From one extreme to another. We go from a road trip to the Inner Hebrides to a sporty, winter warmer in Lanzarote! We went to an old Roscoe family favourite; Club La Santa on the far side of the Island. The La Santa bubble is something that is very easy to get sucked into. Once you’re there, it’s quite difficult to leave! In all honesty, you don’t really need to! I guess we found that it was so easy for us with Frank and Helen’s parents there. Club La Santa is very familiar once you arrive and get to know your bearings, it’s very easy to navigate and this was clear for Frank too. Within a few days he was ruling the roost, dictating his direction to get us back to the apartment, the track, the play centre or the pool. It’s minimal design means you feel like you’re walking through a giant sculpture at times. But it’s hard not to be drawn in by the busy schedules of activities that are on offer, after all this is a holiday!

Dave and I really enjoyed having time to do various forms of exercise that we wouldn’t usually have time to do. This included tennis, paddle boarding, squash, ariel yoga, a duathlon and a triathlon. Add to this regular running and swimming and we were feeling pretty healthy by the end of 10 days. We had that glowing feeling that neither of us have felt for some time. The grandparents took turns to look after Frank so that we could go off and do things and we took Frank swimming every day as well as got him a balance bike to get used to whilst we were there. They also have a play group for children, although one of us had to be with Frank because he is under 3, for most parents this means that they can leave their children there and go off and do their activities. The latest facilities that have been built are amazing at Club La Santa; two Olympic sized swimming pools and a bike centre to get any cyclist salivating! We were spoilt for choice!

So while Club la Santa is expensive, once you are there all of your activities, lessons, bike hire, equipment hire and coaching is included. The only thing you have to pay for is food really! Although we did decided to do an excursion and went surfing for the day in Famara with La Santa Surf. This cost around 45 euros each for about 5 hours worth of instruction and it was well worth it. We felt that the instruction was very clear and we basically managed to surf almost every time we got onto the board! So all in all we loved it! This happened the day after we got engaged so it was an excellent way to celebrate together.

With an abundance of warm weather, and so much to do it’s difficult to get bored at La Santa. Evening entertainment is there if you want to dip into it and the kids just love it! The big kids do too! We enjoyed Halloween without all of the commercial stuff that comes with it and Frank loved watching his first magician’s show. Coming home as a fiancé definitely made it for us all! We loved it! An interesting fact told to us whilst we were there; 4 out of 5 people who visit Club La Santa for the 1st time will return. Looks like we’ve got our winter sun holiday sorted for 2016!

(All images copyright to Roscoe Rutter Ltd, shot using Nikon D700 with 35mm f1.8 and 50mm f1.4)

A few months ago we took ourselves off to Nice for a week of some warming winter sun.This was a family holiday which saw relatives fly over from Canada and us from a less glamorous Liverpool. The idea was to reunite the Rutter family who don’t always get quality time together being so wide spread across the globe, celebrate a special birthday and find some time to relax.

It didn’t start so well because we forgot that we had only paid for 2 items of checked in luggage which meant we had a £60 sting straight away! Then our relatives had the journey from hell with Air France strikes meaning that it took over 2 days for them to arrive already eating into the 7 day trip.

However when we checked into our rooftop apartment we pretty much felt at home straight away. Barbara found the apartment through a letting agency and we were met on cue by our host who showed us around. We managed to make the apartment as Frank friendly as  we could shifting furniture around and hiding the sharp edges. Before long we were nicely settled and enjoying the views over the city as we welcomed the warmth.

It was a hot week, we had temperatures of up to 30 degrees and more which was a nice surprise though we were really careful with Frank making sure we weren’t outdoors during the heat of the day. This worked well though because Nice has lots of museums, galleries and shady streets to explore. Plus he was still napping more then so having the apartment was great as we could just head back for his sleeps or grab a bite to eat. This is the luxury of having self-catering accommodation when you travel with children, especially so for our first trip overseas.

