2011 Summary and the plans for 2012

This year was good. I've visited many interesting places, met many talented people and taken a lot of pics. Let's try to summarize:
1. Biebrza winter weekend - Jan'11
2. Biebrza spring weekend - Mar'11
3. Visit to Moszna Castle - Apr'11
4. Bieszczady, Łańcut and Sandomierz with kids - May'11
5. Tatra Mountains - workshop with Maciek Duczyński - Jun'11
6. Białowieża weekend - first time there - Jul'11
7. Mazury AirShow - Aug'11
8. Karkonosze with kids - Aug'11
9. Radom AirShow - Aug'11
10. Tatra Mountains - workshop with Fetish - Sep'11
11. AXALP 2011 + Tuscany trip - Oct'11
12. Tatra Mountains with kids - Nov'11
13. Złodziejewo workshop with Gregor Laubsch - Nov'11
14. Winter trip to Bieszczady - Dec'11

I don't have exact plans for 2012 yet, but I have some dreams and some options to choose:
1. Take picture of an eagle in Poland (winter)
2. Snowdownia National Park - maybe during long weekend in May?
3. Tuscany in late spring - have idea of few pics to take (probably June?)
4. Mount Blanc 4-day hike (Jun/Jul?)
5. Kilimanjaro hike and some pics taken (Aug/Sep?)
6. Alberta province in Canada (if not Kilimanjaro then definitely Canada is an option!)
7. Cuba or Key West or New Orleans - I dream of one of these places (February would be perfect, but probably not this year)

And definitely I'll not forgot to visit:
1. Biebrza
2. Białowieża and bisons there
3. Karkonosze/Tatry/Bieszczady
4. Mazury Airshow and maybe some other airshows in Poland (but this is not good year for them)
5. Axalp 2012 and Swiss Alps - it seems to become a rule in my life

So above I've some ideas and now I must think how to transform them into reality. As usual I wish you Happy New Year 2012 and please wish me luck with my plans :)

What a snore...

Currently I have a very intensive period of my life - a lot of everyday concerns to run. It means I completely have no time for taking pictures and even not enough time for post-processing pics taken during Phototrip. But be patient. Some day I'll process them and show to the world. I know I have at least 3 good pictures, so it's not bad.
But let's not discuss what's going on now, but better focus on what will happen in the near future. On the nearest weekend I plan to visit Mazury - maybe not for taking pictures, but rather for drinking. In spite of the main reason, I'll take my camera and try to take some pictures. My friend was in Mazury few days ago and took this nice picture shown on plfoto.
Later I'll go to Rome, Italy for family weekend. Again I don't have big plans for taking pictures, although I hope to take some. Rome is a very good place for photographers, but you've to work very early in the morning - later it's too many people in all famous places.
Then I plan to spend a weekend near Jastrzebia Góra and again will try to experiment a bit with waves and sea pictures. But to be honest, polish sea is probably the most boring place in the world - so again it's another time I'd like just to take a chance of being there to capture some pictures and develop my photographic skills.

Last days in Poland

After about half year of preparations, plenty of webpages browsed, books read, magazines flicked through, mails exchanged, we finally hope to catch the plane that will take us to Phoenix this week. Now it's the last phase - packing everything up. This is one of the most difficult part of the trip preparation so I'll try to summarize what is essential for phototrip to Southwestern part of US.

First things first, so we can't forget to take:
1. Passport and valid US visa (polish citizens are second category citizens of EU and need visas)
2. Photocopy of passport and visa
3. Money (US dollars)
4. Tickets
5. Printouts of all reservations and important data
6. Credit Cards
7. Driver's License
8. Airline loyalty card (to count miles)
9. Insurance

Now let's enlist toiletries and medicines:
1. Toothbrush
2. Toothpaste
3. Toilet paper
4. Deodorant
5. Shaving accessories (optional)
6. Biodegradable Soap
7. Something for food poisoning
8. Some antihistamine for scorpion/snakes/spider bikes (for example Benadryl)
9. Painkiller
10. Something for insect bites
11. Sun protector
12. Bandages/bandaids/etc.

