My wife and I decided that we wanted to spend a couple of days in the wine country and I cannot think of a better place than The Burgundy region in France. This area has some of the best wines in the world and it was also harvest season and this presented some great photographic opportunities.
We decided to rent bikes for the afternoon and go out into the wine hills and experience this area without a car. For the first mile or so it was easy-going, but then we hit the hills and as we live in Florida, where there aren’t any hills it started to take its toll on us quickly. It wasn’t like we are just going up one hill, that would’ve been easy, but it was up one hill, then down the hill, then up the hill, so it took its toll on us quickly.
The great thing for me as a photographer, was it was harvesting season and all the workers we’re out picking grapes and carrying them to the wagons to be processed. I had to photograph around mid-day, so it wasn’t the greatest lighting, but in some ways, I think it worked well. The harsh light really showed the harsh conditions the workers where working in and I like the way it worked. I always hear how the French are rude to Americans, but I did not see that. Anytime the worker saw that I was photographing them were a big smile and they really wanted to pose sometimes for me.
As this happens to me often, I got yelled at. One of the farmers did not like me taking pictures of the workers faces and gave me a bit of a hard time over it, but it really didn’t matter as I was done shooting by the time I got yelled at.
Next time I go to the wine country in France I will definitely make sure it’s at harvest season make sure I schedule more time for photographing the workers in the fields.
