European Photography Adventures: Saint Emillion, Bordeaux and Archachon, France

After finishing Anna and Anthony's wedding, we hopped in a car and went with the wedding party to a little French town called Saint Emillion, one of the most famous wine-making areas in the world.  The town was medieval, built around a cathedral (gorgeous!) with steep cobblestone roads leading away from the center of town. 

 

We were literally sliding around in our flipflops, trying to navigate through the city.   

Even though it looks like we were able to explore this beautiful place, we actually passed out in our hotel room and slept all day. Bleh.  Oh wait, we woke up later that night and ate the worst meal ever (apparently we picked the one bad restaurant in town).   And then we had to leave early the next day without truly seeing the city.  We were pretty disappointed, but that's what happens when you work a wedding the day before.  Utter exhaustion! 

The only good part of our horrible dinner.

--Getting off track for just a second... Some advice to the traveling photographer--

 Choose your luggage wisely! 

We're not sure if we did. 

 Every time we moved from city to city we hauled around the following:

 -90 pound camera bag with every photography product that folds, bends, or smashes down,

-Boda Bag for quick lens access and Kevin's socks,

-Backpack with heavy laptops, work files, notebooks, and business materials,

-2 rolling suitcases full of wedding clothes and uncomfortable shoes,

-Duffel bag full of bottles of wine and souvenirs for our daughters,

-Purse with maps, water bottles and random crap.

When going from train, to car, to metro (where the escalators NEVER are running and you have to carry all your shit up 10 flights of stairs), to bus, to airport... this is crucial advice.  Sure, you'll have sexy arm muscles but you'll also be in a bad mood and want to kick something. 

Anyway...

We drove from Saint Emillion to Bordeaux.  

Expecting a small town, we were surprised to find a huge city full of people.

Bordeaux is humongous!

We took a tour of old Bordeaux with Anna, Anthony and their family and saw how the city has been changed and rebuilt from medieval times.  They even had an ancient Lego shop, from, like, the 1500s or something.

 

The old Bordeauxians played with large Legos.

 

Waterfront of Bordeaux

 What is a trip to Bordeaux without some wine tastings?  The next day, Anna & Anthony took us on a whirlwind tour of wine country, sharing their knowledge of wines with us.  We had such a great time and learned heaps about French wines.  Seriously, just ask us.  We're pros :)

We even took some bottles home!

The last day in Bordeaux, Kevin went with the group to the sea town of Arcachon, where they laid by the seaside and soaked in some sun.  Afterward, they boarded a boat and sailed around the peninsula to old oyster towns, where they ate fresh oysters, cheeses and meats and drank local wine.  

Thanks again to Anna, Anthony, Anthony's incredibly generous and kind parents, and all the friends we got to know a little.  We had an amazing time with you all!

Up next... SPAIN!

Photography Adventures: Sarlat, Chateau de Lacoste and Anna & Anthony

So, after the whirlwind incredible wedding of Alicia and Shane, we woke up early the next morning for a train ride to Sarlat where we would be staying while shooting Anna and Anthony's wedding.  We upgraded our train tickets to first class because we were exhausted from the wedding the day before and wanted to be comfortable -- but we weren't expecting bunk beds.  We looked something like this:

(Credit to whomever this creative photographer is)

But hey, we slept.

We arrived in Sarlat and were immediately in love. Incredible history surrounded us, evident in the bowing buildings stacked Dr. Seuss-style up narrow cobblestone streets.

Lazy cats lounged in windowsills full of geraniums and wildflowers and the steep avenues had a cold, musty scent that made us feel alive and excited. We hiked around the streets (some of them were steep!) and debated if we should have dinner at that perfect cafe or that one. 

We were in fois gras country, so goose liver signs were everywhere.

But if we thought Sarlat was spectacular, we were utterly blown away by the beauty of the wedding/reception location: Chateau de Lacoste.

From the incredible view of the Dordogne Valley to the rows of fragrant lavender lining the gardens, to the miniature private chapel picturesquely nestled on the side of the hill, this place was breathtaking.

