When I first started blogging I “attended” a useful Blogging 101 course run by WordPress. I got to know some great people and bloggers from around the world and became friends with some of them.  John Steiner is one such friend. He writes on his blog PhotobyJohnbo. It is, as he calls it, some reflections on places traveled and photos taken or simply Journeys With Johnbo. John recently reviewed my book, Undercover: Operation Julie – The Inside Story, after he won a free signed copy in a competition I ran here.  He also asked me to provide him with a guest post. I obliged. One of John’s great passions is flying and here he tells us all about it. Enjoy! But I Digress… Always Vigilant… Read More

Back to lightning! It has been a theme of mine this week after I witnessed the spectacular reds and oranges of the distant heat lightning here in the Philippines. So, that proves lightning strikes twice 🙂 Let’s see what there is on the National Geographic website. Follow me! Streaking from a sky as red as the earth, lightning strikes the famous dome-shaped, sandstone monolith Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Australia. “I had heard a lot about how beautiful Uluru should look when it rains,” writes Christoph Schaarschmidt, who captured this image. “But I never believed that I would see it with my own eyes because the Red Centre of Australia is a very arid area.” Both of the above… Read More

This black and white photo is one of my favorite images of all time. I love black and white photographs. They simply seem more interesting than color.  Perhaps it’s a nostalgia thing? This photo below captures both the beauty of a black and white image and my love of football. I was probably about 8-years-old when I saw this pic in my Dad’s newspaper. I was big into scrapbooks at the time and I cut this photo out and pasted it into my football scrapbook. My Dad wasn’t amused as he hadn’t finished reading the paper 🙂 He was a well-known footballer of that era. See the Secret Content box below to find out his name and the club he played for. This pic below… Read More

There is nothing in life more enjoyable than friends and family. These pictures are of my family in the Philippines. I am a lucky man. So what better than friends and family as the theme for this week’s #FavFotoFriday? The photos also show my good friend Phil from England with his Filipina girlfriend, Marilyn. Her home is close to Dumaguete and Phil was visiting there recently so an opportunity arose to go and meet them. An opportunity I was not going to miss. You may also note many of these photos involve food! The people of the Philippines love to eat! And, so do I! One of my other favorite pastimes is drinking beer as you can see. San Mig Pilsener agrees with me 🙂… Read More

Nikon is a Popular Choice Among Cafe Blogsters Nikon appears to be the ‘go-to’ camera of choice among members of the Facebook group Cafe Blog.  It is a group for bloggers that met during  either Blogging 101 or 201 run by WordPress. Allow me to introduce you to four blogging members of the group. They appear in no particular order. I asked them to collaborate with me for this post. The brief was to write about their camera and/or lenses and accompany the blurb with one pic taken with that camera. First up is Robert P. Doyle of Soundtrack of a Photograph. I use a Camera-Nikon D3100 (though I also still shoot film occasionally which is a Nikon N80). My lens is a  18-55mm typically, though I… Read More

Whale Ahoy! Friday again! Tempus Fugit! Weekends are synonymous with having a whale of a time so what better subject than whales for this week’s #FavFotoFriday? A customary thanks once more to Sandy of Scribbles and Musings for inspiring this weekly feature. You will hear more of Sandy over the weekend! These pictures were all shot on a whale watching trip off Cape Cod. It was an eventful day especially when a whale actually did appear. It brightened up what was otherwise a gray day. It was a typical sunless North Atlantic day and reminded me of being back in the UK. It was a humpback whale.  This is what National Geographic has to say: Humpbacks are powerful swimmers, and they use their massive tail fin, called a fluke, to… Read More

Playtime Playtime is everyone’s favorite time right? And playtime is the theme for this week’s #FavFotoFriday. Thanks once more Sandy of Scribbles and Musings. I love the pic above mainly for the cheeky grins on their faces. It was taken with a point and shoot compact proving you don’t need expensive DSLR’s to capture a fleeting moment. Back to my Canon DSLR (EOS 40D) for the shot above. It was 40C in Perth and the best place to stay cool was in the pool. Kinda pool kool 🙂 I have a thing about water droplets frozen by the shutter speed. I like the effect. The shot below was proof that kids love playtime. They had a mass dive-bombing of the pool to see who could make… Read More

España España is the focus (pun intended) of this week’s #FavFotoFriday. Here is my now customary thank you to Sandy of Scribbles and Musings for the inspiration. España or Spain to many people is a wonderful country. While living in England it was easily accessible and I visited on many occasions. It is a country that for many Brits conjures up images of beaches, sombreros and cold beer. The beaches are fine but my favorite parts of España are to be found inland. To be exact, in the mountains. The mountains of Spain provide a welcome relief to the heat of the coast and major cities. It has cool clear air and the scenery is unchanged from what it was centuries ago. The shot above was taken in  Albarracin…. Read More

Karting is a great fun day out. Karting is also the theme for this week’s #FavFotoFriday and once again I thank Sandy of Scribbles and Musings for the inspiration for the series. I did take part in the day’s events and drove in two races. It was exhilarating despite the atrocious weather. At one stage it was touch and go whether the organizers were going to cancel the racing but it went ahead as you can see. Once I had driven in my races I donned my weatherproofs and climbed on to the media platform used by cameramen (and women). I was alone that day so maybe the weather had something to do with that? The waterproofs weren’t just donned by me. It was bucketing with rain… Read More

Nature is the theme of this week’s #FavFotoFriday series. Thanks once more to Sandy of Scribbles and Musings for inspiring me to run this series. For the purpose of today’s post the meaning of “nature” will be given a broad interpretation. The above picture was taken looking out to Navarre Beach on Florida’s Panhandle coast. It was the onset of a tropical storm. One moment the sky was blue and a typical fine Florida day, then everything suddenly went black as if there had been an eclipse of the sun. There was not a breath of wind and the birds stopped singing. It was eerie and a reminder of the power of nature. The pelican was probably hungry! It appeared to be waiting for the fisherman to reel in… Read More