In early February, I was interviewed by the Weather Channel for a sequence on Brazil’s Lençois Maranhenses National Park to appear in their Extreme Weather series. You can see photos of my trip to Lençois Maranhenses in my 2013 travel blog. Regrettably, the video footage they chose to illustrate the sequence was the complete opposite of my experience during my 4-day crossing of the dunes and lagoons. The footage showed crowds of tourists at a poular lagoon close to town, while my trek was all solitude and silence.
The Weather Channel taping took place in Sandy Valley, not far from Las Vegas. I took advantage of the proximity to do some shooting in Valley of Fire.
In late February, I spent a week in Venice, shooting the Carnival. I had long wanted to be part of the experience and it turned out even better than I hoped.
Early March was my 10th year exhibiting at the prestigious La Quinta Art Festival. My six-canopy booth attracted an enormous crowd.
In late April, after the end of my show season, I flew to Amsterdam for a 3-day Keukenhof junket. Tulips were at peak and I had credentials to photograph prior to opening hours so all seemed to be well. Unfortunately, I found many of the spaces surrounding the tulips, and sometimes even the flowers themselves, trampled by people posing or taking selfies.
I also drove to Kinderdyjk, south of Rotterdam, to photograph the windmills.
Next was Mykonos. This was my first time on this particular Greek island; I stayed three days but it was a bit of a letdown compared to Santorini.
I finished this short European tour with a 2-day visit to Plitvice National Park in Croatia, where I was pleasantly surprised to find the lakes overflowing.
During the third week in May, I flew to Vancouver B.C. to shoot the Laburnums in bloom. I was joined there by my friend Greg Vaughn.
During the last week in May, Charles Wood joined me for a Lake Powell trip/shoot to Cathedral in the Desert, Reflection Canyon, and more.
In July, Patricia and I flew to Provence to catch the lavender bloom at Abbaye de Sénanque, Sault, and Valensole. It was a very challenging shoot due to the large number of tourists taking selfies smack in the middle of the fields.
This is Sénanque Abbey
And somewhere near Valensole
We ended up in Cassis where I photographed the harbor...
... and the Calanques.
We then flew to Northern Ireland to photograph the Dark Hedges and the Giant’s Causeway.
We crossed Ireland from north to south to photograph Cobh’s St. Coleman Cathedral and the “deck of cards” houses.
From late-July thru October I was totally immersed in writing and editing the 3rd Edition of Photographing the Southwest Volume 1, to be released in 2015.
October and November were mostly devoted to art shows, with the exception of one week in November to shoot Paris’ iconic monuments: Louvre, Opéra, Tour Eiffel, Orsay, Notre Dame, and more. On this trip, I was assisted by my friend Dominique Blanchard.
In early December, I joined forces once again with Ron Flickinger on a quick trip through Andalusia (Granada, Casares, Cordoba, Sevilla) and Portugal (Lisbon, Sintra and Porto).
Patricia and I (plus dog Skye) capped the year with a short, relaxed road trip through Southern Utah and Northern Arizona, meeting some old friends along the way.
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