Altun Ha Ruins and Belize

Our second stop was Belize, and we took a tour to the Altun Ha Mayan ruins. It was unbelievably hot, and the “guide” (as typical) went on and on and on about trivial details.  There were about 40 people in our tour and two other groups besides us.  So, getting reasonable pictures without lots of people was a problem.  However, by using photoshop, I was able to produce some pretty good images.

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On the road, as we drove along the shore, I noticed there was an old boat leaning against a tree.  So, I took a quick picture of it as we passed by.  With the use of a variety of NIK effects, it turned out to be a pretty good image.

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Roatan Honduras

The first stop on our cruise was the island of Roatan.  We took a tour to the Carambola Botanical Gardens.  It was an absolutely terrible day.  It was raining and humid.  I wanted to get some good flower pictures, but it was almost impossible.  I did get a really good shot of an orchid.

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Following that, our bus toured the west side of the island, stopping in a small village. From there, we went to a resort area.  I got this picture at the resort.  It took some manipulation to better balance the details and the contrast, but it was worth it.

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Cruise 2013 – Galveston before we left

We went on a cruise a couple weeks ago.  Prior to departing, you sit on the boat and wait. While waiting, I did get a couple of interesting shots.  Then, when we did sail away, I was able to get a couple more really good ones.

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This is another HDR shot.  I shot it from the deck of the ship and did my best to get a straight shot along 25th St.  The deck I was on ended a little short of where I really wanted to be, but this worked pretty well.  You can see from the harbor all the way to the Pleasure Pier.

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As we were sailing away, I was able to get this HDR image of The Elissa.

HOTPPG – “Trash the Dress”

The last thing we did was the bride got into the lake wearing her dress. This was a group shoot rather than just individuals.

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This one was nice, but you can’t tell she’s actually in the water. In the one below, she is obviously in the water.

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HOTPPG “Bridal”

Melanie served as our “Bride.  I tried to get on of those really popular shots with the train/veil being blown out by the wind.  It did not work all that well, but the shot isn’t that bad.

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Again, the lighting was working against me, but I did manage to get a few nice bridal portraits.

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HOTPPG “Ballerina”

The “Ballerina” at the HOTPPG Shoot Out was Genna. Again the light was harsh, and you had to shoot either in shade or in bright sun.

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Debbie really liked this one of her holding the cedar tree.

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I tried to get a good image of her doing a jump.  Between the timing and the framing, it was nearly impossible.  I probably should have zoomed out more. I finally go this one, but she was way off to the side.  So, some cropping was in order.

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HOTPPG “Child”

The “child” model for the HOTPPG Shoot Out was Rachel. She was an 11 year old girl.  I asked her what she wanted to do and she said “Get in the water.”  The look on her mother’s face was of concern.  So, I told her she get in as long as she didn’t get her dress wet.

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The sun was going down quickly, and she was not really all that interested in posing any more, but I got a couple nice shots of her.

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HOTPPG Shoot Out – “Family” shots

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My first shots were with a nice family, Brandy, Tye, and Tripp. It was windy and the light was pretty bad, but I found a nice place for them to stand, and things worked out OK.

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I kind of liked the wider view just as a little distraction.

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As with all kids this age, the challenge was to get him to look at the camera.  I really liked this one because he is actually looking at me (in spite of the hair problem).

HOTPPG Shoot Out

Last night, I had the pleasure of being a guest at the Heart of Texas Professional Photographers Guild open shoot out.  The event was held at Airport Park.  The HOTPPG is a group of professionals in the area.  In this meeting, they allowed local photographers who were not so professional to tag along.  I had a great time.

They had a variety of models representing different types of photography, and, there were so many I did not get to photograph them all.  They had a family, a bride, a teen age girl, a ballerina, a “tween” girl, an infant and a bride and groom.  We each took 10 minute turns with the models.

I had a great time, but it was hectic.  Ten minutes does not give you much time to find a location, build a report with the model, and get some shots.  Additionally, the circumstances made it difficult, if not impossible to use any kind of lighting.  The even was in the evening.  So, there was a pretty good sunset, but it didn’t really play into the even that well.

Anyway, it was a great experience.  I will be posting images as I get them processed.  This is a group I would like to continue to be associated with.  However, I may not quite be in the same league, professionally, as they.

Prints at Sam’s

On a recent CreativeLive, the speaker said he has all his work done at Costco.  He said they do it right there and do it fast, and, for the most part, the work is no different than that done at a custom lab.  So, I decided to try Sam’s.  I uploaded twelve images.  I went to order the prints and immediately saw that I had a problem.  The selection of sizes was limited.  The only sizes that would allow me to have prints of the full image were 4 x 6 and 20 x 30.  There was a selection called “True Digital” but there was no indication of what that was.  So, I was stuck with 8×10 or 11×14 and having to crop the image.  Well, I ordered one of the “True Digital” prints just to see what it was and one 11×14 of each of the images.

I did not hear back from them notifying me the prints were done.  So, I asked in the store, and I was told it takes about an hour.  The “True Digital” print was something slightly smaller than a 4×6.  The 11×14 enlargements were all well done.  They were printed on a semi-gloss paper that was acceptable for the images.  I got to manipulate the cropping.  So, that was acceptable from the point of view that the images were cropped where I wanted them to be.  But, they were still cropped. A couple were somewhat darker than on screen.  There is, of course, no ability to calibrate.  So, that might be something that needs to be considered.

My next job is to locate appropriate matts for them.