Corfu 2018 — Four Blokes, One Greek Island

Four blokes. One Greek island. Sunshine, sea and a camera that wasn't going to get much rest.

There are holidays you enjoy at the time, and holidays that get even better years later when you stumble across the photographs. Corfu in June 2018 is firmly in the second category.

Me, Steve, Steve and Ged. Four of us in Greece, with the simple business of enjoying ourselves. No grand expedition brief, no timetable to conquer. Just a proper lads' holiday on an island that practically begs you to get out and explore it.

The joy of just being somewhere else

What gets me about the Mediterranean is how quickly it changes your pace. You stop looking at the clock. Lunch becomes something to linger over. The harbour becomes a destination in its own right. And before you know it, the day has disappeared in the best possible way.

Corfu offers the lot: sparkling water, green hills, little waterfront corners and that unmistakable Greek-island atmosphere. But my photographs aren't meant to be a glossy brochure. They're my record of actually being there, sharing the place with three mates.

Gouvia, from the air

Now this is where things get particularly NIX.

There's one photograph in the album that brings the drone side of my travels right into focus: Gouvia Harbour. The original file is DJI_0104.JPG, taken on 14 June 2018. Another photograph, Gouvia Church, comes from DJI_0108.JPG on the same day.

Those two titles tell you a lot about what I was looking for: a harbour, a small church, the shapes of the coastline and all the things you simply cannot appreciate in quite the same way from the ground.

That's what I've always loved about drone photography. It's not just flying a camera. It's changing how you see a place.

A holiday worth keeping

The best thing about an album like this is that it hasn't been boiled down to a handful of polished social-media shots. There are 74 photographs. A proper collection. Different moments, different angles and a much better sense of a real holiday than any one perfect sunset could give you.

And that is why the archive matters. A photograph doesn't need to win a competition. Sometimes its entire purpose is to take you straight back to a particular week, a particular conversation, or the sight of three familiar faces somewhere a long way from home.

The pictures are the time machine. Corfu was the destination. The company was the point.

The little details

One of my favourite things about looking through old photographs is spotting what I was drawn to at the time.

Big views, yes, but also buildings, harbours, shapes and places that could easily go unnoticed.

The album includes a photograph specifically titled Gouvia Church, taken on 14 June. A perfect example of why I keep a camera handy when I'm travelling.

Some places deserve a photograph because they're spectacular. Others deserve one because, years later, they trigger a memory you didn't even know you'd kept.

Corfu from above

If you want to see more of the island's scenery, coastline and harbours, these aerial films give another perspective on the places captured in my photographs.

These are destination videos rather than footage from our actual holiday.

Eight years on

Looking back at a 2018 trip in 2026 is a lovely reminder of how much can change, and how much stays reassuringly the same.

I still want to go places. I still want to take photographs. And I'm still happiest when a journey gives me a few stories worth telling.

Corfu wasn't a technical exercise or a challenge to tick off. It was four mates away in the sunshine.

Sometimes that's more than enough.

And thanks to Flickr, I can open the whole thing up again whenever I like.

The complete photographic archive

All 74 photographs from the June 2018 trip are preserved in my original Flickr album.

EXPLORE ALL 74 CORFU PHOTOGRAPHS ↗

PHOTOGRAPHY © JOHN NICKOLLS · NIXDRONES.COM