You see, I have to book my vacations 1-2 years in advance.  The planning cycle of an uberBride is about 10-14 months.  That’s how long I am usually booked in the future.  It means my weekends are pretty full, and that I need to plan way ahead if we want to take any significant trips.  Since I knew I wanted to visit Rome in the Winter (because it is Off season, rates are cheaper, and there are less tourists), I began to look at the different activities one could do during that time of year.  That’s when I discovered that it may be possible to visit St. Peters during Christmas.

The planning all started sometime in May, when we decided to go.  We did a bit of research about how to attend Midnight mass at the Vatican, and began the process by contacting the Catholic Diocese in Austin.  After many months, faxes, and phone calls, we had a letter in hand when we boarded the plane.

Overall the trip was fantastic – here are some photos highlighting the best parts.

Tickets to Chrismas mass at St Peters 2007.

Santa Claus lives in Rome, we saw him on our way to the Vatican

La Befana is the Christmas Witch, an Italian tradition.

St. Peter's Cathedral reflecting in the Tiber River.

Night Pictures of St. Peters

The Pope giving the Urbi et Orbi blessing on Christmas Day.

As I was ust writing this, there is a story about a woman jumping the barricade and knocking the pope to the ground. While we were there there was a crazy guy who tried to do the same thing, but the plainclothes security guys took the nut down. I wasn’t didn’t have a clear view of that incident, but was able to get this shot of the crowd just before it happened in 2007:

People waiting for the pope to walk by

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Part of what makes a trip enjoyable for me is using my camera for me. Some people think lying on a beach with an umbrella drink is relaxing, others like to cruise and have lots of activities to choose from. I like to get lost in a city. Just start walking, and explore. I don’t really care if I get confused and have to ask for directions.

This is 100% different from photographing a wedding. When I attend a wedding, I’m working for a couple. During the process of the newly engaged interviewing me, I am interactive, asking just as many questions about them, their lifestyle, and relationship. And I’m taking notes. So that when I shoot your wedding, I can incorporate bits about you into the photographs. Sometimes it’s football, or pets, or hobbies, or lifestyle. I always try to include the details, and location into the pictures, so you can tell your wedding apart from everybody elses’. Of course you hire me for my style and look, but I want to incorporate as much of You as I can in your wedding photography.

So when I’m on vacation, I like to try new things – different cameras, unusual photography techniques, and take risks. That way I know what works and doesn’t when it comes to your wedding. I’m not shooting for my portfolio, or experimenting on your big day.

Anyhoo, I now know much, much more about Barcelona – so if ever you have a destination wedding in Barcelona, or need a photographer who knows Spain, let me know. I’ll give you a great deal.

Girl riding a bicycle in Barcelona

Blue chairs and metal tables at a streetside cafe on Las Ramblas in Barcelona

A huge sculputre of a lobster on the waterfront in Barcelona, Spain

Capitania General Door in Barcelona

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Looking down the Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona on the day we arrived. Our hotel is on the left.

Maybe it was the new country, or the new language, either way, I wasn’t able to “code switch” from French to Spanish as fast as I wanted to.  Or maybe it was because our hotel wouldn’t let us check in early (we arrived at 9:00 AM, and standard check in time was 3:00 pm).

So we had to spend some time out and about. Of course, that’s never a bad thing, but when you are tired, sometimes the best thing is to just take a nap.  Since that wasn’t possible, we headed down the Passeig de Gracia (thank goodness our hotel was centrally located), to the Cathederal de Barcelona (nope not the Gaudi one) and grabbed some coffee at a cafe on the square.

A traditional European breakfast. a coffee with a pastry.

Sitting in a cafe in Barceonla or the rest of Europe for that matter, it’s not like going to the Cheesecake Factory.  In America, restaurants want to turn tables as fast as they can, and I usually feel rushed when I eat out in the states.  But in Spain, you can sit and enjoy.  And for about 5 € ($7.25), we ate two pastries, had a couple of delicious coffees and were treated to a show.

The show started when we saw a guy pushing a piano down the street:

Some street performers rolling an upright piano down the street in preparation for their performance. (this isn't usually part of the Sardana Dance)

Then, spontaneously, the Sardana Dancing began.  A bunch of Catalonians had formed a circle in the Placa de la Seu (the square in front of the Cathederal).  A band began to play and everyone danced.  And Danced, and danced.  This went on for hours.   People would come and put their bags in the center of the circle, dance a few times, and then grab their stuff and go.  There were probably several hundred sardanistas, and about a thousand tourists taking pictures.

Sardana dancers in the Placa de la Seu in front of the Cathedral

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A street artist at the Pompidou Center with his portrait of Barack Obama

Don't look behind you! It's the Eifel Tower

Fall colors and changing leaves in Paris.

This is the most fantastic door in Paris

Grocery shopping in the Rue Cler

What people do with their entrance stickers after they leave the Rodin Museum

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Which one is your favorite?

Two people walking in a paris park in the fall.

A lone man walking in a park in the Shadow of the Eiffel Tower

A tree lined pathway in Paris. Taken in the fall of 2009, with the leaves changing colors in the city of lights.

The famous 31 Rue Cambon - The house of Coco Chanel

While walking the streets I found Yumi Katsura bridal salon in Paris. What kind of wedding photographer would I be if I didn't take a photo? - such beautiful wedding gowns

We passed Invalides as we walked from our French hotel to the metro stop.

Photos of Paris, France

I wonder what this guy is looking at?

