Isla Mujeres lightning

I was lucky enough to see two awesome lighting storms during my time in Isla Mujeres. The first storm started right after dark and I was walking back home from a long session of snorkeling. I knew there was a storm coming just by the way the air felt. Suddenly huge winds picked up and the air temp plummeted in a matter of seconds. Next thing I know, I look up and see a full on "Tornadic waterspout" that was about 300 feet tall from the water! It's like a tornado over the water... very cool. Greg got to see it too, but we rushed back home to get the girls and show them from the roof, and it had vanished. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera either. :(

But here are a few other photos I shot-

Thunderheads forming at sunset:

When it got dark this cloud over the ocean was striking about once every 5 seconds-

Big bolt of lighting striking the eastern side of Isla Mujeres-

Underwater images from Isla Mujeres, Mexico

I've been having such a fun time in the warm Caribbean waters with my underwater housing from Del Mar Housings. I have a custom housing for the Canon 5D but I've been talking with Erik a bit about getting a new housing for the 5D Mark2... so we'll see!

These are all images from the past couple days. It's so fun to swim around out there and just shoot whatever you happen to see!

I realized I could use the 100mm macro lens in my 16-35mm port, so I gave that a try. Super hard to focus on stuff, so images were mostly all crap... but good to know I have that option. This Barracuda was hangin around for a bit so I got a couple shots of him. During one dive I actually had about 200 Barracuda circling around me (no camera)! I could barely see through them! After some research I found out they hang around snorkelers because they think we're out there hunting, so they want to feed on the scraps of what we kill, haha. Sorry Barracudas... I'm just pokin around taking photos.

These little stingrays are everywhere. I pet lots of them and they seem harmless... although Bethany seems to think they can still sting?

See the Barracudas?

Surge in the water looks really cool with ripply sandy bottoms.

This is the largest Morey Eel I've ever seen. I never saw his entire body but I think he was approx 8 feet long. He's shy but I managed to get a couple shots of him.

Another Barracuda-

Starfish and curious onlooking fish-

Cool arches. I love the way things look underwater!

A couple times I swam out to the very end of Isla Mujeres, which is the Easternmost point in all of Mexico. There are two bodies of water that meet and it creates an insane tip current that shoots off the tip of the island, with big waves and turbulence. I hung out in the midst of it all for a bit. :)
It took every ounce of strength and energy to be in control of where it was taking me. The only way I could shoot this photo was by diving down 20 feet and grabbing onto a rock, so the 15mph current didn't take me out. This is a wave passing overhead. I love experiencing the sheer force water can dish out... I'm sure any extreme kayaker or surfer would agree.

More fun with the waves hitting the rocks, then draining out and creating large waterfalls before the next wave comes in.

Round two of photos from Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Here are more photos from Isla Mujeres. We're still having an awesome time! Tomorrow we're leaving for Playa Del Carmen and checking into a resort for the wedding we're photographing on Saturday.

Random people selling random things:

Chicken heart soup? Bethany ate it! (not the heart, but the soup)

Seagull eating a fish-

Misc beach photos-

Natalie and Bethany relaaaaxing-

Greg showing us his backflip skills-

Beautiful sunset-

Boats-

Another nice sunset!

Sunrise at the eastern most point in all of Mexico-

Next photos coming soon will be lightning storms and underwater images!

Iguana attack!

The title is pretty misleading, because I am actually the one who attacked the iguana. I'm weird because seeing cool reptiles is never enough. I always have to try and catch them to have them in my own two hands. It's just so much better that way! Here is an old post when I caught a baby alligator.

Here in Isla Mujeres there are iguana's everywhere ranging from teeny to giant. After a bit of trickery I had a nice medium sized iguana in my hands. So fun to see them up close. :)

Turns out they have pretty sharp claws, and they like to bite. He never got a bite of me, but his claws did get me pretty well. But it's all good, I deserved it... and they'll heal quickly. As I always say and Bethany makes fun of me... BATTLEWOUNDS!!! haha

Snapshots:
First I was feeding them mango and papaya peels leftover from breakfast. They loved it!

New friend-

He didn't like the camera all up in his face, as you can see!

BATTLEWOUNDS! haha

wonderful morning

This morning was so fun in Isla Mujeres. Greg, Natalie and I (Bethany likes to sleep in) woke up early to walk down to the the eastern most point in all of Mexico. It's only a 15 minute walk from their place. :)
The sunrise was sooo incredible. I haven't looked at the photos yet though. Now I'm just sitting here on their balcony wondering how I can get my hands on a piece of Isla Mujeres beach property. :)
I always forget my Macbook has a camera on it! Here is the view from the balcony.
Crystal clear water and Cancun is across the way about 8 miles.
Such a sweet little island.


