Netherlands 2017: The Clogmaker

Traveling through Stellenbosch when driving to Cape Town. We stopped for lunch at this vineyard and winery. Whilst my travel companions sampled the wares, I went for a little wander. I don't know if I was really allowed to poke my nose in the places I did, but it was fascinating to see all the machinery used to produce the wines.

Geneva to Geneva via France, Italy and Switzerland as seen from the passenger side window. Herniating a disc two days before a long-planned adventure is not the recommended way to see the Alps and really limited my movement. 95% of my images from the trip were taken from a car seat with an iPhone.

I love epic train journeys, and three days straight-through from the north to the south of Australia in backpacker class certainly sounds epic. That is until the reality of the 5am New Years Day hangover start time, the small seat which is now your bed, the lack of stops to get off and explore and that the Australian bush is near unchanging until you near the coasts! Great experience overall. Just split it up with a break in the middle if you can, unlike me that fit it between flights.

Sometimes you make a mistake, and sometimes that mistake is utterly avoidable. The day before this trip I got the then new iPhone 7 took a couple of shots in nice light and thought, 'this is good'. I'd taken some online comments to heart. Something along the lines of 'only 'cause you've got an expensive camera'. Rather than dismissing it, I thought I'd challenge myself and set off to Amsterdam with only the iPhone. As it turned out, I fell in love with Amsterdam that weekend and wished I'd had my X-T1 with me. The iPhone looked alright in good daylight and on a phone screen, but quality simply fell apart as soon as the light dimmed and seen on a laptop or larger. In December in a city filled with beautiful illuminations the good light fell away quickly and what was left on the sensor did not do the city justice. The next time I went, I did not make the same mistake twice.

When travelling, there are places you visit not for beauty or culture, but to educate and remind yourself of our capacity for intolerable cruelty to one another - and to reaffirm why it must never be allowed to happen again. Robben Island, home to many political prisoners under the Apartheid government, is one such place.

I tried my hand (with a lot of assistance) at batik painting in Kasongan, Indonesia.

A dull but crisp morning walk around Greenwich Market a few days before Christmas. I knew there would be Christmas lights all over so shot with a star filter. I'm still not sure that was the right call, but it's good to try something different occasionally.