I bet you are here due to the same fustration I have experienced due to the selection tool being extremely slow or not working at all, well fear not, I would like to help!

After searching everywhere on the net like, forever and not finding any help, I finally figured it out myself! Yayyy!

It was just a matter of twiking my Photoshop settings in Preferences and it was so easy that I felt like a fool for not trying it out sooner! So here is a screen shot of what it looks like, all you have to do is go to your preferences then performance and do the same! You are welcome!

Settings for optimising Photoshop selection toolPhotoshop Settings for best performance of selection tool

You can thank me here or on my Facebook page and come say hi! :-)

St Helens Up CloseThe beauty of Mount St Helens after the blast.

Different scenery from Mount Rainier, yet equally amazing! This Volcano Crater sure looks different with snow on it!

St Helens Devastation (1 of 1)Hisilicon K3

You can see the affects of the devastating eruption in 1980, the 46m tall Douglas trees that once were, now remain like snapped tooth picks.

St Helens Blast The affect of the 1980 eruption on the Douglas trees in Mount St Helens.

A total of around 595 Km of forest was burned. There is life now starting to live here and I was lucky to capture it very early at sunrise!

St Helens CaterpilarLife at Mount St Helens after the devastating blast in 1980.

It is nice to see life starting here, like this beautiful orange dotted caterpillar on a beautiful tiny flower, in this bare landscape.

It was unreal experiencing the sunset overlooking the Mt St Helens Volcano Crater!

Mount St HelensMount St Helens in a dramatic setting.

The sunrise was equally amazing! The sunset or sunrise didn't shine on Mount St Helens like I wished for, but nature still blessed me  in other ways.

 As soon as I entered, I knew I was in a beautiful place! Just such a lush, green and dense forest, so pretty covered in spring snow.

Mount Rainier PeakMount Rainier Volcano, Washington.

Mount Rainier gets about 87 inches of Snow every year and there are 25 glaciers that cap the mountain! Hard to believe this is still an active Volcano with the potential to erupt again! 

Mount Rainier Glacial RiverMount Rainier Glacial River                                                            

There are many Glacier rivers to be found, some dry at this time.

Glacial RiverMount Rainier Glacial River

As we went up and up the Mountain, it was even more and more breathtaking!

Christine FallsChristine Falls in Washington

There were the Christine Falls,

Narada FallsNarada Falls at Mount Rainier.

The powerful Narada Falls.

I definitely recommend you coming to  Mount Rainier, where you can let Mother Nature entertain you and be richly rewarded!

Stopped in Paradise nearby, a place that from photos, it does look like Paradise in the Summer. As I am here in Spring, I can't see any meadows but it still looks like a paradise just the same. Here in Paradise, they get from 126 inches to 400 inches with upwards of 13 feet of snow on the ground every year!

Paradise Inn Snow (1 of 1)

 The Paradise Inn has been here since 1916. There are no TV's, Internet or bathroom in your room. This Inn is just a cosy place to relax by the fire! It is just magical to stick your head out the bedroom window and see snow piled so high that you can touch it!

Paradise Inn (1 of 1)

Even now, it still has snow pilled as high as our bedroom window at the Paradise Inn, on the second floor!

Paradise Sunrise (1 of 1)-2

Sunset in Paradise!

Mount Rainier DeerMount Rainier Deer

We were blessed with seeing Deer just strolling around in a group eating and not too concerned as I stopped to photograph them. 

Blue JayBlue Jay in Mount Rainier National Park.

We even got our first glimpse of a blue Jay!

Washington Coast

This journey in America, starts in Seattle.  I will come back to explore it at a later time as for now the mission is to pick up the RV, or Recreational Vehicle, which is something like a Campervan. Starting from Grayland, south of Seattle, on the coast of Washington.

 Living in a Recreational Vehicle for the next 5 months touring the US will certainly be a shock going from a 15 room house to a Campervan that, all you do is go up 3 steps and you are in your Kitchen, Living Room, Bedroom, Bathroom and your car, all at the same time! Great, now I can actually spend time photographing instead of cleaning my house!

Grayland, as I found out when going for a drive, has a grey beach with very flat compact sand were you can ride your four-wheel drive and go fishing! 

Grayland BeachGrayland Beach in Washington

This beach seems to go on for miles!

Ketchikan"Ketchikan in Alaska",

Here I walked through the beautiful Alaskan wilderness, the Rainforest was so lush and green.

