I have to admit that when I booked for Harriet and I to go to Madrid it was because we'd been to Barcelona, loved that and Madrid was a bargain when I looked on lastminute.com

According to Harriet Madrid is like the Spanish version of New York, they even have their own version of Time Square, I can't confirm my thoughts as I've never been to New York, somewhere to put on my list of places to visit!

I would say that Madrid reminded me of London in places, it's large city parks, it's high rise buildings, it's bustling cosmopolitan atmosphere, it's so different to Barcelona and if I'm honest, I do prefer Barcelona but that doesn't mean you shouldn't visit Madrid because it has so very much to offer.  Whilst we were there it was World Pride 2017, the universal festival of love and acceptance is something I am completely on board with and their slogan "Whoever you love, Madrid loves you" filled my heart with joy!

Now I should have published this blog a couple of weeks ago but life and work has gotten kind of crazy, after being named as portrait photographer of the year, an international magazine named me as one of their top photographers of 2017, and all the while I'm still beavering away at my desk trying to meet deadlines and launching my Youtube channel, well I say launching, I've had it for 11 years, it's just that I'm getting around to posting stuff without fear finally!

I'm going to be a lazy blogger and just fill this post with beautiful photos, well I am a photographer after all!

I think for me I've done Madrid, I loved it but it's not somewhere I'd plan to go back immediately whereas if someone offers me the chance to go to Barcelona again this year then I'd snatch their hand off.

I did fall in love with Toledo though but that deserves a blog post all of it's own so for now, please enjoy the images I captured of Madrid!

I took way more photos but how many can you get away with before you start to bore people?!

next up in my schedule is Nice a week on Tuesday and I'll blogging, vlogging and mostly photographing every single thing!  Yes it's an addiction but what I need to do is get up earlier, stay up later, I want to capture as many sunrises as there are sunsets, I want to grab each day by the throat and take you on a journey with me, I want you to experience the travel with me, I want you to be able to picture in your mind exactly where I am and Madrid was a fail for this because it's over 2 weeks later and I'm only just posting photos of this busy little city in Spain, I say little but I mean in the context of it's cousin Barcelona, you can walk Madrid from one side to the other quite easily, not so much with Barcelona!

Travel and Work Focus, How I Make Money Now

So it's been a while since I last blogged and thats because I have so much going on right now and I didn't take my MacBook with me to Madrid, yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be a digital nomad and therefore should still be doing stuff on the go but the truth is I just wanted to travel, shoot and sleep and that's what I did, averaging 30,000 steps every day with my best friend Harriet, we walked, I shot video and photographs and she put up with me.  From Madrid to Toledo and from one side of the city to the other, we walked and walked and walked...

We went to the Cathedral, we went to the Palace, we watched the sunset at the gardens of temple of Debod, we went to the zoo, we took the train to Toledo and did 30,000 steps there, although I have to tell you that they have escalators to go up and down the side of the mountain, so very cool.

So there's a big but coming here...

I hated the video I shot but hey, it's my very first travel video and I once shot my very first photograph (I was 9, I chopped peoples heads off often, please remember that if you watch it), I wish I'd started shooting video when I was 9 but then again, movie camera's of the 80's, yep, I'll just leave that there!

So, this blog should be loaded with sumptuous delicious images of Madrid, except... I have the biggest list of client sessions and weddings that I need to edit before I can blog my stuff from Madrid so you'll just have to be satisfied with the above morsel until a later date.  You see, even though I am a digital influencer, a writer and travel photographer, first and foremost I am a portrait photographer with a hugely busy and thriving business and I always remember that it's portraiture which pays my bills and to feed my family!

My aim for this year is to build massively on the travel stuff, I am learning to Vlog, I am learning to get better at travel photography, I am focusing on uploading images to stock photography sites.  Currently Shutterstock has major issues with most of my old images but I'm hoping that this is going to improve now that I'm shooting more often with the XT1 and less with the X70 which I still think is an amazing travel camera but it's a compact. Oh and by the way, if you are a photographer it doesn't matter which stock agency you use, just upload some images, Shutterstock is pretty quick if you have already keyword in Lightroom, the point is do it now, don't wait like I did, you might as well earn money for images you've already taken!  I actually prefer Imagebrief as they sold one of my images for $500 but I haven't made anything through them for a while.

I see myself as only working more and more towards being able to spend my time making money from different forms of photography, vlogging and digital influencing, I'll always have a portraiture business and that is my first love but if I work on all of the other things there's just a chance that I'll be able to shoot some portraiture wherever in the world I happen to be.

