Kim Kalyn Photography » Travel

Travel Snaps Tuesday – Syros

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:39:20 +0000

It’s finally raining. And I am loving it. I think my body has been craving the rain. I’m not sure why, maybe I am getting lazy about watering my garden. But I really think I just needed it. There is something so refreshing about the rain. I love how green and healthy the grass looks when it is wet. I also love the smell. It reminds me of camping in a tent and being cozy warm inside. Today I wanted to be cozy. To sit by my computer with a cup of tea, my blanket and get some good editing done. It is hard to sit at the computer all day when the sun is beaming through the window and begging me to get outside. So perhaps the rain is a way of telling me to buckle down and get to work?

Today’s post is about a beautiful island in Greece that we had no plans on visiting. Darren and I had no intention of stopping in Syros, but the universe had other plans. Anyone who has travelled in Greece knows how absolutely chaotic and bizarre the ferry schedule can be. Island hopping can get complicated. The ferry schedules are a mess and can flip your plans upside down in a moments time. That’s what happened to us. But so often these unexpected circumstances in life turn into a wonderful experience and I am happy to say that this accidental island visit was just meant to be. Syros is gorgeous. It is a beautiful combination of old and new. I could have wandered down their marble and cobblestone streets for hours taking photos. And yes, there are several places in Greece we visited where the streets were made out of marble slabs! Amazing.

Some snaps of stunning Syros.

Travel Snaps Tuesday – Santorini Part II

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 23:05:09 +0000

If you missed my first post on Santorini you may view it here.

Here is a little information about this magical island I gathered from these two sites dedicated to Santorini, here and here.

Santorini is the southern most island of the Cycladic group in the Aegean Sea. The entire center of the circular island sank into the sea during the tremendous volcanic explosion 3.500 years ago. The eruption caused tidal waves which virtually wiped out the advanced Minoan civilization of Crete 70 miles to the south. Some scholars believe that the island is part of the legendary lost continent of Atlantis which supposedly slipped underwater during the disaster. What remains today of Santorini is a large crescent-shaped island enclosing a vast bay, the largest caldera on earth (7X14 miles).

The volcanic rock that covers the island is an eerie reminder of just how active this volcano has been. The colours of the rock it created and the layers you can see almost everywhere are so incredibly beautiful. Not to mention the insane drops into the sea with homes built right to the edge. Darren and I had a fun time exploring the island. We were staying in Imerovigli, but were easily able to walk to some of the neighbouring towns. I particularly loved Fira. They had all the cute donkeys, need I say more

Most of these photos were taken on a fairly overcast day and I think they provided a bit of a moody feel. We ended up having a wild storm that night and we lost power for the whole night and up until noon the next day. I thought our adorable villa was going to blow right into the sea!

Now on to the photos!

All of the above photos were taken from our hike to this amazing lookout.

I know my last travel post was all about kitties, but here is another cute one I overlooked.

Travel Snaps Tuesday – Meow !!

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:55:35 +0000

Ghandi once said that “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. ” This quote is always in my mind when I am travelling in other countries. It is amazing how differently animals are treated, valued and respected from one country to another. Here are a few of my favourite kitties from Greece and Turkey.

This mama was a warrior for her kittens. A minute after I took this shot we watched her attack a dog that got too close.

Travel Snaps – UK Style {Part II}

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:03:37 +0000

I have been in such a great mood this week. It could have a wee something to do with the fact that it is my first week officially as a full-time professional photographer. I have a hunch that it might have a little something to do with that It could also be influenced by this amazing bright thing in the sky that I haven’t seen for awhile. Love it !!

I am just feeling so lucky and blessed. Don’t you just love it when things feel like they are falling into place. Sort of like there is this calm and peace that things are right where they are supposed to be and everything is in balance.

Well before I get too gushy on you I guess I should get on to the pics. Speaking of gushy though … am I the only one who cannot watch the Olympics without bawling their eyes out ?! Seriously, Darren is beginning to think that I have some emotional hypersensitivity disorder these days. The commercials, medal ceremonies, victories, defeats … everything is making me cry ! In a good way though I feel incredibly proud to be Canadian right now.

Those are all individual tea bags !

