A little over one month ago we completed our popular Photo Tour in Provence and it was absolutely wonderful. Hot, yes, but also, as usual, stunning in all its fragrant purple lavender-in-full-bloom beauty and over-the-top-charming-villages glory. To see for yourself, check out the photo gallery below. I wished we had “Scratch & Sniff!” ;-)

Places I loved on our 2022 Photo Tour in Provence

I finally got around to processing some of my favorite images from this year. Those of you who joined us on this trip will surely recognize the locations. But because of that, I now have to make a confession.

A Deep Dark Secret

Let me start out by telling you that Jim and I are photographic purists: We wait patiently for hours for the light to be just right and we’ll return to a scene if it isn’t; we get up at some ungodly early hour to catch morning mist wafting through valleys; we drudge through pouring rain to the rainbow at the other end; we always move our bodies rather than the objects in our compositions in post-production; and if the sky is crappy, i. e. dull or blasted out, we don’t include it.

provence-france-farm-house

And here comes the Confession:

It so happened that unfortunately a building and trees protruded into a crappy hopeless sky in a couple of my favorite Provence images. And this was when a dark demon took over and alerted me sweetly to the Sky Replacement option in Photoshop. Being the purist that I am, I’ve never really searched for it or even been aware of it. Until now. See if you can recognize the scenes where I was led into temptation. To escape the label of cheating, I will sneakily call these images Photo Illustrations.

Conclusion and Resolve

Suffice it to say that Jim did not approve and that I had no intention to go down that dark path ever again anyway. But now, what will I do with all the beautiful sky/cloud images I’ve taken since? I think I’ll have to stuff the genie back into its bottle. Delete, delete, delete! :-)

I hope that you’ll enjoy this gallery of a photographic journey to some of the most romantic locations in Provence. You can click on each image to view it at a larger size.

We won’t be offering this tour in 2023 but might not be able to stay away in 2024. In the meantime, you can check out the schedule for this year’s Photo Tour in Provence to get an overall idea of what to expect even though some details will change in 2024.