Ozone Zone Books

Our next trip - our next book!

2012-01-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

Surreal landscape of Barbados

Time came for us to pack our bags and travel again! Off we go to Barbados, where we will start work on our next book "Barbados Highlights". We will photograph there several spots, including some fine landscape and landmarks, such as an old sugar wind mill, now under care of Barbados National Trust.

Then we will visit Dominica. It will be our fourth visit to that amazing island, and we plan to photograph there picturesque Indian River, couple of waterfalls, and also Kalinago people - one of only two last remaining Carib tribes in the whole Caribbean. I am quite excited about this rare photo opportunity.

Material from this shoot along with interview by Margaret will be used for a story in Real Life Caribbean - fine lifestyle magazine from Cayman Islands.
We will also photograph amazing eco-resort in Dominica called Secret Bay. Beautiful place, we are happy to return there.

What else? ZING, Liat Caribbean airline in-flight magazine published our story and photographs presenting fine architecture by Lane Pettigrew, known Caribbean architect.

Also another Caribbean magazine MACO used lots of my photos for their 10 page story on mentioned above Secret Bay. My photo of Secret Bay bungalow at night also landed on their cover.
Long overdue, Maco!

and last news for today: We will be publishing a fine art book of paintings by known artist devoting his work to the beauty of tiny island of Bequia. Bequia is a tiny island between St Vincent and Mustique - another fine place we visited when working on our first book, Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean.
Stay tuned - you will be the first to see photos from our trip - and soon! And, as always - click Like or Share, if you like these short updates from our work! Cheers!
Derek

5 Ways the Caribbean Uses Green Power

2012-01-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

A small stream in the middle of tropical forest in Dominica
offers fine drinking water for passing drivers.

While travelling and working in the Caribbean, we are always impressed with many ways Caribbean region embraced "green technologies". While here in Western world it is rather a talk of the future and a big business with solutions available mostly for rich people (therefore defying its purpose), the Caribbean, being rather a poor region - uses "green energy" everyday, because it is convenient, inexpensive - and simply better.
Today, I invited a guest blogger and expert to tell us a bit more. Hope you enjoy. So, here is Shelly Mirriam, until next time, cheers!

Derek
=====

In the United States and other parts of the world, there is always the debate of when and how the switch to green energy will come. But did you know that the Caribbean is already using it on a large scale? To prove it, we have gathered five ways the Caribbean is using green power.

Solar water heaters – In the tech world, there is a debate between traditional tank water heaters and tankless. There is even a huge push in the United States to use the more environmentally sound tankless kind. But did you know that there is such a thing as solar water heaters? Because people in the Caribbean have low incomes and limited access to electricity, they often rely on solar heaters. Barbados itself is said to have 32,000 solar water heaters and the second highest per capita usage of them in the world.
Water recycling – In other countries, rain water is left to run where it falls. However, in the Caribbean this water is often harnessed, stored, and reused. Often referred to as rainwater harvesting or water catchment in the U.S., it is simply known as collecting rain water to be used in gardening, washing, etc. in the Caribbean.
Hydroelectric power – In addition to recycling, did you also know that water can also create electricity? This is called hydroelectricity and is best known in dams such as the Hoover Dam. However, streams, rivers, lakes, etc. can also produce hydroelectricity. So much so, that in the Caribbean and Central America, it’s production has tripled from 1980 to 2006. There is even a large use of waterfall energy in the island of Dominica.
Geothermal – Often the topic of science fiction, geothermal energy is harvested by drilling into the Earth, both a potentially rewarding and dangerous source of energy. But there is already a plant in Guadalupe that has been in operation since 1984. There are even plans to get the benefits of building similar plants in Dominica, St. Lucia, and Montserrat.
Wind energy – With so many beaches and so much natural wind, it makes sense to have wind energy in the Caribbean. A company from the Netherlands felt the same way and installed the first windmill in the region at a hotel/resort in Grenada. Similar plans for future ones are also in the works.

Shelly Mirriam is a science student and also writes for Masters inEnvironmental Science which helps students find the right environmental science degree.

As always, if you like this story - please "share" it.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

Thank you for your support and interest. we are just starting work on a brand new Caribbean book. Details coming soon. For now - I just wish you a fantastic, magical New Year 2012!
Derek

Merry Christmas! And our Christmas Gift to you!

2011-12-23T12:50:00.000-08:00

We all at Ozone Zone Books would like to extend our warm Christmas wishes to all our friends and blog readers. Thank you for your support, it means a lot to us!
To show our gratitude, we are happy to give you a small gift:
TWO FREE CHAPTERS from our two award-winning books.

Chapter from Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean showing a luxury villa (and also exclusive vacation rental) on the famous private Mustique Island. This is a rare glimpse one can have at the island of celebrities - so exclusive that one can't visit it without an invitation!

Get it below, right click on the link and save to your computer:
http://ozonezonebooks.com/archive/LAnsecoy-small1.pdf

And a Chapter from Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean showing spectacular, huge Montreal Estate Gardens high in the mountains of St Vincent island. It is so lush and huge, it is hard to think it is a garden!

Get it below, right click on the link and save to your computer:
http://ozonezonebooks.com/archive/Montreal gardens.pdf

We hope these beautiful places will let you forget about the cold weather, and will transfer you to sunny, tropical paradise!
But hurry - this is only our Christmas offer, and these links will be removed at the end of Holiday season!

We hope you like our gift - and if you do - please click SHARE, or LIKE on this page, let your friends enjoy it while it is available. Thank you!

Merry Christmas once again!
Derek and Margaret
www.ozonezonebooks.com

P.S.
another Christmas offer from Ozone Zone: these books can be ordered for only $20 each! That is over 60% off the cover price. Email us for details, local pickup available to save on shipping. Valid until end of December only! office@ozonezonebooks.com

What's new at Ozone Zone?

2011-12-16T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have been quiet for last couple of months. It doesn't mean there is nothing to report, quite contrary.
We are happy to announce our new Web site www.ozonezonebooks.com . It was time for a new look and more friendly layout. We are really happy with outcome, and thank for that really fine team of Web developers http://bugtreat.com/ If anyone is looking for a modern site at a very reasonable cost, and a really fine support while everything is done - and after that too - I offer them my most sincere recommendation. They proved to be top guns.

What else?
We are working on starting on-line photography salon - competition. Soon, fully interactive system will be finished and our first photo competition will be open! We are thrilled to promote this way fine photography. I am quite passionate about it, and I hope to find support from RPS (Royal Photographic Society) of which I am a member.

and - what else?
I was very busy photographing locally, in British Columbia, Canada. I did several trips to photograph wildlife. I photographed a jazz performance of a Cuban band Cuban Party, and I did several portrait sessions.

I also photographed some real estate for Sotheby's agency as well as for a luxury magazine here in Victoria.
My series of portrait photos Sinister Kabuki was published by Canadian Camera magazine, where also is printed another recent photo of mine - Tile Tales, winner of a honorary award in CAPA annual Canadian competition. And soon, we will be heading to Caribbean islands for another series of location shoots.

Anything else?
Yes! We would like to wish all of you fantastic Holidays and a great New Year!
Cheers!

Derek

Fun in Langford - my home town

2011-09-20T21:39:00.000-07:00

I often shared with you on this blog our experience from various countries we visited.
What we find most enjoyable during our travels is that each country, each region has its own traditions, rituals, festivities. The culture is so diverse, there is so much to explore.
One can go to the Caribbean and participate in a Creole Fest. Enjoy a tea ceremony, or a traditional Kabuki theatre in Japan. Travel to Austria and experience Mozart festival in Salzburg, and so on, so on.

This gave me an idea to show you all, that the city I live in also has its tradition. I showed you lively photos from our travels – now perhaps it is time to share with you fun we can have here, in Langford – near Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Langford is where we live, so I can be proud to call it my hometown. And, as already said – our town has its own tradition too. Unlike some others – this tradition is thousands of years old, and has roots in early Roman times, so we need to respect it and share with others with pride. Already in Roman times big Emperors concluded that their people need fun, games and excitement. Big Colosseums were built, where men in heavy armour struggled against each other, to give joy to ecstatic, entertained public. We learn about it in schools, and it is one of perhaps most known facts and traditions of fun and entertainment in human history.

We have our little Colosseum too, here in Langford on Luxton community playgrounds. And every year there are organized 4x4 truck challenges, where men in heavy armour of their cars struggle to woo the happy, entertained public. It is a weekend-long fun for everybody.

Last weekend our friends recommended that – after living here for almost 8 years – I should go and join the crowd, to enjoy our local life and attractions.

Surely I took my camera with me, and here I share my quick snaps with you. It was real fun to watch the trucks trying to get through heavy rocks and other obstacles, and cheers were most spontaneous when a strugling truck went belly up, and an ambulance was called to the scene.
Unfortunately, it was a hot day with strong sun – and when after an hour or so I noticed that my neck gets similarly red to exposed to sun necks of my neighbours – I decided to call it the day and go home. Therefore I never learned which of local gladiators won, but this – as I noticed - was not really that important. The idea was to just have fun and a joyful experience.
I hope that my humble shots will transfer you for a few moments to Langford – the town I live in.
Enjoy!

