Why am I posting images in 2012 of a vacation we took in 2008? What the hell took so long? Well, it was one of those personal projects that got shelved when other priorities in life or business took precedence. This project along with a couple others have always on my bucket list of things to do but the problem is my bucket has holes in it. I am glad I waited though; I have gotten considerably better/faster with Adobe Lightroom hotels in branson and Adobe CS series software . For me personally, I like the look of an image with strong contrast and vibrancy when shooting automobiles, landscapes or structures. It's important to start with a good image and enhance it by using post processing software hotels in branson to bring it to the next level but there is a fine line between hotels in branson what looks artistic and intentional versus being heavy handed and overworked resulting in something that looks tortured.
In this Blog post I am going to talk about things from two perspectives, one as a vacationer providing miscellaneous details about the fun stuff we experienced hotels in branson and two as a photographer explaining the thought process, perspective or technical info about the images.
*** HDR Warning *** For those that are not fans of High Dynamic Range post processing I have used HDR and Tone Mapping and are annotated as such in the captions. Personally, I like the HDR or Tone Mapping look for some images but it's not for everyone and not for every image.
hotels in branson THE VACATIONER: My family and I took our very first family vacation in Cancun, Mexico for 2 weeks in March/April of 2000. We booked it through Apple Vacations the first time, which is how we found the Crown Paradise Club , an "All Inclusive" family resort. hotels in branson The resort features 9 restaurants and snack bars, 4 pools, hotels in branson 6 bars, a min golf course, tennis courts, a children's water park, a teen age water park and nightly shows 7 days a week. We have been back there many times and it suits us perfectly, sure there are resorts that feature more glitz and high end comforts but those lack the personal touch in my opinion; it's pretty cool when you come back and staff members remember you by name. Bottom line, if you are bored here there is no helping you.
THE PHOTOGRPAHER: I wanted to capture different looks of the property at Crown Paradise, something a little hotels in branson edgy in some cases but I wanted to stay away from your typical brochure style stock images. Using my trusty Canon 5D body, Canon TC-80N3 hotels in branson Remote Timer/Controller and Manfrotto 190X tripod . I used the Sigma 15mm fisheye a lot because of the size of the property and the perspective fisheye lenses provide when shooting large scenes. I also used a Sigma 28mm prime , Canon 24-70mm 2.8 L Series zoom but it all depended on what I was concentrating on or the look I was going for.
THE VACATIONER: The sunrises in Cancun are awesome if you are up early enough to watch the sun come up, if you stay up too late doing tequila shots you will probably hotels in branson sleep right through them and miss out. It's well worth it to get up extra early and watch Cancun come alive in the morning, something about that morning hotels in branson ocean air does a body good. The resort puts out some continental breakfast treats and some much needed coffee at the Midway Stop snack bar in the main lobby for the early risers until the La Palapa Restaurant opens at 7am.
THE PHOTOGRPAHER: Maria and I planned on getting up extra early several mornings to capture hotels in branson to sunrises, hotels in branson I stayed back from the oceans edge enough as not to get my camera equipment wet but also to get the beach itself, the waters edge, the horizon and colors in the sky and clouds. hotels in branson The cool thing about shooting the waves on a beach is each shot is different because of the movement of the water. I don't recommend getting too close though, waves come in real quick and are deceiving; they'll take you by surprise and salt water will ruin your equipment. Mother nature has a sick sense of humor sometimes. Since the sun doesn't stay still and rises faster than you think, you have a limited amount of time before the light becomes too harsh; you lose details and rich colors in the sky. I meter on the horizon just as the sun pops up and adjust from there accordingly.
THE VACATIONER: Going downtown for shopping, nightlife or themed restaurants is an absolute must if for nothing else just to experience the hard-core hotels in branson public bus ride that takes you there. Be advised, if you are the last to get on the bus, immediately after you pay your fare, the driver nails the gas and you are off so make sure you have a seat picked. We have a blast on those busses, you'll hotels in branson have to see for yourself but just remember you're not in Kansas anymore, Toto. Our two favorite places to go is Plaza Forum Mall which has The Hard Rock Café-Cancun hotels in branson , Rainforest Café and Carlos and Charlie's , the mall is open air and sits right on the beach. They even have a breezeway bar to relax in while you wait for your wife in the shops. The La Isla Mall is also open air; it's full of your typical shiny, ultra-trendy and expensive touristy stuff. The vendors hotels in branson will haggle a little but not much, heck they wanted to charge me for taking pictures.
