Europe 08 and The art of shooting while relaxing.

In June of 2008 I had the gift of 2 weeks in London and Central France with the most important women in my life, my wife and daughters.  It was a well deserved vacation and I realized just how tired I was when after 3 days I still had not taken any photographs.  I did however sleep, explore and enjoy just being with my girls.  Then on Day 4 in London the sun came out and I woke up to the visually unique evironment known as Chelsea.    The great joy and curse of being a location photographer is that photographs are happening everywhere, 24/7. If I leave my cameras behind I am destined to see something that I never could have dreamed of and all I can do is add it to that mental repository of visual expeiences to be enjoyed by me alone.  Perhaps these moments will lead to my future writing career.  In the short run (now the long run) it mostly leads to a sore back from always having a camera along.  It can also lead to disgruntled travel buddies because it can take forever to get anywhere with a photographer in tow.  Even with patient companions like mine, photography is not much of a spectator sport.  The secret on this trip turned out to be early rising.  There is a fresh, new world out there everyday before dawn and I found that I could shoot for 3 to 4 hours everyday before anyone even knew that I was gone.  They always woke up to the smell of fresh coffee and the energy of a very happy photographer.  All this said, here is a brief sampling of what I found in London and later in the Lot River Valley of central France.