The Knight Of Might

2011-09-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

Trying to have a break from Caribbean and architecture photography every now and then, I enjoy working with models from Victoria.
Continuing with series of portraits and studio works, I just had the privilege of working with seasoned artists' model, Michael Ward. He models professionally for about 30 years, and over this period worked with countless fine artists - photographers, sculptors and painters alike. Shooting with him was a real treat, and I was excited that he agreed to model for me in his fine armour from Britain - one of his 250 outfits, as I learned. We also selected one of his swords - a fine and authentic Claymore blade.
I spent a bit of time thinking ahead about the concept for the shoot. Surely, photographing a knight in armour asks for some mystical ambiance, a fairy tale like scenery and atmosphere like from famous William Waterhouse paintings. But, if I would go too much this direction and only this direction, it could be risky, touching of cheap and pretentious style. So, I decided to combine mystical feel of this shoot with real feelings and expressions - a human drama.

How was it to be a warrior on his long battle path centuries ago? How many horrors hardened his soul, how many tragedies and lost comrades made him weep when nobody was watching? Were there enough of happier moments helping soothe his way through pain in the name of glory, God and loyalty?
How about physical pain? The 40 kilograms of armour made him really heavy, struggling with every step and move. Wearing it in hot sun would add to this misery. Just helping Michael to dress for our shoot was an eye-opener for me. This gear is amazingly heavy and uncomfortable.

What about knight's personal matters? If he was lucky, his beloved woman would wait patiently for his return home. But without any means of regular communication he would only keep his faith and remember her by embracing a little treasure she gave him as farewell gift - perhaps a handkerchief, a locket?
I decided that my Knight has to be a tragic person, longing, almost broken by too many unknown factors and hardships - but still believing in his return home and victory.

We discussed details with Michael prior to our session, and when he started to act - it was pure perfection. He gave me all I wanted - and more.
Rough and rocky ocean location near Taylor Road in Metchosin near Victoria, added to the feel of our setting.
For most shots I used switched white balance and flashes with yellow gels, creating late evening and bonfire mood.
Whole series has about a dozen of very different images. Some of them are saturated with vibrant colours, some are more documentary in character black and whites. I will remember working with Michael for long time, and i hope you find these images interesting. Live long, my knight. Let your path be filled with victories, so you can return to your castle with pride.

If you like it, please click SHARE on right top side of this post.
More photos from this series on my Model Mayhem page.

Etude Noire

2011-09-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

I had lots of fun this summer photographing various models from Victoria area, and adding to my art portrait portfolio. And just couple of days ago, I've met known artists' model, Lady Kimberly Rose.
When we first contacted by email, I had instantly a precise idea of how i want our photos to look like.
It was great experience to work with Kim - she recreated my ideas so well, that the whole series is 100% as I imagined it. Thanks a lot, Kim!

You can see the series (called Etude Noire) on my Model Mayhem portfolio page and of course on my personal site www.artphotographyservices.com - but I also post here couple of images from this series, and i hope you'll enjoy them.

Until next time, cheers!
If you like these pics, please click "share" on top of this post!

Our Photos Featured Again...

2011-08-31T09:37:00.000-07:00

Just a brief update from the last minute. Once again, our Caribbean photos were used by a fancy magazine. This time it is Caribbean Property Investor - a British in-flight magazine offered in business class of Virgin Airlines. This, after two main features in Zing - also published in Britain and distributed on all Caribbean LIAT flights, makes it yet another fine in-flight magazine to use our contribution work.

When you add recently published editions of RealLife Magazine from Cayman Islands (with three separate features using Derek's pics), famous PinUp from New York, Observer in Jamaica, and Luxury Home Quarterly - among other ones - it makes it for dozens of Derek Galon's photographs picked as best-suited to present the beauty of the Caribbean Region.
As always - we are glad to be of assistance, and already preparing more (watch for the next edition of Zing magazine!) As said during TV interview in Barbados this summer - we have real passion for the Caribbean, and it is good to see that Caribbean starts to have a passion about our work!
On top of our regular book publishing work, photography exhibiting, etc. we also offer location photography for the most discriminate clients who appreciate the difference our photographs can do - including spectacular panoramas for print and Web.

Tile Tales

2011-08-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last week I had real pleasure of working again with my favourite model from Victoria - Koko.
I hope to use some of these images for my next photo exhibition, and of course in my portfolio, to add more different angles to it.

I called the series Tile Tales, and you can see why. I wanted for a long time to create almost psychedelic effect of black and white geometry with a human model adding to it. Koko's idea to use Oreo cookies worked as a great addition to it.

Here are a few pics for your enjoyment...
Until next time (and yes - we still work on our next Caribbean book, more news about that later on).

Cheers! Derek

the last one I call - end of the Tale...

Took a break and enjoyed Chosin Pottery - studio and gardens

2011-08-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

We wanted to go there for years. But as it often happens - it was so close, so easy to go (perhaps too close and too easy) - that we postponed it over and over, always travelling and going places far away.
At last, this weekend we went to see the gardens and studio of Chosin Pottery Studio (Metchosin Road, greater Victoria). I really had to take a break from editing my Caribbean photographs from our recent trip and I really needed something fresh and new. So, we went and had an enchanting morning - so close to home, but did feel like we were exploring unknown lands.

The gardens are open to public by donation, and welcomed us with some surprising accents, reminding us that the owners, artists - are masters of pottery and ceramic works.

Here and there you'll find some ceramic mushrooms, imaginary faces or masks, zen inspired finishings of hand rails or fences, and other intriguing, fine decorations. There are many Japanese touches which are clearly connected to the style of studio's pottery heavily influenced by best Japanese traditions.

Chosin Pottery garden has lots of charm and is definitely a great spot for photographers. Perhaps it is past its finest years and would do with some TLC, but it's current state has also lots of character and lots to offer.

We spent a good hour enjoying this fine place, and I really recommend it to fellow photographers - it is an excellent location. Surely, I recommend it to anyone who wants to relax in fine surroundings, and enjoy a great garden with a fine gallery experience.

At the end, we stepped into the studio located in one of simple but attractive pavilions, and were greeted by really charming Ms. Judi Dyelle - owner and artist.

Her ceramic works are absolutely fabulous. If you like zen inspired Japanese arts, you will love her creations. Also her husband's works were worth seeing, and we consider purchasing some of these fine pieces.

We returned home happy and refreshed, and would like to thank Ms. Dyelle and Mr. Robin Hopper for a really fine weekend morning.

You should go there too, you owe it to yourself...

Here is link to their site I found on line: http://www.chosinpottery.ca
Until next time. Cheers!

Jamaica Observer - my photos from Secret Bay, Dominica

2011-07-25T10:15:00.000-07:00

Just weeks ago we returned home from the Caribbean, photographing some gardens and architecture. Among other projects, we photographed a brand new, amazingly beautiful luxury eco lodge in Dominica - Secret Bay (www.secretbay.dm)
And, just last weekend the Secret Bay was featured in Jamaica as one of Top Caribbean Destinations.
We love that place, and it was good to see that - just a month after official opening - they already receive publicity! It was also nice to see my photos contributing to the story.

By the way - after contributing three times to Real Life Caribbean Magazine, and twice to the Zing magazine in one year, now my photos are in Jamaica Observer. It makes my contributions to Caribbean publications a regular thing, all over the region. Nice.

My photo at IGPOTY International exhibition at Kew Gardens, UK.

2011-07-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

I just received snapshots from England showing my photo being used on large posters of IGPOTY Exhibition at Kew Gardens.
As I mentioned earlier in one of my posts that my photo from "Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean" won there - and then it was picked as a flag image of the exhibition - I thought you may like seeing it. Here are snaps. Thank you to Philip Smith from IGPOTY for kindly taking and sending them to me.

My new photo blog for fellow photographers

2011-07-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Hello,
just a note that I launched a new blog, where I share photography tips, my 40 years worth of experience with various photography, equipment I use (or don't use), and more.
It is not an official review site, but rather my private, unofficial comments designed to help fellow photographers. I hope my humble contribution may help save some of you money, stress, and make better choices when buying equipment or taking photos. I plan to add material there regularly, so it will grow.

You can see it at
http://derekgalonphotography.blogspot.com

On this photo: beautiful Emerald Pool waterfalls in Dominica, Eastern Caribbean. I just love this place...

If you like this news about new photo blog, please SHARE it, or LIKE it. Thanks!

Exhibition at Kew Gardens, photos from Barbados....

2011-07-21T17:44:00.000-07:00

Hello,

and next photo are from the picturesque Bathsheba beach. Quite a view! Makes me want to go back!I just shared these with friends via facebook, and want to add the note here:
Being one of winners at International Garden Photographer Of The Year 2010 (by KEW Gardens, London, UK), I was to receive a free copy of their book showing all awarded photos. I received it today - and just saw they picked my photo for front cover! It is a fish pond in Sunnyside garden, Grenada, my winning photo. But to be picked for cover - is like getting another award. Nice surprise!

Another thing -while in Barbados, I found an inexpensive accommodation for rent right at the beach... just look at the photo. No, seriously - isn't it amazingly surreal? I love it! These two photos are from the picturesque Bathsheba beach. Quite a view! Makes me want to go back! Cheers! Until next time!

Good Morning Barbados!