Some things that really stood out for us on this trip:

- Going for an early morning run and cooling dip into the sea before buying fresh croissant from one of the well-known bakeries – always go for the one’s with the queues! It’s nice to have a Grandma to hand to do the morning shift so Dave and I could have this time together.

- Playing and having a picnic around the Promenade du Paillon fountiain Zone. There is so much fun to be had here from giant dinosaur climbing frames, to swings to fountains, even the dogs love it!

- Walking up to and visiting the Matisse Museum, amazing views from the top over Nice and then a fine collection of Matisse drawings, paintings and paper collages from his early days through to the end. An inspiring collection and a wonderfully designed building.

- A trip to the Museum of Modern Art, which was welcomed on a very hot afternoon by the 3 of us. The collections here point out the work of The New Realists, and New York Pop Artists predominantly from the 1970′s which means there are lots of conceptual works that Frank seemed to be able to engage with. The rooftop terraces are considered panorama points where we were able to look out across the city over a 360 degree spectrum. The terraces are inspired by the works of Yves Klein and there are various sculptures which offer alternative viewpoints.

Both museums were free! Always a bonus!

We also took in few sporting events in the form of a triathlon series and one stage of the Extreme World Sailing Series, so there was always something going on to keep us entertained. Always nice to do some creative event photography.

 A day trip to Antibes was really lovely too, oh the list goes on! The only thing that we wouldn’t really recommend with a crawling 9 month old is a trip to Monaco. The streets aren’t very baby friendly and the parks aren’t exactly the most welcoming either with sloping grass and pathways filled with Cruise-ship tourists. We did however enjoy a visit to the Oceanographic Museum which is a pretty spectacular building built onto the rocks overlooking the sea. The Museum has an archive of historic collections as well as a very exciting Aquarium, Frank always loves a trip to an aquarium….and so do we! The rooftop has a pretty cool play area too and views looking out across the ocean.

We went at the start of October and it was still hot then, much hotter than anticipated but having everything within walking distance made this holiday easy for us to enjoy. The laid back cosmopolitain lifestyle is pretty addictive, with a cafe culture that oozes out of every street corner.

So whilst I sit here writing this post and the snow is coming down past the window I am already planning our next trip away although I’m sure we will return to Nice again with flights from Liverpool so cheap it would be rude not to. Plus we really want to get into those mountains next time.

(All images copyright to Roscoe Rutter Ltd shot with Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, Zeiss 18mm f4 and Nikon D600 with 35mm f1.8)

These events took place earlier in the summer, at the start of July to be precise when Yorkshire and Derbyshire hosted the first stages of the Tour De France. It’s really taken us this long to get these images onto the blog but we didn’t want to miss it as an event on here. We also celebrated a certain Nanni’s birthday and so the two went hand in hand.

It was a pretty exciting event to go and support as we found our spot on a grassy bank after the Holme Moss ascent. We didn’t take the bikes instead opting for Frank and his push chair so we could all go and witness this one off sporting spectacular. The shuttle buses from Hadfield train station ran smoothly and the entire thing was much easier to access than we had anticipated, especially with a 7 month old baby to bring along.

As the build up escalated we waited in anticipation of the incoming cyclists who were preceded with an entourage of sponsor-themed caravans some of which were really funny, others less imaginative but all of which managed to add to the ever-energetic atmosphere of supporters.

They did come through in a flash but it was a really awesome sight and we enjoyed our sunny, windy day up on the banks along with the thousands of other people who were there sharing this amazing event. On the way back to the shuttle buses we were greeted with even more thousands of cyclists who had traveled far and wide on their bikes to be a part of it all.

The next day we had a bit of a more leisurely visit to Chatsworth House where we celebrated Barbara’s birthday with a tour around the house itself, a spot of afternoon tea in the Cavendish Restaurant and a lovely walk around the gardens. We are seriously considering National Trust membership for next years outings having already visited 3 grounds close by to us, it only makes sense. They are family friendly places to visit, which right now is very appealing.

Chatsworth is stunning, the house itself is very regal and home to one of Europe’s most significant art collections. From old Masters through to contemporary sculpture we were delighted by the contrast of old and new within rooms that have been fantastically maintained and restored to the rich history of the Devonshire family. Frank seemed to enjoy it all too, perhaps even more so the cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches which were served as part of our afternoon tea.

