In January my original DLSR's battery failed. It seemed like a good excuse to upgrade from a 10-year-old model to a new model, so amid much squawking from my parents, I went out and bought a Canon EOS 7D body - about $1,200.
Worth. Every. Cent. I was absolutely rapt with the photos I took on the whole trip away, from the start right through to the end. My photography skills became ingrained towards the end of the trip, and I was able to spend much less time evaluating a scene before snapping away.
The lads at work were also impressed with them - so I may yet get some published photos out there in the big bad world of the internet!
Everyone's asking me "what was your favourite part of the trip"? Put me on the spot, why don't you! I've answered every time more or less the same - the three-week period after arriving in Andorra, driving along the French Azure Coast, down to Liguria and Cinque Terre, and back up through the Alps to Grenoble. I'd happily do that again many, many times.
"Pick your favourite photos" is another common question. To that end, I've ranked my top ten favourite photos, now that I've had the chance to evaluate all the photos I've taken. Which, by the way, comes in at just under 33,000. That equates to 370 photos every single day!
If you want to reminisce some more, check out my Flickr galleries from my Europe trip at:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/81692166@N05/collections/72157647345994947/
1) London. Right at the end of the trip, I grabbed this one very late in the afternoon at Piccadilly Circus. You can see the ubiquitous neon signs, but also a London double-decker bus, and an Underground symbol. I also increased the exposure, capturing the movement and bustling nature of the city:
2) Paris. On the very first day, I happened to be at the Jardin du Trocadero when the massive fountains went off, allowing me to capture a unique perspective of some famous Parisian landmarks, with the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Élysées as the backdrop:
3) Calanques. Even though we didn't make get to do the five-hour-long hike through the rest of the Calanques, I managed to snap this one on the shorter, 90-minute walk around a small headland. What immediately struck me about the whole area was the colour of the water. Yes, it really is that colour, no photoshopping here:
4) Cinque Terre. This time we did get to do the all-day hike from one end of the park to the other, from the first to the fifth town. This one is Manarola, the fourth town we visited, late in the afternoon, looking down from the trail above:
5) Vienna. This is a grab of Schönbrunn Palace, looking back from all the way up the hill at the Gloriette. It truly is a spectacular park, with manicured gardens and flowers galore:
6) Brighton. Looking back from the amusement park of Brighton Pier, you can see 'The Eye', and the beaches, which made for a really nice contrast when the sun came out and made the pebbles of the beach shine a bright orange:
7) Cambridge. On the second last day, we went to Cambridge, the place I really wanted to go in England, having never been before. Here you can see Pembroke College, one of the smaller, less-known colleges in Cambridge. The colour of the building, in contrast to the grass and the sky, was mind-blowing:
8) Potsdam. Patience reaps its own rewards. I was getting cranky at the miserable weather in Berlin, and on my last day there, I caught this photo, across the lake from the Neuer Garten:
9) Grenoble. This Alpine city is famous for its hill, called the Bastille, which rises up over the city, really quite close to it, in comparison to the far-away mountains. This photo includes a view of downtown Grenoble, with the Bastille's famous cable car in the foreground:
10) Venice. And what top-ten would be complete without 'the' view of the Grand Canal in Venice? In the afternoon I tried my hand at a long exposure shot here. I had to fight for a spot, and fight to keep it, but my tripod proved to be a good deterrent to anyone wanting to bowl me over. It's really a stunning part of the city:
So there you have my top ten photos. That also concludes the "that's a wrap!" series! And this blog. Join me at the end of September, when I'll be taking a short trip to Adelaide - a part sightseeing, part AFL umpiring trip!
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