After spending a few days in Florence it was time to meet up with Kevin Kubota and his wife Clare to begin the second leg of our journey – a photography workshop called Secret Italy. Kevin and Clare’s friends Max and Christiana are our guides and have been showing us the beautiful sights of Tuscany. We spent the first two days in Lucca before heading up to Santa Margherita and visiting Cinque Terre. Here are a few photos from the past week or so.

Our journey began on Saturday with a flight from Edmonton to Toronto and then on to Zurich and Rome. We were a little concerned the week before we left that we might not make it to Italy thanks to the volcano in Iceland messing up the skies over Europe. Fortunately, European airspace was reopened earlier in the week and it was business as usual at all of the major airports in Europe.

We arrived in Rome at around 4:00 in the afternoon and had to wait almost 90 minutes for our bags to show up on the luggage belt. Not sure what the holdup was but we were both pretty happy when we saw our bags coming around the turnstile. Our hotel is a brand new hotel called the H10 Roma Citta and it’s located near the Travestere train station which is about a 30 minute bus ride to the main train station in Rome – the Termini. The hotel is very modern and offers free WiFi and a free shuttle into the centre of Rome. Bus service is very close and only costs 1€ and you can also catch the train from Trastevere station to the Vatican which only takes about 10 minutes so it’s very convenient and was significantly cheaper than most of the hotels located near the major attractions in Rome. By the time we got to the hotel we were both pretty tired so we took a bit of time to explore the area, grab something to eat and then headed to bed and tried to get our bodies on Italian time. If you’ve haven’t done a lot of traveling, one tip we can give you to deal with jet lag is to try and force yourself to get on local time as quickly as you can. The longer you drag it, the longer it seems to last. If you arrive at your destination and it’s late at night, try to go to bed even if it feels to you like the middle of the day. Conversely, if you arrive early in the day, try to stay up even it still feels like the middle of the night where you came from.

After having a cappuccino to get us going, day 2 began with a quick ride on one of the buses that run tours of the city . The bus was a great way to get our bearings and figure out where most of the major sites were. After a quick bite of lunch we started our sightseeing at the Piazza Venezia followed by the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. We stopped for dinner al fresco and then headed back to the Colosseum to get some photos of it at night.

Day 2 was highlited by a trip to the Vatican. Sarah and I don’t normally go for guided tours but the lineup to get into the Vatican was almost 2 hours long by the time we got there at 10:30 am so we opted for a guided tour to skip the line. It cost a little more than the regular entrance but we learned so much from our Scottish guide and saved time standing in line that it was worth it. The Vatican and the Sistine Chapel are amazing in their scale and design and learning the history behind it, made it all the more interesting. After spending most of the day at the Vatican, we braved the rain to visit the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain and then enjoyed a fantastic meal at a local Taverna.

Here are a few photos from the trip so far. Stay tuned for more tales of Italy!

Montreal

The year started with a quick trip to Montreal to attend Sarah’s cousin’s wedding. Unfortunately we were only there for 2 days so we didn’t have any time to explore the area but I’m sure we’ll be back out there again soon.

Boston – Photoshop World

I’ve always wanted to visit Boston and Photoshop World provided the perfect excuse for a Road Trip. Although we only had a few days to visit the city, I really loved the vibe in Boston and it seemed to be the perfect size for getting around. In addition to meeting amazing photographers such as Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski, David Ziser, and Joe McNally, we were able to visit the Boston Aquarium, Harvard, Fenway Park, and the JFK Museum. I even tried my first ever bowl of clam chowdah.

Rubbing John Harvard’s shoe for good luck

American flag inside the JFK Museum

Sarah and I taking a tour of Fenway Park – home of the Boston Red Sox.

Attending a wedding photography workshop with David Ziser at Photoshop World.

New York

New York is my all-time favourite city. I would move there in a heartbeat if I was an American citizen and could afford $4000 a month for rent. We took the train from Boston to New York and spent 5 days just hanging out. We’ve been to New York a few times so it was nice to go off the beaten path and explore some areas we haven’t been to before. One of the hilites this trip was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, spending time relaxing in Central Park, and taking in some off-Broadway shows.

Manhattan skyline looking back from Brooklyn.

New Orleans

In July I headed down to New Orleans to attend the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. New Orleans is an amazing city and a place I would definitely visit again. The food is amazing and the live entertainment is among the best in the world. Some of my fondest memories of my trip to New Orleans included walking around in the French Quarter, coffee and beignets at 2:00 am at Cafe Du Monde, touring the areas of the city hardest hit by Katrina and seeing the rebuilding taking place, and a swamp tour complete with gators!

Grandpa Elliot from Playing for Change performs at the conference.

We visited a typical cemetery that you’ll find in the south. Just as we pulled in, an ominous storm blew in.

BAM! Dinner at Emeril’s

Gator up close and personal.

