UPDATE: There is now an ungraded version available: http://vimeo.com/12448634 May 2010, I spent 11 days on the island of Sao Miguel in the Azores. It was supposed to have been 15 days but the volcanic ash from Iceland shot down the airport in Ponta Delgada (Sao Miguel). So, the first four days of my vacation were spent waiting / hoping for change, in Lisbon. I love planning vacations and this vacation had been 'underway' for over a year. I use Google maps / Google Earth to 'scout' locations (see: http://www.pixelviking.com/blog/2010/2/17/sao-miguel-azores-here-i-come.html), so 75% of everything you see in this video is from locations that I found via the Panoramio images in Google Earth. The rest are chosen 'on location'. I chose to stay at Furnas Lake Villas www.furnaslakevillas.pt after seeing their website. Who wouldn't enjoy that? Well, I did anyway... :) Had I had the extra money, I would have rented a bigger car than the small Nissan Micra, which turned out to be too small for the gravel roads, especially since the winter had been very wet and the roads were in bad condition. I could of course just have stayed on the 'real' roads but what's the fun in that :) --- I hope these 9 minutes and 28 seconds don't feel too long. I did my best to push the camcorder to its limits and the work in post also went beyond what I've ever done before. I hope that you at least get a good idea about what there is to see in this 'almost' paradise... --- Tech stuff: Sony PMW-EX1R ...camcorder Manfrotto 535 MPRO ...tripod legs Manfrotto 503HDV ...fluid head Manfrotto 682B ...monopod Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo ...warming polarizer (77mm filter) Sony Vegas Pro 9.0e Magic Bullet Looks proDAD Mercalli