Then I got a little distracted and took a few photo booth shots, haha.

First day in Isla Mujeres, Mexico

These are some images from our first day in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. We're down here to shoot a destination wedding on April 28th in the Mayan Riviera area and thought we'd extend the trip to visit our awesome long time friends Greg & Natalie Snider who moved here from Oregon about 1.5 years ago. It's been so great to spend time and stay with them in their sweet condo overlooking the crystal clear Caribbean waters. A 30 second walk out their building is beautiful white sand beaches with amazing snorkeling. All the underwater pics are right in front of their place... good times.

Here are photos from yesterday, our first full day here.
Ferry from Cancun to Isla Mujeres is 30 minutes long and a gorgeous little ride-

We were starving from a long day traveling so first things first... cerveza and fajitas a nice beachside restaurant-

These guys play a song as you're eating for a little tip-

Greg obviously enjoyed the song mucho. :)

Sunset-

These 3 are from the balcony... amazing view of the water and Cancun 8 miles off in the distance.

Adopted fat cat snuggling with my Chacos-

This guy has to be French. They always seem to have interesting bathing suit choices. :)

Various snorkeling shots with Greg-

Natalie and Greg... loving life and still madly in love after 30 some years of marriage. Awesome. :)

Misc sunset shots-

The four of us enjoying sunset-

Mmmm, tacos at the local taco joint. Soooo good!

Some adorable kids at a little carnival we walked to after dinner-

This was hilarious! A couple guys were playing this arcade game out on the sidewalk. So random-

Thats it for now... more photos I shot today coming later on!

Flying over Hood River, Oregon... My first attempt at aerial photography

A couple weeks ago I was sitting on a train in Thailand chatting with Ken about photography and he asked if I've ever done aerial photography. I said I've always really, really wanted to but I just don't know any pilots, so I've never had the opportunity. Ken says, Well I'm a pilot, you want to go fly with me? ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I about crapped my pants!!
I had no idea for the 2 weeks I had been traveling with Ken (and the rest of our group) that he was a pilot... with his own plane nonetheless.
So Ken told me... anytime you want to go, just call me and we'll go! I definitely took him up on that offer and will be taking him up on that offer until he's sick and tired of me calling every time the weather is beautiful.
Yesterday we had a clear day in Hood River and we went for a 66 minute flight. I cannot even express how cool it is to have that freedom to explore the skies with your own plane. I've flown a lot, but not exactly on the type of plane where I could just tell the pilot what to do and where to go!
I can't think of a more beautiful place to cruise around than the Columbia River Gorge area (home!). We started off flying over the East Hills of Hood River, then around Mt. Hood (incredible!), over to The Dalles, then back to Hood River while flying directly over the Columbia River the entire time. So much to see! I even flew the plane for a while, which was super cool and surprisingly simple... of course I didn't do anything but steer left/right up/down, haha. I think landing and taking off would be just a little harder. :)
Shooting aerial photography is a lot harder than I thought it would be. The ride wasn't really rough at all, but the plane vibrates from the propeller, so you have to use fast shutter speeds. Lesson learned!
I definitely shot lots of blurry photos but got some really nice sharp ones too... here are some of my favorites.

Ken's Cessna plane at the Hood River airport before we took off-

Takeoff! Columbia river looking east towards Mosier-

Hood River looks a lot larger from the air!

Mt. Saint Helens in the distance-

Mt. Hood in the foreground and lots of beautiful hazy mountains ridges-

Mt. Hood and the plane wing-

A very windy ridge on Mt. Hood-

The peak of Mt. Hood-

Another windy ridge-

Peak of Mt. Hood-

Peak of Mt. Hood with Mt. Saint Helens in the background-

Peak of Mt. Hood with Mt. Adams in the background-

Crazy ridgeline of Mt. Hood-

Wide angle views of the west-side of Mt. Hood (the side that faces Portland)-

Peak of of Mt. Hood-

Another crazy ridgeline of Mt. Hood-

Windy ridge on Mt. Hood-

The Dalles Damn and Bridge:

Hills in Washington across from Rowena-

The small town of Lyle, Washington and the Klickitat river-

Highway 14 detail-

Looking West, Hood River Toll Bridge-

Highway 14 and the infamous Syncline-

White Salmon River, Washington-

Looking west on the Columbia River. Interstate 84 in Oregon (left), and Highway 14 in Washington (right)-

Looking West over Hood River-

The pro pilot on the right, and the wannabe on the left-

I have no idea what all that stuff does-

Not bad for the first flight! Can't wait for the next one... Thanks SO MUCH Ken!

