It was middle of October 2009, the weather was great and the prices for accommodation were still at the low season. I asked myself what better way to spend the time then to head out for a road-trip along the Princess Highway and the Great Ocean Road. With little persuasion required, Wendy jumped in the car and we headed out on a week long adventure.

Along the way we encountered some very friendly cockatoos, beautiful light on Australia's famous coastal vistas and managed two days in the Grampians National Park on our way back to Canberra. We stuck to camping along the coastal route, turning up to places that caught our eye. We had a wonderful time and found a few places that we definitely would like to revisit in the not so distant future to both enjoy and photograph in different types of light.

Following are some of my selected images from this road-trip:

Great Ocean Road 2009 - ( see more )

Quite some time has passed since I photographed my last wedding and over the past years, I have turned down quite a few requests from people wanting to hire me as a wedding and portrait photographer. Fact is that I wasn't ready nor was I in the right headspace to jump back into this type of photography until now. However having covered a friends wedding recently in Melbourne, I found that I derived a great sense of enjoyment and satisfaction from being offered the privilege to assist a couple in documenting their commitment to one another.

This was then followed by several portrait sittings and requests for photography by my friends in Canberra, making me realise that once more, this was the type of photographic work that gave me as much enjoyment as travel, adventure and stock photography, inspiring me to put myself out there. I still don't intend on making weddings and portraits my specialty, but I do believe that offering this as a service compliments my folio, adding further diversity to my work. My current coverage for wedding photography isn't limited to Canberra where I am currently based but also extends to Melbourne and Sydney. I have put together three key wedding photography and portrait packages with several options such as large one meter wide stretched canvas print, guaranteed to help you remember that special day in style and with taste.

Head to my commercial services site, BlueSoul Photography to see the complete range of my photographic work and the breakdown of all of my services.

Finally the following images provide examples of some of my most recent portrait and wedding work.

Floriade is a flower and entertainment festival held annually in Canberra's Commonwealth Park featuring extensive displays of flowering bulbs with integrated sculptures and other artistic features. The festival attracts tourists from around Australia and overseas in spring from mid September to mid October each year, and is considered the most important regular event for tourism in the Australian Capital Territory. It is also called "Australia's Celebration of Spring".

This event started in 1988 as a one off celebration of Canberra's 75th birthday and Australia's bicentenary of European settlement. However even after this and due to the success and popularity of the event, it has run every year since then with each year having a new theme and is currently the largest flower festival in the Southern hemisphere with over 300,000 visitors each year.

Following are some of my selected images from this years Floriade:

Floriade 2009 - ( see more )

In June 2009 we came back to Canada to stay at Wendy's parents house in Brucefield, located in Huron County, Ontario, along the shores of Lake Huron. This vibrant rural community is the most agriculturally productive county in Ontario.

Due to my coming together with Wendy I've established a long lost connection together with my father, whom I have not seen for over thirty years and only met once when I was ten, and his two sons, whom I have never met, other then a few brief email exchanges. Thus during our three month stay in Canada in 2009 and following an invitation from Teresa, my fathers second wife, I've flew across to Georgia, Atlanta to meet the whole family. This also turned out to be a great expirience and well worth the trip.

Following my return from Atlanta I attended a ten day Vipassana meditation course in Barrie, after which I rode across four counties of Ontario and back home using my favorite mode of transport, my mountain bike. The counties that I rode through included the Simcoe County (middle mountain terrain plus lots of mosquitoes), Grey County (unexpectedly high mountain passes and killer headwinds), Bruce County (the lowlands with rollings hillsides) and the Huron County, the home of Wendy's parents or as I like to call it the "vibrant green flatlands". The distance I covered ended up being 460km with average riding days being from 9am till 6pm.

My start point was Egbert, ON and my end point Brucefield, ON. I rode on a steel frame mountain bike and carried clothes and food supply to last me around a week, bar water of which I had 8 liters with frequent refills. I also brought with me my small hiking ten from Oz and my sleeping bag. Most nights I pitched my tent wherever I could get away with it, but I did spend the first night in a motel in Orillia and two other nights in Ontario's provincial parks. I meet some great locals along the way and had a fabulous time exploring Canada's Ontario region from the seat of a mountain bike. I also rode across several closed railroad tracks now converted into multi use trails. I mostly stayed off the provincial highways, using as many backroad sections as possible.

Coming back to Brucefield, sore and tired, I took a weekend off and then commenced a five day B&B cycle tour of the Huron County together with Wendy. Our Average distance covered was 40km per day with the total ride being 220km on what proved to be a blast and a physical challenge for Wendy. She did however pulled through with flying colours!

Our time in Canada came to a close at the end of August 09, when we boarded a plane in Toronto back to Australia, Sydney and via Los Angeles.

The following are some of my selected images from this time in Canada:

Canada - ( see more )