Our first blog in this 2013 series took in our first four workshops of the year heading into spring.

As I sit at my computer, it is what my family used to call a “soggy-biscuit day” or what others might simply say, “duck weather” or some such. I don’t feel so bad not being outdoors on such a day (or evening), as the sun has long since set.

For this blog installment, we start Downeast in Maine…

I grew up sailing the Maine coast, as many of our readers already know. I love it and always look forward to returning.

Acadia National Park is a special place, the first national park east of the Mighty Mississippi. We go there in early spring, we avoid the “madding crowd” that plagues the Bar Harbor area in the summer.

Arnie likes a dark, moody look in many of his images, and this one is no exception. With the delicious, inclement weather that is part of any northern coastal area, it makes for dramatic photographs.

Having grown up in this area, I know fog. I have sailed in wisps of light fog and often in what we call pea-soup fog, it was so thick. One morning, the sun tried to break through and gave this ethereal effect.

Later in the month, we headed for Europe. Our first workshop there was a return to Taormina, Jewel of Sicily. We love this island that does not think of itself as Italian. No, the people here are proudly Sicilian, plain and simple … Sicilian!

We were up on the slopes of Mt. Etna, a source of great wines, waiting for a tasting at a wonderful bar overlooking the valley below us and mountains beyond. I was drawn to this still-life of a simple drain pipe. The angle, colors, textures, and shapes all appealed to me.

Arnie has always been a people shooter. Not that he doesn’t do all sorts of photography, but people in their environment interest him the most. Here, a young boy shows off in what is probably his dad’s Mini-Cooper, all dolled up for a wedding in one of the squares.

From there, we went on to Tuscany, a place we also love to photograph. We call that workshop Romance of Tuscany.

We have a favorite location that always produces wonderful images for our participants and for us. I well remember the first time we went there. I was weaned on back, country lanes, often not much more than two tracks. Arnie was driving, as he prefers that I navigate in foreign countries. I saw a scene I wanted.

“Turn here,” I said.

“Where?” Arnie responded.

“HERE!” I exclaimed.

“You want me to take this car down THAT?”

And begrudgingly, he cautiously started down the simple tracks. Then he saw what I had seen, and we spent the rest of our scouting afternoon there.

Surrounded by wheat fields, there are so many views and ways to photograph these old buildings. Arnie found this view that we had not explored before.

I love the way the late-afternoon light streaks across here and how it makes the Tuscan landscape look like soft, rich velveteen.

Ahhh, Paris. How we love that city. We have been there together many times, and probably even more times before we met. We have both had assignments there, and I spent part of a summer studying French just outside the city. The City of Light truly holds magic for us. It rained part of the time we were there. It made no difference. The light shining of the wet pavement and the stores devoted to umbrellas make it easy to photograph here.

We were sitting at one of our favorite cafés one morning, having our coffee and goodies, and a woman rushed by, her colorful parapluie begging to be photographed.

Arnie found this wonderful scene of a woman arranging the patisseries, the city hustle and bustle going on “behind” her.

Next: Part 3, Back state-side…

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