We have quite a few destination weddings booked for next year Mauritius, Botswana, London and a couple of others in the Cape and the Natal Midlands. They all have one thing in common, the only way to economically get there is by flying. I recently worked out that this year we have been in the air for almost 284 hours, that’s about 12 days of flying. There’s really only one way to get through that much turbulence and adrenaline, yep, pull out the camera and shoot a modeling session with the air stewardesses. Failing that try to inject some creativity into a genre of photography that has been done to death by just about everyone – shooting out of a plane’s window.

V and I are back from a very wonderful, very restful vacation. One day I might even tell you the story of how two South Africans found themselves on a very small plane from Paris to Zagreb, driving a rental car down the coast to the magical city of Trogir via Zadar, taking a bus through Bosnia and ending up in Dubrovnik. It was an incredible vacation and I spent most of the time feeling like I was living in an European fairytale.

We only kind of made it to Paris, if you count four hours as making it, but the rest of the trip was amazing. The country was rural, untouched in some places, completely ravaged by war in others. We drank coffee in hundred year old coffee houses and walked along the plaća where children were using ruins from Roman times as a playground.

Anyway, we are back, refreshed, ready to polish off those last couple of albums and shoot what will probably be our last wedding in South Africa. Just as soon as we get through the 8000 odd emails that made it past the spam filters while we were away. Here are a couple of photos – and some narrative – in case you are interested.

We took a wrong turn somewhere near Tušilović and ended up looking at a left over battle field. Tanks and cannons were just lying there. Everywhere you look buildings have bullet holes and are in various stages of repair. People live here.

The view from our room at the Villa Sikaa overlooking the old city of Trogir. The Villa Sikaa is a hotel inside another hotel, inside a turn of the century Villa right on the waterfront.

The old city of Trogir, not really a big tourist destination, but on a Sunday evening the Riva rocks as the superhip come out to be seen. The place really looks like someone put it together for a movie set.

The entrance to a coffee shop in the city of Split.

Split has some of the most magical light I have ever seen. I fell in love with the light in this city.

Dubrovnik. Pretty much all that can be said about Dubrovnik has been said all over the internet. Its beautiful, filled with tourists and worth a look for some really fantastic architecture. Up a very steep little street, we found the oldest Sephardi synagogue in the world. Old, small, unexpected. It was a fantastical surprise, very moving, and their museum held some pieces that really brought home some things for me.

Plitvička jezera is an incredible journey into a European fairytale. A massive forest consisting of interlocking lakes, hundreds of waterfalls, and wooden walkways built along the lakes and waterfalls. We walk for six hours in the forest before seeing another human being. Following V in her red hooded top, I felt like the bad wolf in a bed time story.

For all those couples that have been patiently waiting while we took this much needed break, thank you. I really appreciate it. If you ended up on this page because you were looking for some info on Croatia – you’re welcome to drop me a line and ask for any information you may need.