At the time of our visit there was a major display of contemporary sculpture in the gardens by Micheal Craig-Martin, a giant wheelbarrow, fork and stiletto shoe to name a few. It’s always refreshing to have such a juxtaposition of nature, regality and the contemporary sublime coming together.

We’d really recommend Chatsworth as a family-friendly day out, its the most beautiful of all of our national trust visits so far this year. Although the ticket into the house is expensive it’s worth doing at least once in your lifetime if you get the chance to visit. The gardens are always lovely and the afternoon tea a nice way to complete Barbara’s birthday. We paid £21.50 per head for the Traditional Afternoon Tea including a glass of home-brewed Rose wine, which was delicious. I think we’ll come again!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0)

Something that we have decided to keep quite private this year but can no longer hold back is the fact that we have been expecting our first child together. For the past 9 months we have been documenting Helen’s body as it changes and grows. We didn’t start the project until she was about 3 months pregnant by which time there was a little bloat evident, but in comparison to the latter stages looks completely normal!

It’s funny because in those early stages we noticed there was a hard bump there, but 6 months on it’s like a watermelon just sat waiting to drop.The first 4 images were taken when we were living with Helen’s parents in Widnes, we were there for a few months before moving into our new home where the remaining images were taken. All except one which was taken when we were in the Lake District for Dave’s 30th Birthday. Not only is it a visual pregnancy journal it also represents a time of big changes in our lives; moving from Leicester to the North-West, Dave starting a new job, the news of a little one joining us before finally buying our first home together on the edge of the Peak District.

We took the same position for each photograph every Sunday morning from this moment on and decided to wait to share this on our blog until our new arrival came into our lives. When writing this Helen was 39 weeks pregnant (see pic below) and looking likely to go into labour any time soon.

This is a very personal project but we felt that it deserved a space in our very personal blog which has always documented the things we’ve done away from our work-related lives. As you can guess the next few installments of the blog are likely to be baby-fueled.

Helen is looking forward to taking some time out of her professional practice, will she become all homely now? She has been attempting curtain making and other sewing machine projects so who knows. Meanwhile Dave is looking forward to paternity leave, 2 weeks isn’t long enough but its going to be a very special time for us.

Frank Leo Rutter was born on Christmas Day morning at 9.41am weighing 6lbs8oz. More to follow.

We keep saying this everytime we write but we wish we could be posting more frequently on our beloved Notworkrelated blog. The truth is we’ve both been so busy in our workrelated lives! This shouldn’t be an excuse! The reason we started this blog was for us to have a platform through which we could discuss and showcase what we get up to away from work. I guess with all the traveling out of our system (well for the time being at least) we have had to crack on and get back into our lives as photographer and designer.

So for a little update here’s what we’ve been up to…

Helen photographed Andre Bonomi, new Aston Martin shareholder for an Italian editorial feature at head office in June.

Helen has already visited Dubai, Spain, France and Germany this year with top client Aston Martin. She’s been photographing lifestyle and documentary imagery on launches, at motorsport events and various VIP visits to head office. It’s been a busy year for Aston with it being their Centenary year and so there has been lots to photograph! Not to mention their big celebrations in London this coming weekend. It’s free to the public on Sunday to witness Aston Martin’s biggest line up of iconic Aston Martin cars in history. Lets hope the sun stays good for us!  You can find out more here.

Bruno Senna leads the GT Pro class in car no.99 at this years Le Mans 24 hour race. Needless to say the gridwalk was a fantastic experience!

Unfortunately David doesn’t get to play quite so much with the Aston’s but he does often find himself joining Helen as a photographer too which is nice as this means we get to work with each other! And we have just both returned from the Goodwood Festival of Speed where we were shooting for Tag Heuer as a joint venture so he does get some of the perks!

