From some distant shore…

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Seen on the beach at Ha’ena State Park; Kauai, Hawaii:

From some distant shore

I’ll freely admit that I posed my model in this shot — we found it laying in the sand a few feet away from where I took this shot.  I thought it’d make an interesting composition, so moved it over to this one little footprint-free patch of sand and waited for the sun to peek out through the overcast.  I love the look of a “castaway” coconut, trying to make a life in its new home.  I’m still debating whether I shouldn’t have brushed the sand off the coconut husk, though…

Wailua Falls

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Wailua Falls on the island of Kauai, Hawaii:

Wailua Falls

These waterfalls are easily captured from a roadside stop — but that’s both good and bad.  Good if time’s short, but bad because you’ve got just one perspective you can take on the subject.  There are… informal… trails that lead down toward the level of the pool at the bottom of the falls.  But so many people have died falling from them, that they’ve been closed off for years.  Officially, at any rate.

Protea

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Seen at the Ali’i Gardens in Maui, Hawaii:

Protea

My apologies for the dearth of posts lately, but my computer’s hard drive has been getting flaky (bad enough to cause issues, but not bad enough to make the source of the problem obvious), and finally died yesterday. Its replacement should be online within a few days.

Temple of the Sun

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Temple of the Sun

In Palenque‘s Cross Group ruins, the Temple of the Sun is definitely the “cover girl” of the group’s three structures. This is a bit ironic since it’s the shortest of the three temples, as it was dedicated to the most minor of Palenque’s triad of patron deities. But for one reason or another, it has weathered the intervening years more gracefully than have its siblings. So, its relatively good condition makes it the most photogenic member of the group.

This image was made from the steps of the tallest group member, the Temple of the Cross.

The North Group

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North Group

A compact string of five ruins, the North group sits at the north side of the cleared part of Palenque. You can walk around all of the group’s structures, but you can’t really get a good frontal shot of the five together due to a few pesky trees. I took this photo from the front steps of the Temple of the Count, probably the best vantage point if you want to photograph them together.

Photographer’s Guide to Palenque — now out on the streets

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Palenque cover thumb

It took me considerably longer than I’d hoped — but A Photographer’s Guide to Palenque is now out and available for purchase!  It’s a brute of a guide book at 65 pages in length (if you printed it on regular 8.5″ x 11″ / A4 paper), has a dozen maps and one or two images for every structure open to visitors — a steal at $4.99.

And of course, don’t forget that a purchase also gains you access to a host of online material — an editable shot list, wallpaper for your computer or tablet, bigger maps than I can pack into an eBook, etc.

Go check it out!

The Tower

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Probably one of the most-photographed sights at the ancient Maya ruins of Palenque, it’s the Palace’s tower:

The Tower

On the days we visited Palenque, we had to deal with pretty persistent clouds — not a huge deal, if you have a few ways to handle them.  In this case, I used NIK HDR Efex Pro 2 to avoid losing the shadowed parts of the tower and get a little drama in the otherwise-featureless clouds.  It’s on the edge of looking “over-cooked,” but I think it works for this image.

The funny thing in retrospect is that in order to get this shot, I had to stand on what once were the Palace’s toilets.  Good thing they haven’t been used for a thousand years.

If you’re planning on travel to Palenque in the near future, I’m doing final edits to my “Photographer’s Guide” eBook for the ruins at Palenque.  Should hit the (metaphorical) streets by Wednesday.  Stay tuned…

The Aqua Azul waterfalls

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The Aqua Azul waterfalls, uphill from the ancient Maya ruins of Palenque in Chiapas, Mexico:

Agua Azul Waterfalls

When we visited Palenque last year, we split the first day between the ruins and some nearby sights.  The Aqua Azul (blue water) waterfalls are a beautiful set of pools and cascades not too far uphill from the ruins along a twisty, winding road.  Great place to decompress!

BTW, sorry for the sporadic blog postings lately — I’ve been working to finish up the next “A Photographer’s Guide” eBook.  This one’s on the ruins at Palenque, and should hit the (metaphorical, electronic) streets in the next week.  But first, I need to finish up some editorial work on it…

Hosting a photowalk — my experiences

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About two weeks back, I hosted a local photowalk — as part of the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk for 2012.  I’d never done it before, so just wanted to pass along a few of my experiences (bottom line: I dramatically overthought things going into it, but everybody had a good time).

The basic idea is to just spend a couple of hours as a group, walking (2 miles or less) through some photogenic sights.  As is my usual tendency, I did all sorts of research in advance (even though I’ve lived in this town for 22+ years now), and collected a pile of trivia about various places along our route.

A veiled beauty

In retrospect, this was largely a waste of time, since walking 24 people along sidewalks means only a handful will be in earshot at any time — and even then, leading photographers is a whole lot like herding cats.  Within a few blocks, your group will be spread over a large swath of terrain.

So my main bit of advise is to not overdo your research — pick a route with good sights and concentrate on getting your group through it safely (we had traffic to contend with).

Feeling a bit hung up

One thing I did right was to make a detailed map, and give everybody a print-out of it at the start of the walk.  This way, those that aren’t familiar with the area you’re walking in will be able to get back to the group if they get… distracted.

Hanging on for dinner

What I wasn’t expecting to be so challenging is that in the Kelby system, the leader of a local photowalk chooses the “best” image that his / her walkers took on the walk.  I’ve never played judge before, so had to learn how to deal with the apples-and-oranges nature of this task.  There’s a really good street photograph, and a really good nature photograph, and a couple of excellent environmental / detail shots — which one is “best?”  You’ll have to go to the photowalk page to see what I mean.

Going out blazing

In any event, the weather cooperated, the walkers all seemed to enjoy the tour, and I know I enjoyed showing them around my home turf — so definitely, I’d recommend this to anybody!  And as you can see, I had fun playing with my (still-)new 60mm lens.

Licensious

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I photographed this little bit of mountain culture up in the “ghost town” of St. Elmo, Colorado a few years back:

Licensious

I put “ghost town” in quotes because, although it’s officially a ghost town, St. Elmo is the summer home of quite a few people (and year-round home of a few).  Sure, it’s not the hopping spot it was back in its heyday — but it’s still fun to visit!

If you were curious, here’s the collection of license plates in its native habitat:

The plates