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Jenn and I just got back from 2+ weeks in France and Spain, and all I took was my Antique Leica M4-P, my Sekonic Light Meter and a bunch of Fuji Film.  Why would I only bring a small rangefinder, and not all the fancy Nikon or Leica camera gear that I usually carry to a wedding?  Because I was there to enjoy Paris, and not spend all my time looking through the viewfinder of a camera.  And this time, my wife didn’t complain that she was a Photo Widow, always waiting for me to get the perfect shot.

When I’m on vacation, I get to shoot for me, play around a bit, and do some street photography (which I love).  Here are a few Paris snap shots from our first day and a half.

As for the details, we arrived to Paris around noon, after a full day of taxis, airplanes, and busses, and were of course exhausted.  After taking a short nap (like 4 hours) we headed out for a walk in our favorite neighborhood, the Rue Cler.  Since we have been to Paris more than half a dozen times, we know our way around, and we navigated the narrow streets to some of our favorite local landmarks (see below), and then had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants.

The next day, after a full night’s sleep, we got out of bed late, and headed to the Orsay – This is one of my most favorite museums in the world (it’s better than the Louvre) and holds a ton of impressionistic art, furniture, and sculpture.  Then we were off to the Orangerie, where Monet’s Waterlilly paintings live.  I’m a huge fan of these gigantic canvases Claude painted as he went blind.

As a side note, I’m not the kind of traveler who likes to rush around from site to site checking things off my bucket list.  Paris has been around for centuries, and while it will change from time to time, it’s still Paris, and will always be.  So instead of carrying a bottle of water with me wherever I go, instead I stop at the nearest local cafe, and order a coffee in my broken French.  Or maybe I’ll turn down a side street if there is an interesting store (and then go inside and try to strike up a conversation with the shop-keeper).  And this time, since the weather was so nice, I decided that our routes between sights should include as many parks as possible – so instead of taking a direct route on major streets we walked a different path…

As always there are some Paris pictures below, Which shot is your favorite?  Let me know in the comments at the bottom of the page.  More to come tomorrow.

One of the very first things we did when we get to Paris is walk down the Champ de Mars to the Eiffel Tower

We arrived to Paris just in time to see the fall colors changing

I don't think this man at the Orangerie is looking at the paintings

The Monet Paintings of the Waterlillies at the Orangerie Museum are my very favorite.

Every chance we got, we took the alternative routes through the Parks in Paris.

Fall trees in Paris

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Earlier today I picked up my developed and scanned film from Holland Photo, and I’ve been switching between editing weddings, designing wedding albums, and sifting through the many rolls of film from our trip.  More to come tomorrow, from Paris France.

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So in this photo-realistic dream, I’m returning to my office and the first think I always do is check my answering machine (I’ve got an 800# and while I always try to answer in person, sometimes I’m meeting a client, or at a shoot, or can’t quite get to the phone in time so the machine gets it).  The little red light is flashing and there is one missed call, and one message waiting for me.

I press the button and I’m greeted with a voice I vaguely recognize, but can’t quite place.  The message goes “hey Eric, where the Heck are you?  For the last two weeks I’ve been checking your website everyday and all I’ve been getting over and over is the La Dolce Vita slideshow.  When are you going to make another blog post?”

Then I wake up in a cold sweat.  OK, It’s not a cold sweat, but I do wake up.  You see, for the last 15 days I’ve been traveling with my wife in France and Spain.  So my internal clock is all back to front and my days and nights are switched by 9 hours.  And that’s the reason there hasn’t been any new content on my little wedding photography blog.

Sure, I could have brought my Apple Macbook Pro, and dragged it all over the continent, looking for a WiFi signal I could steal, then plugged in my FireWire CF card reader to download all the great photos from my Nikon cameras and Lenses, that I’ve been taking of the people and places I’ve seen on my vacation.  But instead, I went Old School Photography.

I chose to travel light – a single carry on bag for my clothes, and my handmade Italian leather satchel on my shoulder with a few guidebooks, maps, my Leica with a single 50mm lens, and my favorite  lightmeter.

And just this morning I dropped off a large ziploc bag full of exposed film to my favorite local lab, Holland Photo, in Austin.  Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll drive down, and pick up a stack of positives, and CDs, and before the cash register drawer closes, I’ll be pouring over the slides on the light table, and marking my favorites from the trip.  And over the next 2-weeks, I’ll be sharing the details of my trip with you.  So  stay tuned, and subscribe to my RSS feed so you don’t miss a single post.

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I’ve got a row of these little books on my desk – some are red (calendars), some are green (gardening journals), and some are black (travel and photo journals).   I always have a regular size (5×3½) moleskin notebook when I go out, and when I travel to a major city for a destination wedding or personal travel, I am sure to add that specific journal as well.

I’ve found it’s a great way to organize my thoughts and experiences.  Each black book has street and subway maps (so you don’t get too lost), sections for restaurants, hotels and attractions, a little pocket in the back for ticket stubs and small paper souveniers, and of course lots of blank pages for sketches and travel notes.

Instead of starting a new one every time I travel, I simply grab one of my existing journals and add to it.  That way I have all my previous notes at my fingertips and can visit my favorites, or recount some stories to my travel buddies over a pint.

At first I would only journal my daily chronologies – what I had for lunch, where I was staying, and so on.  But over time, I began to incorporate more feelings, and ideas – and even more slowly a bit of my style, and art began to emerge in my writings.  Of course I’m nowhere as good as this guy, some of these architects (in Italian), or these artists, but maybe someday someone will look at my ramblings….

Right now, my collection includes journals for Roma (Rome), London, San Francisco, Barcelona, Venezia (Venice), Firenze (Florence), Paris(my paris notebook is now a 2-volume set)  London, Madrid, and a few others.  Moleskin makes journals for most major international cities, and a quick search of Amazon.com for Moleskine City Guides yields all the results.

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