Back in 2007 I spent a wonderful day at a Jola’s initiation festival in The Gambia, West Africa. While taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the festivities, sitting on a rug under the shade of a tree with friends, one of the girls asked if she could plait my hair. Much to her frustration my hair would not do as it was told and refused to stay plaited! We had a great time chatting and laughing while she persisted but to no avail. She was a bright, cheerful little girl but this week’s travel snap shows a different side to her – a proud young daughter of the Jola tribe.

More about the day and a few more photos can be found in a previous post ‘Singing, dancing and some very loud bangs’.

This week’s travel snap takes us back to the island of beauty, Corsica and the lovely village of Agajola. I’ve visited several times and stayed there for a few days while on assignment for Corsican Places photographing the area. It certainly was a great base from which to explore la Balagne. This shot is my favourite from a series I took at different times of the day from just outside my hotel, looking back at the village and the sweeping bay of sand, known as Aregno Plage.

Photography Tip – Nightscapes

Usually, but of course there are always exceptions to the rule, the best time to take a photograph of a view by night is about half an hour after sunset when there is still some light in the sky but it is dark enough for an effective night shot. Find the spot from where you want to take your photograph, set up your camera on a tripod and wait. You will need a very long exposure so to avoid camera shake when you press the shutter, so use a shutter release or set the camera on timer. There is usually about a ten minute window when the light is just right. If you are looking east that window will be a little earlier then if you are looking west as there will be more light in the sky where the sun has set.

Travel Photo Roulette

This photograph is also my entry for Round 42 of Travel Photo Roulette: theme ‘evening’. Entries must be in by 11.59pm Monday May 14th. Do check it out; there are some really amazing photos entered so far. Glad I don’t have to pick the winner!

More about Algajola

You can read more about the area in my post Algajola and exploring La Balagne (written originally for The Corsica Blog.)

In my recent post ‘In my grandmother’s footsteps’  I explained why I have started saving for a trip to China and I’d like to share with you a few photos from a number of albums my father still has from the thirties.

I’d also like to make a request, if I may, I have entered Intrepid Travel’s latest competition and would really appreciate you checking it out. It’s a long shot, but the prize would enable me to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps to Shanghai. So if you like my entry please vote for me. Why not enter yourself and if you do please do add a link on the comments here -  I’d love to read it. You can vote for as many entries as you like (although only once for each entry). Plus everyone who votes or enters gets 15% off an Intrepid Travel adventure.

You can vote for my entry and submit yours here.

My grandparents and father in 1935

China around 1930

Father making new friends on holiday in Japan

My father on holiday in Peitaiho, North China, 1937

This week’s travel snap is a shot I took while visiting Arundel’s Wildfowl and Wetlands Centre in West Sussex, England. There are many beautiful birds there to photograph but one of my favourite images from the day was of this mallard, a very common duck in England. I love how this shot has captured the movement of the water as it passes over the wings with a shower of water droplets hanging in mid-air.

Photography Tip – Get Low

As well as needing a very fast shutter speed to freeze the movement, rather than looking down on the duck you’ll get a better shot if you get to their eye level, right down, lying on the ground with you camera balanced on a bean bag. This shot was taken with a 200mm fixed lens and 1/1600 shutter speed.

In 1927, at the age of 23, my grandmother boarded a boat to China following the man she loved to Shanghai.

The Inspiration Initiative
I’ve enjoyed reading other people’s recent posts about what inspires them to travel so I was delighted when both Suzanne from The Travel Bunny and Lucy from On the Luce nominated me to join in easyJet holidays’ Inspiration Initiative.

The idea is to write about ‘who, what, where and when’ has inspired you to travel and then nominate 5 other bloggers to do likewise. So here is just some of the things that have inspired me to travel.