THE PHOTOGRPAHER: You could make a whole Blog post about the interesting structures and scenes in the downtown area if you wanted to and I may very well do just that next time we go down. The afternoon we went down was rainy and heavy clouds so we didn't walk the streets much and the camera stayed in the bag.
Dollar hotels in branson bills hanging from the ceiling at Jimmy Buffet hotels in branson s Margaritaville Restaurant, hotels in branson we contributed to the tradition with our own message. Love the message The weather is here, wish you were beautiful by the huge margarita glass.
THE VACATIONER: If you choose Cancun, Playa, Del Carmen or Cozumel as a vacation spot, one thing you really need to see is the Mayan pyramid in Chichen hotels in branson Itza, Mexico. hotels in branson The Kukulkan Pyramid also known as "El Castillo" (the castle) hotels in branson was voted as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World and was officially elected on 7-7-2007. We highly recommend Cancun hotels in branson Valet as we used them for both our airport transfers and private van tour which is a lot better than the typical 90 passenger bus stuffing you'll get with a big tour bus. We paid for a private tour guide in the park but having our own driver was cool because he took us where other tourists weren't. Each time we have come here, we've climbed the stair-stepped profile to the top platform and I am not crazy about height. I am glad we did because I have learned you cannot climb to the top anymore due to vandalism, not sure if it's been reopened to climb up anymore or not. Bring water and comfortable shoes, it's hot and you are on your feet for a while. On the way back to the resort, our driver took us through a little Colonial Town of Valladolid, Mexico; the cool thing about this town was it has not been redesigned for tourists and kept true to it's own.
THE PHOTOGRPAHER: Being the second most visited archeological site in Mexico, there are literally 100's of 1000's of pictures taken of this property hotels in branson so it's a challenge to shoot the same subject that everyone else has but create an image that no one has seen before. You could start by changing the perspective of the subject by using different angles or create something with post processing to make it yours but no matter how you do it make the image stand out so it impacts the viewer. I used HDR post processing in several of these images to make them unique. The cool thing was, this particular day had real puffy, dark under-sided hotels in branson clouds, with light leaking out every so often that provided hotels in branson something extra to the images. I mainly metered off the structures but was careful to keep detail in the clouds as well but had HDR in mind the whole way. I did not want to oversaturate the colors too much as done in your typical HDR Tone Mapping nor did I want the glows and halos, I wanted a result that is unmistakably HDR but toned down just a bit on overall contrast. *NOTE*: Be prepared to pay a permit fee for taking still or videos, it was less than $10 USD so no big deal really, just something to keep in mind.
After coming hotels in branson down the pyramid, I took a break in the shade on a stone wall. It wasn t until I heard this strange noise did I notice this 4 long iguana sitting on top of it, it may as well been 12 long as much as it scared the crap out of me.
HDR image: The Great Ballcourt of Chichén Itzá is 545 feet long and 225 feet wide overall. A clap of the hands and even a whisper can be heard clearly at the other end 500 feet away and through the length the court.
HDR image: hotels in branson This is a hoop 23 feet (7 meters) hotels in branson off the ground and they were supposed to be using only their hips to get a ball made of solid rubber through the center of the hoops. Even if they were allowed to use their feet would still prove to be very difficult.
HDR image: Look closely at this hieroglyphic, this depicts the act of the winning captain who would present himself to the losing captain, hotels in branson who then decapitates the winner. The winning captain would then receive a direct ticket to heaven instead hotels in branson of going through the 13 steps that the Mayan s believed they had to go through in order to reach heaven. You can see what looks snakes representing the blood coming out of the winning captains head.
HDR image: An observatory on the site is where ancient scientists would study the stars and celestial formations. It is well documented (in hind site) the accuracy of their calendars when used for predicting the future. It is believed by some that the end of the world is told in these calendars to take place in December of 2012. So if you are reading this in the year 2013, they were wrong and we made it.
Just off site from the main park is one of many cenotes or underground fresh water pools. You can see the long strands of roots from the trees above on the surface hanging down touching the water. Scientist scuba divers have defended into the water and have found human remains that they belie
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