Travel Snaps – UK Style

admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 22:06:47 +0000

I had the incredible experience of traveling with Darren to England and Scotland back in October to visit dear friends of ours, Jo and Dan. They are two of the coolest peeps in the UK, possibly the planet, and Darren and I met them in Thailand of all places. We spent some amazing time travelling together and totally hit it off. Travelling with other people ain’t always easy, so you know you have met some true friends when you can travel with total strangers for weeks and not want to run them over with a Tuk Tuk. (If you don’t know what a Tuk Tuk is, click HERE). So needless to say we love Jo and Dan and feel so blessed to have met these cool kids. They are soley responsible for my new found addiction which is using the word ‘brilliant’ at least 240 times a day now, and also responsible for teaching me that it ok to visit more than three pubs in an afternoon. When in Rome right ?!

I have been meaning to post some random images from our travel time there and figured that these are about 4 months overdue, so here it goes. Part 2 to come. Enjoy!

Jo LOVES this home below

And she loves these cute cars … they are flipping adorable, right ?!

Jo and Dan’s home – yellow door on the right!

Jo & Dan !!!

Jo you are beauuuuuuuutiful !!!

Lia & Bryan {TTD in Mexico}

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 02:31:27 +0000

It’s official. I could look at the images from Lia and Bryan’s “Trash the Dress” session all day long. In fact, I have today. I keep wanting to come back to them. As an artist I think it is common to not be completely satisfied with ones work. To see the flaws and the “imperfections”. However, every once in awhile I finish a shoot and just feel proud. Where I am not picking my images apart and being a relentless self-critic. Lia and Bryan’s wedding and trash the dress images have been one of those experiences for me. I just feel so satisfied with how their images have turned out. Like I said before, in their post HERE, it doesn’t hurt that these two are so photogenic I probably couldn’t have taken a bad picture if I tried. But still, in this instance, I am going to take a little credit and give myself a pat on my back, because I think these images are some of my best all year.

Now I just hope that Lia and Bry just love them as much as I do

Lia & Bryan {Married in Mexico} – Part 1

admin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 19:05:16 +0000

You know when you are having “one of those days” where something bad happens and it seems to set the tone for the entire day ?? Well, that was my yesterday. I woke up and went to check the mail, something I quite enjoy doing. I think I like it because there is always some form of anticipation around it. I am one of those people who absolutely loves getting fun things in the mail. Cards, packages, you name it – I love that stuff. I love sending those too Anyways, yesterday I got something in the mail that I did NOT like. It was a bill from BC Hydro for $605 !!! WHAT ??! Our typical Hydro bills have always been between $100-$200 at the most. We just moved into a brand new house that is built to entirely ‘green’ energy efficient standards AND Darren and I were away for two weeks during this billing period. So at first we thought this HAS to be a mistake. There is no way we used this much power. But after waiting on hold for an hour to talk to a very sweet gentleman at BC Hydro, he assured me that in fact our bill was correct and that we are still using that much energy RIGHT NOW. AYKM (are you kidding me?!) for those that aren’t quite up to date on the ‘hip’ acronyms these days.

Darren and I like to pride ourselves on being relatively ‘green’. I am a recycling guru and am always getting after him for putting anything that could be recycled into the garbage. We use energy efficient lighting. Un-plug any appliances when not in use (with the exception of our computers). We keep our heat around 15 degrees and rarely use our electric fireplace. All of our big appliances (stove, fridge, washer dryer etc) are all energy star rated. I even compost for crying out loud !! Sooooo I am baffled. Unless Darren has a secret ‘grow-op’ that I am unaware of I am not sure what the heck is going on. By the amount of type real estate and capital letters I have given to this topic I am sure you can tell I am a bit worked up about this. So thank you for letting me vent

Now on to something much more exciting than my energy woes – more images from Lia and Bryan’s destination wedding in Mexico!! I posted some teaser images for them a little while back, HERE. But because I have fallen insanely in love with their wedding images, I decided to post some more. In two parts as a matter of fact, as there is just that many images that I heart big time.

As you could probably tell from their teaser pictures that Lia and Bryan are not the most attractive people, in fact the camera really hated them. Eeeeeeew – look at their perfect teeth, hair, complexions, smiles … YUCK! Heee heee heeee !! I am being completely sarcastic !! Lia and Bryan are a GORGEOUS couple, inside and out. Anyone can tell from looking at these photos that I couldn’t have taken a bad picture of these two if I tried

Lia & Bryan decided to see each other before the wedding and do a “first look” which I am a HUGE fan of !! You can read more about ‘first looks’, HERE. I will post images from their “first look” in Part 2 of this post. Soooo cute !! In this post I am just sticking to the getting ready shots as well as a few of the wedding party shots.

I’d love to know which shots are your favourites. So feel free to leave me some comment love below. Enjoy!

Lia you are the cutest !!!