Photos of the Luberon and Perigord

[Pauline]

@Kathy runs a photo contest for people who took her European Experiences tours that year. I get to be one of the judges and select my favorite photos. (@Chris is also a judge.) There are four judges and we each select our top 12, then Kathy does some magic with a spreadsheet and figures out the winners.

Here are this year's winners.

There were a lot of good photos this year!

 

[Pauline]

Topping this because I originally posted too early - before the winners were announced! Now they have been announced. This was the winner:

Steve from California: Montignac is a beautiful small French village that Kathy and Charley encouraged us to explore during our free time. One night Linda and I went out to photograph a quiet Montignac street. A man stopped and asked in broken English why I was photographing an empty street and I told him to look at my camera. He was so amazed by the photo with the car streaks, signs, and the lights twinkling that he asked if he could tag along on our evening photo journey. I made a new friend that night and perhaps inspired a new night photographer.

 

[Kathy]

Our annual photo contest is always very interesting to me! First, it's fun to see the photos people pick to submit and what they have to say about their pictures. I'm on all of the trips and also taking photos, but other people see things I don't see and often approach their photos in very different way from me. The photo submissions also bring back great memories of people and places and really builds my anticipation for our upcoming trips.

The photos aren't necessarily supposed to be the best "technical" photos, and the descriptions are important in the entry as well... as with Steve's "story" above. We ask people to submit a photo that best reflects their personal experience during their week with us, and it's interesting to consider the photos from that perspective.

@Pauline and @Chris have done great jobs as judges, along with Bill Steiner of Adventures in Italy and our daughter Kelly. All four of them are experienced travelers who like to take photos and have a good eye for an interesting photo and description. But that's another interesting aspect of our contest... even though we give everyone some criteria to work with, they have very different responses to the photo submissions. I like that too! This year there was only one photo that all four judges picked in their top 12 and only three photos that three judges picked. I think I would have picked several different photos myself! So it reminds me again that just as people respond to photos differently (or music or movies or books or food...), they respond to places and travel experiences from a personal perspective as well. I really enjoy the reminder through our photo contest each year that people are different, unique and special.

Kathy

 

[Pauline]

I have fun judging the photo contest. I do a pass through the entries, looking at the photo and reading the description. Then I get Steve to sit down with me and we do the same together. We usually agree on 90% of the photos. That is why I am always surprised that the other judges don't pick exactly what I have picked!!