Ketchikan Rainforest"Ketchikan Rainforest in Alaska"

Didn't come across any Bears but I did see huge mushrooms in the forest, huge Starfish, Seals, Bald Eagles and the biggest Slugs ever!

WhaleWhale in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Did miss out on seeing the Orcas as they were not around at the time. Whales have been plentiful everywhere, but sadly none were breaching or doing any cool moves!

Delicate Balance"Ketchikan Rainforest in Alaska",

The next stop was meant to be Victoria in Canada, but it also got cancelled, so off to Seattle in Washington. The beginning of our trip around the States!

JuneauJuneau in Alaska

I even picked from the lake the most beautiful carved piece of ice, which was so smooth and so clear, you could see through it, amazingly  it didn't even feel freezing cold like when you get ice from a freezer, amazing! I felt it's smoothness and stare at it for ages, beautiful as a diamond!

Ice FloatIce float in Juneau, Alaska

From Juneau, we cruised the beautiful Glacier Bay channel and it was at Glacier Bay National Park that I saw a 21 mile long and about a mile wide Glacier with high peaks of icebergs shifting and making loud crackling noises like fireworks! Waited for about an hour in the freezing cold to finally witness pieces falling into the ocean and making big waves, very impressive show indeed!

Mighty GlacierMendenhall Glacier at Glacier National Park, Alaska.

Unfortunately, all two thousand of us on board wanted to catch a photo or a video of the Mendenhall Glacier and as soon as a piece cracked off and fell, a couple of people immediately stuck their cameras in front of mine and I missed the all important action, this is what I managed to get, the wave starting to form from the ice fall!

Glacier Wave"Mendenhall Glacier","Glacier National Park",Alaska.

The first stop was supposed to be the Denali National Park but it was canceled and changed for Sitka, where the Movie "The Proposal" was filmed.

Sitka"Sitka town in Alaska",

Sitka has a temperate climate, the temperature here is a constant 15 to 20 degrees all year round!

Baby OwlBaby Spotted Owl in Alaska

Bald EagleBald Eagle in Alaska,Sitka

Here, I saw bald Eagles, Golden spotted Eagles, Brown Bears, cute baby Black Bears, Owls, Salmon, and of course the beautiful scenery is never ending!

Maui is not crowded and has a bit of everything that the other islands have plus more!

Kahakuloa Head ViewKahakuloa Head View

The beaches are plentiful and so are the waterfalls, mountains and valleys everywhere you go!

Three Bears FallsThree Bears Falls

The famous road to Hanna with its challenging one lane jagged, narrow roads along the cliffs, is worth doing for it's diverse scenery along the way!

Volcano HighwayRoad to Hana

Then for the highlight of my life, the Haleakala Crater which is a massive 10,023 feet which rises 30,000 feet from the ocean's floor! As we drive up to the jagged, windy , road, the weather is cold, rainy and cloudy. I put my hands out the window and I could actually touch the fluffiness of the clouds and my hand didn't even get wet even though it was raining down below, explain that! Then all of a sudden, it was like entering a whole new world!

Haleakala LookoutHaleakala Lookout

The sky was now clear and blue with the sun shining warm and bright, all with the clouds right below me, without me being on an airplane! What an amazing sight! It took my breath away for a moment as I wondered, was this for real?

Haleakala Sunset over cloudsHaleakala Sunset over the clouds

I savoured this surreal place for a couple of hours in awe until the sun went down, taking so many photos so I could keep this memory forever and to share with you this unreal experience!

Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Please browse the Gallery where photographs can be purchased, for you to enjoy at home!

Volcanic Road

There are red and black sand beaches like the Punalu'u Black Sand beach.

Punalu Black Sand BeachPunalu Black Sand Beach

Travelled the 11mile Crater Rim Drive that loops around Kilauea Summit, we stopped to have lunch on the edge of a crater, overlooking the Kilauea Caldera Volcano, what amazing views of the Halema'uma'u Crater with a lava lake churning 300 feet below, its steam vents blowing up into the sky! It was in Kona that the first mishap happened, where the car tyre got slashed on a sharp volcano rock in the middle of nowhere but we got out of it alive.

Lava SmokeBillowing Smoke from Kilauea

We took the helicopter tour to experience the lava on the active Volcano and I was disappointed as it was nothing like the advertised photographs, showing the red hot spewing lava running into the sea, so I felt misled, but I did see a bit of active lava from way up in the sky while on the Helicopter!