David in the meantime has started a job! Nooooo! We cried! But there are a few responsibilities on our shoulders including a new house which we should be moving into soon. We’re moving to a lovely village on the cusp of the Peak District and within reach of the glorious city of Mancheser which is going to be our new back yard! Well actually the Peak District is more our back yard but it’s good to have Manchester only a 20 minute train journey away.

He is now working at Havas Lynx, a global agency leading the way when it comes to marketing and design. He’s in the design team putting ideas into reality. It’s a great platform career wise, plus it means we get to meet more people from Manchester!

So in between relocating and finding ourselves new contacts for work and play we took a little trip to Wales recently and opted for the less popular but perhaps more spectacular hike to the top of the Glyders in Snowdonia. We were greeted by glorious weather right before this ongoing heat wave began luckily for us as it rains often in Llanberis. We took the £1 bus up to Pen-Y-Pass where the path begins opposite the Pass car park alongside the hostel. We rarely passed anyone heading up this side of the mountain a refreshing change to tackling the masses of hikers who take on Snowdon every day.

Our ascent took about 2.5 hour or so with a few breaks to take in the views and to enjoy Mrs Roscoe’s homemade fruit cake! Its easy to loose the path because it isn’t well trodden however there are pink markers on the rocks every so often so if you do miss it navigating back onto it is easy enough. Approaching Glyder Fawr at 999m is fun, it’s a little like scrambling over giant rocks in Planet of the Apes. The landscape is amazing up here, the rock formations huge making us feel like midgets! We met more hikers as we ventured across to Glyder Fach (994m) and found the cantilever stone perched on top of more rocks. Some fun to be had there!

We looked out across to Tryffan and Devil’s Kitchen, perhaps routes that are taken more frequently although only in good conditions. As it was still and sunny this was the perfect day to hike around these peaks. We’re always reminded of the dangers when we see rescue helicopters flying around!

We took the path down to the Pen-Y-Gwryd Hotel where we enjoyed drinks in their historic and Everest themed bar. The only downside was the hour long wait for the bus back to Llanberis, but at £1 each its a bargain really!! Although this isn’t the Himalayas there is so much exploring to be done in this part of Wales either by foot or bike. We’ve enjoyed many hikes directly from Helen’s parents cottage in Llanberis and also bike rides around the Snowdon routes. It’s a part of the country that should be on everyone’s visit-list at some stage in their lives and especially for those who love the outdoors.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, 18mm f4, 90mm Tele-Elmarit f2.8 processed in Lightroom 3)

We’ve been waiting to share this project for quite some time but needed to have all of its components complete before we felt happy with sharing it with you.

During the winter months Helen arranged to shoot two of our top UK athletes Kate Dennison and Martyn Rooney, both of whom have competed in two Olympic Games including Beijing and the amazing London 2012. Martyn has been our top 400m runner for quite a few years whilst Kate was  our number 1 pole vaulter. They are a couple outside of sport too which is why we thought this may prove to be a fun and insightful project to work with them on, and they agreed.

The shoot took place at Birmingham’s Alexander Stadium, where for most of the winter months Martyn was training hard in anticipation of the 2013 season still to come. Kate meanwhile has retired from competitive sport and is focusing on other aspects of her life within the work-related arena.

The aim of this shoot was for us to produce a sports-documentary focused project that features the athletes, their training, their personality, their relationship and their environment. As a secondary idea to the shoot we decided to design a small, promotional limited-edition booklet and poster which will be used for our own marketing purposes both from a photography and design point of view.

Helen’s interest in Sports Marketing imagery stems from her background in Athletics, she too has competed at a high level for Great Britain as a 200m runner, training at Loughborough University for many years and as a result has forged close friendships and relationships with some of the UK’s top athletes. Helen trained alongside Kate when they were both at Loughborough together.

When Helen first started thinking about freelance photography she was commissioned by Loughborough University to photograph many of the athletics stars who went onto compete in the Athens Olympics that year. Since then this side of Helen’s portfolio has grown but was put on hold when Notworkrelated formed and along with David they ventured around the world for 15 months. The impact Notworkrelated is having on Helen’s professional practice is obvious when most of her commissions come in the style of lifestyle and documentary photography.