Perfect day at Mt. Hood Meadows - 3-10-09

We had the most perfect day of snowboarding at Mt. Hood Meadows on Tuesday! Lots of new snow overnight and clear skies, crisp cold air too, so the snow stayed dry and light!
I headed up early with a buddy Jacob Hase and got there before the lifts opened so we got lots of fresh tracks. Nothing compares to fresh tracks in dry snow! Ahhhhhhh.

I of course brought up my Canon 5D mark2 and a few lenses and did some shooting. The light in the morning was so incredible. It was really hard to choose between riding seriously or shooting seriously, so I settled somewhere in the middle and did both at the same time. You'll see below. :)

Waiting in line for the first chair to open up. Those tracks are from ski patrol! They always get the first lines down!

Jake getting fresh tracks!

My track on the left, Jakes on the right-

Riding up Mt. Hood Express-

Upper Elevator & Mt. Hood-

This is when I couldn't decide between shooting & riding, so I did both at the same time. 15mm fisheye lens makes it all possible! Sorry there are so many, I couldn't decide on any favorites. :)

I'm actually in the air over a little jump on this one... hard to tell though.

Slashin!

Dropping off a cornice, love the shadow-

This is so funny... somehow my camera clicked during a crash! I'm totally tumbling upsidedown if you didn't notice.

Heather canyon lift viewed from Shooting Star-

This is an area I haven't been to before, but have always wondered how to get there. Thanks to Jake for showing me. I guess it's called "God's Wall".

Jake planning his line down the steeps-

At the top of the cliff I ran into a bunch of new & old friends, some that I haven't seen for years!
Luke Hil from New Zealand, and Miley from Hood River-

Phineas England (Finny!) from Hood River-

I still have lots more images coming from the recent Asia trip... just gotta find time to post them!

Khao Sak National Park - Surat Thani Province, Thailand

I'm back home now from the 1 month trip to Asia but will continue to update the blog as I catch up on the photos!

While down in the south of Thailand in Phuket, we took a 3 hour bus to Khao Sak National Park to stay there for a couple days. The area is known for it's lush rainforest and large variety of animals, insects, and birds. Apparently there are wild tigers that live in and around that area, although it's extremely rare to actually see them. I was always keeping an eye out though while hiking through the rain forest. :)

We arrived in the afternoon and went for a quick hike to check out some of the rainforest. Although we didn't see much wildlife or birds, you could hear them everywhere. The bird noises were incredible! We saw a bunch of monkeys swinging from tree to tree and I got some video of that, but no decent photos. Those things are so hard to photograph!
Of course love finding spiders and here is one of my favorites. With his legs spread out he was about the size of my hand! I'm having a hard time identifying him. All I can find is that he's some type of "orb spider" but can't find his exact species. Help me out of you happen to know!

Bethany's shot of me holding him on a stick-

Another spider in his funnel web on the ground-

A frog that I spotted during dinner at an outdoor restaurant. The light behind is from the restaurant light-

Bamboo in the forest-

The highlight of Khao Sak was definitely a day trip to Chiaw Lan Lake. The lake is an hours drive from the National Park headquarters where there is accommodation, so most people choose to book a tour which includes a van to the lake, then pack onto a boat with dozens of other people to tour the lake. Bethany and I are always trying to do things differently and avoid the normal tourist way of doing things because it's nice to have more freedom to get the best photos, and also avoid the crowds. So rather than just taking a tour, we rented a scooter and found the lake ourselves. It's always fun trying to navigate though roads in Thailand with the signs in Thai, and no English speaking people to ask directions. Many times we found ourselves laughing with the Thai's as we would try and communicate what we were trying to find by acting out things like swimming, lake, boat, water etc. Good times.
After an hour on the scooter and super sore butts, we found the lake and then began the negotiations for a boat & driver. We paid about $40 for a longtail boat with the driver, for about 3 hours. The price seemed high at the time because it was a National Park, but now that I'm back in America and think about it, it's so cheap!
Most all the tourist boats were just coming in when we were going out, so that was great. We were on the lake past sunset and had freedom to tell our driver when to stop and where we wanted to go. Awesome.
The lake is surrounded by HUGE beautiful limestone cliffs. It was very similar to Guilin in China and Lake Powell in the states.
Photos-

These are floating bungalows that are only accessible by boat. You can stay in them for about 10 bucks a night, and that includes breakfast. We're definitely doing that next time! All the tourists there were actually Thai people out seeing their own country, which is always nice too see.

Next up on the blog will be Cambodia!