There seemed to be an abundance of bicycles in Essaouira, mostly propped up against walls in the old town. I liked the almost monochromatic (brown) feel punctuated by the decayed blue of the door (blue is a popular colour in Essaouira). I applied a little treatment to give it a more painterly feel.
While walking in Rue Touahen close to the sea wall in the old town of Essaouira, I came across this beggar who wanted some money. It is normally difficult to photograph people in Morocco but as he wanted something from me I thought I would have something in exchange. I indicated to my camera and he nodded. I took a shot and gave him some money. He can be satisfied that he didn’t beg from me but that he had earned some money.
As with the Alps and most other mountain ranges, the snow will melt on the lower slopes in the warmth of the summer sun exposing the rocks beneath it. The Himalayas present the greatest peaks on planet Earth and are the result of the collision of the Indian tectonic plate with the Eurasian Plate. The summer months expose wonderful strata and colour in the rocks though the tallest peaks will still have snow on them. This photograph was taken in the Ladakh region of northern India.
A shot from the Musée Nissim de Camondo in Rue de Monceau, Paris. It was the private home of a Parisian banker who was a passionate collector of French furniture and art objects from the eighteenth century. This is one of the staircases. I like the shape of the stairs but felt I needed something more in the image. Visitors were wandering up and down the stairs and so I support my camera on the handrail at the top of the stairs and waiting for people to fill the gaps. I tried various shutter speeds and decide that 1/2s was going to give me the right amount of blur. I really wanted two people in the appropriate places but had to shoot them individually and combine them in Photoshop.
At a small village on the outskirts of Hoi An, we came across this market full of colour and activity. The traders were happy to be photographed and I selected this lady wearing a traditional conical hat. Taken a f1.8 with a 20mm prime lens (equivalent to 40mm on a 35mm film camera).
I liked the colours and patterns of the houses stacked up on the slopes at Villefranche in the south of France. I used BuzzPro to take some detail out of the buildings (simplify) and a mild pen-and-ink effect to create this painterly impression.
Near the Gare du Nord, these restaurants seemed ablaze with colour and typify the buzz of Paris with eating on the street at almost any time of the year.
A typical Provence scene but with a little enhancement to make it a little pen-and-ink like. It looks better as a print than it does on screen.
These are the olive trees found in Renoir’s garden at Les Collettes in Cagnes sur Mer near Nice in France. The estate, with its picturesque farmhouse, its groves of olive and orange trees, and the views it afforded of the hilly countryside, provided the artist with inspiration for his later landscapes. This image has been softened and looks quite painterly when printed on a textured watercolour paper.