_I finally made my decision and have compiled my group of photos that I want to exhibit at the New Artist Fair on the 8th - 12th September.  I can’t get over how hard it was limiting myself to only 12! The photo above is a little taster of what will be there.  I shall post another one next week.

This was taken in Portovenere in Italy.  I have to admit I didn’t do anything with this photo for a while as I felt the colour version was a little bland for my liking.  Then I bought Nik Silver Efex Pro 2 and voila - what a transformation!  The software is amazing, this only took me a couple of minutes, incredible!

_The one thing I really enjoy about travelling with my camera is the people that I meet, people that I would never otherwise come across.  For some the camera is a bit intimidating but for others it raises a curiousity and allows an introduction in.  I met this woman in the mountain town of Scanno in the Abruzzo region of Italy whilst she was out for her daily walk. I asked if I could sit with her and we chatted for about half an hour.  I say ‘chatted’, my Italian at the time was minimal and she spoke in a very heavy dialect but I was able to understand that she was 95 years old, had been married since she was 15 and had, a couple of months previously, lost her husband.  She showed me a laminated photo of him she had with her from the funeral with a description on the back of how he was her Angel.  It was incredibly touching.

I am glad I hadn’t taken her photo before talking to her and waited until after, we had made a connection and I think this comes out in the photograph - it is one of my favourites.

_I have just returned from my mammoth 3356 mile drive around Italy, visiting 38 places in 30 days - quite a trip!  It was fabulous, even if a little too hot at times (37 degrees in the shade - not overly conducive to walking up steep roads in mountain towns!)

I put my car on the train in Germany which took me to Alessandria and from there I drove straight to Tuscany where I spent 5 days catching up with my friend and travelling around the beautiful Val D’Orcia region. From Tuscany I drove south to Calabria where I came across a stunning view of a town half way up a mountain, there are some photos in the Italy slideshow.  I then caught the ferry over to Sicily where I spent 10 days in Cefalu, Modica & Taormina, one of my best days was driving up Mount Etna, such an experience.  After Sicily I drove across to Puglia again to see some friends and visit the beautiful region.  Finally I ended up in Piedmonte for a couple of days mixing my time of driving around the amazing landscape and taking photographs with visiting vineyards and tasting a lot of Barolo!!