Thanks for waiting for the last of my “Photo-a-day” challenge pictures (You were waiting weren’t you?)!

Day 30 found me flying from LA to Marseille,France via Heathrow. This would be the start of a very nice vacation which would bring (miracles of miracles) sunny and warm days not only in France, but also in Edinburgh, Dublin, and London. Boy, talk about blessed, no rain for the 2-weeks we were in the British-Iles is unheard of, especially in April…

<>First, let me congratulate all of you who completed the 30-day challenge! It’s always great fun to see the entries each day and the quality of photos that are submitted. It’s also a good “push” to help me respond to the challenge and keep up with the high-level of photographs that are shown.

So, back to me finishing, Day 30 and 31 of the challenge found me in France. Picking up my rental car in Marseille and getting ready to head North to spend most of my week near the town of Crest (pronunced “Cray”), which is near the Drone river and is about halfway between Lyon and Marseille.

The weather was great and I was all primed to have some wine and cheese and any other french food that happened to be placed in front of me. It was a nice time to be in France (especially with the awesome weather) as it was far less crowded than it is in the summertime and especially so in Auguat when the whole of Europe decends on this area.

Crest is, naturally, an agricultural area, but also plays a big part in the silk trade, continuing in the tradition of silk-worm breeding and silk-spinning. There’s a business also in truffles, but I didn’t get a chance to see any hogs sniffing out the below-ground spoors.

We were able to have a marvelous 7-course lunch at the famous Cabro D’or restaurant in the Baux de Provence (Bouch-du-Rhone) at the Baumaniere estate, everything “comme-il-faux” and absolutely fantastic.

The usual issues of travel-photography were there, as when you travel with other “non-photographers” many of the pictures have to be taken “on the run”, so as to not slow down your travelling companions. You never know when, on a trip, you might need a favor or 2 from them, so you really don’t want to alienate them early on in your travels!

I kept my ISO up on my Nikon D-200 to minimize the shutter speed, helping to ensure more sharp-shots while “on the run”. I rarely shot below 400 ISO and more often kept it at 500 ISO, but the noise-reduction did it’s thing and noise wasn’t an issue.

I switched between Program mode (P) and Aperture-priority (A) when ever I needed to change the depth-of-field.

My Tamron 18-250mm zoom lens worked well, with good sharpness (for such a long focal-range) and great color-saturation.

Barrel-distortion was evident, but this isn’t unexpected with such a wide-lens. The worst thing about the lens is it’s propensity to “zoom-out” on it’s own when it’s beeing carried facing down, but it does have a zoom-lock, so if you want, you can fix-it at any point in the zoom-range.

I utilized my Tamrac handstrap, so my camera was always ready and securely at my side.

I also used this to latch the camera to chairs and tables while I was eating at restaraunts.

The handstrap also came in handy as we were walking in the country, and a beautiful snake, about 4-feet long, came out beside me. My cousin’s dog Argo wouldn’t leave the snake alone, so I had to be quick to take pictures before the snake got mad and either took-off or bit someone.

The funicular-rail in Lyon, took us up to the top of Fouvier where you can see the beautiful Notre-Dame basilica and get a great view (weather permitting) of Lyon (more on this later).

The beautful weather meant that the nicer modes of transportation were out, and everyone was enjoying the sunshine.

So, that’s it for this installment, but more to follow as we show more of France and also the Great Britain, and have more travel-techniques and comments on the latest luggage rules for foreign airlines.

Au revior!