Four Amigos

Here's my stream of consciousness: foot prints in frost (yesterday's post) makes me think of foot prints in the sand. Foot prints in the sand make me think of Mexico. Mexico makes me think of family trips. Family trips reminds me of photo I took of the Four Cousins in Mexico a few years ago: Matt, Brian, Jon and Derek. So where do I go from here in the stream? Check back tomorrow.

Brian & Katie In Mexico

Here are two of my favorite people in one of my favorite places. I'm a lucky guy to have the opportunities I have!

Deux Amis

We were free men in Paris, unfettered and alive, posing somewhat awkwardly in front of a structure that is anything but awkward - the Nortre Dame de Paris. I handed my camera to a passing tourist. So I guess that this isn't really my photo is it?When I give my camera to a stranger so I can pose, I try to pick someone who appears to be slower than I am so that if they decide to run with my valuable equipment, I can catch them. I wouldn't tackle them, though, since that might harm my camera. . . .

Variations On A Beach

As long a things like blizzards and Alberta clippers keep whipping through South Dakota, I keep posting tropical scenes. This photo was taken a little after the "Sunrise" photo I posted a few days ago. I'd like to be sitting on this huge driftwood log watching the waves roll in.

Pool Bar - Rui Riviera Maya Palace

Of course I spent very little time at the pool bar at our resort, but many others did. This photo was taken shortly before they opened at 10:00.

Reflections

You may have noticed that there is little night photography posted to this blog. That's largely due to the fact that I am a "morning person." But every once and a while, I'm out and about after the sun goes down and this photo proves that.It was taken in Mexico at a resort called the Riu Palace Riviera Maya. Here's my contribution to the "light dappled water" genre of photography. . .

Wind Swept

On a recent trip to Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, I sitting in a beach chair near this tree and noticed that the strong breeze was blowing the palm fronds back as if the tree were a tall, thin human with a full head of hair.But this human has green coconuts!!?? Is there any way of knowing when one might fall? A South Dakotan has very little natural experience with things like this.

Turquoise

It was windy, mostly cloudy but warm the day I took this photo on a spot along the Mayan Riviera south of Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Green Abstraction

I was walking along a trail that ran parallel to an unoccupied stretch of beach south of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, when I saw some kind of tropical shrub that was loaded with green pods. Like many things that strike me in nature, I like the symmetry in these seed pods. I wish I knew what kind of plant this is . . . .

01-01-11 Sunrise

This photo is a result of being in the right place at the right time - with the right lens, which was a 17-40 mm wide angle lens. The beach is along the so-called Maya Riviera south of Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Seing the sunrise along this stretch of beach is a bit rare since there always seem to be clouds along the horizon. But on this day, the sun showed its face for about 5 minutes and so I get the great play of light along the sand.

The Bird Man And the Child

I was with a group of students in the Montmartre district in Paris and as we were walking down the steps of the Sacre Couer Basilica, I looked down and saw this man and this apparently mesmerized child. This isn't the only photo of a child marveling over birds. What is it about birds that is so fascinating to children?

Beans

These aren't just any beans. They're Kona coffee beans, ripening on the branch in one of many small coffee farms south of Kona on the Big Island. There are two places on earth that produce highly sought after coffee: Kona and Costa Rica but I can't tell you what makes these coffees so special.The day we visited this coffee farm, they were roasting and the smell of coffee wafted over the property. The young man working at the little concessions kiosk at this farm said that on the days they roasted, the smoke gave him a pretty good caffeine buzz. Kona coffee is expensive but the smoke is free.