Bordeaux City is built from limestone dug from under the vineyards of St Emilion. The city is extremely visitor friendly and was home to one of the best holidays we have had.

South Island, New Zealand is one of the most photogenic parts of the world. The people are great - although there aren't many - and the countryside is spectacular and varied. The weather is always an issue, but I love clouds, so this worked for me.

Doubtful Sound is the most spectacular place I have ever visited. We took a ship overnight. South Island, New Zealand. Unfortunately, I set my camera to JPG instead of RAW for most of the trip, and so many of my images are irretrievably blown. Now, I only shoot in RAW and with Lightroom improving all the time, many images survive my bad settings as well as difficult lighting conditions. 

Note the red beak of the male and his dramatic plumage. This photo was taken in Northern Natal, South Africa at the Nambiti Game Reserve.

I found it amusing to see some wildebeest charging off, startled by something, while others hung about. Northern Natal, Nambiti Game Reserve.

This part of Bordeaux, on the right bank of the Dordogne River, is famous for its merlot based wines, grown on limestone. This stone has been quarried extensively and forms the building material of much of Bordeaux.

This spectacular village is well worth a visit.

These rocks are found at Kei Mouth, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Pineapple fields, Mauritius.

Leaving from Point aux Piments (Chilli Point), North west coast of Mauritius, between Port Louis and Grand Bay.

Cooling down after sailing up the west coast of Mauritius. Mon Choisy, North West Mauritius. Also called Mont Choisy.

This is an upstairs dormitory of a building forming part of an orphanage complex in Pamplemousses, Mauritius, dated 1865.  

Making the Image:

I took a RAW image without a flash, exposed for the windows. This left the room very dark. In Lightroom I created a copy and increased the exposure in this second image for the room, resulting in over exposed windows. I then combined the two images in Photoshop, masking the windows in the second image. After flattening the two layers, I converted the PSD file to a TIFF in Topaz Adjust, and applied the Heavy Grunge preset, toned down 50%.

Click on Abandoned Orphanage for more images, or Blog, for words plus images.

Three islets north of Mauritius. Gunner's Quoin (popularly referred to as Coin de Mire) in the foreground. In the distance, Sugar Loaf (small on the left) and Flat Island that starts big and then stretches low across the horizon, used as a quarantine station during the 19th century.

Returning to Grand Bay after a lazy Sunday on the water with friends.