Boat trip – A One Shot Story

I took this photo around Easter 1999 during a 12-day boat trip from Narbonne to Beaucaire via the Canal de la Robine, the Canal de Jonction (Aude), the Canal du Midi and the Canal du Rhône à Sète. We had travelled by motorhome from western Germany to the south of France, near the Spanish border, and had hired a 12-metre houseboat in Narbonne, which could be steered without a boat licence. At the end of the trip, 12 days later, our motorhome was available again for the onward journey. All this with two adults, an 11-year-old boy and our dog, a Newfoundland, who showed off his swimming skills to us during the trip.

It was all new to us – we’d never steered such a long boat before, there were countless locks to navigate along the route, and none of us spoke French, but it all worked out. We had brilliant weather throughout, travelled through stunning countryside, and over the Easter holidays we left the boat in the harbour at Le Grau-du-Roi, which lies right on the Mediterranean, and chilled out on the beach.

Right up until I left, I was busy with work, and as is often the case, there were unexpected urgent tasks to deal with, on top of the preparations for this longer trip – after all, following the boat trip, we were going to be travelling on in the motorhome for a good week. So, to cut a long story short, I hadn’t got round to sorting out the film to take with me. It had to be colour film, of course; the family wanted printed photos quickly. However, my preferred films were out of stock in three camera shops, so I inevitably had to take several rolls of ‘Konica VX 400’ with me on the trip. I was sceptical; I’d never before taken colour photos at over ISO 200, and on top of that there was the hoped-for holiday sunshine on the Mediterranean. I’d heard of Konica cameras back then, but Konica film?

As I mentioned earlier, it was a wonderful time; the films were taken straight home to be developed and usually printed as 10cm x 15cm photos. Before picking them up, I was more nervous than usual, but I was happy with the results and – more importantly – the rest of the family were too.

19 years later, I had the negatives scanned at a minilab so I could view them on a screen. Here is a photo that I personally like very much. Many others who saw it in another photography community liked it too. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything – if you know what I mean – which is why I’m showing it here as well and putting it up for discussion.

The photo shows the Canal du Midi between Poilhes and Colombiers in France.

Equipment:
– Nikon F-801s
– Tamron SP 35-105mm F2.8 Aspherical
– Konica VX 400
– Scan (2005×3024) im Minilab (2018)

Thank you very much!

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