Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Home Exchange is the Way to Go



Imagine this.... you're sitting on a tour bus, setting off to another destination that might interest you little.... another church, another ruin, another guide going blah...blah...blah.... and from the corner of your eye you catch this sight:  a beautiful scene of poppies just doing their popping-best in the grove of ancient olive trees... you grab your camera and want to shout "stop, stop I want to get off!!   But you don't.... what would the others think?  And so you tuck this scene into the recesses of your mind, wishing it could have been different.We were on a home exchange with a couple from Istanbul who also happened to have a weekend home on the Karinburin Peninsula where we spent the remainder of our six week holiday (yes, six weeks, not six days)  One day we passed this scene in our car (which we had exchanged as well) and I caught sight of this scene.... I was at  the wheel and could have stopped but didn't.  In the car were friends from Canada who had come to visit and they had not noticed.... So, with a deep sense of regret we continued on our journey..... But the scene in the olive grove kept haunting me all day and through the night.... The next day, I conjured some excuse.... we just had to go and do some shopping in the town nearby that, of course, would take us back to this magic scene.... and it worked!  This time the scene was a copy of the one I had seen the day before:  wonderful light and colour!  This is rare as photographers well know.  The fleeting moment is often gone forever.
But home exchange is different from sitting on a tour bus:  you can linger and go back and revisit and that's what I love about it.