 Anna and Anthony were fantastic, as well as their family and friends that we spent a few days with after the wedding. More pictures of that adventure to come!

Photography Adventures, Continued

We thought we'd be updating our blog every day while we were in France, but that turned out to be a laugh.  We've been so busy!  Hopefully, the photos below will give you some scope for the kind of journey we've been having, which has been, to say the least, incredible.  Our travels have taken us from Paris, to the quaint town of Sarlat (where the movie Chocolat was filmed!), to exploring the medieval town of Sainte Emillion and finally to Bordeaux, where we've tasted wine with Anna and Anthony (our L.A. couple) and been overwhelmed by the beauty of this country.

These pictures are from the first leg of this journey: Alicia and Shane's wedding.
Just a taste :)

The locations are Chateau de Vaux le Vicomte, a stunning mansion about an hour from Paris, and the deck of a yacht sailing down the Seine, where Alicia and Shane had their reception.  Incredible couple, incredible settings, incredible wedding.  More photos to come.

1st Day in Paris

 

Flowers I got for katie (bonus points =) ) & the Key to our Apartment!

 

Louvre

 

Some delicious pastries

 

Lunch, Brie Bacon Arugula & Mustard on freshly baked bread.  White wine to top it off.

 

Espresso only in France you silly Americans with your large watered down coffee!

 Model shoot (or something) happening in the Royal Palace.  Nice pants.  Going to try to get my bride to do this pose.

 

Random Parisian photographer shooting a couple in the Royal Palace.  A very creative/unique wedding dress.

 

This couple looked like fun, but what a terrible pose.  Katie and I were going over all the things we would have done differently while watching that dude pose these guys.

 

Our Apartment.  13 Rue de Lille.  Right across the Sienne from the Louvre.

Today another day off in Paris.  Relaxing, getting caught up on our sleep and the jet lag.  Had a stellar lunch at Au 34.  Rack of Lamb, lima beans, green beans, wine.  Going to go out tonight and....just hang out, drink espresso.  Our first photoshoot is tomorrow evening.  Going to do a pre-wedding engagement style shoot down by the Siene across from Notre Dame, Pont Alexander III and the Louvre.  Big wedding Saturday.  Our big castle wedding.  Can't wait!

Father's Day in the airport

I don't get to see my girls today, so Lux sent about 15 cards for me to read throughout the day, Hazel sent a couple too :-)
On the way to Paris.  It was hard to leave the girls this morning.  I promised to bring them back something super awesome though...so I gotta figure out what that is!
Kevin
K Hulett Photography
www.KevinHulett.com
435-862-9226
Sent from my Epic 4g... sorry for the sperling.



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K   H u l e t t   P h o t o g r a p h y

International Destination Wedding Photographers

K Hulett Photography Website 

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Dixie Arts Conservatory and Our Little Star

Our favorite St. George dance group recently produced "Peter Pan" which was an amazing, creative show. Lux (our oldest daughter) auditioned and made the part of Micheal's teddy bear. We loved all the dancers but Lux stole the show (in our opinion, of course). We were so proud of Teddy!

Check out DAC here: www.dancestgeorge.com

A Kayenta Wedding - Greg & Rachel - May 14th, 2011

You may be able to tell by the date on this blog post, that we are just a tad busy/behind.  But not to worry, this week before we leave for France for 20 days, we're working our butts off to get all caught up.

Here's a few of my favorite so far from Greg & Rachel's wedding in Kayenta on a beautiful May day.  They own Xetava out in the Kayenta art village.  Katie and I's favorite restaurant & coffee shop in St. George.  Their wedding was a blast, more of a celebration/festival than your typical ceremony & reception.   Complete with live music & awesome food.  I'm going to get right to the posting so I can get right back to work.  I just want to add that I'm very thankful to Greg for trusting me with their wedding photos as he was/is a talented photographer himself.  He has been very supportive of our business for many years and I really appreciate that.

I want to say thank you again to Andrew Gawdun for assisting me & Lumiquest who has got our back on lighting equipment which I used for most of these photos as always.