2011-06-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

For last 2 days we are working in Barbados, taking lots of photographs. We just discussed with our friends in Barbados an idea to create a series of smaller softcover books. They will be dedicated to single islands and themes. So, we have something new to plan now!
Today the day started early, at 4:30 am. We had to get to the CBC-8 TV station.
And, around 7am, hosts of popular program Good Morning Barbados invited us to this live program to talk about our books Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean, and Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean. We shared various stories, anecdotes from our travels, and also our joy and surprise at getting all the awards for both these books.
It was fun and real pleasure to be on air in Barbados. Wonderful hosts and an interesting experience.
Thank you, Barbados! It was also nice to see our books in virtually EVERY book store over here.

on photo: I am awaiting to get on air at CBC-8.
On Sunday - we fly to Dominica. Talk soon, cheers!
Derek

Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean - more news!

2011-06-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

It is official now:
On top of getting the amazing Nautilus Award 2011, our latest book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean placed itself in the Top-Three at two other international book competitions 2011.
Therefore it is on list of finalists at Benjamin Franklin Book Award 2011 (remember? our Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean won Gold there last year), as well as Book Of The Year Awards 2011.

Both of these international book competitions for independent publishers are quite prestigious, with hundreds (if not thousands) of entries, and the title of Finalist adds a shine to our book, already in the spotlight of the Nautilus award.
Definitely good news, and we are really excited to share it with you ASAP!
Until next time! Cheers!

What's Next? Quick Update On Our Works...

2011-05-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

Just recently I shared with you the news about our book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean winning prestigious Nautilus Book Award 2011. Thank you to all of you who sent congratulations, we are both humbled and thrilled. This book is now being reviewed in France, and our distribution network spreads to UK and Europe, including fine British bookstore chain Waterstones.

So, what's next? What are we working on right now, one may ask. Well, as always - we keep busy.

We had to postpone planned photo trips to the Middle East. As you may know from our website, we planned to publish a book on Arabic life-style and architecture, with materials from Syria, Jordan, Yemen and other countries. Unfortunately, current situation in that region does not allow for free travel and photographing, and we feel for all brave people there, pursuing their dream for better life. So, that book will have to wait a bit.

In the meantime we are still working on our next book, "The Caribbean Architect", and we will soon visit the Caribbean region again to take more photographs. We hope to have finished later this year, and surely we will keep you posted.
What else? Our images and writing were published in recent editions of RealLife magazine (Cayman Islands), and Pin-Up magazine from New York. RealLife will also use some of our garden photography in their next issue. I was also asked to write an article on technical aspects of portrait photography for one of Canadian e-zines. I will post link to it, once it is published.

From less official kind of news, I can perhaps mention that in last several weeks, to refresh my eye and skills, I participated in several studio portrait sessions, here in Victoria. I found it fun and creative, giving me an additional angle to my work. All that was organized with use of Model Mayhem site, which I find extremely useful for professional networking, selecting teams, and exchanging photo ideas.

I post here a few different images from these sessions, most of which took place in Villa Marco Polo - an elegant boutique hotel in Victoria.

Hope you enjoy these images - and if you do - please click "share" or "like" so your friends may also have a look! Thanks for checking our news, and stay tuned - until next time!
Derek

Nautilus 2011 Awards - FREE chapter for you, help us celebrate!

2011-04-25T11:14:00.000-07:00

Hello!
For us - today is a happy day. Why? We can't simply believe it, but we just received notification that our Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean book is 2011 NAUTILUS SILVER AWARD WINNER.

TO CELEBRATE THIS FINE AWARD, we are offering FREE chapter from this book for you. Simply click this link to download or open PDF with Diamond Gardens chapter - and instantly feel like being in St Lucia!
But BEFORE you do it, please CLICK SHARE or LIKE icon on the right, so your friends can also get and enjoy this chapter.
Thank you!

We are humbled by the news - specially as we know this is one of the most prestigious and hard-to-win international book competitions.
So, now our first book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean which won Benjamin Franklin Gold Award 2010 will not put the Exotic Gardens book in its shadow anymore.

It is worthy to note that it places us in amazing company of previous winners - the world's leading voices in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality and mysticism, health, energy medicine:
Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Toole, Caroline Myss, Marianne Williamson, Gail Straub, Masaru Emoto, Susun Weed
scientist and visionary Gregg Braden,
His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
novelist, essayist and poet: Barbara Kingsolver
photographers: David McKay, Robert Kull, Ian Shive
and many others...
(please pinch me, I think I must be dreaming)

Nautilus Awards' jury "recognizes Books and E-Books that promote spiritual growth, conscious living & positive social change, while at the same time they stimulate the "imagination" and offer the reader "new possibilities" for a better life and a better world" - says a quote on their Web site http://www.nautilusbookawards.com
And it continues:

"With mass global communication, political upheaval, depletion and destruction of our natural resources along with religious and secular fanaticism all growing at an alarming rate, the need for books that promote viable options for positive social change is vast, and the phrase, "Changing the World One Book at a Time" is more meaningful than ever before. Authors and publishers and their books CAN and ARE making a difference."

Many thanks to all our team, Margaret, Anna, Natasha, Lex - and of course Tony and friends at Meida Printing!
Champagne, anyone?

Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean can be ordered from
www.amazon.com or www.amazon.ca
more info, photos and stories at www.ozonezonebooks.com

Good news once again!

2011-04-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

It was a nice surprise this morning, when i received email from England informing that winners of International Photo Competition "4 Seasons: Monochrome" are already announced.

When Lex Nowak, our friend and Ozone Zone partner-photographer entered this competition with his fine infra-red image, I told him chances of winning are small because this is the same large and prestigious competition as IGPOTY (International Garden Photographer Of The Year), just a different "wing" of it organizing seasonal themes. For each theme they receive well over thousand entries from fine photographers world-wide.

This is what I told him - but as he entered, I decided to enter at the very last day too, just to keep him company.

Today, when I opened the Monochrome 2011 finalists' page - I found Lex and myself to be among top 23 selected winners! You can see my green monochrome photo, and Lex's intriguing infra-red photo which looks like a black and white, but with twisted light balance. (It is because palms absorbed sun heat, and infra-red technique shows warmer subjects as brighter ones.) Interesting and rather difficult technique, but it gives very impressive results when well used.

(Please note, Lex used his Polish name Leszek, and you can see his image being on bottom of the winners' page). By the way - I find all these winning images definitely fine, and we both feel honoured to win. For me it is specially nice, as I just recently won IGPOTY main competition for 2010 with another image!

So, you are first to know as I am sharing the news with you right away! Cheers!
Thanks a lot, and until next time!
Derek

What's new for us...

2011-03-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

While we are overwhelmed by gloomy world news on Libya, Japanese earthquake and radiation leak, it is hard to find proper balance and think of smaller everyday things. At least for me. The painful inaction and split of European leaders over Libya is for me hard to comprehend, making me feel ashamed of being from Europe.

But still, small things around us happen, and I want to report on them, sharing couple of updates with you.
So, i need to mention two things. Just recently i wrote about an award in UK one of my photographs received.
The photograph was from our Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean book, and just yesterday we received news that this book was qualified as a finalist of The Best Book Of The Year Awards competition organized yearly in USA for independently published books.
Winners will be announced in June, but for now we are happy to know we are finalists!

We are entering final stage of work on our next book, The Caribbean Architect. But, working on it from Victoria and not travelling extensively within next few month gave me some flexibility with time. Therefore I decided to offer my photography services to our community - offering art portraits and other styles of work to interested clients in Victoria. Details are on my personal web site www.artphotographyservices.com and also www.artphotographyservices.com/glamour/index.html for more intimate kinds of photography.

Additionally, i decided to offer my specialized services of architecture photography for these real estate agents and home sellers who appreciate the fact that good photography can make the whole difference between customers being interested or not. For that service, i created another web page www.artphotographyservices.com/bc-real-estate/

Thank you, and until next time! Cheers!
Derek

International Garden Photographer of the Year - Competition

2011-02-28T17:23:00.000-08:00

Just a short posting to share some good news:
My photograph of Sunnyside garden pond, entered for IGPOTY (International Garden Photographer of the Year) competition organized in UK by the famous KEW Gardens, competing with a few thousands of other images from around the world has been just nominated in finals to be among handful of "Highly Commended" photographs. The exact list of winners will be announced in May.

Here is information we just received:
Dear Derek, Congratulations.
Your photograph has got through to the very last round of judging and is now Highly Commended. Winners will be announced at the beginning of May. All of the photographs have been reviewed over a 10 week period by some of the leading garden photographers in the world, as well as representatives of Kew Gardens, the National Trust and the Royal Photographic Society.

You have taken part in the world's premier garden photography event and competed against the best in the world, and to have won an award is a great achievement.

Highly Commended photographs will be shown on the International Garden Photographer of the Year website. Each highly commended photograph will feature in the book 'International Garden Photographer of the Year Collection.
The exhibition will open at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew on May 14th. There will be follow on exhibitions through to 2012 at Wakehurst Place, Lacock Abbey, Ironbridge, Shropshire, and Exeter.The book of awarded images will be published to coincide with the opening of the exhibition in May.
http://www.igpoty.com/competition04/Commended_GardenViews.asp?parent=commended

This photo was taken for our book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean, so these of you who own the book can see it in large size on page 176.
I will keep you posted as soon as we know more. Thanks for visiting our blog!
Cheers! Until next time!
Derek

Lets see what's behind us...

