I had one of the most incredible weeks travelling in style (for once) around some beautiful Greek Islands. I was lucky enough to be invited on as a guest of one of my closest friends to spend a week with her on the cruise ship that she is currently working on. I’m going to be completely honest and say that while I was excited in the lead up, I had never really fancied a cruise holiday and I had expectations in my head that I can happily say, were not met! I thought cruise holidays were for wealthy people, people who like to splash the cash, say they have been travelling when in fact they never got off the ship. I was so wrong! Cruising is for everyone, but because I happen to love travel and the natural world, I embraced every moment and explored everywhere I could, it worked for me! I LOVE being in the field, wearing camo clothing, sitting hours in bad weather waiting for that perfect wildlife shot, that is me. But I must admit, it was nice being able to take relaxed images of my friends with stunning backdrops in a really chilled environment. I am NOT a people photographer, and I’m sure everyone who is can tell by these images. But I like to try new things and being able to step onto deck in the middle of the ocean surrounded by millions of stars, with my camera in one hand, make up on and high heels, well it was something that I really enjoyed! So without further ado, here are my images and the places I travelled! 35.8989° N, 14.5146° E Valletta, Malta. Valletta is Malta's lilliputian capital, built by the Knights of St John on a peninsula that's only 1km by 600m. Its founder decreed that it should be 'a city built by gentlemen for gentlemen', and it retains its 16th-century elegance. It may be small, but it's packed full of sights; when Unesco named Valletta a World Heritage Site, it described it as 'one of the most concentrated historic areas in the world'. Now, meet Jenny, you're going to be seeing her a lot in my images so I thought it only right to tell you a little bit about her. Jenny is 23 and her current place of residence is Oceana. Talk about the ship of wonders! Jenny is working on the ship for 9 weeks in total, running all sorts of fun entertainment for children on the ship. More to come on Jenny as the images progress... I love this little shot of one street in Malta, it's generic I know, but I wanted to photograph it for myself. 37.4467° N, 25.3289° E Mykonos, Greece Mykonos was my favourite Island that we visited on my travels! The streets were beautiful, the ocean crystal clear, the beautiful trees! But, no spoilers for what the town looks like yet, i'll just keep you guessing for now! According to mythology, Mykonos was formed from the petrified bodies of giants killed by Hercules. And did you know that the island took its name from the grandson of Apollo, “Mykonos”? Now, meet Chloe. I met Chloe on the ship, she works along side Jenny and you have to admit she's pretty damn amazing to photograph. Chloe is 19 and continues to work on the ship today for just a couple of more weeks before returning home. I found Chloe really easy to photograph, but I found the best images of her came from when she wasn't paying attention. Like here for example, I got some great images of Chloe stood on the wall, but when she went to step off she didn't know I was still photographing her, and I ended up with this shot! I just love how happy and natural it is! Somewhere in the middle if the Mediterranean Ocean I decided to go against putting my images in order, so i'll just be posting images from all over and jumping back to different places, so read carefully where the image was taken! :D Now then, the stars that I saw in the middle of the ocean sailing between the different locations, were unreal, they really were completely out of this world! What I have found with star photography however is that what is seen on camera doesn't truly replicate what we see with our eyes, this is also what I found when I saw the aurora borealis in Iceland and the coral reefs of Egypt. Editing happens, it's a fact of most photographs. With the aurora borealis (northern lights) the colour is often enhanced, the contrast upped so that it is really clear in the images. with the coral reefs, colour is pumped up to replicate what gets lost the deeper into the blue you go. And the same goes for stars. While we spent a lot of nights up on the crew deck just gazing at the stars as we sailed silently on, we saw the milky way and the millions of other stars, but the image here is where I have heightened all of that so that it is visible to everyone that little but more. This shoot was originally a sunset shoot. We had literally just missed the sun drop below the horizon so it got dark pretty quickly, however when the stars came out, they didn't look exactly like this to the naked eye. I want to stress that I have edited the image so everyone can see what we were seeing. And can you believe, a beautiful girl in a stunning red dress just happened to get in my way! Only joking! Jenny look unbelievable on this evening - it was formal evening on the ship where we dressed in ball gowns for our evening meal. I have to say this night was so magical and beyond anything I had ever experienced, and what better way to end it than standing at the stern of the ship and watching the stars as they began to appear in their millions! 36.4341° N, 28.2176° E
Rhodes, Greece. Another location now. Rhodes is yet another beautiful island where the old town truly is the character of the place. Rhodes Greece is the largest and most popular island of Dodecanese. With 300 days of sunshine per year, Rhodes island is mostly famous for the romantic Old Town and the amazing beach resorts. The Old Town is among the best-preserved Medieval Towns of Europe, with strong walls, an impressive castle, paved paths and elegant stone mansions. And of course, what photograph wouldn't be complete without Jenny?! Jenny loves exploring and is an experienced traveller, clocking up some miles around the world with the places she has visited.
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