"Photo Essay," Multi-Week Photography Assignment for July 2011 - 7 August 2011

[keithsnell]

I'm posting this photo essay in a forum thread for Luc Bigler:

We spent our holidays in the North of France, in the Champagne area. Herein lies a knight's tale:

Comte de Champagne (1201-1253) and king of  Navarre, known as Thibaud le Posthume is the most renouned of the counts of  Champagne.



He represents the archetype of the mediaeval lord: valiant chevalier and gentleman poet.



He contributed to the art of poetry and song at the court of Louis IX, leaving to posterity a remarkable variety and quality of poetic work.  



He participated in the sixth crusade, leaving behind him his fortified town of Provins (this here is actually Sedan)



and well built castle


When he returned in 1239 he brought back with him the Damascene rose (still cultivated today) and a vine called 'Chardonnay' without which there would be no champagne.


The Benedictine monks of Saint Nicaise in Reims dug out the cellars below the abbey in XIII century (first used as a quarry by the Romans and as a shelter for persecuted Christians in IV century) in which to store the wine they developed from the Chardonnay grapes. To reach the lower levels the visitor descends first to 12 metres below ground (constant temperature 12°C) and to reach the quarry area to 20 metres (constant temperature 10°C).



10 millions bottles (ranging from 5dl to 15 litres in size!)



are stored in 4 km of passage ways


After the stiff climb back up, the opportunity to taste the precious drink


The end result of the crusades? is not likely to be refused. The remaining question: to buy or not to buy?!

[marilyn]

I love the artsy nature of the images, Luc!  It's a great history lesson too.

[burzilai]

Thanks Keith,  Im having trouble embedding/uploading the slideshow in my blog, and I really don't want to make another format for that, so let me find ways how to upload it and then provide the link, i didn't like the you tube upload coz of the degraded quality , it was hard to read the text part,  hmm i might have to re-do it so I can share it here. wish me luck , we have until tomorrow to upload 

(I think posted this on the wrong thread, i dont know how to delete it )

[RebeccaSnell]

Luc,

So neat to see the 'riddler' racks of champagne lining those passage ways - when I toured another winery in R, they told us they periodically 'turn' the champagne in those racks to keep it from settling to one side of the bottle or something like that.  I loved those racks and my brother and I found some at an antique store in France and brought some back here to store our wine!  Beautiful story and very artistic pictures- thanks for sharing.  Wish we could have been with you - I love touring wineries with so much history -- one day, we'll get back across the pond to visit your area!

Rebecca

[RebeccaSnell]

Pratt County Fair - Girl and Steed against the Heat

The kids and I were very excited to finally get to see my niece, Tori, compete in what they call the 'horse games' at the Pratt County Fair.  It is a 4-H event where you compete in barrels, flags, poles, and keyhole.  We arrived in time to see Tori compete in poles and keyhole.  All the 4-H'ers and horses did an amazing job given it was about 104 degrees that afternoon.  Thankfully, they had a nice shady area to wait in and shaded areas for the spectators to watch from!  With a bit of a breeze, it really was not that bad.



I first must say a big thanks to Uncle Tom for providing great entertainment for McKenzie as she was not as captivated by the events as Evan and Grandma (below).



Tori's turn finally came up for poles - a slalom type event where the rider weaves the horse through poles, turns it and weaves back through then to turn and race for the finish line.



Tori was looking great, but then she clipped one pole, you could see the disappointment in her face.



With determination, Tori completed the poles event with a good time - unfortunately, the penalty for knocking the pole added to her time.  
 


Tori and Rebel charged toward the finish line after completing the poles.



The highlight of the day for Evan was getting to ride with Tori in the competitors' area between events.  
 
But, then it was back to work for Tori and Rebel.  



Tori and Rebel race off toward the start line for the keyhole event  
 



Threading your horse through a keyhole is no easy task in this heat.



Tori got the horse to do a 180 pretty fast and headed back through the keyhole.



Tori and Rebel race for the finish line in the keyhole event.
With the keyhole event completed, it was finally time to relax and McKenzie's turn to ride Rebel.  