2011-02-06T18:14:00.000-08:00

I did not post anything for a while. I guess, we were really busy. Thing is, we were quite busy for a while, for a long while. sometimes too busy to see a wider picture of what's around us.
So, lets stop for a moment and see... what really happened to us in 2010?

Last year was an enormous adventure both for Margaret and myself, and to these friends who worked closely with us.
We made new friends - some quite unexpectedly, we published two books, we received Benjamin Franklin award for our Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean, we published a limited edition Caribbean wall calendar...
We travelled to St Lucia and Dominica twice, then also to Barbados, Martinique, Grenada, Jamaica, Honduras, Panama, Mexico... you name it! My head still spins when I think about all our flights.
I also took about 20,000 photographs, and Margaret recorded over 60 hours of interviews...
We did some fine work for top Caribbean resorts, including images, advertising brochure and a web site for an elegant hotel.
I had a photo exhibition sponsored by Polish Consulate in Vancouver, Canada (really enjoyable event!), entered two prestigious international photography competitions, and our new book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean was accepted for two fine book competitions. We had several radio talk-shows, and displayed our titles on several Book fairs, including famous Book fair on Frankfurt, Germany. As a result of that - we signed contract with a British distributor for distribution of our titles in UK, Europe and Middle East.
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We started working on another fascinating book (working title is Caribbean Architect), and we are quite advanced, hoping to publish it sometimes this year.

As we are recently waiting for some vital materials necessary to finish this book, we do have a little "time off" now.

But it does not mean we just took vacation. I am exploring and learning other styles of photography, and perfecting use of advanced lighting for portraiture and interiors. (you can see my personal site www.artphotographyservices.com to see my recently added photographs).

So, while I did not report anything in last two months, hopefully my new images on the above web site will compensate you for my silence. Been busy, sorry.
2010 had been a Ride Of Our Lifetime!
I will keep in touch though, and for now I am posting Margaret's newest portrait we just did over this weekend. Hope you'll enjoy!

sharing good news with you...

2010-12-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

We just had some good news from Barbados about our book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean. Looks like it is doing extremely well there, and it already sold in bigger numbers there than our whole USA sales!
Cruise ship terminal and the Horticultural Society are the latest ones interested in offering our titles.
On top of that, a known blogger from Barbados - and a professional gardener, Helen Knighton, featured in our book posted a short review on her blog . We would like to thank her for kind words.
And, we would like to wish fantastic Holidays to you, followed by a great New Year!

I posted photos for you on Flickr...

2010-12-11T18:19:00.000-08:00

Hello,
We decided to post a big bundle of photographs from our first Caribbean book, Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean on our Flickr account.
It is over 100 fine quality photos randomly selected from this book - a good glimpse of what is in, and it is for all our friends who did not have a chance of seeing the book yet. (By the way, book is now available on amazon in UK and Germany).
Surely, in the book are over 600 full size photos, lots of stories, etc. - but it still can be fun to browse these...
We hope you will enjoy. And - if you do - share with your friends! just click the SHARE or LIKE button...
Until next time, happy Holidays!
Derek

Photo Exhibition -Opening Reception News

2010-12-04T16:58:00.000-08:00

Our Photography Exhibition, called ”At Home Wherever Your Heart Takes You”, is now open in downtown Vancouver at the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland, at 1177 West Hastings Street, Suite 1600, Vancouver, BC Canada. (more details here)

The Opening Reception was hugely enjoyable and fun. We were happy to see a sizeable number of guests -- and we thank them all for coming. Some of them were friends, others artists, connoisseurs, gallery goers, and also media. The cheerful, congenial atmosphere, created by Polish Consul General, Krzysztof Czapla, our gracious host, added to the joyful air of festivity and excitement.

Both authors (Derek Galon and Lex Nowak) received very favourable comments on their works.
We heard many gratifying expressions of praise from our guests about the artistic aspects of our photography and the unusual locations. But the comment most frequently heard was the tremendous surprise at the amazing technical quality of our photographs. Some guests simply said they wouldn't have thought it possible to achieve such dynamics in colour and sharpness, and to include so much detail, typically not present in shaded areas or highlights.

Since we always strive to push quality levels ever higher and higher, such comments confirmed that our countless hours of hard work are obviously paying off... Many pictures on display were originally used in our two Caribbean books Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean, and Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean. Therefore both books were also displayed for our guests to enjoy and browse.
At the end of the reception, three lucky winners received colorful “Caribbean Highlights” wall calendars - our latest production. Everybody greatly enjoyed the evening, sipping refreshments, discussing photography and our two Caribbean books. We also made some new friends, which is always a pleasure.

And so, we would like once more to thank all our guests for coming, and to express our most grateful thanks to Consul Czapla and his fantastic staff for making it all possible and so wonderful!

The Exhibition continues until January 4th, 2011, during Consulate opening hours.

Here is a link to more photographs from the opening reception for you to enjoy.
Thank you!

GIVEAWAY - Limited Edition Caribbean Wall Calendar 2011

2010-11-20T15:34:00.000-08:00

A bit of fun:
On the occasion of Derek Galon's prestigious art photography exhibition at the Polish Consulate in Canada (December) - Ozone Zone Books organizes giveaway of a fine photo-calendar "Caribbean Highlights - Barbados". It is a limited edition gallery style, big 12x12 inches, and it shows Derek's photographs from his two Caribbean books: Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean, and Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean.

Photographs from the above books, as well as other Derek's works - some as old as from 1974 and 1975 (portraits of famous classical music virtuosos) will be displayed at this exhibition.
Additional works by Lex Nowak, Derek's photo partner, will also be shown, including some stunning, huge panoramas- Lex' specialty. More about exhibition in our separate post
Everyone is invited!

To participate in this calendar giveaway, simply leave a comment under this post - and please "share" if you have Facebook account, or "recommend" this link on LinkedIn - by attaching link -copy/paste this:
http://ozonezonebooks.blogspot.com/2010/11/giveaway-limited-edition-caribbean-wall.html

We will randomly pick the winner on 30 of November, and mail the calendar to anywhere in the world.
If you win, we will contact you by email for your mailing address.
We hope you win - and better yet - we hope to see you at the Opening Reception of this photo exhibition!
Thank you for your interest!

You are Invited to the Opening Reception of Photography Exhibition by Derek Galon and Lex Nowak

2010-11-19T12:53:00.000-08:00

Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Vancouver
invites you to the opening reception of Photography Exhibition by Derek Galon and Lex Nowak

Thursday, 2nd of December 2010, 4pm to 5:30pm
Exhibition continues until 4th of January 2011
1177 West Hastings Street, Suite 1600 , Vancouver, BC Canada

This unique exhibition presents selected works of two Polish-born photographers:

Derek Galon and Lex Nowak. They constitute the photographic core of the award-winning team of Ozone Zone Books, a Victoria publishing company specializing in photo books of architectural treasures and lush gardens in remote, often hard-to-access places.

Derek’s pictures in this presentation come mostly from two recent publications:

Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean and Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean but are also complemented by examples of some other, including much earlier, works.

Derek and Lex immigrated to Canada in the late eighties, trying not only to adapt to, but also to actually feel at home in their new country. Frequent moves and extensive travels soon helped them to realize that the real home is where your heart is. You can always find

some familiar features in a foreign landscape that you can relate to:

a particular combination of forms, lines or colours that evoke in you emotive responses. You can also identify recognizable expressions on faces of people you see for the first time, giving you a feeling that you have known them all your life. You can feel at home in many places

when you open your heart to what you see.

Derek and Lex have been collaborating closely for many years.

Derek’s education in fine arts gave him flamboyancy and a sometimes eccentric point of view, while Lex’s engineering background taught him precision and technical perfection. As they do much work together, often exchanging experiences, all these characteristics can be found in the works of each. Derek’s and Lex’s photographs capture elusive and transitory

moments in carefully selected images of their choice, as seen through the keen and sensitive vision of the artist who beholds them. From Derek’s black & white portraits of classical music legends, through vivid and sunny Caribbean delights, to Lex’s soft and mellow landscapes of British Columbia or wide and impressive panoramas - these images have restorative powers to uplift our souls and open our hearts to the natural beauty of our world wherever we may decide our home is.

- Margaret Gajek

WIN a free copy of Limited Edition Photo Wall Calendar 2011 “Caribbean Highlights” at the Opening Reception.

A draw for three calendars (the latest product by Ozone Zone Books) will be held at 5pm.

