SUMMERS are for holidays and photographs.

With the digital camera revolution and easy access to the internet - you don't have to sit around the table and look at Aunty Marge's trip pics for hours or Uncle Bert's golf holiday - you can go online and check out other people's holiday photo sites at your leisure.

With a little knowledge and technology you can even put your own holiday snaps online!

In the search for other people's holiday shots, North! To Alaska - What I did on my Summer Vacation, at members.core.com/ dmumaugh/Alaska/dog_ pony_show.html caught my eye.

A fantastic close up of a brown bear greets you on the home page.

Great shots, simple design.

One idea of how to put together a nice pictorial essay online.

My Irish Vacation at www.piranhaclub.com proved to be a mini lesson in how to - or maybe how not to - use text and hyperlinks to show and tell your story.

At least with the text page as the site opener, you could choose which images you would look at!

The most appealing site was a one-man, anthropological photologue of 1,000 sacred sites around the globe at www.sacredsites.com.

His 'extensive pilgrimage travels around the world', from Stonehenge and the Blarney Stone, to mystic destinations like the Neolithic temples of Malta and the mud mosque in Mali, make for intriguing viewing.

Definitely worth the time to take a look around.

For the route less travelled, stop by Ben's Voyage of Discovery site at www.bengeall.com for his tales at sea from his Semester at Sea experience.

The site is sea worthy with pictures at nine ports from Canada to Vietnam to Morocco.

It does have excellent geographic information to support the photos.

Its strength is definitely design and layout.

Simple, but well developed.

Thisis Site of

the Week

Summer heat is on and the beach tops the get away destination list.

Visit www.adoptabeach.org.uk to find out how you can adopt your favourite stretch of beach in Cumbria as part of an effort to keep the coastal environment free of litter.

Through this national environmental initiative, groups and individuals can take responsibility for a section of beach by taking part in beach cleans and surveys to monitor coastal pollution.

Great site, great idea.

The Westmorland Gazette site thisisthelakedistrict.co.uk is launching My Vacation in Cumbria photo gallery.

If you have a picture from your holiday, visit or day out in Cumbria e-mail the jpeg with your name, address, and phone number as well as details of the date and location to Gazette Gallery at kate.harrison@notes.newsquest.co.uk.

Photo selection decisions are final.

Photos will be judged on artistic merit and 'fun'.

A prize will be given out for the best photo in the autumn.

Usual Gazette rules apply.