Bubbling Well Road, Shanghai 1928 curtesy of Northampton Museum*

Who… Grannie
As a little girl I used to love listening to my grandmother tell me tales from her travels. Her fiancé had moved to Shanghai in 1925 to take up a teaching position. Two years later he sent for her to follow. I can’t imagine how my great grandparents must have felt about their daughter going off on such an adventure! The journey took weeks by boat rather than hours by plane as it would now and of course there were no mobiles, emails or skype to keep in touch with love ones.

They married in Hong Kong and then lived in Shanghai, where my father was born, in Bubbling Well Road now called West Nanjing Road.

Grannie’s stories about her life in China transported me to a world of haggling in the markets, holidays in Japan, visits to India and sailing on the Queen Mary. I remember laughing and squirming when she told me about her cook who had one really long finger nail; she was always telling him off because he used it to stir and taste his cooking! Last weekend I spoke to my father about what he remembers about growing up in China. I’ll share it with you in another post. It really is quite a tale.

What… Souvenirs and old films
The painted plates, vases and intricately carved furniture showing scenes of the orient that filled my Grandmother’s house in England fascinated me; pretty scenes of cherry trees in blossom, willow trees hanging over little bridges with figures in strange costumes. These and watching old films like Casablanca made me wonder what it would be like to go to far away, romantic sounding places like Timbuktu and Mandalay collecting exotic souvenirs as I went.

One of my photos of Kerala taken on my second trip to India with Annie. There are more photos on Flickr.

Where… India
Another person who was a big influence on me was Annie, one of the designers/photographers I worked with producing holiday brochures when I first started working in the travel industry. Every year we’d spend a few days together selecting images for the next seasons brochures. While there, Annie would also show me photographs of her big passion, India, telling me all about her travels. When she invited me on a trip to India I couldn’t resist. It is the most exciting country I have ever been to: the hustle and bustle of Jaipur, the calm serenity of the Kerala backwaters, luxury and poverty side by side, vivid colours and patterns everywhere. Over the next few years I found Annie an inspiration on many different levels and she encouraged me greatly with my own photography. I don’t think she has any idea just how much she influenced me, both professionally and personally. Thank you, Annie!

Here’s a link to another photo I posted from Kerala that had a few people hankering to pack their bags! Drifting along the backwaters of Kerala

Tanji fish market, a place I will take my friends to on their first visit to Africa

The Gambia
The company I work for now specialises in West Africa (amongst other destinations). I had only ever been to North Africa before so it has been wonderful to get to know another part of this great continent, in particular, The Gambia. Even though each trip is relatively short I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve been and it has given me the chance to get to know a place in more depth. I now have many friends there and I’ve got involved with two Gambian schools. Back home I’ve founded a choir singing songs from around the world including many from Africa. We raise money to help the schools and some members of the choir now wish to visit The Gambia. So later this year we will be off. Most of them have never been to Africa before so it will be quite an adventure for them. I plan to make it one they will never forget!

One of my images of Corsica that I hope has inspired others to visit this beautiful island

Corsica
Another place I have returned to a number of times is the beautiful island of Corsica but I have yet to explore the interior. I’d love to take the train from Bastia to Ajaccio stopping off for a day or two here and there to enjoy the mountain villages and scenery. I’ve heard that the train ride itself is a real treat winding through the mountains, tunnels and gorges, at times hugging the cliff face, other times plunging into forests. At one point it traverses a valley via the enormous Vecchio viaduct, engineered by Gustave Eiffel. There is even a superb waterfall known as the bride’s veil which overhangs the railway before the train meanders through the lush green foothills to Ajaccio.

A few people have told me that my posts and photographs have inspired them to add Corsica to their ‘bucket list’ which is wonderful. I even heard today that my photos had inspired someone to buy a camera, which I was extremely pleased to hear!

When… Aged 10
My first journey abroad was at the age of 10, when my sister (aged 12) and I caught the ferry to France where we’d be staying with a French family for the week. It was very exciting being allowed to travel by ourselves on the ferry – not quite a “Slow boat to China” but an adventure non-the-less. It was a wonderful experience (apart from what looked like raw mince that they tried to feed me; I was somewhat less adventurous than I am now when it came to food!)

