Spa Resort photography

This is a nice young Russian woman called Vlada. From Siberia of all places, so the nice hot sun down at the oceanfront of this resort was quite to her liking.

I tried to teach her Spanish while she tried to teach me Russian. Didn't work out for either of us, so we stuck to English. She is only 25 but has been working for 10 years already, mainly in Holland. Now she's crossed the Atlantic to the land of milk and honey, and very little corruption, as she pointed out. Knowing a bit about Russia, I presumed that she wasn't talking about Holland.

The guy that we cast for this shoot turned out to be a dork. We found out too late though, so he became mainly a prop rather than a principal and Vlada carried the day for us. Phew!

Sunrise at golf resort

Not much to say about this except I like it. The sun was just rising above the tree line causing the very diffuse light in the background and the stronger light in the foreground, as beams of light made their way through the trees. Soon the warmth of the sun's rays would dry the dew on the grass and the golfers would be out in force. Right now, the place was all mine though.

I like golf courses. Even though the landscape is manufactured, they're some of the prettiest landscapes I've ever seen and the possibilities are legion. Now, if only I could play worth a damn!

Muskoka Resort

This is Taboo Resort in Muskoka, a few hours north of Toronto.

The region is rock and Pine with lakes carved out of the Canadian Shield by Ice Age glaciers. Long a haven for artists, American industrialists and Toronto bluebloods, "The Muskokas" as the area is known, has now been discovered by Hollywood thanks to Kurt and Goldie.

Three major lakes (Muskoka, Rosseau and Joseph) and countless minor ones define this piece of Canadiana, which is now in a building boom of Condos and Fractional Ownership developments. Each new golf course is heralded as the best in the region and Mike Weir's home course is at Taboo.

The "old money" here must cringe as they sip their Claret and watch the onslaught of BMW's and Porsches every weekend. What's probably worse for them is that these "new" people drink Merlot, their wives drive Range Rovers, and don't even mention those obnoxious children of theirs. To one demographic, the area is booming, to another it's gone to hell in a hand basket.

Me? I like it here and think that the contrast between the old money and the nouveau riche just makes it more interesting. Taboo is a nice place just to hang out and being out on the dock front (seen here) at dawn was very soothing to the spirit.