Weekly Photo Challenge: CULTURE / Travel Theme: LIGHT

“People are like wine, some turn to vinegar but the best improve with age.”

Pope John XXIII

LIGHTING THE OENOPHILE’S DREAM

I’ll admit this week’s Photo Challenge was just that for me, a real challenge.  Having done some wonderful traveling I was tempted to focus on one of the many interesting indigenous cultures I’ve seen.  But then I thought about the many places we’ve been and one aspect of our journeys kept recurring – the love and culture of wine.

INVITING

“Wine is bottled poetry.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

This could of course be because my husband is a true oenophile (one who loves and appreciates wine according to Wikipedia) who seeks out vineyards, vintners and fine wine wherever we go.  Often this leads us to some of the most beautiful countryside, and to interesting conversations with strangers with whom we share an immediate bond (and usually a few glasses as well!).  I sometimes feels its a fair trade for me to focus on talk of wine-which is really not my thing – in exchange for the many hours my husband tolerates as I happily photograph the world around us.

PINOT TO-BE

We have sampled some wonderful wines here in the US, as well as in our travels throughout Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and of course France.  Our journey through Provence last summer was perhaps the best blend of our passions.  Between the amazing wines at every stop and the numerous vineyards dotting the countryside, my husband and I were both in heaven 🙂

LA VIEUX VINEYARD

BETTER WITH AGE

 For a photographer, it is well worth enduring the seemingly never-ending details of why a particular wine is better than any other, or how the various qualities of the soil can influence the wine’s bouquet, in order to get to the challenge of shooting the musky, dark cellars of the vintners.

TOMORROW’S BOTTLES

“A bottle of wine begs to be shared.”

Clifton Paul Fadiman

Like an oenophile, I could go on and on with some of my favorite photographs of wine and vineyards, but I fear that like me, you have about reached the limit of your interest!  So I will close with some favorite shots and nod to Ailsa with a reminder that neither oenophiles nor photographers would be anywhere without the lovely sunlight that feeds the grapes and the subjects of our lenses 🙂

VINEYARD ON A SUMMER’S DAY

VINEYARD IMPRESSION

“There’s a built-in romance to wine.”

Padma Lakshmi

To see more Weekly Photo Challenge entries, click here.  For more responses to Ailsa’s Travel Theme, click here.

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Tags: Where's my Backpack

• April 27, 2013
• Photography, Weekly Challenge, WINE
• 121 Comments