Travel Archives, page 3

These posts are about the act of traveling, moving from one place to another, often going someplace to see something.

Leaving France by plane

Flying over a boat in the Mediterranean
Flying over a solitary boat in the Mediterranean

After two satisfying weeks with Stephanie’s family, we were on a plane, flying home to San Francisco. It’s funny because it was at exactly the same time last year—almost to the day—that we boarded the Hanjin Palermo for the final leg of our journey around the world. That we’ve been back in the US for a year—a year!—did not go unobserved.

Rue de l’Orbitelle, Entrevaux

Rue de l'Orbitelle, Entrevaux, France
A table and chair on Rue de l’Orbitelle

Together with her mom and aunt, Stephanie and I took the narrow-gauge Train des Pignes to visit the medieval walled city of Entrevaux. After stopping first to visit the town of Annot, we arrived in Entrevaux just in time for lunch. In true French fashion, our basic three-course meal at L’Auberge du Planet stretched out over two hours, leaving us less than an hour to explore before our train left for Nice. So we neglected the citadel perched high above the town, preferring instead to wander in the shade of Entrevaux’s narrow streets. Which was all well and good, as it was blazing hot that day.

Preemptive jetlag

Last Thursday, Stephanie and I set off on our annual pilgrimage to France. In the hopes that we’d acclimate to the nine hour time zone difference sooner, we spent the week before the trip waking up two hours earlier than usual, and then four hours earlier on the day of our flight. But of course we couldn’t just sit around the house in the dark waiting for the sun to rise. Which explains why we were wandering around San Francisco at 4am.

South Beach Harbor in San Francisco before dawn (black and white)
South Beach Harbor before dawn (previously)

The Golden Age of Air Travel

I was wrong. Turns out Virgin America doesn’t need a darkroom onboard for me to post film photos from the air—if they were taken on a previous flight! I’m presently headed to New York for business, but these were shot a few weeks ago en route to Indiana for my grandmother’s 90th birthday celebration.

Black and white photo taken in the air above SFO
In the air above SFO, just after take-off
Black and white photo taken in the air above scattered clouds
Scattered clouds somewhere over middle America

Inflight, black and white

I thought this would serve as a nice counterpart to my first and second inflight blog posts. However, until Virgin America provides both a darkroom and a negative scanner (in addition to wifi) on all their flights, I won’t be posting these from the air anytime soon.

Window seat shot taken with Leica M3 and Tri-X
Somewhere over the United States, en route to San Francisco

As an aside, this shot is from the first roll of film (#5) I’ve had developed since the camera and lens were CLA’d by Youxin Ye.

In other words, delayed gratification photography is back!