Dominica (Eastern Caribbean) Cottage for Rent

2010-11-19T12:18:00.000-08:00

Friends asked us recently to post their offer and spread the news to all interested in visiting the most lush and unspoiled Caribbean island - beautiful Dominica.
Here is their note:

Hideaway holiday breaks in the
cool mountains of Dominica.
~
Brand new one bedroom private
cottage, sunken bath, lounge sofa bed,
4 acres of private gardens, stream,
barbecue. microwave,
FREE internet, DVD/TV
~
centrally located.....
50 mins to airport, 40 mins to Roseau
15 mins to Miracle Lake, Emerald Pool
and beaches, 10 mins to Layou River
~
3 Day Breaks for $375 US
7 Days for $795 US
(suitable for up to two couples)
*
Contact Deb Andrews : +1 767 449 7814
OR email: deb@caribbeanlandandproperty.com

also...FOR SALE! ASKING PRICE $395,000 US
http://www.caribbeanlandandproperty.com/moredetails.php?1281

Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean book featured in radio shows

2010-11-07T14:18:00.000-08:00

Today were invited to take a part in two radio talk shows (each one 30 minutes), sharing our stories with thousands of listeners of Garden Rebel radio talk show (Vince Sims at WOKV Florida), and also "Bob Tanem in the Garden" show (KSFO560 San Francisco area).
Both shows are hosted by renowned garden experts, who today focused on our new book, giving us two enthusiastic thumbs up.

You can find here excepts from today's Garden Rebel talk show
http://search.wokv.com/m/audio/35122961/the-garden-rebel-vince-sims-nov-7-2010-11-30am-12-00pm.htm
and here is blog by the Garden Rebel - Vince Sims.
http://gardenrebel.com
We were nicely surprised to hear during the show that, some years ago Vince knew the legendary botanist of the Caribbean, Iris Bannochie. We know well the garden she established in Barbados, leaving it as a gift to the people of Barbados in her testament. It is profiled in our book, and is called Andromeda Gardens. To hear that they closely knew each other, exchanged various plants, and discussed gardening was a delightful surprise to us.

Bob Tanem commented on various plants of the Caribbean region, and it was great to hear his professional comments, as well as some fascinating historical information he added to the show.
http://www.ksfo560.com/showdj.asp?DJID=2362

We would like to thank both hosts for the chance of talking about our book, and for their enthusiastic comments on our work! Another talk show (CBS radio in Los Angeles) is scheduled for next week.

Montreal Gardens destroyed by Hurricane Tomas.

2010-11-02T18:52:00.000-07:00

When we recently launched our second Caribbean book - Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean, little did we know that photographs we took will soon have archival value. Just today we received message from acclaimed garden designer Timothy Vaughan, that the Montreal Estate Gardens in St. Vincent he cared for so much - were smashed by hurricane Tomas on Saturday night (30 October)!
We did not hear back from our various friends on Barbados and st Lucia, which were also severely hit. In St Lucia 12 people died as a result of hurricane-related accidents.
But we don't know yet about the fate of gardens featured in our book, nor residences from our Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean book.
I will post more news as our friends pass information to us.

Thankfully - we were told - Dominica did not get a direct hit, although the hurricane went pretty close to it.

Montreal Gardens were on top of our all-time favourite places in the Caribbean. Timothy says all tree ferns are gone, tulip trees are destroyed, not to say about smaller and more fragile plants. It is terrible news, and we can only hope that the team of dedicated gardeners there will be able to restore this amazing place as well as possible, and nature will help heal its wounds.
We still can't believe it, it seems impossible. Our thoughts are with people of St Lucia and St Vincent in these hard times.

Vote for Miss World 2010!

2010-10-27T19:45:00.000-07:00

Huge cruise ship seen from streets of Roseau, Dominica.

Hello everyone, we came back almost a week ago, but were so overwhelmed with all work awaiting us, that I had no chance to write.
We have plenty of good photographs, and also managed to see some of beautiful nature gems of Dominica, the Nature Island. A very good trip.

While in St Lucia we learned that a gorgeous, nice, finely educated and lovely daughter of our friend there (see photo) was just voted Miss St Lucia - and now is in China competing to be Miss World 2010! Actually, she is at the very top now. I am not surprised, she is great. Please help her with your vote!
People's Choice voting ends on 31st of October, and she is in the 2nd place!
Just visit http://missosology.org/ scroll down, select St Lucia - Aiasha Gustave, and submit your vote!
You can also check her on Google, lots of info on her. Thank you! Until next time!

First comments on our Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean book...

2010-10-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Hello,
as tonight we are heading once more to the Caribbean, to take more material for our upcoming book The Caribbean Architect - I just would like to quickly share with you first comments and endorsements our Exotic gardens book already received.
The very first endorsement came from a very prestigious couple: Robert Bateman and Birgit Bateman - renowned, highly acclaimed artists. To receive following comment from them is indeed a priviledge:
"We quickly have taken a few moments to look at your book. It really does look so impressive. We know that we will thoroughly enjoy looking at each page carefully. It looks like a labour of love, and you have every right to be proud of it. And it's amazing that this is bilingual too. Just on the first flipping through, we are already overwhelmed by the images and thoughts. Congratulations!"
Birgit Freybe Bateman and Robert Bateman

Another enthusiastic comment arrived this morning from a veteran of gardening, landscape designer and host of known radio talk show Garden Rebel , Vince Sims. Knowing his extensive experience in gardening and landscaping makes his comment even more valuable to us:"I just received your book a few hours ago on my live local show. I am excited as I think this is the best garden coffee book ever written! I mean the book is beyond words. I would like to have you on by phone as soon as tomorrow. Please call me direct as soon as possible as you will be a great fit for the show. I am savoring the book page by page and really respect and admire the layout."
Unfortunately we are flying away tonight, but we will be in touch after return, and our book should be featured in one of his fine Garden Rebel talk shows, perhaps closer to the end of October, at AM 580 WDBO radio in Florida, broadcasting through many regions of USA (and also available on internet).

These are all good news for the moment, i better get back to packing now. I will try to post something from the Caribbean. Until next time. Cheers!
Derek

First review... Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean

2010-09-15T10:17:00.000-07:00

Our new book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean is out, and soon we will see lots of review and features in various magazines and blogs. Still, it is always nice to see the first one - and it was published quickly on a syndicate blog...

I will soon post a sneak-peak from our next book. Stay tuned!
regards to all
Derek

GIVEAWAY - FREE Caribbean wall calendar 2011

2010-09-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

In one of previous posts I mentioned that when our shipment of books and calendars will arrive, we will organize some giveaways. Well, they are here - so now is the time to keep the promise and do it.

We start with a giveaway of a FREE Calendar Caribbean Highlights - Barbados. Fine quality, 12x12 inches sized wall calendar, printed as an exclusive Limited Edition of 1000, awaits here for the lucky winner. It can be also ordered on Amazon - and they will go quickly. 500 copies were already shipped to shops in Barbados alone!
This calendar features 14 full size photographs of fine places and gardens in Barbados, and if you happen to know our book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean , then I don't need to explain how really high quality this calendar it is. You would know by now than we are very picky ourselves, and care about every smallest detail.
So, it will look great on your wall - or will make a beautiful gift to someone deserving your nice gesture. (Calendars are great for Christmas gifts, and it is coming soon!)

To enter this giveaway please subscribe, and leave a comment here. To double your entry - "share" it, or "like" it.
And then, please check back on 30th of October . This is the day when we will randomly pick a winner - posting the winner on this blog.

This giveaway is open to all countries - if you win, we will ship it to you even if you are on another side of the globe! Best of luck and thank you for your interest! And, check back to see future giveaways and news too.

In Memory of Lord Glenconner. The Man we Remember.

2010-09-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Lord Glenconner, known to his friends as Collin Tenant, died on 27th of August 2010. He was 83.
Called by many The Father of Caribbean Tourism, he lived a very colorful life. From the purchase, creation of its fame and then - sale of the exclusive Mustique island, to forming the amazing Jalousie Plantation (now known as Sugar Beach) in St Lucia – his whole life is worthy a movie script. He had vivid plans for the future, already creating his next fine projects.

There is lots of official information about him on Internet, specially in British papers, now after he passed away. Therefore we just would like to add a few personal comments.

We met Lord Glenconner in March 2010 in his blue temple-like home in St Lucia.
As for the last 25 years he was working on his dream projects in close collaboration with a brilliant Caribbean architect Lane Pettigrew (who is the subject of our next, upcoming book), Lord Glenconner offered Margaret an interview, which was really extensive, lasting for two days.
He also dictated Preface for our book, commenting on beginnings of Caribbean tourism and working with Lane. During this interview I was allowed to photograph him and his rooms, and we believe that both this interview and photographs are his last he agreed to.

We were just planning to meet him again in couple of weeks time for more talk, when we learned of his death. Despite many controversial opinions, he presented himself to us as a witty, very sharp person, and a real gentleman with impeccable manners. We are honoured to include his Preface in our next book “The Caribbean Architect”, to know him personally, and we believe that with his death St Lucia and the whole Caribbean region lost a living legend, a colorful and remarkable personality on a grand scale, and a determined activist trying to make the Caribbean islands a known and treasured destination on the map of the World.

Photos: Lord Glenconner in his home in St. Lucia during interview with Margaret Gajek (art historian, researcher, writer), and Lord Glenconner with Lane Pettigrew (acclaimed Caribbean architect).
Please, no usage of photos without written authorization. www.ozonezonebooks.com
Thank you!