And now…
I’ve been blogging through ‘Travel with Kat’ since last September and I have really enjoyed receiving feed-back from fellow bloggers and reading their inspiring posts too. Suzanne from ‘The Travel Bunny’ has certainly got me hankering to visit Hoi An, Vietnam.

Lucy’s blog ‘On the Luce’ is another one of the many blogs I really enjoy following and I’ll be looking to her for some inspiration on my forthcoming weekend in Paris.

Recently I was lucky enough to meet and interview travel writer Frances Linzee Gordon. Her tales of travelling solo across countries such as Morocco, Ethiopia and Yemen are fascinating. She believes that you should never refuse an invitation while travelling. She goes by her instincts and uses her three-second rule of maintaining eye contact with a stranger to see if she thinks they are trustworthy. She is certainly a very inspiring lady! I have done some travelling on my own before but Frances has certainly spurred me on to step that little bit further out of my comfort zone. Perhaps I should now make the journey to Shanghai myself and walk down the street that was once called Bubbling Well Road. I wonder what my grandmother would make of today’s Shanghai. Yes, I really must go and have an oriental adventure of my own, walking in my grandmother’s footsteps!

My nominations…

Madhu, The Urge to Wander

David & Veronica, The Gypsy Nester

Sherry, Fabulous 50′s

Cynthia, Hapi Dayz

Jennifer, My Sardinian Life

Links

*Northampton Musem on Flickr

India photographs on Flickr

Gambia photographs on Flickr

Corsica photographs on Flickr

As regular readers of my blog will know the beautiful Mediterranean island of Corsica is one of my favourite places and the laid back, pretty, seaside town of L’Ile Rousse is one of my favourite towns.

This week’s travel snap is of a charming backstreet just a couple of minutes’ walk from the beach; the perfect place to find a great restaurant, souvenir or ice cream after a hard day’s sunbathing!

As with last week’s snap this is an HDR image but this time I’ve chosen to go for a less subtle but what I hope is a more artistic approach. Again I’d really value your feedback – good or bad, as I know HDR photography is not everyone’s cup of tea! See the unaltered and uncropped original on Flickr.

If anyone would like to find out more about HDR photography why not join me and the twitter friends I’ve made at ‘togchat’. Held every Wednesday at 8am and 8pm BST simply check out the tweets using #togchat. If you want to join the chat simply add #togchat to your tweets. There’s a different photographic theme each week and next week, Wednesday 2nd May, is HDR photography. You can also find the group on Flickr and submit photos for critique and questions about HDR photography there too.

This week’s travel snap is of the hotel Marine Club on the island of Boa Vista, Cape Verde (about 400 hundred miles off the west African coast). I can remember thinking how wonderful it would be to sit at the end of this pier sipping a cocktail as the sun went down. Unfortunately I was only there for a couple of hours photographing the hotel for the Cape Verde Experience before moving on to another one during a one day visit to the island but it was still a glorious day.

The air was fresh and the sea and sky so blue and clear. I’ve saturated the colours quite a bit in Photoshop as this is how I remember it and how the view made me feel – full on colour. I’ve also tone-mapped it in Photomatix (which I’ve just started using) to even out the extremes in contrast. How the final image looks to you will of course depend on your monitor and how it is set up but what do you think? Do you prefer a less saturated and (possibly) more natural image or do you like it in its fully saturated, tone-mapped glory?

Last summer I discovered the Weed and Wild Flower Festival in a little village in the Sussex countryside. A wonderful fantasy woodland had been recreated inside Bignor’s ancient church. I can’t imagine how long it took to build (or clear up!) but the effect was stunning.

