Dan Smyth

So a while ago I promised you all a blog about my trip to the Bahamas.  Well, here it is. Kind of.

A lot of other interesting stuff has also happened in the last few weeks so I'll add that all in too.

 

I'm not going to give you a diary of my time there, just an overview as to the stories behind the photos etc, the stuff you might actually want to know.

 

I spent 3 nights in Nassau (the capital) and then 7 more over on the island of Eleuthera (about a 20 minute flight away). Eleuthera is only about a mile wide but is about 110 miles long. 

 

The crabs in the first couple of shots are migrating from one ocean to the other. On one side lies the Atlantic and the other, the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.  I'm not exactly sure which way they were crossing but it was definitely from one to the other. Unfortunately most of them get run over while crossing the island's one main road. Should've stopped, looked and listened. 

 

About two thirds of the way through there's a picture of a lake. Rumour has it that the lake is the opening to a series of caverns and tunnels that can take you all the way to Florida. That's an awful long time to hold your breath though so I wouldn't advise trying it out.

 

Just after that is my first attempt at some "urbex" or urban exploration. Back in the late 90's hurricane Floyd hit the island pretty badly and pulled down entire hotels -  one such hotel was the Club Med resort. You can just about see the outline of buildings and the fully intact pool (full of lovely stagnant water) but it's safe to say that there's very little left at all now.

 

Some of you that follow my work on Flickr may have seen these already but before I left I purchased a cheap-ish underwater point & shoot camera. The results were pretty hit and miss it has to be said but it was a good laugh to use. Below is one of the better shots that came out of it and I'm pretty pleased with it given how tiny the lens was.

 

 

Fortunately I was able to see all of this a week before Hurricane Irene hit. The path went straight through Eleuthera and hit many of the other Bahamian islands too. It was at category 4 then I believe too so I'm very glad to have flown home when I did.

 

So yeah that was my trip to the Bahamas! Feel free to comment and ask any other questions you have about the islands, I'm pretty much the leading authority on them now after the number of guide books I've read haha.

 

In other news, I've had another picture of Alex Winston published, this time in the Sun! Haven't been able to track down the tearsheet of it yet but once I've got it I'll be sure to post it up here for you all to see!

 

In other other news, I've been accepted into the Rising Talent scheme/programme/collective run by the "Six Shooters" (Andrew Cotterill, Andy Fallon, Paul Harries, Mick Hutson, Roger Sargent, and Andy Willsher). They take on young music photographers a provide them with a leg up by promoting our work to their clients. It's a great collection of photographers they've picked too; Tom Spray, Sonny McCartney, and Lauren Keogh all feature in the group. You can read the blog of our work over here. Watch this space!

 

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