Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 lens - 1/125 sec, f/9, ISO 100

This is effectively a panorama shot wrapped around to look like a mini planet. I almost have it perfected but one of the things you must do is ensure there are no objects in the top or bottom of frame when you shoot them. The lamp post and tower just managed to fall in the zone when wrapped.

It was taken in Madrid two weeks ago when Claire and I celebrated our one year anniversary.

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens - 8exp (1/4 to 120 second), f/16, ISO 100

It took a while but I finally finished processing the remaining honeymoon pictures. This was our suite at the hotel. It was taken from the window in order to get as much "room" as possible in the frame.

Like lots of my recent stuff, it is HDR. I'm starting to get the hang of it - like most post production the trick seems to be don't overdo it....

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens - 7exp (1/250 to 0.8 second), f/16, ISO 100

I'm currently sorting through thousands of wedding and honeymoon pictures so this is just a taster. It's an HDR of the resort beach on Desroches Island. More to follow soon...

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-f/4.5 USM lens - 1/60 second, f/4, ISO 100

This is what was behind the camera... As the chalet is hanging on the mountainside there is a huge vertical drop just outside these windows. The view is spectacular and not for people that get vertigo. You can see the whole of Meribel and you feel like you are sitting in a bird's nest.

Photography wise this is the shot I'm least happy with because it doesn't have the same level of colour saturation as the others (I tried but it ended up looking fake). Also, in this series I used quite a severe vignette to focus attention on the centre of frame which gives them a bit of a 70's feel (especially with the decor).

This is the set complete. I hope you like them. There are a couple more in my Meribel 2008 set which I won't blog about. Next time I'll post some architectural shots taken whilst photowalking around Bournemouth.

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-f/4.5 USM lens - 1/6 second, f/4, ISO 100

As I mentioned yesterday, the chalet we stayed in was rather unique - built hanging on to the mountainside. The entrance is at the top of the building (behind the chimney in the picture). The precarious landing and steps are not child friendly either. The living space is at the level you see here with rooms on the floors below. The fireplace dominates the room and, as the steps to the right of it indicate, has a sunken seating area in front. The really spectacular feature is behind the camera - tomorrows shot.

I've done a fair bit of processing with all these pictures as the light was truly awful for photography - dull and grey. The chalet itself was quite dark under these conditions and any shot with a window in instantly blows out the highlights. All the internal chalet shots are a blend of multiple exposures taken from a single RAW file.

Canon 400D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L lens - 1/4 second, f/22, ISO 100

It's been a couple of weeks since we got back from skiing but things have been hectic with the wedding planning so I haven't had much time to process the pictures. I didn't take many because a bulky SLR is not the best thing to carry if you might take a tumble on the slopes. There are more in Claire's photostream.

This one was taken from our chalet. You will see from the next few in the series that it was rather unique and had some specatcular views.

Canon 400D, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-f/4.5 USM lens - 1/80 second, f/9, ISO 100

The second of two reprocessed shots taken in Egypt this year. The reprocessing really was just to bring it back to how it was in reality.

This was at the other end of the day with the sun disappearing over the mountains behind Sharm-el-Sheikh airport. As the sun dropped out of sight you get these rays of light in the clouds due to the difference in angle.

Canon Digital Ixus 500, 1/400 second, f/2.8

This photo was hastily snapped just before we dived on Jackson Reef. It's about 5am in the morning; the early start was so we could see the sharks that are around this early.

This is one of a collection I've re-processed with Photoshop.

Claire and I are just back from a week in the Red Sea scuba diving. We had a fantastic time diving wrecks such as the Thistlegorm and the multitude of reefs around Sharm el-Sheikh. We even had a close encounter with a school of hammerhead sharks. I completed my PADI Advanced Diver qualification.

The full set of photos are on Flickr as usual but I also managed to take a little underwater footage below. Not the most exciting piece of video ever but it's a start.

[Edit: Google Reader won't allow soapbox embeds so I've added a link to the video.]

OK, I took a few pictures whilst we were away; approximately 19GB of pictures... Hence it's taken a little while to process and upload them all. Anyways, for those that are interested I've narrowed the selection down to 500 or so of the best ones and put them on Flickr. You can see them here.

The whole trip was fantastic, managing to fit a little bit of everything into the two and a half weeks away. We drove from Cape Town to East London and back then spent a couple of nights in Clarens, Free State. A total distance of about 2200 miles.