‘I tend to shoot more lifestyle and documentary work with people than ever before and I really think this is down to the travel and documentary side of my portfolio. It has also made me think differently about the way I photograph people. I am interested in sharing something personal about someone and what I love about photographing athletes is I know what they are going through. I think there is so much behind the scenes that is so exciting to document it’s just unmissable stuff for me.’

I wanted to shoot a sports related project without any client pressure or demand and with David joining me as another photographer on the shoot I felt we’d be able to get something gritty out of it, a raw and natural shoot that portrays something about Kate and Martyn, their relationship to sport, to one another and to their environment. We had free reign of the venue and amazing light all day so it worked in our favour to play and create what we wanted to. The empty stadium just adds a further atmosphere to the overall feel of the shoot, usually packed with spectators when they are in competition mode, but silence ensues when the training happens, there is more time to think, more time to analyse and enough space to distance yourself in those quiet moments between step-runs.

It was only when we were editing the shoot that we felt we really had something we wanted to share with people, and between us we brought together a limited edition booklet and poster designed by David.

‘The booklet and poster uses geometric design, utilising a repeated grid structure for the photography and typography layout. This adds form and hierarchy to the overall design. Gill Sans, a sans-serif  font, created in the late 1920′s was used for its clear no-nonsense approach and modernist values.  The front and rear of the booklet uses simple geometric shapes to represent speed, rotation, movement and the competitive need to participate and win. Iconography illustrations represent each sport with simple shapes, lines of movement and colour.’

We wanted to produce something a little different from your average marketing piece by injecting our personality into it, Kate and Martyn have their profile’s as athletes and we have ours too. Because Helen has got personal records as a former athlete it was easy to document her events and add this to her profile, for David though we wanted to add something different so his event is ‘Getting up each day’ and he’s working on his P.B!

We’re really proud of this body of work and as a project that shows what we can both do when we work together combining our photography and design skills, and we do this whether it’s work-related or not.

David has since been commissioned by Martyn to design his new website and Helen recently photographed the UK’s number 1 male Squash player for an editorial feature.

As part of our own promotion we gave away 5 limited edition booklets and posters through a recent blog post with our friends The Printspace.

Hello, we’re hoping that you’re enjoying the last of the summer, we seem to be having some very cool starts to the day, reminds us of being in other parts of the world exploring the West Coast of America this time last year. Oh to be reminiscing. But the truth is we’re both quite happy in our lives back in the UK. We’ve had an amazing summer with the Olympics taking center stage and we’ve been busy freelancing in both of our professions whilst also managing to take the time to work on some of our own stuff too. Notworkrelated has launched it’s first shop and we have collection number 1 ready and waiting for your eager viewing.

So onto something Notworkrelated. Last week we took ourselves off to London and Brighton for a few days and along with Dave’s mum Barbara we ventured to the Paralympic Closing Ceremony having picked up some tickets a little while back. And WOW was this an event to be a part of. It was absolutely amazing with a soundtrack from Coldplay that just seemed to work so well with the performance throughout the night. It was a surreal experience and we kept having to pinch ourselves to check that we were really there! Well not quite but it was definitely an event to savor. Coldplay were fantastic and we were able to applaud the fantastic achievements of all the Paralympians along with the ever-so praised volunteers who really did make a significant contribution to the smooth running of the Olympics as a whole. Well done to you all and yes we felt very proud to be ‘Made in Britain’.

