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. Â It got me out of my everyday routine and brought me to new places. Â 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. Â All and all, the hike wasn’t very scenic. We were mostly in the just the plain old desert. Â There was something of an oasis we happened along. Â 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. Â We stayed at a place called Casa Cupola. Â 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. Â I was taken with the guys who were selling skewers of meat. Â 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. Â One afternoon, Evan and I walked the beach, and we saw this guys. Â I liked his face with the shrimp and chicken. Â 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. Â Some of them where very cool.
I was enjoying taking pictures of people. Â 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. Â 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. Â It was like watching a little movie at times.
I have two more shots for Sunday. Â After two straight days of heavy beach time, we decided some walking was in order, so we walked about PV. Â We walked all the way down to the end of the tourist area and stopped for a mid-afternoon cocktail. Â On the beach were some boats. Â 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!
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