UK-based illustrator Rowena Dugdale has been experimenting with polaroid and pinhole cameras lately, creating stunning images.  “Like the delicious static on a vinyl record, any dust specks, light leaks, torn edges or quirks are an integral and honest part of the process and character of this body of work and have been deliberately left in rather than airbrushed out.”

She uses objects around her – marbles, feathers, fern fronds, moss and buttons – to create ethereal, light filled photographs. The results are incredibly beautiful…

Rowena’s images have taken me back to my days at university, when I spent hours in the darkroom, lifting paper out of the smelly chemicals and hanging them to dry, wanting to burst out of the darkness to view my latest creations. One of my absolute favourite processes was making photograms, where I’d bring in things from my home, compose a vignette and play with exposure times. When I am back in Australia I will try to find some for you to show here on the blog.

Click here to read and view more of Rowena’s work, and here to purchase her creations  –  a wonderful gift idea for someone who loves photography.

Last night was the final episode of Ray Mear’s Northern Wilderness. It was set on the west coast, around vancouver island and on the mainland. The scenery, as always, was breathtaking. Among other things Ray went berry picking, hand carved a lid for a cedar box, was taken to a sacred island to view an ancient totem pole, made a beautiful basket from the bark of a cedar tree,  stood underneath a cedar estimated to be around 2000 years old, and cooked halibut in little leaf parcels, in the sand, on the beach.

A medley of photos from my times spent on the west coast of Canada. And yes, that’s me in the kayak, with short hair,  about 4 years ago. The sunset is on Chesterman’s beach, Tofino, and the sea lions and bald eagles (two bottom shots) are around nanoose bay.

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In honor of Ray’s awesome series, I thought it would be nice to show some photos from my personal album from various trips to Canada. Although I lived on the east coast for a few years when I was younger, these shots above and below are from my west coast travels in more recent years.

a peek through the mountain tops of whistler, on my way ziptrekking – an amazing experience.

There were no black bears on Ray’s series, but here is one I ‘met’ in the wild a few years back. He was on the search for salmon, and I was in a canoe, very calmly paddling first in his direction, until we spotted him, then casually out of the bay. We ended up about 10 meters from him, in water. And then later we crossed his path again on land, only 10 meters too. The land sighting was a little worrying, but he seemed quite nonchalant about the whole thing.

This is one of my favourite photos  – and favourite moments – ever. The water, as you can see was glistening, reflecting the light and creating a spectacular mirage-like effect over the ocean. We were out in a little dinghy when we came across this special place, aptly named “mistaken island”. I wanted to stay there forever.

And above is a little view while coming down from whistler and back into vancouver. It’s a magical place, don’t you think? If you haven’t been, I highly recommend you go sometime, and if you haven’t seen Ray’s show, you can watch the full series here if you live in the UK, or you can buy it here.

Thanks Ray! Can’t wait to see where you go, what you create, and what you cook up next.

You all know how I feel about Canada, right?

You can imagine then, that I was a little bit giddy when I discovered that a new Ray Mears series called Northern Wilderness was starting last Sunday on the BBC, and it’s all about the vast Canadian wilderness. The first episode rocked – among other things Ray showed how to make a shelter from fallen branches, how the beavers make their incredible homes and why they are so integral, and the footage was just spectacular.

Coming episodes will be looking at the ways of the Inuit, and further exploring the forests by canoe and snowshoe. I can’t wait!

If you don’t know about Ray Mears, click here to find out more about him, he’s a pretty amazing guy whose life work is all about bushcraft and bush survival. One of his previous series which I now have on DVD is called Wild Food , taking viewers into various wilderness regions and teaching about various indigenous food and cooking techniques. It’s inspiring to say the very least, although it’s a sad reminder of how much knowledge we have lost.

The photos above are gathered from my personal album,  taken during my trips to the West Coast of Canada over the past few years. I hope to go back one day soon. For now, I will be content watching Ray’s journey through the northern wilderness every Sunday night. I hope you get to see it too.

…if you haven’t already added your name alongside Robin Williams, Billy Connolly,  and the Dalai Lama to The Prince’s Rainforest Project to help stop tropical deforestation, please click here to do so – it will be the most day enhancing thing you could do on this fine Monday. I added my name on Friday, but if at least one or two of you add your name today then you will be enhancing my day too as you know how passionate I am about these things. Merci beaucoup.

summer stills by maditi

past and present by *peanut (lauren)

sweet lovers love in spring by amanda

haute fagne, belgium by me

autumn road from abby trys again

aaah. i needed that.