When I first got there the church was packed but later in the day I went back and managed to get a few photos with it fairly clear. There was plenty going on outside the church all weekend including craft and local produce stalls, guided walks, a medieval village and a woodmen’s display area demonstrating traditional crafts. Typically English cream teas (a cup of tea plus a scone with cream and strawberry jam),  lamb roast and Ballards beer could all be enjoyed sitting on the lawn of the vicarage next door while listening to classical and folk music groups. The vicar even did some poetry reading. The highlight of the weekend on Saturday evening saw jugglers, fire-dancers and a host of other entertainers brighten up the churchyard.

This week’s travel snap… a lovely English village fete with a twist!

While staying at the Borgobianco Resort and Spa in Puglia last month, Laure, from the hotel, was kind enough to show me around the nearby town of Polignano a Mare – first stop – the workshop of Peppino Campanella.

On Via Conversano, perched on the cliff tops overlooking the Adriatic on Italy’s west coast, is the home and workshop of one of the town’s many famous sons.

As I walked out of the dazzling sunlight into the shaded interior, one by one a host of sparkling lights greeted me as each was brought to life with a flick of a switch. These exquisite works of art adorned the walls and hung down from the ceilings all around me as Peppino, sat in the corner, quietly polishing a piece of glass.

Peppino trained and worked as an architect but having made a friend a stunning light as a gift, requests from friends and relatives for more hand-crafted lights came flooding in and slowly the one took over from the other until he made his living entirely from producing these dramatic lighted glass sculptures. Peppino sees glass as “solid water” and admires its ability to transmit light. His aim is to create atmosphere, evoking elements of nature rather than to illuminate a room.

The birth-place of many renowned artists and musicians, including the singer Domenico Modugno, Polignano is to this day also renowned for producing some of Italy’s finest ice-cream for which the name Campanella is also associated thanks to Peppino’s grandfather who was renowned for making the very best. He passed on his knowledge to other members of the community who keep the tradition alive today and every Sunday residents of the nearby city of Bari still flock to Poliganano for an ice-cream at Mario Campanella “Il Super Mago del Gelo” opposite the gateway in to the old town or Bar Turismo, Traversa Pompeo Sarnelli, 7, which is now reputed to have the best.

15 years ago, Peppino, transformed his grandfather’s ice-cream parlour into his studio where I now admired the most stunning collection of lights I have ever seen. In high demand from exclusive hotels and the finest shopping emporiums, as well as private homes, the name Campanella is now equally famous for these works of art as for the art of making ice-cream.

In the studio fascinating sculptures by Simone Bellotti from Bologne can also be viewed including a stunning dragon standing sentinel on the cliff top terrace looking over Polignano’s bay possibly on the lookout for the infamous pirates that used to raid these shores.

I must admit I am quite envious of Peppino. Not only is he able to make a living from doing something he really loves but he is able to work in the most stunning setting. From the studio large double doors open on to the terrace overlooking the bay of Polignano as the dragon will attest to – a truly stunning location. Peppino is currently transforming the rooms above his studio into a home and with the same stunning views as the terrace I can only imagine it will be a delight to live there whether enjoying the Italian summer sunshine (while enjoying a scoop or two of home-made ice-cream) or watching the waves crash against the cliffs below during a winter storm.

Having taken a break from my weekly travel snaps to host Travel Photo Roulette (which I really enjoyed by the way)  I’ll now return to my weekly posts featuring one of my photographs from my travels.

This week… Ostriconi beach, in the north-west of Corsica. The view looking down over the beach is simply stunning.

At the view-point from where I took this photograph last June, if you turn a little to your right you will see a river gently winding through green pastures with a backdrop of mountains (and of course that wonderful blue sky) until the river reaches the sweeping bay that is Ostriconi beach. It was so lovely I couldn’t stop taking pictures in both directions!

The only way to reach the beach is to hire a car (or bicycle), find the small turning off the N1197 to the beach, then find a parking space which is not easy at the height of summer, climb down the hillside, ford the river, walk across the sands and voilà, you’re there!

View Larger Map

See more pictures of Corsica, including the view from here inland on Flickr

Read about my travels in Corsica and other Corsican ‘Travel Snaps’ here

Holidays in Corsica from Corsican Places