I remember hearing about the Chernobyl disaster when I was (much) younger.  Being at the height of the cold war, information surrounding the event was a fraction of what’s available today and what information was around didn’t pique my 10 year old interests all that much.  There were vague hopes of evil mutants and a series of super powered heroes to battle said mutants, but on the whole thoughts of the event didn’t interfere with my hectic schedule of cartoon viewing and video game playing.

As a teen there were always jokes about Chernobyl and it was just another tick in our favour used as an example of why a democratic system was better than a communist one.  How an industrial disaster relates directly to social systems I’m not sure, it was just one of those times you nod your head and agree with the adults.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve wanted to visit the area ever since I discovered that one could visit about 5 years ago.  The radiation levels were deemed safe for short term exposure and I’d seen some amazing photos and stories posted online.  If nothing else, I imagined it would be a cool day out shooting something that won’t be accessible for much longer.

In reality, the trip was fascinating and sobering at the same time.  Accorcing to the video we watched on the 2 hour drive out, the official death toll from direct exposure to the incident (during the explosion or post disaster clean up and containment) was only 28.  A quick search shows numbers up to 250,000 being tossed around but obviously when you’re dealing with this sort of thing it’s impossible to tell.

What is more tangible and no less sombre is the fact that a city of about 50,000 was evacuated and never allowed to return home.  I think this bothers me more because the city I grew up in was the same size at the time.  It makes it easy to relate.  The ability to go back home whenever I feel like it is something I’d never considered a privilege (if you want to call visiting Medicine Hat a privilege that is); I couldn’t help but think what those people must have gone through.

I’d gone expecting a fun day out doing some urban exploration but it ended up being a lot more reflective than I’d ever anticipated.  It was certainly fun, but a lot of that had to do with the guys I was out there with.  As a photographic outing, I think the trip was amazing and should be experienced by as many people as possible.  If you’re thinking about it, the sooner the better as we were told that they will be restricting the buildings you can visit before the end of the year and before long they won’t allow anyone into any of the buildings due to their deteriorating state.

As an eye opening experience to what the people who when through this faced the tour was unmatched.

The rest of the photos from Chernobyl and Pripyat can be found here.

Our first official holiday together and we choose (at length) the tiny, volcanic island of Santorini.  It seemed warm enough for an early May holiday, romantic enough for couples and most importantly, there were direct flights from London.

We had an amazing 5 days, zipping around the island in our cabrio Smart car visiting the various historic sites and shopping centers.  I think this was the first place I’ve been to where the souvenir stalls were almost all unique, so I actually enjoyed browsing the shops for once.  Usually tourist destinations have hundreds of copies of two distinct shops: t-shirts in one & location specific memorabilia in the other.  Think fridge magnets and shot glasses.  Though I shouldn’t complain about shot glasses, as I try to pick one up from every place I go to.  Santorini had them as well, but I managed to get a unique, hand painted one here.

Our hotel was brilliant!  The owner was more than helpful and you could really feel his love for his island in all of the small details of our 5 day home.  The pool was constructed to resemble the shape of the island (complete with raised bits to stub your toe on), he’s created copies of the famous churches (pictured below) and windmills, and even went so far as to create a three dimensional scale replica of the island itself.  All of the towns were labeled and the roads depicted with great care.  We’ll definitely be staying there again when we return.

Anyway, I took a LOT of photos during our trip.  So much so that my battery died on the second to last night (halfway through a 2 hour star trail exposure).  Of course I didn’t have a backup battery or a charger, so we made ample use of Danni’s little point & shoot camera for our final day of excursions.  I’ll know better for next time…all of the time spent reviewing images sure puts a drain on ones battery.

Here are a couple of my favourite shots from the short week.

There are a lot more photos in the gallery here.

In an effort to get out of London with Danni over the Easter holidays, we hopped on a train first thing Monday morning headed to Dover.  The plan was to do a bit of hiking, enjoy the weather (if possible) and see the famous white cliffs of Dover.

The camera was along and I did take quite a few photos, but most of them include Danni in some fashion and she doesn’t want me posting them just yet.  There aren’t many to show, but here’s a little taster of the day.

Once again, the fine folks from POTN and I set out for a day of photography.  This time the destination was Rochester, Kent.  I don’t recall who selected the destination as it seemed a bit random, but they had a nice cathedral and the lion’s share of a castle remaining to attract some photographic attention.

I did sneak into the crypt of Rochester cathedral for a couple of light orbs as well.  Ok, so it was open to the public and there was no sneaking involved, but it was still a very cool venue.

After the excitement of the castle and cathedral and when I’d felt said excitement had peaked, we headed down to the Medway Festival of Steam.  Honestly.  There were some interesting steam powered contraptions lumbering around, but not really my cup of tea.  It was down at the rivers edge, which gave me a chance to play with some really long exposures and shoot these boats through a bit of welders glass.

You’ll find a few more images from the day here.  There are also images from the other photographers on the POTN site here.

Robert, Victoria, Min and I left work early Thursday evening to hop on board the Stansted Express (complete with self supplied champagne and mini-cakes) to catch our Ryanair flight to Turin.  From there, it was a sleepy transfer to Valle d’Aosta and the Pila ski resort.  We had some amazing spring skiing on Friday.  Sunny, empty slopes and plenty of runs to keep us all entertained (even if Min & I did get a bit lost at one point).  Day two…well, we got a lot of fresh snow on day two!  The visibility was sub-par however, but at least it kept the runs empty.

As always, the rest of the snap shots are in the gallery.