The End of an Era…

This week two of my best friends Sian and Ferg who I have been lucky enough to work with for the past 2 years out here in the Caribbean have gone home.

They have moved back to the UK (with the cat) to start some very exciting personal and professional adventures and I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank them both from the bottom of my heart. I have progressed in so many ways with the help and support of them both.

While we were sat waiting for the time to pass before I had to drop them at the airport and say our final good byes we took a few shots to with the epic view.

Thanks, good luck and I will see you both hopefully in the not too distant future xx

 

In other news Michelle is going up for the Saint Lucia Carnival Queen 2013. We need your support so if you could follow the link to the Facebook page and like her photo that would be great. The more likes she gets the more points she gets so feel free to share :)

Birthday in Kent

It was my birthday this weekend and I went to see one of my best friends Thom down in very sunny Whitstable. I love being near the sea and love how different it can look in different parts of the world and at different times of the year. I have been on this same beach in summer and had some amazing BBQ’s but this weekend we walked along the coast in two jumpers and a snowboard jacket!

He may not agree with this but I like the fact that we often wake up to the same view, even if it is many miles apart!

Quick thank you to all the boys who came down for our night out as eventful as it was :)

Leon and Alfie

So I am back at home :) and the weekend just gone my Mum, Sister and I went up north for my Grandads 80th birthday dinner. Sadly he was not well for the dinner, he is on the mend now but I wish him a speedy recovery! The weekend was not a complete lose at all we had a great family meal and I got to meet this little fella for the first time :)

This is Leon and he is awesome at blocks! Sadly I am nothing cool to Leon, he is my great cousin (so my cousin’s son) which is a shame but this is the first time I got to meet him and we got on like a house on fire. We played blocks…

Then this awesome game where Mummy was the start line and jumping on me was the finish line…

Now if I mention Leon I can’t forget his little brother who the last time I saw him was Leon’s size and that’s Alfie. He was always a smart little kid but now he can talk and has more energy then a nuclear reactor!

Kat is still bigger then him though!

First weekend down and allot more planned! Was really great to spend some family time with everyone. Jo you have a beautiful family :)

More soon!

Spam!

Hello All,

I just wanted to kindly ask you all to ignore the last post that you received from me. It seems that some how my account has been hacked and a spam message was sent out to you all. I would never want to waste your time with such rubbish. I have reported the incident to wordpress. A big thank you to all of you who messaged me bringing it to my attention.

Now back to my beer :) Have a good day.

 

 

Meadow’s Battery – 1898

When you land at George F. L. Charles Airport in St. Lucia on the left you will see what I now know to be Meadow’s Battery. I have flown into that airport more then a few times now doing the job that I do and I have seen it every time and always wanted to know what it is.

Over looking the harbor, if you waited long enough you could also get a very close look at the planes landing at the local airport.

One weekend Michelle and I had bought some take away chicken and we were looking for a nice place to eat it. We took a drive around Vigie. Up on a hill there are some tight winding roads with some beautiful houses and this old Battery.

The Battery was built by the British in 1898 to defend the island from the French and over looks the Castries harbor. (“Vigie” ironically being a french word for look out) We had a good look around the old abandoned buildings, ammo stores and gun placements looking out to sea then climbed down a bank to have our lunch on our own private little beach that we found. (I am not going to tell you exactly where that is as that’s for Michelle and I :)

A couple of weekends later we packed the kit bags and went back to shoot some of the awesome locations.

I was getting Michelle to walk up and down like she was on a catwalk, shot this one as she was resetting.