Some more technical comments for photographers

2010-08-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

Hello,
it is a while since my last post. We were busy as always, promoting first book, organizing cargo of our second book (Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean), and actively working on our third one - The Caribbean Architect. Unfortunately, there was some delay at customs with our Exotic Gardens book, and it caused a delay in the launch date. It should be in stores by now, but it may be another 10 days or so, before it will reach amazon and other retailers. sorry - to all who are waiting for it. And, there must be quite a few of such people, since this book - available for pre-ordering only - is for last couple of months #1 best-seller in Amazon's gardening section.
From other news, i just would like to share with you another review of our Tropical homes book. there were many of these, some as long as 26-pages long, in really fine mags. but this particular one is on a bit weird side, as far as I can tell. Well, thank you - to the reviewer and San Francisco Book Reviews!
http://www.sanfranciscobookreview.com/art-architecture-photography/tropical-homes-of-the-eastern-caribbean/

Anyway, I wanted to share some thoughts with fellow photographers here.
As we are preparing for another location trip in the Caribbean (in October), together with Lex we decided to get some good carbon fiber tripods, light enough to carry around, but sturdy enough to hold D300 with the heaviest lens, flash, etc..
Lex bought a nice, rated 12 kg Gitzo, which is renowned as a Mercedes of Tripods. I, on the other hand have always a tendency to go sideways and experiment. I looked at less renowned brands. I like Manfrotto, but their carbon tripods are too heavy. So, I checked some others, and - decided for a relatively little known brand from Taiwan - Feisol.

Based on photo and description, I ordered on-line ( www.feisol.com ) model FEISOL CT-3441S Travel Carbon Fiber Tripod. Rated 10 kg and weighting less than 1 kg (just about 2 lbs), standing tall over 170 cm - it tempted me, specially with its price $300 - less than 1/2 of that Gitzo.
Just recently we had a chance to compare them together, next to each other. And we both were impressed with Feisol. So strongly built, it is very sturdy and has no tendency for vibration. Maybe fully extended it can be a bit less perfect, but i rarely use such height - with the Markins head it is almost 180cm high - no need for such height in 90% of my photography. Of course Gitzo is really fine too, but it is to be expected for its rather steep price.
So, our verdict? They are similarly good, a bit different in handling but Feisol is an excellent value, and fantastic quality - if you don't care about using only most recognized brands, you can go for it without regret. A big bang for the buck. Kudos for Feisol! Personally, I prefer it over Gitzo, just feels nice in hand.

Ah, there is something else from this kind of information i wanted to tell you. (Some of you know it already and laugh at me, that is OK :-)
Fellow photographers - if your neck hurts after handling a D300 or similarly heavy camera with 300mm lens for a few hours - consider an amazing camera strap. made by Crumpler, it has typically extravagant name as all their products. It is called "Industry Disgrace". I thought it is a funny name. But hey - you don't know why it is called like that, until you try it! It really brings shame to cheap, lame straps included with the finest cameras.
It is AMAZING! So light, but soooo comfortable. You owe it to your neck and your body. I only regret I did not buy it sooner...
Until next time!
Derek

My Web site...

2010-07-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Hello again!

My long-overdue web site is at last ready.
It is small, without any bells and whistles. Being so occupied with works on next books and project, i had no way of spending much time on making it funky.
still, it shows some of my works i wanted to share with you, and tells a bit about my professional services. some of these photos are my very first professional works - I was fifteen at that time. They are showing some famous classical musicians, like Ruggiero Ricci, Vladimir Spivakov, and others - many years ago. Other photos will show you my other works, such as portraits, people, and street photography.
It is: www.artphotographyservices.com

Hope you will enjoy!
Thanks so much, until next time.
Derek

A quick update...

2010-07-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

Hello once again,
We are going through extremely busy period; working on our next book (goes quite well, some pics soon), controlling production of Exotic Gardens book, and our wall calendar 2011. Both should be ready in our hands in about 3 weeks - so stay tuned for our free calendar giveaway!
On top of that, we are preparing for participation in Frankfurt book show - one of the most important in book trade, and our first time.
So - it is only a brief update. what else is new? Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean is featured in a fine magazine called Luxury Home Quarterly. I was told that - in fact - it is a huge, main feature, taking... 26 pages of this classy mag! Wow! I want to see it soon! and, when I do, i will post some pics for you too!

For now, only one photo - we just received our Benjamin Franklin Award statue, and I photographed it for you. Here it is, displayed in our office.
Until next time, stay tuned :-)
Cheers!
Derek

Exotic Gardens book...

2010-06-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

Exotic Gardens book is already in printing! It should be now just about 5 weeks, before the cargo arrive in our warehouse.
At the same time we quickly decided to publish a calendar, highlighting some of the fine places in Barbados we visited. Stay tuned, we plan to organize give-away of this calendar for our blog readers.
It will arrive in the same shipment, so check back to get a limited edition, art photo calendar!

Another pleasant news: today we received official comments of jurors judging our book at the Benjamin Franklin Award 2010.
We were stunned to see that we received maximum high score in all judged elements of book publishing.
On top of that, an attached comment on our book was amazingly favourable, and I would like to share it with you.
The comment is:
"Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean radiates drama, color,
excitement, passion. From the cover to the last page, a reader is held captive to
the brilliant beauty of the bright sun, the robust colors, and strong designs of the
sea, the home, the rooms, the furnishings, and the gardens.
In most books, the high contrast of all these elements would be overwhelming.
Here, though, due to the subject matter and the unrelieved use of them, they
work. In other words, the rules of book design have not just been broken but
smashed—and the result is a powerful flow of images and contrasts that play off
one another. The flamboyance works to great effect. Everything shouts out
exuberance, and you can hear it shout, “come, join me.”
And we do.
Congratulations to the publisher on a wonderful design."
Many thanks to all jurors and organizers of this Award.
Until next time! Cheers!
Derek

some more good news? Here it is...

2010-05-26T17:47:00.000-07:00

Hello,
I just learned it myself a few minutes ago, and share it with you...

Our book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean just won the Benjamin Franklin Awards 2010! One of the most prestigious awards for excellence in book publishing! It was just announced during a gala ceremony in New York!

That is on top of this book being among finalists (in top three) in Eric Hoffer Book Awards 2010!

So far so good, we are humbled by this news, and thank you all for your support!
more - later!
Cheers
Derek

Good news!

2010-05-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

I wanted to write again for quite a while, but as I was visiting our printers in China i noticed some websites were blocked from there, and i couldn't access some of my photos i wanted to post.
Well, i am back, happy, and got some great photos.

But first - I want to share with you some good, last minute news!
Our book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean was nominated a top finalist for Eric Hoffer Book Award 2010 (among the top three!).
And it is also finalist - again in top three - at one of the most prestigious book competitions - Benjamin Franklin Book Awards, with the #1 winner to be announced in just two days from now, during the gala evening in New York.
We feel really honoured by both these nominations - it is amazing to know that our very first book went so high on the way to such prestigious awards.

OK, and now some more update on our work. Right after return from our Caribbean trip I went to ShenZhen, China, to meet our printers and discuss some technical issues to make sure our next book is printed with even higher quality.

All went really well, trip was smooth, via Hong Kong (very convenient and quick way to get to ShenZhen).
My hotel was amazing, and is worthy high recommendation. It was ShenZhen Shanghai hotel, in one of main districts of ShenZhen, very conveniently located. Really decent rooms, and staff going out of their way to make sure all is OK and I had no trouble during my stay. Amazing! Thank you, Shanghai Hotel!

Being rather busy, I managed to squeeze some time for photography, and I post here couple of pics I did in an old town in Luohu district. It is a magical place, you just go behind modern skyscrapers and got transferred in time, landing in an old, tiny village with an amazing market.
If you ever go to ShenZhen, ask around how to get there - quite a trip!

I also post here a photo of me with our printing partners, with our proof for next book. What a nice people! Dynamic, young and smart team. I am so glad we work together with them.
We are quite happy on this photo - no wonder, the proof turned to be spectacular! We all look forward to see the ready book soon...

And now we are just finishing all material for this new book "Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean", it should go to print soon. It better does - another book waits in line for our attention... Stay tuned for more news soon!

Already back!

2010-04-27T16:55:00.000-07:00

We are already back, sorting photographs, organizing hours of recorded interviews, and getting ready for next stage of our work. Now i am just sneaking out for a week to China, to meet with our fantastic printers and discuss technical details of printing our Gardens book.

I am also going to tell them good news: Our book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean has been nominated one of THREE top finalists (coffee table books category) in the prestigious book award in USA - Benjamin Franklin Book Awards!
In less than a month we will know if it takes Grand Prix or not - but in any case it is a reason to celebrate! I bet they will be same happy as we are!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a photo we did on one of last days of our long, Caribbean trip. In Honduras we visited some really interesting spots, among them - Guanaja - small, practically pristine island with coral reefs and beautiful nature. What's interesting - there are no roads, and all traffic is by boat. Main town on the island is located about 500 meters away from the island - on the water! It is seated on a patch of land, and makes a tiny island on its own. All gas stations, shops, a hotel, etc. - are there, in that water-town. We did some aerial photography, and I selected for you the view of that unusual town.
You can see in upper corner the shore of Guanaja island, and in the center - this watertown, with a gas station nearby, just a bit below on a small reef...
Looks amazing, isn't it? I hope you enjoy.

I will try to post something from China, but i can't promise - will be quite busy.

Cheers! Have to run, going to airport in 15 minutes...

