May 7-13, 2013
As I was approaching the end of the 365 Photo Challenge, I was lucky enough to get a vacation for the last couple of weeks. It was so nice.
Doing the 365 Photo project was most fun when I was traveling. It got me out of my everyday routine and brought me to new places. However, trying to find fun and interesting things to shoot in my ordinary routine was a good stretch for me.
Tuesday the week began with a hike around the Thousand Palms area of the Cochella Valley. We were looking for a new place to hike. All and all, the hike wasn’t very scenic. We were mostly in the just the plain old desert. There was something of an oasis we happened along. This is a shot of Evan walking along the desert near the trees.
Looking back on this photo, I can’t say I love it. I don’t know why I included two pictures for this day. It is interesting to look back on these photos over two months after the completion of the project.
I do, however, really like this picture from the same day.
I’m a sucker for a long desert road in the middle of nowhere. I love road shots and this kind of vision-cracked pavement going on and on and on. Where does it go? It’s a lonely stretch of road ripe with opportunity. Perhaps it was growing up in Alaska, where the road trip wasn’t part of my upbringing.
May 8 was our last day in Palm Springs before embarking to Puerto Vallarta. This is a shot of Aloe Vera behind the condo.
And then on May 9, we flew to Mexico. We stayed at a place called Casa Cupola. It was lovely. This was the view from the first night.
Have I mentioned lately that I LOVE sunsets. Apparently, the building blocking the view was new and quite controversial. Still, it was a great view at sunset.
The hotel was nestled up in a little valley. This is the view from the other direction.
I know I am only supposed to have one picture per day, but PV afforded me so many interesting shots, I can’t just do one.
If you’ve been to Mexico, you are familiar with the vendors selling all manner of crap to tourists. I was taken with the guys who were selling skewers of meat. Through the week, I found out that these guys walk miles and miles up and down the beaches with this stuff. For MILES!
This is one of those intrepid souls. One afternoon, Evan and I walked the beach, and we saw this guys. I liked his face with the shrimp and chicken. I never did eat one of these.
The next shot was of a statue down the beach from Blue Chairs, where we hung out a lot.
PV had lots of these kind of statues around. Some of them where very cool.
I was enjoying taking pictures of people. This is a great shot of the woman who gave us manicures on the beach.
She was very nice. I enjoyed working my very basic Spanish with her.
I also enjoy taking long shots at night. This was the other side of the valley from us.
I love the colors of the building. We sat on the lanai listening to the voices and music coming from these buildings. It was a very cool way to spend the evening. It made me think this would be a fun retelling of Rear Window. It was like watching a little movie at times.
I have two more shots for Sunday. After two straight days of heavy beach time, we decided some walking was in order, so we walked about PV. We walked all the way down to the end of the tourist area and stopped for a mid-afternoon cocktail. On the beach were some boats. When I get into areas with boats, I become fascinated with them from a photography standpoint.
So here’s a boat! I started shooting in RAW mode, but while on vacation, I switched back because I wasn’t sure how much space I would have. I wish I hadn’t. I think I could have done more to help this photo if it had been in RAW.
Then there is this shot from the end of the pier.
This is one of those I got kind of lucky shots. I love the birds in a line with the sun and the water. Looking at it, I see it needs to be straightened ever so slightly. I’ll get on that. I suppose it could be cropped a bit too. I ended up with two really nice bird sunset photos. The other one will be in next week’s entry.
On Monday we did a beach hike before doing our beach time.
There were all kinds of magical buildings and portals up and down the beach. I loved the look of the various buildings.
And then the colorful flowers on some of them. It was a wonderful beach hike.
There’s just one more week to go!