We where there most of the afternoon and their are still plenty of other spots we could have gone with amazing backgrounds. Its only a short drive from the airport and well worth a visit if you are around :)

Thanks for reading, don’t forget that magic follow button if you like what you see :)

 

Late Night Caller

After a huge amount of driving dropping Mike off at the airport after an epic 11 day holiday (blog coming soon!) I was in my room getting ready for dinner and I hear this all mighty bang on my door! Then it happened again and again! Recently when there has been a knock on my door I have known exactly what it is. An eager Mike with a towel in hand ready for the beach or a slightly miffed Mike as I have not got up from my daily holiday nap in time for dinner! It could not be either of these as I had just dropped him off at the airport…

I went to the door and found this big guy waiting for me and he was very kind to pose while I lay on my belly to get this shot.
Just a quick one to night, there is more to come soon with lots of exciting news… promise :)

Carnival Time in St Lucia

Its a very special time of year over in St Lucia! Its Carnival Time!

This is my second carnival season in the Caribbean, my first was Crop Over in Barbados which happens during one of the busiest times in the wedding calendar so I did not get a chance to jump. This year sadly with the move to St Lucia and the new job and everything I did not get a chance to join a band and take part. I did how ever know a young girl who did :)

Onika is Michelle’s sister and she did join a band, she had to meet her group out in the cinema car park and then jump with them down the long road all the way to the centre of Castries.

After we met up with her so Michelle could help her with the finishing touches to her outfit we set off up some of the back roads to see her come through the city.

The first stop for the bands is a big stage where they can strut there stuff for the judges and the TV crews.

Then they make there way down through the streets where hundreds of people have turned out to see them.

I have to say I am a massive fan of Caribbean street parties! You get people of all shapes, sizes, ages and everything come out dressed up to have a great time!

Some of the costumes are incredible! Your stood there on the side of the road and you see in the distance a massive pyramid coming towards you with this guy dressed up in the middle. Any costume that is so big it has to have is own wheels is just outstanding :)

It was the middle of the day and the guy looked so hot but he kept dragging his pyramid from one side of the road to the other so people could take photos! Thats commitment!

As always I had some help, this is Michelle’s debut as my assistant and she did a great job getting my flash in the right place for me. There was a moment that really made me laugh though, this guy miss understood what she was doing and thought it was her that was taking the photos so gave her a great pose! And then got a flash on 1/2 power right in the face :s he did not seem to mind too much and its a great shot!

4pm came and we had been out in the sun for 5 hours (Sian I had my suncream on before you ask!) and there was a hold up at the back so sadly we did not got to see Onika coming through but she came ahead with her friend to see us before we left and they seemed to be having a good time!

All that was left to do was get home and go for a well needed swim to cool off!

Next year is deferentially going to be the year! No excuses haha

 

Don’t forget to subscribe :) lots more to come, thanks for reading!

Botanical Gardens in Soufriere

My explorations took me down to the Botanical Gardens in Soufriere. The drive alone is an adventure in itself, one tight hairpin turn after the other with some amazing views as you drive! I would recommend if your in St Lucia and staying in the North hire a car and do it just for the hell of it, it really is an experience. Seriously we need to get the Top Gear boys over here because they will go nuts!

One of the many amazing views on the way down

The Pitons, not sure how they get such nice beer from those things ;)

The gardens where amazing, so peaceful. Halfway into the walk there is a set of mineral baths where you can bath in the water from the Diamond Falls water fall and there they had a board up with some photographs of the gardens after the hurricane and you would not recognize it. It looked like a bomb had hit the place in the photographs. The team have done an amazing job to get it back to what we sore that day!

Diamond Falls water fall

There was wildlife everywhere and after we dried off it (like most of the adventures with me!) turned into trying to get a photo i have never been able to get before!

You see humming birds all over the place in Barbados and St lucia (I once stood out side our studio at The Crane in Barbados in the midday sun for a whole hour because this humming bird kept coming back to feed on these flowers just out side the shop!) and I have always wanted to get that iconic photo of the bird hovering in the air with that amazing wing shape. This fella sat on his branch for a good few minuets and would just not perform but then I have never seen one sit still for that long so still a good site!

Thats it for now, as always if you like what you see don’t forget to subscribe! Also check out The Exchange page as I would be up for that again if anyone else is…