For those of you that didn’t know (and like to keep up with my travels), I was lucky enough to take a vacation in Wales earlier this summer. Wales is my fathers home, and it’s a beautiful country. I have travelled to Wales, off and on, for almost 30 years. Of course, I didn’t always have a camera with me, but this last time my energies were directed towards capturing as much of this beautiful landscape as possible. My cousin, Windsor Morgan, is also a photographer, so he and I set off, with a carload of Nikon goodies, to tackle the experience of North Wales. Over seven days we chalked up about 1100 miles, covering the interior of Snowdonia National Park, all the way to the coast, and even a stop in the south of Wales, St. David’s head, on a day trip. Some pretty incredible pictures were the result, as some of you have already seen.

An adventure such as this one is never accomplished alone, so I would like to thank all the people who helped make this trip a reality, especially Jan and Windsor Morgan, my Welsh cousins who run the best little bed and breakfast anywhere in the U.K. out of sunny Aberystwyth, Wales. A big shout out goes to my sister, Daryl, who loaned me a North Face fleece (thank god she did, it got freezing during the night), and my mom, who bought me the Zeiss 25mm which I used to capture a great many of the beautiful landscapes you see in the Wales gallery. All in all my gear performed as well as can be expected, and although I took a dunk in a local stream, my cameras and lenses were none the worse for having tackled such an incredible amount of different kinds of shots, in all possible weather conditions, from extremely cold, to extremely hot, in rain and in bright sun, over the two weeks I was in country. Good times.

Anyways, remember when I promised to blow you away...

and



Happy Birthday Dave!

Tags: wales, landscape, travel, zeiss, castle, snowdon, dave birthday

canarvon castle


south stack, ynys mon


in the graveyard, bryn gloch


angel sunset, aberystwyth


fishing the high lakes


dirty job, ffestiniog railway


fairlie's patent, ffestiniog railway


mini steamer, betys y coed


tree and rocks

Tags: landscape, wales

People are obviously getting ready with their plans for Europe this time of year. I personally love Greece in the early summer. The people, the food, the street photography, and the laid back attitude of the whole country all make it wonderful to visit. There are some good suggestions in this thread at dpreview, and my own contribution:

You are in for a real treat, greece has the best light, architecture and street shooting I have ever come across... its a photographers dream, almost anywhere you go. I want to say +++ to all the suggestions already made. They are all great. I have some other things to tell you, but pictures are better than words, no?

http://homepage.mac.com/taran/artist/hellas07

and just bw:

http://homepage.mac.com/taran/artist/hellas07bw1

All shot in greece last year. In athens, visit the Plaka, anytime day or night for great street shooting. Its in the middle of town right next to the parthenon, you could walk there from the Syntagma station and get some nice shots along the way. Here is a good map of athens:

http://www.athensguide.com/map/athens.htm

and the metro (best subway I have ever been on, and the best way into town from the airport):

http://www.cretetravel.com/... .../Athens_mini_guide-Metro_map.htm

If you make it to Santorini (for the others visiting greece and also you if you get to make it there ever) you are best just to skip Thire (where you will arrive) entirely and camp out in Oia (another smaller more pictueresqe town on the edge of the island) all day. You can get there easily via cab (@13 euros/each way) or bus (probably ok this time of year, but season starts soon, and its just not worth your time then). I can recommend the seaside hike of 11km between Thira and Oia, you can't get lost and its the best way to fully grasp the beauty of the island. The path is well marked, but make sure to bring a good set of hiking shoes/boots and maybe a walking stick, as the path is quite rocky and uneven due to the volcanic nature of the island.

Tags: greece, travel, landscape

Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. Special thanks to Bill Mesce and the Friends of Fakahatchee. Water level in the swamp was pretty good considering the lack of rain this year. Looks like the downpours of a few weeks ago really helped.

Tags: orchid, fakahatchee, bird, flower, landscape

There are four pieces this week and two pieces next week for my spring collection, a lot of work went into these. The first examples are florals, "øfaded lilly", "ghost 08bw", and "lilly tryp". The last one is a classic Florida landscape/cloudscape. I can humbly say I would be proud to have any of these on my wall. @12*18 inches, hahnemuhle "torchon" paper or japanese rice paper. These will be the last pieces at the 2007 price. My prices are going up slightly this year as I move to a better inkset and printer. 30 day money back guarantee.

Tags: flower, ghost, landscape, loxahatchee