Scouting shooting locations all the previous day, I was absolutely enchanted by the beautiful lavender fields in the Provence region of Southern France. When I woke up early the next morning to photograph sunrise though, I almost pinched myself to make sure the colors were actually real. When the first sunlight hit these rows of lavender, the soft golden rays transformed the already beautiful hues into something straight out of a fairy tale. The first and last five minutes of light are absolutely spectacular.

Naomi and I were the first ones on the scene at 5:15AM and shortly after, a bus full of 30 Korean photographers quickly unloaded and set up an arsenal of tripods and cameras. They were a friendly bunch and we all exchanged smiles and laughs, clearly excited about the potential sunrise ahead.

When the sun began to rise and this scene unfolded, one of the older gentlemen looked at the rows of lavender, put his arms out and said in a awestruck voice, “kamsahamnida!” As a result, most of the group burst into laughter and applause. Stuck in the same moment of joy, I just couldn’t help myself. I started to clap and with a smile I said, Kamsahamnida!”

On another note, sorry it took me so long to post the final version of this photo. With my shooting schedule here, we were averaging around 4 hours a sleep per night. That didn’t exactly leave much time for post-processing. 😉

If you missed the moment between, you can find it here.

Colors of Valensole || France