After some coaxing, Tori convinced Mac to ride with her -- Mac loved it.



Nice relaxing ride after a hard, hot day.
 

 

 

 

 

 

[burzilai]

Thanks Keith,  Im having trouble embedding/uploading the slideshow in my blog, and I really don't want to make another format for that, so let me find ways how to upload it and then provide the link, i didn't like the you tube upload coz of the degraded quality , it was hard to read the text part,  hmm i might have to re-do it so I can share it here. wish me luck , we have until tomorrow to upload  
(re posted)

[burzilai]

Rebecca, luv it. I like the collage style of the photos.

[Luc Bigler]

Thank you Marilyn and Rebecca for your comments. Yes, Rebecca, they periodically turn the bottles and change the angle so that the sediment goes to the neck. They then freeze the neck of the bottle, open the cap and the sediment shoots our with the pressure that it built up and then cork and cap. This has to happen within a few seconds, otherwise they lose too much fizz (a layman's explanation!). All this is done by hand. This explains (partially) the price of good champagne.
For the record: It was my wife who put the story together  real teamwork!

[Ribot]

School starts in Omaha next week.  When the schools start the public pools close.  The cool thing that happens here is that on the last day at some of the pools the last two hours dogs are allowed to swim.  We have a two year old yellow lab that weighs 95 pounds.  Well everyone knows that labs love water so we figured this would be great fun for him.  We decided to take him.  There was some discussion about how busy the pool would be.  My wife said busy.  My two sons and I thought it would not be bad.  This pool had a parking lot and we still had to park three blocks away and walk to it.

 
There were all kinds of dogs there.  Even a few pit bulls.  Leroy, that is my dog’s name, was interested.  He walked up to the edge and stepped out into the water.  I think he thought it was shallow.  The lowest point in this pool was four feet deep so he went in over his head.  He wasn’t expecting that.  It dampened his enthusiasm immediately.



It appeared to me that maybe two thirds of the dogs lacked enthusiasm.  Owners tried all kinds of approaches to coax their dog into swimming.



I am sure that this lady was reminding her Newfoundland of his water loving heritage and how his ancestors saved many people from watery graves.

 

And I am sure that this young boy was explaining to his dog that since he was wearing a life jacket he was safe and he had nothing to worry about.



 I heard this man talking.  He was reasoning with his German Shepherd.  Talking to the dog like they were equals.  The dog didn’t believe a word that he was saying.



Some people did meet with success.  I think this Rottweiler would have walked across hot coals to get his ball.  Favorite toys seemed to work for a number of people.



Some dogs truly disliked the water.  Some showed great resourcefulness.  Like this fellow.  She might have had him in five feet of water in the middle of the pool but that didn’t mean he had to be in the water.        

[marilyn]

This is hysterical!!  Great capture of dogs and their human companions for this event!

All of the photo essays were so much fun to read and view.  I couldn't always figure out how to comment if I missed commenting before a new one went up.... This is going to be interesting to see how you set it up for voting, Keith! 

[RebeccaSnell]

Excellent narration and photos on the dog and pool story!  Love what you said the owners were discussing with their dogs and I think you nailed it what the dogs were thinking back!  Just love how the picture of Leroy coming out of the pool caught the words "no pushing' on the pool deck --I'm sure that is what Leroy was thinking as well!  And, perfect ending shot -- that was just classic!

[keithsnell]

Arizona Storm Rolling In



Full Force

[keithsnell]

it's MY rabbit!
First of all, we love bunnies. Well, the cats do too - just not in the same way. Zorro showed up at our front door with plans to bring the trophy inside. When the reception wasn't all he hoped for he moved back into the yard, protecting his catch from a very interested rival.

[sue.pepin]

Ribot - I just loved the pictures of all the dogs!  I think this is my favorite by far.  Great captions.  I think the last picture says it all.  What we don't do for our pets.

[carola]

I am a sucker for dogs and I loved both the photographs and the commentary.  My 3 dogs would not swim if I paid them.