Next, camping equipment:
1. Light tent
2. Sleeping pad
3. Sleeping bag
4. Backpack
5. Headlamp
6. Matches
7. MSR stove + fuel bottle
8. Pot
9. Light cutlery
10. Bowl
11. Dishcloth and towel
12. Kitchen board

Other stuff:
1. Photo equipment (body, lenses, filters, photobags, tripod, batteries, memory cards, card reader, backup drive, battery charger)
2. GPS with spare batteries and loaded topo maps
3. Paper maps (in case GPS will break)
4. Binoculars
5. Mobile phone+charger
6. Electrical converters (110V<->220V)
7. Sunglasses
8. Clothes (including water shoes and classic hiking shoes)

As you can see this is a lots of stuff and you've to pack almost all of it into checked luggage, so weight is limited. Hope I'll be able to pack all into my red Samsonite suitcase. Of course, there's an option to have two pieces of luggage, but we've to remember that later, in the US, we've to put all of this staff in car trunk - another space limiting factor... Wish us some luck please!


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Only few days left!!! Help!

Only few days left for the long awaited PhotoTrip 2008. This is good and not so good. Good because it's soon, and bad because I still don't have some pieces of required equipment. But ok - it's not a very big problem - will visit some stores today and buy what I need. Fortunately photo backpack appeared to be a very good choice and proofed its advantages in Spain.
Yesterday I received few photo books ordered at Amazon. When we have such good exchange rate for PLN/USD I can't resist buying stuff in US - books and CDs are so cheap - it would be a sin not to buy them! So I ordered some at the end of March and they've just arrived. Three of them (National Audubon Society Guide to Landscape Photography, Working the Light: A Photography Masterclass, The Photographer's Guide to Filters) are really good, and one (John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide) is a little misunderstanding. No, it's not completely bad - it's just not what I've expected. I recommend this book for complete beginners, although actually I should also learn something from it.
I must definitely praise Guide to Landscape Photography book - it focuses on southwest pictures and is very detailed on technique and compositions. I hope to learn a lot from this book and I dream of taking similar pictures one day. If you would like to become a landscape photographer, you must have this book - it's like a bible.
Along with books I received two CD discs not available in Poland. One is Bela Fleck & The Flecktones containing very good song Sinister Minister and the other is Randy Waldman's UnReel. Both discs are nice if you like this jazz genre. I hope one day we'll be able to buy such titles in Poland and prices will be as low as they're in the US now. CD for less than 30 PLN is something that can help avoid piracy. If you really like the title, you can afford buying it for 30 PLN - I'm sure.
Now I focus on what should I buy in States while USD/PLN exchange ratio is so favorable. Maybe house in Florida? You can have big, good, new house in Cape Coral from 100.000 USD - it's only about 220.000 PLN, so it's like 1/10 of a similarly sized flat in Warsaw! Unfortunately I can't just buy house and move to Florida, but I can have it there and go for a vacation every year or even twice a year, then share it with my friends throughout the rest of the year. Isn't it a nice idea? And when prices rise some day, I'll sell the house and get my money back. Ok - it's just a theoretical considerations, but there's something in it...

Ronda

My trip to Andalusia is coming very quickly. And it's only two weeks ahead of the "Phototrip". I had to make some arrangements in Spain. We'll land in Malaga late evening, so I've made a decision to stay there for first night. Browsing the internet intensively I've found quite a nice looking hotel - Hotel Villa Guadalupe. It's reachable only by car, but I hope panorama of the city is worth staying there. Advertised price on Venere.com seemed to be really good - only 71 EUR for such a nice place? Of course it appeared later that you've to pay for breakfast separately. It's quite expensive - 6 or 8.5 EUR depends on what kind of breakfast you want.
I though over my plans for the farther trip. We'll not head to Gibraltar, but instead decided to see Ronda and pueblos blancos around. As far as I heard from my friends and read over the Internet, this city is definitely worth seeing - I hope to put here some pictures of it in the very near future. Because I want to have few hours to visit Ronda I've chosen "Hotel El Horcajo" for the second night. It's located about 20 km away from Ronda, but it's on the way to Jerez de la Frontera which is considered to be our next stop. Moreover this hotels costs only 60 EUR and price includes breakfast. It's really cheap and hope it's worth the money.

This picture of "Hotel El Horcajo" is very appealing:

Trip to Andalusia

As I mentioned few days ago I'm on my way to go to Andalusia very soon! I've just "bought" my tickets for miles and it's even sooner. We (I'll go there with my wife) will have 3 full days for visiting such a nice places as Marbella, Ronda, Gibraltar, Sevilla and maybe Cadiz. It's too much for such a short trip, but I treat it as a kind of reconnaissance. It means I plan to get back there in the future for a bit longer and maybe take my children with us.
Besides, there'll be a good opportunity to check some of the photo equipment before "Phototrip". Moreover Canon has just announced a photo competition called CANON, THE ASSIGNMENT and I've registered. It means I should have a good (or even better :) picture before 1st of May to upload and have a chance to win. It's not easy task, but I'll do my best!
It's also first time I should be able to report my daily activities from the trip - good try before "Phototrip". Hope I'll have Internet access en Espana. You'll see more pictures then, because now this blog seems to be a bit boring...

