This trip to Crete was a family holiday first and a photography trip second. We stayed at Cactus Royal Spa & Resort in Stalida, giving us a base on the north coast and putting many of my everyday photographs within walking distance.
I took my Fujifilm X-H2S, the 16-55mm f/2.8 and the small 27mm f/2.8, and used the same custom recipe for the whole trip. One camera, one look, and whatever happened in front of me.
Crete gave me hard midday light, warm stone, bright white walls, deep shade, countless shades of blue and, inevitably, a lot of cats.
Arriving in the heat
The story starts through the plane window, with sunlight reflected across the water and the engine sitting at the edge of the frame. Once we reached Stalida, faded signs, palms above rooftops, bright walls and cats appearing between buildings became the visual rhythm of the week.
Between Stalida and Malia
Some of my favourite photographs came from ordinary walks around Stalida and nearby Malia: turquoise doors under bougainvillea, a bicycle above an old stone wall, a single chair throwing a hard shadow and a red moped against warm stone. These small details say more about how the holiday felt than a checklist of landmarks.
Lake Kournas: slowing the story down
Lake Kournas gave the trip a different kind of water. The photographs feel open and unhurried: a yellow pedalo crossing clear turquoise water, family members separated by space and a white canopy cutting into the sky. It is a useful visual pause before the denser old-town photographs that follow.
Rethymno: looking past the postcard
Rethymno offered narrow streets, faded buildings, overflowing balconies and people sitting just inside the shade. My favourite frame is the man outside his doorway; the harbour lighthouse then opens the sequence back up, replacing tight streets with water, reflection and space.
Heraklion: walls and the sea
Heraklion felt larger, busier and more monumental. I kept breaking the scale of the Koules fortress down with people, boats and small openings in the harbour walls: a man in a sunhat against the sea, a moped passing pale stone and family framed through an arch.
The designated family photographer
On a family trip I naturally become the designated photographer. The organised portraits tell me who was there; the unplanned frames show what the holiday felt like. The final group portrait at Cactus Royal matters because a travel diary should never become so polished that it forgets why the trip mattered.
One recipe for the whole trip
Every image was made with the same Fujifilm recipe, Solis. It felt at home with sunlit stone, blue water, faded paint and golden-hour portraits. Deep shade could become muddy and mixed evening light sometimes pushed skin too warm, but using one look gave the whole week a coherent visual language. I came home with too many photographs; the final edit works because it balances landmarks with cats, bright water with dark doorways, and planned pictures with family moments.
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