Jasper

Each year Sarah and I try to get up to the mountains for few days to do some camping. We headed up to Jasper with our good friends Chris and Meimi from Calgary and their two girls. While we were setting up camp, a female elk and her baby walked right into our campsite and of course I had my trusty camera at my side to get some great shots (using a 70-200mm and keeping a safe distance of course).

Momma Elk and her baby

Banff – Canmore

Last year for Christmas, Sarah bought me a gift certificate for a photography workshop with Richard Berry – a nature and landscape photographer from Canmore. I finally was able to find some time to book a trip to Banff and take a weekend landscape photography workshop with Richard. It was a great experience and I learned a lot of useful tips for creating better landscape shots. I even saw my first moose in the wild. Hard to believe that I’ve lived in Canada for 36 of my 38 years on the planet and I’d never seen a moose in the wild before.

It was an early start to the day but well worth the 5:00 am wake up call to get the shot.

My first encounter with a wild moose and she also had a baby with her.

Hamilton

Another one of Sarah’s cousins got married this year and we were fortunate to travel to Hamilton to attend and photograph their wedding. Again we had less than 48 hours to spend in Hamilton so we didn’t get to see much of the city but like Montreal, I’m sure we’ll be back here one day soon.

Nadine and Phil’s beautiful fall wedding.

Phoenix – Grand Canyon – Sedona

In October, Sarah and I escaped the cold and headed down to Phoenix so I could attend a two day workshop with the amazing Melissa Jill and her MJ 2 Day Workshop. Afterwards we headed north to visit the Grand Canyon and were greeted by cold temperatures and snow. I guess Arizona didn’t want us to feel homesick. I’ve always wanted to see the Grand Canyon and I was amazed at how “Grand” it really is. We both could have spent days photographing the area. After a few days at the Grand Canyon we headed down to Sedona and next to Near York, this may be one of my new favourite places to chill out. Simply gorgeous and definitely a photographer’s playground.

Sunset at the Grand Canyon.

The red rocks of Sedona.

Whew! What a great year 2009 was for travel and 2010 is shaping up to be just as great. In the spring, Sarah and I will be heading to Italy for 3 weeks. Two weeks will be spent in Rome, Florence, Pisa, and Venice. One week will be devoted to photography and will be spent in Tuscany with Kevin Kubota – one of the top wedding photographers in the world and creator of some of the best actions and add-ins for Photoshop and Lightroom. Spring can’t come soon enough!

Stay tuned for my Year-in-Review slideshow and wedding recap coming soon!

After we explored the Grand Canyon for a few days, we drove east along the remainder of the south rim and then headed back south towards Flagstaff on our way to Sedona. Along the way we drove one of the most scenic stretches of highway down into Sedona and then we were greeted by Slide Rock which is an amazing red rock river bed that you can walk around in. Stunning!

If you love photography and particularly landscape photography, Sedona is your playground and I highly recommend visiting if you get the chance. When I’m not shooting events or providing wedding photography, travel photography is definitely one of my favourite things to do and the Grand Canyon was definitely one of the top sites on my photography "bucket list". My one big regret this trip was that I forgot to pack my polarizing filter with me which definitely would have come in handy when we headed down to Sedona. If I can leave my readers with a tip it would definitely be to check and double-check your bag to make sure you’ll have everything you might need on your travels.

Couldn’t resist photographing this sign.

Obviously this poor grasshopper did not read the sign.

Loved this old sign sign outside of a outside of a photography store in Sedona. We actually stopped in to check out prices on polarizing filters since I had left mine at home and although I didn’t wind up buying anything, the fellow working in the store gave us some valuable advice on where to go to get some great sunset photos of Cathedral Rock. Bonus tip number 2 would be if you’re in a new location and not sure where to go, stop in at the local camera store and ask someone working there where they like to go.

While we waited for sunset, we drove around Sedona and checked out some of the popular tourist destinations. Likely the most unique location was the Church of the Holy Cross which was built in the 60’s and is actually built into the side of the rock cliffs. Truly an amazing piece of architecture.

Finally here are a few shots of the aforementioned Cathedral Rock at sunset.

So I’ve marked the Grand Canyon off my photography bucket list. Next big item on my list is Italy. What things are on your photography bucket list?

Well, it just so happens that this exact thing just happened to me. Yesterday a photographer on Flickr who goes by the name of Skedonk, posted a comment on my blog that he recognized my ‘Cigar Man’ photograph. For those who aren’t familiar with this photograph, I shot it in 2006 while I was traveling in Barcelona. Skedonk indicated that the reason he recognized him was because he had taken a similar photograph of the same guy. Here is his photograph.

He thought that we must have been in the same place around the same time but when I looked closely at the metadata on his photograph, I discovered that his image was taken in May of 2009 whereas mine was shot in 2006. Almost three years apart but compare his image to mine and look how similar our shots are. Even the cigar is about the same length. Only his shirt appears different.

Now the search is on to see if we can identify this man and finally put a name to this ‘famous’ face. In the meantime I’m running out to pick up a lottery ticket.

Here is one of the stills I shot.