In detail, the trip looked like:

6^th April 2007 - 06:35 Flight to Amsterdam, arrive 08:55

10:30 Flight to Johannesburg, arrive 21:00

Airport Grand, Johannesburg Airport (The room was very small)

7^th April 2007 - 10:00 Flight to Cape Town, arrive 12:10

Nelson’s Guesthouse (Lovely place, great views, well located)

209 High Level Road, Sea Point, Cape Town, 8005 Tel: 021 4332602 Cell: 0728 752077

10^th April 2007 - De Oude Ryneveld (Right in the center)

71 Ryneveld Street Stellenbosch 7600 Tel: 083 2984 856 Cell: 083 2984 856

11^th April 2007 - Tranquillity Lodge (Great getaway)

130 St' Michael's Avenue, Nature's Valley, 6602 Tel: 044-531 6663 Cell: 0832 645221

12^th April 2007 - Stumble Inn (Fantastic theme rooms)

31 Princess Alice Drive, Nahoon, East London, 5201 Tel: +27 43 735 3532

13^th April 2007 - Inkwenkwezi Game Reserve (Really good private reserve)

15^th April 2007 - Stumble Inn (again)

31 Princess Alice Drive, Nahoon, East London, 5201 Tel: +27 43 735 3532

16^th April 2007 - Yellowwood Lodge (A little old fashioned but very nice)

18 Handel Street, PO Box 2020, Knysna 6570 Tel: 044 3825906 yellwood@global.co.za

17^th April 2007 - The Highstead Manor (Serviced apartment for 4)

Crn Highlevel Road & St.Johns Road, Sea Point'fresnaye' 8060

Tel: +27 21 4396040 Cell: +27 837 629121

20^th April 2007- 09:40 Flight to Johannesburg, arrive 11:40

Mt Rouge Guest House (Corrie du Preez) (Very peaceful)

152 Bester Street , Clarens, Free State Tel: +27-58-2561207 Cell: 0725129707, 0827827208

23^th April 2007 - 23:30 Flight to Amsterdam arrive 24^th April 10:20

24^th April 2007 - 12:05 Flight to London Heathrow, arrive 12:30

This picture was taken last week overlooking Courcheval 1850. I spent a week with friends in a fantastic chalet run by Ski Power. My skiing is improving but unfortunately Claire fell on her first run of the week. She broke her arm which meant she was out of action for the whole week. Kudos to Norwich Union for sorting everything without fuss, paying the blood wagon directly and even getting an extra seat on the plane next to Claire.

We had to go quite high for decent snow because down in the towns it was distinctly spring like and at times more like water skiing than snow skiing.

As usual I've got a few more pictures which you can find on Flickr. If your a friend or family then there are some additional ones to see as well.

Much better than the one from a few weeks ago.

I'm sitting on the train ready to return to England, my Wi-Fi detector says there is a wireless network but alas my computer can't find it. The meeting itself was a success but hard work when English is the second language of everyone else at the table. You have to be careful that you really understand what is being said. Plenty of white board pictures help. The funny thing is acronyms - it was a technical meeting so they were abundant but again the language differences play a part. For example, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) is SVI (Server Voice Interactive) in French.

The rest of the trip has had some ups and downs. Eurostar is excellent, almost a hop-on hop off service which beats waiting in an airport for a couple of hours. There is still immigration and customs. In fact I almost missed the out-bound journey because I didn't take passport checking into account.

I don't know Paris at all well so on arrival I tried to get a cab to take me to the hotel. The cab driver wouldn't take me though - too close. So he gave me directions: "turn right at the second set of lights, walk until you get to a bridge, turn left and its down that road". I set off in the direction he pointed and tried to follow his instructions. Well it turns out you need a bit of confidence to walk for a mile or so in a strange city without even knowing if you are going in the right direction. I made it to the bridge and checked the street sign - it wasn't the same street as the hotel address. At this point I bottled and hailed a cab, gave the driver the address and he said "ah, its just on this street" whilst giving me a strange look. He took me and I'm glad he did because it was about a mile "just down the street".

The hotel was a typical Paris affair - a converted building with creaky lifts and tiny rooms. Only just enough room for the bed in fact. Cosy I think they call it. The major problem was the lift shaft was right next door. See how much sleep you get with one of those going all night. The following morning I did actually walk all the way back to the station. I was planning the hail a cab but I couldn't find one until I reached the station.

With the meeting over, the train left the station half an hour ago; I'm now watching the French countryside hurtle past at 160 miles/hour wondering how long the battery life in my tablet is going to last. I just wish I had some network connectivity because it's been two days and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms. I just need to check my mail, read some blogs and see if I've had any referrals, then I'll be happy again.

As a separate note, I have a Tablet PC (bought mainly because of Robert Scoble's evangelism) and I find it funny that wherever I go I have to give a demonstration (closely followed by "Ooh, I love it. How much?". This trip was no different and I'm pleased to say that the handwriting recognition works even when I write in French. Also, One-Note is rapidly turning into a killer app for me - you can doodle in meetings using all the colours and pens provided to create some really great art.

I have a business trip to Paris tomorrow and Wednesday. This is a new customer who has some pretty cool ideas on how they want to use our products. They are very knowledgeable about the issues and technology involved so it should be a fun meeting. The challenge will be to satisfy their requirements within the constraints of our system.

Travel time is approximately two hours, much quicker than flying. I don't suppose EuroStar has fitted their trains with wireless hot-spots?