Molten LavaLava from Kilauea Volcano

Kona has a beautiful curious green and yellow lizard that loves to look at people pass by and also the cute Mongooses that were just too fast for me to photograph! Visited the Akaka Falls below:

Akaka FallsAkaka Falls on the Big Island

Rainbow Falls to the West of the Island in Hilo as you can see, they actually have a Rainbow!

Rainbow FallsRainbow Falls in Hilo

Hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to give me feedback and post comments!

The next day was used to explore the South West of the island. Let me tell you about the chickens and rosters here, they are wild, absolutely everywhere by the thousands, all along busy roads and the amazing thing is that I didn't see a single one as road kill! The locals told me, they are not interested in eating them as they would take too long to catch and then prepare! Shops sell T-Shirts that say Stupid Freakin' Chicken,lol!

Chickens of HawaiiChickens of Hawaii

Quite a beautiful Island with lots to see when you drive all around which takes about 2.5 hours, either towards North or South, that is, with no stops. For photographers everything takes longer to see as we seem to pay more close attention to not only the big apparent things but also to the small things, not to mention the time it takes to craft that perfect photograph that speaks a thousand words to the viewer.

Waimea FallsWaimea Canyon

 One of the best sceneries found here in Kuai'i for me was the Waimea Canyon with its beautiful multi coloured lush Canyons and the huge Waipo'o Falls with a drop of 800 feet! Unfortunately the weather turned bad and my helicopter ride to view it from above was cancelled on me but at least I got to photograph it along the way from a few viewpoints along the windy cliff roads and I saved myself over 500 dollars!

Waimea CanyonWaimea Canyon

The day ended with a beautiful Sunset, at Ke'e Beach. 

Sunset Beach at Kee

Please be patient between posts as I have now realised that it is not going to be easy posting regularly, as many times there is no internet available to me for days at a time! Now lets begin!

First stop Hawaii, first Island on the itinerary; Oahu, Honolulu! Photo below was taken at Waikiki Beach as the sun went down.

Waikiki Beach-8453

I have always heard that you better off not having any expectations about anything so you don't get disappointed but I as I had this mental picture of lush greenery, palm trees and beaches, I was naturally disappointed as I travelled from the Airport to Waikiki. I saw a busy, crowded city, with lots of homeless people sleeping on the streets of Waikiki beach, which was extremely crowded with tourists, not my scene but if you like shopping for the big brand labels then this is the place for you!  I would like to give a big Thank You to Will, for his help and guidance during our stay in Honolulu! Photo below was taken of Honolulu in the morning, it was cold and raining!

Ko'olau Cliffs StormKo'olau Cliffs Storm overlooking Honolulu

The next day, I set out on a tour that took me through the North East part of the Island. Funny enough, the tour bus had 22 Australians on it out of 26 people on the bus! Being a photographer means you take your time to craft that perfect shot and so I was  the last one to get back on the bus, which meant I had to do the Hula dance in front of all those people!It was on this tour where I then got the opportunity to see the things I was expecting out of Hawaii, like beautiful tropical scenery, beaches, turtles and my favourite, the lush jagged mammoth Ko'olau cliffs that you can see from Miles away! This is where Jurassic Park 4 was actually being filmed when I stopped by the road overlooking the Ko'olau cliffs as below.

Ko'olau Cliffs-8657

Here is a couple of the beaches, on the north east:

Pali BeachPali White Beach

Pali Lookout-2

Along the way, I visited the many macadamia, bananas, pineapples and coffee plantations and I must say the best pineapple I have ever tasted, is Hawaiian pineapple! Can't say the same for the coconuts or mangoes which tasted horrible but maybe it was a bad batch. I did love the Taro chips and the macadamias covered in dark chocolate! Surprisingly the bananas are expensive at 65 US cents each but they taste so good!

Had a go at the largest maze in the world (for 2008) on the north part of Honolulu. It is about the size of 3 football fields with many tricky passages and if I had done it on my own, I would definitely have gotten lost! It took 40 minutes to finish it and that was with a map! There were some nice beaches along the way too which even had turtles swimming! Missed out on photographing them out of the water thought!

Come with me on a travel adventure of a lifetime with 365 days of photography from around the world, coming soon to my blog near you!

Haleakala SummitHaleakala Summit