Easter in Panama

2010-04-04T08:58:00.000-07:00

After our week-long photo-shoot in Jamaica, we spend the Easter Sunday in Panama City, awaiting connection to Honduras.
Jamaica was busy, quite busy indeed. We had to photograph there several resorts, including some famous "all inclusive" super-clubs.
Much noise, lots of people, plenty of activities around - not the easiest setup for architecture photography.
From many various resorts we visited (including Hedonism II), our most favourite one is the Sunset Negril resort. Located in the most West part of Jamaica, it has nice surroundings, and has the most privacy. It is set in a tropical jungle-like surroundings, with song birds around you, beautiful flowers, etc.
Hidden between lush plants wooden cottages are equipped nicely, but have the matching character of simplicity without pretence. A perfect spot to unwind in a friendly atmosphere, close to nature (and a perfect sandy beach!) with good food and simply AMAZING service. Yes, the service there gets our maximum rate, as it is simply unmatched in our experience. We can only wish such quality service is offered in Canada.
This is really a place one may want to return to.
Thank you Sunset at the Palms (in Negril) for your hospitality!

I post here couple of photos from Sunset in Negril, Jamaica. You can see nice open spaces offering fresh breeze near reception and bar, and surrounded directly by lush tropical plants, and on another pic - traditional Caribbean ceiling of the open-walls restaurant...

Other Sunsets have also an amazing service, although these places (Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios, and Sunset Montego Bay) have a bit different character. Well, I guess the quality must be the signature of their owner and management...

OK, time to pack and soon to go to airport - Honduras is our next stop...
Until next time, Happy Easter!
Derek

Airports, airports, airports...

2010-03-25T13:43:00.001-07:00

As I have a few minutes after work at The Crane in Barbados, I want to share with you a few thoughts about Caribbean airports.
For these who plan to travel through the Caribbean - patience is the key. You may arrive in Barbados which is very nice, with beautiful airport, friendly and very quick immigration staff. You may arrive in St Lucia, which is also reasonably OK, although it takes more time to get through security, immigration and customs there.
But if you go to one of these small airports served by LIAT or Caribbean Airlines - be patient, and most important - don't get irritated! If you do - things will go even slower (and less friendly) than before, people around you are very sensitive to your mood, so stay calm. That is the best way...

These islands are beautiful and people are friendly - but somehow it changes in airports. Especially Grenada airport has rather unpleasant, indifferent, uninterested, slow and unwelcoming staff - including airlines reps.
We visited this beautiful island many times, and love it and its people. But - not even once airport staff greeted us nicely, and we heard the same story from many other travelers. Grenada - wake up! It is the very first impression you make on your visitors!
Once you pass the gate and step outside - life is nice again, taxi drivers honest and wonderful, people good and welcoming, you can enjoy your stay. But you need to first survive these slow procedures, and you are much better off pretending you are not going nuts by the way it all is handled.

Depending on your luck it can be also a little bit like that on St Vincent, Dominica, or other small islands. So, take it easy.
One amazing exception is Martinique - but it is French territory, so it is a bit like visiting Europe - quick, efficient and nice service.
So, here are my two-pennies worth unofficial comments on our personal airport experiences.

Soon we fly to Jamaica, and in the meantime I post here some quick snapshots from Dominica - amazing, unspoiled, wonderful land. It is so beautiful and almost surreal that it brings to mind... the Avatar ! Avatar movie with its all unbelievable landscapes. Hope you enjoy.

PS.
I forgot to mention - we did some shooting in three locations presented in the Bachelor series: Cap Maison, Jalousie, and Arc En Ciel. Really nice places. Hope you will like them in our book.
Cheers, 'till the next time.
Derek

Greetings from our Caribbean tour

2010-03-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

We are touring the Caribbean again, going through several countries - St Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Grenada, Barbados, Jamaica, Honduras... you name it...
This time our photography and interviews bring us to places designed by a prominent Caribbean architect whose amazong works will be the subject of our third Caribbean book. The title (at least the working title) is The Caribbean Architect, and we believe it will be a fantastic and unusual book. Stay tuned!

The sun is hot, weather tough for photography, as we are witnessing here the worst draught in decades. Usually lush St Lucia is covered with smoke of bush fires, and all plants are yellow, suffering badly. The woter supply on the island is limited. The dull haze always covers the horizon, making all landscape photography very difficult. Still, we are visiting some of the most amazing places worthy the extra effort in photo editing.

So, I would like to show you couple of quick photos from our current locations. The Hibiscus villa is a jewel of traditional Caribbean style, covered with fantastic gingerbread ornamentation. it is a fiesta for the eye. We just photographed it yesterday, while two days ago we did Le Sport, an amazingly elegant, health-oriented resort north of Castries in St Lucia. The photo shows the Moorish style entrance to the spa.

We all hope you will enjoy these photos, and send you greetings from the beautiful Caribbean. I will post some more news we go...

Cheers,
Derek, Margaret, Lex
creative team of Ozone Zone Books.

Happy Valentine! Here are flowers for you...

2010-02-14T17:53:00.000-08:00

Hello,
allow me to present here another little treat - one more photo from our upcoming book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean. This time it is a photo showing fields of Anturium at Montreal Gardens in St Vincent. This garden is amazing, and huge fields of various types of Anturium are simply mind-blowing. Red, pink, white, cream... almost overwhelming experience.
Anturiums do really well in that climate, being high in the hills of St Vincent, with lots of mist and breeze...
I hope you will enjoy this pic as much as we do!

Looks like soon we are going for next photo trip - this time to St Lucia, Dominica, Martinique, Grenada, Barbados, Jamaica and Honduras. It will be six weeks of location work. Surely, I will post some of photos made there. Stay tuned - I will post more before our departure. Cheerrs, and Happy Valentine Day!
Derek

PS.
Here is another recent recommendation of our Tropical Homes book

Do you like Cannonball trees?

2010-02-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

As we are progressing with our book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean, I am posting for you two more photographs. The first one is again from Hunte's Gardens on Barbados. We love his way of blending plants with additional elements, creating stage-like decoration for the garden.
When you step down to the bottom of the sinkhole-shaped garden, you follow a narrow path through dark area shaded by huge palm leaves. And suddenly, you enter this small secluded place inviting you to rest. Simply irresistible...

Hunte's Gardens are full of wonderful surprises, and we will reveal many of them in our book.

Next photo I would like to share with you is from St Vincent Botanic Garden - the oldest botanic garden in the Caribbean.
Among other plants and trees, a huge and old Cannonball tree grows there, lending visitors its shade on a hot day.

It looks bizarre, full of spiky branches. But, when it starts to bloom it creates an amazing spectacle, and its flowers are most unusual. Add a light fragrance to it, and it is a tree from Eden!

It will be my pleasure to post more photographs from our upcoming garden book soon.

I would also take this opportunity to thank Waheeda Harris, a seasoned travel writer, for her nice review of our book Tropical homes of the Eastern Caribbean.

We specially like the comment on brilliant bright colour shades. Thanks so much!

Couple of new garden photos...

2010-02-07T13:22:00.001-08:00

When we visited Barbados to do location photography for our upcoming book Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean, among many other places we visited fantastic Hunte's Gardens. It is quite unusual garden, and one of the finest highlights of our new book. Run by Anthony Hunte, a veteran of horticulture related works, it is a marvel.
What's really nice and different about it - he plays his favourite classical music through several outdoor speakers, creating almost surreal ambiance and unusual background for the garden visitors.

Anthony knows well how to make maximum visual impact too, and his garden will make one of the longest chapters of our new book - so many good photos, we simply couldn't decide to not show as many as possible. He is one of main reasons for this book being rather thick, similarly to our Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean book.
Photos shown in this post are not included in the book as they are here, as these are not edited as nicely as photos in our book - but they show well this unusual place. (Please keep in mind we share with you copyrighted pics, and respect that. Thanks!)
When you see these densely planted palms - would you believe this garden is only... 6 years old?

OK, have to go back to my work, still editing amazing photos from the Montreal Estate Gardens on St Vincent.
to see more on our books, visit our main site Ozone Zone Books.
Until the next one! Cheers!
Derek

Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean - our next book

2010-02-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Several bookstores from the Caribbean called us recently, asking about availability of our Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean book. Apparently they have lots of customers already inquiring about this title on Caribbean islands. Well, a large shipment is on its way to them, and soon our first book will be available on Barbados, Grenada and possibly Bequia and St Lucia. http://www.amazon.ca/Tropical-Homes-Eastern-Caribbean-Margaret/dp/0981327907/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2

At the same time we are working hard on our Exotic Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean book, and have most of chapters already finished. There will be close to thirty different gardens, and in this post I would like to turn your attention to one particular garden.

It is a well hidden treasure, a little known pearl of the Caribbean region located high in the mountains of St Vincent. Called Montreal Estate Gardens, it is designed and run by a legendary landscape designer from England, who spent many years restoring historic gardens in France. He is an amazingly skilled artist, but after seeing his creations we rather think of him as a master magician, a wizard who with a touch of his magic wand creates breath-taking realms like straight from an amazing dream, little pieces of Eden on Earth.

