Okay, so I’ll be the first to admit it.  I bloody love travel.  I love the adventure of it.  I love the challenge; and it excites the hell out of me to go and see new places and experience new cultures, meet the people, and eat their food (love the food).  I suppose (and being really honest here) I also get a real kick out of photographing new places.  I don’t know why, but I find it incredibly rewarding.  Getting the shot that you know will “the one” to represent the entire trip gives me a real kick.  Perhaps its vanity, perhaps its the artist in me – who knows?  But I’m not deep enough to spend much time trying to analyse that so lets just accept it.  I tried to find myself once, many years ago, and discovered there wasn’t that much to see – so I find its easier not to overthink these things.  Acceptance is a beautiful thing.

I’ve tried pretty hard over the last 12 months to find some great places; Iceland was truely amazing (I’d go back in a heartbeat), loved Scotland, and Italy; you’ll always hold a special place in my heart.  The trip to Indonesia to dive the Komodo National Park was spectacular and I can’t wait to go back in October to dive the Spice Islands – thats supposed to be mind blowing.  And I miss my Landrover terribly – a quick shot of her just to make me feel better, but that’s not really what I’m writing about – I digress. Read on.

Being forced to focus more on my own back yard over the last few months hasn’t been all bad.  I’m lucky; I live in an incredibly beautiful part of the world and being able to grab the camera and step out my front door to take a few shots has been rewarding.  And I’ve actually got some great shots.  I had a training session with Mike Langford from the Queenstown Centre for Creative Photography and found that inspiring.  He and his wife Jackie are two of New Zealand’s top photographers so if you are in this part of the world and want to shot the best of this region, drop them a line.

So, I suppose the point of the ramble is this; don’t forget your own back yard.  Its easy to get caught up in the romance and excitement the adventure of travel brings, but some of the best photos you might ever take could be just outside your front door on a cold winters day.  Lake Hayes below, a 15 minute walk from my front door.  So its not all bad, but I can’t bloody wait for the next adventure!  Watch this space people.