We were in London for the TeamGB parade taking place on Monday the 10th also and so thought it would be rude not to go and support our athletes and medalists who represented us at both the Olympics and the Paralympics. After a long wait we stood along with thousands of others on The Strand awaiting the team who were being driven on 30 or so big trucks. After an hour and a half and a few moans and groans later the athletes made their first appearance with Mo Farah and Jess Ennis on the first two floats followed by the rest of the athletics team. Helen even had a brief exchange with one of her friends from the Junior GB team who recognised her in the crowd, she was buzzing from this for the rest of the day! But along with this moment it was great to cheer on and congratulate Olympic and Paralympic legends such as Sir Chris Hoy, Ben Ainslee and Ellie Simmonds. It was another special moment that we wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

Onwards we went to The National Portrait Gallery where Road to 2012 was being showcased featuring works by 8 photographers whose insightful portraiture celebrates exceptional British sportspeople, and some of the crucial figures working behind the scenes. With photographers such as Anderson & Low on show this was something that we both wanted to go and view and having had our Olympic experience it felt very relevant too. We also purchased the book Road To 2012 a National Portrait Gallery publication which holds great significance to the likes of Helen who has a strong interest in Sports portraiture. The exhibition is on until the 23rd September 2012.

Through the power of Twitter Dave had been conversing with a follower and managed to arrange for us to go to a design talk at the British Design Museum located on Shad Thames. The talk was again Olympic themed but perhaps on a more interesting level of design focusing on Design Munich ’72 with guest speaker Ian McLaren who was part of the design team for Munich. It was a really interesting discussion centering around McLaren’s involvement in Design Munich along with the importance of lead designer Otl Aicher whose work has become highly influential upon design as it is today.

The project was huge and without the technology as we are surrounded by today, the deadlines were strict and the planning very thorough. The use of colour and horizontal lines is consistent throughout and there was an advancement of pictograms for Munich which have been used and developed in so many contexts since. The conversation then went onto discuss London 2012 design which managed to stir some interesting views in the audience including one designer who has worked on the current branding and who was quite defensive of her role on the project. The ‘Branding Police’ were in the room!

It definitely gave us a lot to talk about on the way home and when we got to Helen’s parents we found an ‘Illustrated London News Special Publication’ showcasing some of the design work attached to Munich ’72. Jan Roscoe competed in Munich 72 and Montreal 76 as a 400m runner for Great Britain.

The next morning we drove to Brighton which took an hour and a half from London by car. We’d decided to use Airbnb for our Brighton accommodation which has been our first UK experience. Our hosts were here to welcome us, but we weren’t expecting a young baby nor were we expecting the house to be only partly complete! Perhaps this is part of the risk of going through Airbnb, although we did have the top floor to ourselves including a nice roof terrace area where we ate our breakfast in the morning sun each day. They were friendly enough but we figured we have probably experience the best Airbnb has to offer with our hosts in LA, Seattle and Melbourne coming up trumps. Anyway the benefits were we stayed in a good location on the northern side of central Brighton close to Queens Park and not too far from a good cluster of restaurants and it did have a nice homely feeling about our accommodation which always helps.

We had been scheduled to do a photography talk in Brighton which has now been postponed until the end of November and so we decided to go all the same and enjoy the seaside city for a few days. We enjoyed the food scene the most, Brighton is home to many a good restaurant, bar and cafe and we couldn’t help but indulge in this scene with The Black Dove, and Food For Friends coming up trumps. We enjoyed local cider and lovely vegetarian food at these places and we also loved our little sitting in an authentically Mexican place; La Chozo in the North Laines side of town. It was good to explore the Lanes and feel the vibe Brighton has to offer along with having fun with our own photography at Brighton Pier.

It was quite busy but we did hear that perhaps it’s best to visit off season so we are already looking forward for a short return visit in November and perhaps we’ll be doing some of our Christmas shopping there too. Oh no we already said it…Christmas shopping! Eek! Too soon!

Anyway back to the grind, in case you missed it we launched a collaborative wedding photography site this week too; HelenPlusDavid. Yep things have been busy for us on the Itsworkrelated side but we hope to do more of this again soon. Enjoy!

Up, breakfast, pack-up of the tent and we were off, our destination for today was away from the coastline at the Hoh Rainforest. As we had some fairly light-weight camping gear we wanted to do some hiking and over night wilderness camping. The Hoh Rainforest has a great hike that takes you through the forest on a clearly marked path which can go as far as the Glacier Meadows 18 miles from the car park / visitor centre. We decided on a 5 mile walk along the Hoh River to break us in gently to the 5 mile island wilderness camp site.