Below is the map of planned trip:

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Weekend in Andalusia?

Maybe I'll spend a weekend in Andalusia soon. It appeared that in one of the airline loyalty program, I've enough miles to go with my wife to one of the European cities. Moreover if not used, they'll expire in June.

Because I learn spanish and was in Spain only once, my dream is to visit this country as many times as possible. Internet search showed that for my miles I can go to Madrid, Malaga or Barcelona - Unfortunately can't go to Sevilla. To spend even less miles for a ticket I should buy it two weeks before departure, so if I'm lucky enough, I'll have my tickets till the end of the week.

Since I've decided to go there and have never been there before, I'd to buy some guide. You can find at least 5 Spain guides in polish, but all of them are very general and have only few pages describing Andalusia. Luckily we have a chain of American Bookstores in Poland and they've good choice of guides. Furthermore they've had a new arrival of books recently. I've found Eyewitness Travel Guide: Sevilla & Andalusia from DK Publishing.

Yesterday I browsed the book and it seems to describe all the interesting places. When I'm back from the trip, I'll be able to give you final recommendation on the book. Keep your fingers crossed for my trip! See you soon...

Some more details

Today I decided to show you something more. I mean more about our planned trip (less than 40 days left to departure!!!). So here's the map of our planned route. As you can see, after departing Page we'll head to Toroweap - probably the most deserted point in the Grand Canyon Area, but as I heard, still accessible by car. We plan to spend at least one night there sleeping in a tent. Later we have plans for more common places like Zion NP, Bryce NP, Canyonlands NP, Arches NP - but we plan to visit some less known nooks of these famous locations. I can only say, that we also have permits for Subway in Zion NP. It seems to be very interesting place, although requiring some effort to get in.
Later we dream of seeing Monument Valley, Grand Canyon South Rim and famous Havasu Falls. In the last mentioned we have ambitious plans to get to Beaver Falls and also use alternative route to take some pictures of Mooney Falls from the top of upper canyon rim - it's the route that forks near cemetery - only that is mysterious enough to try this less known part of Havasupai reservation.
Hope you enjoy reading my scribbles? If not, then don't worry - as I promised in first blog entry, I'm doing it more for me myself than for others to read. I'm just practicing my english before the trip :) Hasta luego seniores i senioras...

it's closer and closer

I mean our trip is closer - less than 50 days left to departure Warsaw Airport. We fly to Phoenix thru Paris and Atlanta. There we'll take a car and go north to Page. And there we have something that most can only dream of - we have a permit to get to Paria Canyon - the famous Wave formation.
As you may guess this is not the place for everyone - you need to win the lottery to get there - only 10 people a day are permitted based on the advance lottery and 10 people based on on-site lottery on the day of entry. Fortunately one of us was lucky enough to win and we have a permit! If you also need one, please try BLM.
After the day in Wave we plan to visit Antelope Canyon Lower and Upper, Horseshoe Band and Page area in general. This is really interesting part of Arizona.
And please don't forget why we go there - to take some amazing pictures. I hope we will have the weather and everything to have a really good pics.
I'll be back soon to write what we gonna do after departing Page - it's also something not for everyone!

Few more secrets revealed

You might not be interested, but I've just decided that it's time to tell you more about our planned "Photo Trip 2008".
Most important thing is our destination. It's the place we both were in a few times. But as we hope, this time will be exceptional. All our efforts we would like to spend solely on photography. Of course it will also require a lot of hiking, because we want to visit less known places that are not accessible by car.
The area I'm writing about lies in the West of the States, so it's not very close to Poland. But what I can say is, that if you go there once, you will be probably returning till the end of your life - at least I have such a feeling. And what's worst, all the people I know and were there, have similar opinion. So it must be something in it.
It has passed almost a year since we've started planning this journey. Everything begun in March 2007 when we were at the Biebrza River for a small weekend phototrip. It was really nice experience and opportunity to share memories of previous USA trips. We thought "Why don't we go to States just for pure photography trip?". Answer was simple - money! It costs a lot and we are not millionaires. Fortunately USD/PLN exchange rate started to change and getting beneficial for us. In September or October we made a final decision - we will go there at the turn of April and May 2008. So it's only about 50 days left to the beggining of our trip. And I still have time to share more details with you... if you're interested of course :)

Below one of pictures from our trip to Biebrza river: