Haiti – JWNPhoto.com

Articles Tagged with: Haiti

Being A Tourist

For my last post about my Caribbean trip, I wanted to showcase some “touristy” shots. That is about capturing the events, people, and places that make a trip special.

I love a good landscape, but I love a pseudo-landscape shot with other people in it even better. The shot up at the top as we docked in Mexico, or the shot just above in Haiti as a tourist takes some landscape shots. This shot below is more subtle, but there’s a bartender in the background getting the bar ready for the day in this sunrise shot.

And why not hand the camera off to somebody else to get yourself in the shot? In fact, I often go out of my way to offer up cameraman duties on trips like this to strangers because I know how important it is. Here’s a picture of my wife and I taken by our tour guide as we make a stop during our dune buggy adventure in Cozumel.

And here’s a shot of me snorkeling – I handed the camera off to my wife for a while so I could play:

Haitian fire-eater? Yes please!

I also put some collages together from each excursion to showcase the moments from each day. Here’s one from Jamaica, where we visited Bob Marley’s childhood home and mausoleum.

This particular trip was exciting – we took a 2 hour drive through Jamaica and got to see so much of the real countryside and villages. It’s a beautiful country. One of the things that make the Bob Marley Mausoleum an interesting place is that they honor his Rastafarian roots and allow the purchase and smoking of Marijuana. Even this cat looks like he partakes in the tradition:

In fact, the first thing you see when you exit your vehicle upon arrival is this guy in the window selling his wares.

And last, but not least, don’t forget to participate in any local customs or touristy attractions. Yes, that’s a healthy mixture of joy and fear on my face…

– TTFN

In The Water

In my previous post, I showcased some of my favorite sun-related shots from my recent trip to the Caribbean. Today’s post will feature some shots in and around the water, mostly with my Pentax Optio W80 compact point-and-shoot camera. I bought this camera a few years ago after realizing that a proper underwater DSL housing costs more than a DSLR. I just wanted to play around, so a point-and-shoot was perfect for the job. Nowadays, waterproof point-and-shoots are relatively inexpensive and every major manufacturer has something to offer. I highly suggest picking one up – they make capturing moments like these a lot simpler.

The shot of my wife Amy at the top was taken at Stingray City at Grand Cayman. This is my favorite shot of the whole trip because it tells a very concise and complete story of the day, which is simply that we rode out to Stingray City on jet skis and kissed some ‘rays. The shot just above was from Cozumel. After a long day of riding up and down the coast on dune buggys, I was able to rinse off some of the dust and sand in the sea. Here’s a shot my wife took of me while we took a break during the buggy adventure:

Here’s a shot of Amy snorkeling off the coast of Grand Cayman:

This last shot was taken with my D90 on the coast of Haiti. While I’m not technically in the water, I was right at the shoreline trying to capture the sea-spray. I must have looked like a maniac shuffling back and forth trying to avoid getting doused every time the water broke. But, I got a few shots from it that I like:

Check back again soon for some more Caribbean coverage.

Caribbean Sunscapes

I made a pact with myself a year ago to start limiting the photos I post and only show my best work. Of all of the theories and practices about being a good photographer, editing yourself is the most difficult for me. Sometimes I like to tell a story and the story becomes a novel. Sometimes I see so many different things that get me excited and I can’t narrow it down. So, here’s the challenge – how can I share all of the wonderful experiences and sights of my recent trip in one post? The answer is simple – multiple posts! Yeah, I’m good like that…

A note about gear – I left my D800 at home on this trip and brought 2 cameras; My trusty D90 and my Pentax Optio W80 waterproof compact. The shots in this post were shot with the D90 and either my Nikkor 55-300mm zoom or my Tokina 11-16mm ultra-wide zoom. The photo at the top was a sunrise over the Caribbean Sea. The 2nd photo is a sunset under a big storm cloud as we left Grand Cayman Island. The one just below is a sunrise over the coast of Cozumel, Mexico.

Here’s a late afternoon split-tone sunburst shot on the coast of Labadee Haiti, followed by a sunset shot of the mountains.

And I leave you with this shot of a sunset using a graduated glass filter. I decided to experiment and flip it upside down, giving me a scarlet red water with a rainbow of color as it leads to a blue sky.

I’ll be posting more very soon – check back this week.