I'm back at my desk now for the next 3 weeks and then I am going to Nice with Abigail for 7 days, it will be my first weekend off since Christmas and so my plan is to use the next 3 weeks to experiment with vlogging at home and out and about around the North East in between shooting and editing portrait sessions and weddings and I hope that one day everything is just going to work in synergy.  You can be sure you'll be on the journey and I hope that you might come and subscribe to my Youtube Channel which at present has 30 subscribers, I'd like to increase that to my first hundred, hopefully before Christmas!

The Part Time Digital Nomad

It's half five in the afternoon, it's 23c and the hazy sunshine feels warm on my face.  I'm sitting on our sunny balcony at the Isla Del Sol apartments in C'an Pastilla which is around 7.6k from Palma de Mallorca.

Life, you could say, is very good, today we've walked just under 6 miles which is far from what we did yesterday, by the time we came back to our apartment we'd walked over 31,000 steps or 12.6 miles.  I'm not sure who decided after walking to Palma and all around the city that we should walk home again when we could have gotten a bus for 1.5 euros, oh hang on, that would have been Abigail, a teenager not known for wanting to go on big walks, it's true she did complain a little but to be fair, 12.6 miles is a long blooming way!

My plan to be a digital nomad during the week and just be at homes at weekends, at least on school holidays, seems to be working, I can achieve most things from just about anywhere in the world and to me a Monday to Friday in the sunshine is just enough vitamin D to keep me going.

C'an Pastilla is a small resort which connects to S'Arenal, I would, however, say that whilst C'an Pastilla is lovely we hopped aboard the road train today and got off in S'Arenal to walk back and that's not the nicest place, there are approximately 2 "looky looky" men to every tourist and we even passed a Cavernous pub with dancing ladies on the tables, really not my kind of place.  C'an Pastilla though is quieter and Abigail and I are happy here.

Mallorca was really made for walkers and the coastal walkways are quite breathtaking as you amble along them towards the capital, small resorts along the way break up the journey with occasional beach bars and ice-cream shops tending to the needs of tourists who have become too hot, much like Abigail and I yesterday really, I think it was a pleasant walk in 22c sunshine but I can't imagine it's something I would have attempted in July or August when the temperature soars.

We only arrived on Monday afternoon and yet our trip has had so many highlights, Palma de Mallorca cathedral with it's interior designed by Antoni Gaudi who spent 14 years living in Palma whilst he finished the design and building, a glorious work of art and design, if you have already seen some of his work in Barcelona then you really must plan a visit across to Mallorca to visit the Cathedral.

Today our highlight was visiting one of the biggest aquariums in the whole of Europe, the Palma aquarium certainly didn't disappoint and do pay the €25 per adult to get in because it's absolutely worth it.  We paid an extra €7.50 each to go on a glass bottom boat across the shark tank, yes the cavernous tank which holds millions of litres of water and 5 huge sharks has a boat which goes across it!  To be near such beautiful yet dangerous creatures was surely a thrill, don't worry if you don't fancy it though, the floor to ceiling tanks the height of several double deckers give you a serious thrill as one of the sharks goes past, especially if it's the one that is nearly 3 metres long.

My only gripe on this tour has been my awful prolapsed disk, every day I've woken with migraines and I've now given up on carrying a bag completely, luckily my lovely daughter doesn't mind shoving my camera and purse in hers, she really is a gem and despite wanting to stop and eat every fifty paces she's a real pleasure to spend time with.  We have talked about so many different things and there's been a hefty amount of her laughing at me but that's normal and I'd be disappointed if she didn't!!

At the end of May, I'm going to take Looby away, it'll be another last minute bargain and I don't really care where it is, as long as there's sunshine and I can do a couple of smart work hours a day then I'm a very happy digital nomad!

When a holiday to Palma de Mallorca is cheaper than a Caravan in Bamburgh

So, here's the thing, as I've been working really hard lately and because my girls don't go back to school until the 2nd of May we decided to book a little mini break, I looked at various destinations and we settled on Bamburgh, a luxury caravan for a week for around £370 which seems not too bad to me, we could have got the bus there and had a lovely week, of course we've been there many times before but it's a place we love.

And then I happened to do a search on flights with Skyscanner, £19 to Faro, Portugal and £35 to Palma de Mallorca.  As Looby is already going to Tenerife later this year with Dad I decided the best course of action would be to see what kind of deal I could get with Abigail and we got flights, transfers, 5 nights accommodation and 15kg of luggage for £337.90 for both of us, cheaper than a caravan in Bamburgh!!  We have lovely daytime flights so we fly at 9.40am on Monday 24th and come back at 7.45am on Saturday, just in time for me to go to work in the afternoon!

