where I was to photograph a chateau over a week-long holiday with my peeps.  I'm still trawling through the hundreds (*thousands*) of photos I took in that enchanted place (www.goursac.com), and building up to (a probably long and gushing) blog post about how I left part of my soul there.  In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few pics from the journey. 

We drove, and our journey began with getting stuck for a number of hours on the M25; the Bee managed to coordinate a poo explosion with a serious traffic incident, so nobody in the car was particularly happy and we missed our channel crossing.  We then proceeded to get lost in central Paris sans map.  Be warned, the ring road has a habit of spitting drivers out in the middle of the night due to roadworks.  The Bee slept on peacefully as her father and I tried to work out whose fault it was we were in a major city with no map - creating a nice atmosphere we decided to maintain for the rest of the ride.  We arrived in Orleans, an hour south of Paris, at 2am, only to find that all the hotel rooms were booked... except one.  The concierge apologised repeatedly as he gave me the key - normally Hotel Formule 1 consider the room too horrible to rent out.

Happy days (that bed on the left was a bit small for me and Bee, but I guess it was, still, a bed)

The reluctant journey homeward was more successful, though a little self-conscious with our by-then poxy progeny (sorry to anyone who caught it from us) (and sorry I'm over-using the brackets).

We avoided Paris completely and headed for Monet's garden, Giverny, near Vernon.  I have always wanted to go there, being a bit of a Monet fan and all, and it was worth the little detour.  I couldn't help feeling a bit disappointed by the concrete paths, the railings, the high volume of tourists and massive compulsory shop at the entrance (Monet toilet seat, anyone?).  I felt the place had lost some of its soul, and I wondered what Monet would make of it now.  But if you paused to absorb the space, and shut out the babbling, umbrella-led groups, it was special.  The flowers were absolutely stunning, and we hit rose and poppy season big time.  The water lillies were flowering for us, and as we filed past in what felt like a long queue for the photo spots, some frogs cheered me up by making some really weird noises.

On to some photos - yay if you're still reading!  Being a long-time Monet appreciator, I had this groovy idea that I'd experiment with imitating his impressionistic style, by taking some deliberately out-of-focus poppy shots.  Below, in amongst some of their more focused companions, you can see some of the results.  Some of the shots have worked well, and I feel the lack of focus and form draws attention to the interplay between the colours of the garden, which were fantastic.  Hope you enjoy them too.  If anyone has feedbacl, any thoughts or knowledge of similar attempts to combine Impressionistic style and the photographic genre, I'd love to hear from you :)
 - add comments below.

A bientot!

My Impressionistic attempt #1

mmm poppies

random beauty shut away

love this one, got the focus exactly as I wanted it

lucky bee

the Monet shot - gave me a bit of a buzz even with random Dutch tourists on the bridge

colours

busy times

bit more blurriness

Monet's path

To find out more about me, check me out here: Oxford photographer.

Flashback - journeys in the land of the Moose

In August 2006, I traveled around parts of South-West Canada, touching down in Quebec on my way home.  It was a stunning trip.  The other day a picture from my trip caught my eye, and I had the urge to dig some more out and share them with you.  Enjoy x

Right, enjoyable procrastination over, now back to my editing...

Oxford photographer

Vancouver sunset - a sweet arrival

Overnight Greyhound into the Rockies

Moon as my travel companion

Banff

Probably some Grizzlies in this photo, you just can't see them

Joy is: a shop full of fur and tack mmmm

Stunning lakes near Banff

Kayaking down the river at Edmonton

Excuse for my trip - Edmonton Fringe with a poet

Alberta blue

Heading west to the islands

Vancouver Island

Exploring

There's my moon again

*wow*

And back to the city - Vancouver at sunset

My travel companion

Mean streets of 'couver

One of my favourites from the trip

Another favourite - Vancouver cafe

A friend's lake in Quebec - yes, they *have* lakes in Canada!

They share it only with beavers

Lakeside

Montreal chic

More Montreal chic

A loan cowboy on our last day