The hike with all our gear took us 2 hours and we arrived at our beautiful camping spot in the middle of nowhere. We set up and figured out how to use the bear wire; a pulley system to raise food bags etc up high out of the reach of furry paws. After a stroll for one more mile along the river we headed back to camp and cooked, well rehydrated, a Backpackers Pantry Kathmandu curry. It was surprisingly really good and we both enjoyed our travellers meal.

A few other campers arrived and before long it was dark and time to entertain ourselves with a game of poker in our two man tent. Betting with ear plugs, head torches, maps, money, mobile phone etc ensuring lots of laughs emanating from the tent! A quick visit to the privy, a clean of the teeth and time for a night in the wilderness. After a surprisingly comfy night we emerged at 6.30am, ate breakfast and then started the five miles back at 8am. After a brief encounter with an angry looking Elk Stag we made it back in 1hr50. A spot of lunch and a hot drink in the car park and we were ready to get back on the road. Cheekily we stopped at a campsite with paid showers and nipped inside, a shower can make the world of difference, especially after 4 days! Brand new!

Lake Quinault was the destination for today which was nice enough although the weather was grey. We stopped at a beach along the way which was very foggy, but provided some interesting photos. A corner shop at Lake Quinault provided some beers, bread and hot chocolate. $20 for the pitch with a nice spot by the lake and a fire pit to keep us warm. For something to do we went to the local attraction which was… The worlds largest Sitka Spruce tree. Back to camp after all the excitement, a delivery of firewood and a spot of photo editing before eating dinner. Bedtime arrived quite quickly after our long day. Portland is our next destination.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

16th August and again we stretched out our legs first thing and went for a walk! There is a lot of that to be done in this part of LA, mainly as we only have one bike between us, and it costs $20 a day if we want to rent one! We are trying to budget afterall.

We reached the Venice Marina Del Ray, which was a little of an anti-climax, again the weather was flat but we did come across a few interesting spaces and shapes along the way that caught our eye. When 11.30 came Helen went off to her teacher training course and Dave stayed local to take in more amazing skateboarders, and Venice beach fitness fanatics. This time a TV commercial was being filmed for the new Sponge-bob square pants computer game, so two young boys were attempting half-pipes one take after the other. Meanwhile a tattooed, pierced and very eclectic looking young man was receiving applaud after applaud for his amazing height on jumps and tricks. The skateboard park is such a good place for people watching! We cannot recommend it enough. Also engaging were the many squash and hand-ball players who fill out the courts all day long.

After Helen had finished her course for the day we along with John (Helen’s cousin) went out to UCLA ,Westwood Village to visit the Hammer Museum. There was a strong Paul Thek retrospective taking up a third of the gallery and recent works by Ed Ruscha were equally intriguing. We also enjoyed sitting in the open air atrium. It’s a very nice space to sit and watch the world go by. The museum charges $10 admission fee for the exhibits but you can sit in the atrium or visit the restaurant and bookshop for free! A short walk away is the Fox Theater, a famous landmark for movie premiers. We finished the night at another sushi favourite, recommended by John, Sushi Karen in Culver City.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM & Olympus PEN EP-1, 17mm f/2.8 & 100mm f/2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

When we left Khoa-Sok our aim was to be on Koh Pha-Ngan for a week with a 5 day yoga retreat at the Yoga Retreat Koh Pha-Ngan. Unfortunately as soon as we arrived and after the mammoth and annoyingly long process of getting there with a combined bus and boat ticket, we had to make plans to come back. We had some sad news of a family emergency.

Where to begin in writing about this!? Our Notworkrelated adventure would have to be put on hold, but we will resume our travels and be in touch soon about when this will be. In the meantime enjoy a wonderful spring and summer, the weather has been pretty good to come back to all things considered and it’s great to see our family and friends again.

We wanted to leave a Spring-like photograph on here in the meantime to remember those we love and have lost.

Thank you for following our Notworkrelated adventure and we’ll be in touch soon with plans for the future journey.

David and Helen.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)