I post here a photograph from this vast garden, which in our opinion should get much more international recognition than it does. Thing is - as many artists, he is too deeply concentrated on his work to think of any commercial promotion. We hope our book will help discover this garden by many enthusiasts, photographers, and professionals from that field... Montreal estate Garden alone is worthy a special trip to the Caribbean. But, when you add to it nearby Diamond gardens on St Lucia, Hunte's gardens, Welchman Hall Gully, or Andromeda gardens on Barbados - you can have a garden tour experience of a lifetime...

A word of thanks...

2010-02-02T11:25:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across a blog today. It has a comment on our book, and we found it really nicely written.
I wanted to thank the author, but could not find any way of doing it there, did not see any buttons for comments, etc. (you can see I am not really good with blogs, ha ha).

So, the next best and most natural thing seems to be this post.

Une Fleur Grise - We thank you for your kind words, and your very beautiful description of our book. Words like yours are the best reward for our work and passion we put into it.
http://unefleurgrise.tumblr.com/post/367155587/in-tropical-homes-of-the-eastern-caribbean

Lets hope our paths will meet one day, and let your gray flower bloom forever.
Cheers!
Derek and Margaret

A nice surprise for us!

2010-01-28T18:07:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all Canadian readers who ordered recently Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean from Amazon.
I just stumbled on Amazon's page showing current bestsellers, and saw our book as #1 today in category of Architecture books! And - that is despite the fact the the book is at the moment out of stock, and will be back in stock in just a few days.
Really nice to see our "baby" doing so well!
Cheers!
Derek

PS.
The story from Canada's capital paper, Ottawa Citizen, was just reprinted in several other Canadian papers, including Calgary Herald. Thank you, Calgary, Edmonton and Kelowna!
http://www.calgaryherald.com/Caribbean+dream+book/2503010/story.html

...and it landed in another blog...
http://anyyoungadult.blogspot.com/2010/02/tropical-homes-of-eastern-caribbean.html

and here comes another review...

2010-01-25T11:13:00.000-08:00

As said yesterday, we expected another review of Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean soon.
and, here it is. This one is interesting, because it is in EGO - a bilingual magazine in Montreal. So, the story is written in English
as well as in French.
Well, it only makes sense, as our book is Bilingual too, having English and French texts - with the Caribbean , as well as Canadian and European readers in mind.
And, the Ottawa Citizen feature had been reprinted in the Windsor Star
http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/homes/story.html?id=acfccc0e-555e-4bf4-8fa9-1cf16e06f70a

A pleasant surprise - I just saw on Google that on amazon.co.uk this book was in top 3 " hot architectural releases" category! Thanks, UK!

Until next post, cheers!
Derek

New review...

2010-01-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody,
just a quick note to say our book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean is doing fine. First Amazon's stock order from our US distributor sold so quickly that Amazon was left without, and had to put "temporarily out of stock" note!
Don't worry, more stock will reach them very soon.
And first reviews start to show in various media.
Here is one from Ottawa Citizen:
http://www.househunting.ca/story.html?id=2477622

There will be more very soon, and i will try to post links to them here for you.

Well, it was re-published in Kelowna
http://www.kelowna.com/2010/01/26/tropical-release-tired-of-winter-break-open-this-lush-trip-through-the-caribbean-and-31-sensual-homes-by-the-sea/

Ah, and here is a post from another blog...
http://phgraphy.blogspot.com/2010/01/tropical-homes-of-eastern-caribbean.html
http://best-all-architecture.blogspot.com/2010/01/tropical-homes-of-eastern-caribbean.html

Thanks for your interest, cheers!
Derek

Lex' new Web site

2010-01-15T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

Things start to roll with our book. It is now available internationally on all major book Web sites , and shipments are on the way to many book stores in Canada and USA.
Amazon.com and amazon.ca run now a special promo price - which is simply unbeatable even by us!
We have quite a bit of interest from media, including some really fine magazines. I will post more info later. Work goes well with our next book on Tropical Gardens, and I will soon post some pics from it.

For now- I would like to invite you to visit new site of our creative team member - Lex Nowak.
He is a veteran of photography, who started when black and white was the usual option.
Now, he specializes in fine panoramas, and has a really great technical knowledge of many photography aspects.
His new site is WordPress powered, and his blog will include tips and comments about different equipment and methods he recommends. Worthy checking!
Well, he shared his ideas with us when we worked on this book, significantly adding to overall quality of our work. Just check him out. Lex Nowak site is http://lexnowakphotography.com/

I hope you will enjoy! It is him at work...

Good news!

2009-12-18T13:37:00.000-08:00

Thank you for checking our little blog again.
I write to share with you the good news:
This book is ready, printed beautifully, and it is already being distributed to bookstores.

Right now, it is available through Amazon sites world-wide (amazon.com amazon.ca amazon co.uk amazon.fr amazon.de and others).
They actually offer a fantastic discount for all pre-orders, plus free shipping. It is an unbeatable offer, hard to beat even by us - authors and publishers.
So, you may search your local Amazon site for Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean, to check it yourself.
Ah, and on American site amazon.com - you can browse practically any chapter of this book, using "look inside" option. Hope you will enjoy!
Soon, it will be available in most of better bookstores in North America and behind.

Work on our next title Tropical Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean is quite advanced. I will post more later. Happy Holidays everybody!
Derek

Our Web site changes and additions.

2009-11-24T11:00:00.000-08:00

Hello everybody!
Just want to let you know that we did some changes to our main Web site.
We added section with more info and secure ordering of our book at a heavily discounted price
http://ozonezonebooks.com/books-order.html

and added a section with book's extra materials
http://ozonezonebooks.com/extras/index.html

On top of that, we updated and expanded our section on special, custom services - including fine photography (and adding amazing panorama service!), publishing, and more.
Check it here:
http://ozonezonebooks.com/custom-orders/
Examples of panoramas are worthy checking, quite a nice technique.

Lex, our panorama expert is working on a series of helpful articles on photography. Stay tuned.
Until next time!
Derek

...and it is done!

2009-11-14T16:44:00.000-08:00

At last, our long awaited book is ready, and it is on the way to our warehouse, and to our distributors in USA.
The quality of print exceeded even our expectations, and is is stunning! All photographs, edited for their vibrant colours look great, juicy, sunny, and amazing.
We are pleased to say that we offer it on our web site www.ozonezonebooks.com
It is available for ordering at pre-publishing sale price, which is quite significantly reduced.

Here is another photo of our books, showing them ready, during shipping procedure. The book is thick, over 2 kg (5 lbs), and it really looks good.
It is good to know that all work paid-off in form of an excellent product!

Printing process..

2009-10-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Ever wondered how the printing is done? Book pages are printed on huge sheets of paper, 16 pages per sheet. They are spread in a funny way - which at first look does not make any sense - pages are totally mixed!
Only after everything is cut and assembled, pages fall in their places properly.

Our book is in final stages of printing, and all pages are finely printed on these big sheets - ready for cutting. Have a look and see how it looks like now...
'till next time!
Derek

first reactions...

2009-10-19T18:09:00.000-07:00

We have some early reactions to our book. Here they are:
Sir Martin Taylor from UK commented on our work:

"It is a very special pleasure for me to recommend this book: my family have been in the eastern Caribbean since the 1820’s, and my wife and I have a lovely home in Grenada – although we do not spend anything like as much time in it is as we would wish! The hugely varied and individual buildings are one of the most striking features of life in the Caribbean. This book captures their vibrant colours, the wide variety of cultural heritages and the many different architectural styles. The authors’ passion for the Caribbean shines though on every page. The character of the lightly written stories, combined with the superb photography, creates a light and joyful reading experience full of the Caribbean sun.
Sir Martin Taylor FRS
Grenada"

and, Lane Pettigrew, acclaimed, awarded architect with offices in Miami and Caribbean locations, wrote:
"I have been impressed with your photographs and your passion for Caribbean architecture.
I think they are amazing. Every single one of them. Congratulations.
I see this as a cultural book full of great photographs which sits proudly on any coffee table."
Lane Pettigrew RIBA LPA International Inc.

We hope you will enjoy our book too! :-)
Cheers and until next time!
Derek

Another sample photo for your enjoyment...

2009-10-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

Hello again!
As our book Tropical Homes of the Eastern Caribbean is being printed, I would like to share with you a photo from it. From one of 31 chapters - each of them very different in character - and shows an amazing place on St Lucia - Jade Mountain. A fine boutique hotel near famous twin volcanic mountains - The Pitons.
I hope you will enjoy!

Cheers!
Derek

P.s. Yes, these colours are real! amazong, how dense colors you can see in the Caribbean sometimes!

2009-10-06T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hello,
Our first book goes to print now, and we are quite happy about the process. It was really busy year with long field trips to various locations, setup of our office, negotiations with several book distributors, book printers, you name it! But - it looks like the hardest set-up part is already done, and in about 6 weeks we should have our first title ready for distribution!
We signed contract with a very good international book distributor, and look forward to see our titles in many book stores in North America, Caribbean, and Europe.

We will work on distribution to other countries and continents progressively.

It is also time to start layout design of our next title "Tropical Gardens of the Eastern Caribbean".
But - it is a different story...
For now, we will keep you posted about progress of this book, and other related news.
Ah, one more thing - Lex - our photo tech consultant will share with you soon some of really valuable tips and recommendations related to fine photography - recommendations which also helped to improve our work! Stay tuned, and thanks for your visit!