I booked with lastminute.com because it's ATOL protected and easy to arrange everything and I checked on Tripadvisor and found very good reports about the studio apartment we've booked, The Isla del Sol apartments in Ca'n Pastilla are only a mile or so away from the airport, 5 miles from the capital of Palma and it has a pool for that mid-afternoon nap in the sunshine or a quick dip if it's warm enough which is should be, it's currently 20-25c during the daytime which is perfect as both Abigail and I hate it when it's too hot, we're not beach fiends at all, we love exploring and there's really plenty of things to do in Palma, it's 1.5€ on the bus or 12€ in a taxi from our hotel to the city centre.

I was in Palma in November 2014 on the last day of a cruise with NCL it was the last day on assignment for Cruise International and I remember wearing flip flops and a summer dress even though it was at the very end of November, I got the tourist bus to Bellver Castle and rested taking in the magnificent scenery all around me, I adore Spain, it has so many charms for me and whilst I'm not a fan of beach package holidays I've loved all of the places I've ever been, I just hope I can happen upon some Iberico Jamón which is quite possibly my favourite food in the whole world!!

After my visit to Bellver Castle I walked down the side of the hill towards the sea passing a mature Spanish gentleman, as he said something I didn't understand with a kindly smile I felt like I was in a scene from An Affair To Remember (for the pedants and purists, yes I realise, that's in France where they go to visit Nicky's grandmother, Villefranche Sur le Mer to be exact) suffice to say I have longed to go back and I especially wanted to take Abigail with me as she's my cultural daughter, Looby, well she loves daddy holidays because they love, pool, beach, pool!

So here's just a few of the photos the last time I was there and let me tell you that I cannot wait to go there with Abigail, travel is one of the things that completely nourishes my soul, it makes me feel alive and the sunshine, well vitamin D is my favourite drug!  Whilst the North East of England is currently around 11c I shall be digging out my swimming costume and packing my shorts, I shall be planning 20k a day in a beautiful Mediterranean destination and I shall be thanking God and the universe for every moment that I am there.

Barcelona, The City That Healed My Heart

Travel, it's in my heart and my soul, when I can't travel, I get restless, I get itchy feet, I get distracted so when travel plans are afoot it gives me a buzz and it doesn't matter if I'm travelling with the kids or with my friends or on my own, I embrace each experience and try to get as much out of it as possible and when I have the unique moments I often feature on my blog, it's those moments which have nourished my mind, my body, and my soul.

I often wonder if I love to travel as much as I do because it's something I've done later in life, something I've worked really hard for and something I crave.  I love new experiences and cultures, meeting the people, exploring the cities, trying all of the food!!

When I came back from Barcelona, I shepherded myself back to my desk and into work and so I just never managed to get around to editing some of the images...until now.

While all around in work is chaotic with portraits, I needed to take myself back to a happy summer time, a time spent with my best friend, a time with heat and sunshine, with ice-cream and swimming and with beauty all around us as we lived in the magical city for just a few days.

There's nowhere like Barcelona, it's as Harriet said, a city of so many faces, beaches, architecture, graffiti and Gaudi, it's busy, it's calm, it's very much an oxymoron, a paradox, a paradigm shift, it is a contradiction and it's only when you have visited that you can understand just what I mean.

Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia is all of those things and more, I wished that I could have spent some time when it was calm and quiet to soak in the most spiritual surroundings but when every visitor is essentially paying for the remainder of the building of the great cathedral, this testament to God and to Gaudi it's creator and architect, well it doesn't pay to let it stand empty for any great length of time.

The madness of this most sacred building being unfinished for so many years does not at all make sense but it's hoped that it should reach completion in around 10 years from now.

And then let me transport you to a historic theme park, Tibidabo, the magical mountain, where a theme park lies directly next to the most beautiful church I think I've ever seen.  We'd waited until late in the day to visit Tibidabo and we couldn't have gone at a better time, the most magical golden sunset I have ever seen set over the mountains and my heart was lit up by the calm and serenity of the most beautiful sight I have ever seen, to enjoy that with your best friend is truly an experience I'll remember for the rest of my life.

My Barcelona days were as much about the rediscovery of myself and the healing of my psyche as they were about sightseeing and exploration and I did just that, I found myself again, I knew when I got on the plane back home that I'd healed more in that week than I had in months, I knew the path I had to take, the path to take more travel because nothing is more healing than exploration and new experiences.