[](http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendarlington/10817487986/ ““No Camels & Horses” sign, Dahab, Egypt by stephendarlington, on Flickr”)

When you first step foot abroad everything seems fascinating and new. After a while you manage to acclimatise to most of the sights, sounds and smells, yet occasionally something still makes you feel “Far from home.” (Which is this weeks PhotoFriday theme.) In this case, a seemingly normal sign on a beach in Egypt stands out when you note that camels are banned from enjoying the surf.

• Spam blights e-mail 15 years on – The thing that I’ll never understand is that some people must read spam otherwise it wouldn’t be a profitable business. Why?! My domain received over 40000 spam messages last month, none of which I’ve read so please stop sending them!
• WordPress 2.5 – I just upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. I don’t think I’ve managed to break anything but please do let me know if you know differently.
• Adobe Photoshop Express Now Live – A neat, on-line mini-Photoshop is now available in beta at least. Clearly some way short even of Elements but it’s probably sophisticated enough for a lot of people.

I like this picture of a local child I took in Hoi An, Vietnam. Obviously a little nervous, approaching me with some trepidation, but happy and smiling. I think this mixture of emotions works for this weeks PhotoFriday challenge.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Found Objects.” I’m entry number 275.

In my mind I have it that I’m great at spotting tiny little details and photographing them. I assumed that would make this PhotoFriday challenge, “Found Objects,” to be easy. Turns out that I was wrong — there’s very little appropriate in my iPhoto library! But I found this image from my Cuba collection and quite liked the fanned… thing.

“The Good Life” is this weeks PhotoFriday theme but also conjures up an image of an idyllic, simpler life-style. I thought this pastoral scene, actually taken in Oslo‘s Folk Museum in Bygdøy, fitted the bill quite nicely.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Surreal.” I’m entry number 210.

This is the second of a two-part article about YoPhoto’s photo book printing service. Previously I wrote about the authoring software and the ordering experience. Here I will go into more detail about the finished product.

I placed the order on Saturday 8th March. The dispatch notice arrived at lunchtime on Tuesday 11th and the book arrived on the next day. After waiting two weeks for some of the previous photo books it is refreshing to have this one in my hands less than three working days after placing the order.

One thing I noted when I first reviewed photo books back in 2006 was that most vendors were based overseas, resulting in quick printing times but a protracted and expensive delivery process. This was true of Apple (both times), MyPublisher and Printing-1. The one company that I tried that were UK based, PhotoBox, was let down by its browser-based interface that was less flexible that the native applications of the other vendors.

I was therefore quite intrigued when YoPhoto asked me to take a look at their brand of photo book as they seemed to offer the best of both worlds.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Fuzzy.” Here is my entry. Here I’m using the misty, hazy and indistinct definition of “fuzzy.” This image was taken in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Art.” I’m number 130.

This is not the first time that I’ve had plans to go to Denmark. It was a bright and sunny Saturday morning in June 2002. The previous day had been my last working in the Norwegian capital city and I had a week of sight-seeing planned. First I would head west, to the fjords around Bergen and then I’d head back, through Oslo into Sweden, down the coast and cross the Oresund Bridge into Denmark.

The desert is so vast, stretching off as far as the eye can see in every direction, that from a human scale it appears to be infinite. Which is fortunate as that is this weeks PhotoFriday theme. This image was taken in Wadi Rum, Jordan.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “What is that?” I’m entry number 299.