Went to shoot at Pere Marquette today, but stopped off at the Alton bridge landing to shoot a few. Man, am I glad we did — it was frigid! I know I’m a big fan of cold weather, but hoo-boy was it cold. Lots of wind, and moisture, and temps in the 40s.

Anyway, I shot some nice pictures of the bridge, and Molly got to play in the cold, so I guess it was a fine afternoon of fun, albeit short and cold!

Earlier today, Erin called to let me know that they had been attending revival at their church. That wasn’t big news, but she also told me that she thought Sio was ready to make a decision concerning the Lord… tonight! Now that is big news!

Darla and I went down to the church, and got to see Sio take her first step in a lifelong committment. She publicly stated her faith, found Jesus as her Saviour, and will be baptised soon.

I’m so excited!

Becky and I decided to take a tour into the country to see the early fall colors. We weren’t disappointed, but they just aren’t quite there yet. We had planned to meet Kurt and Kelly at a Fall Festival at Shaw Conservatory (west of the Gateway City), but decided to make a detour to Lone Elk before heading to the festival.

No elk spotted (although a co-worker who was there the same day saw them), but we definitely saw the bison — they were on both sides of the road, just being bison. (That same co-worker saw none of them — timing is everything!) The shots of them can use some more “digital darkroom” work to get them presentable, but you’ll get the idea. They were large, numerous, and really impressive. It’s hard to believe that their numbers were so great once that the plains were black with them. Why we would annihilate a species like we have the bison is totally lost on me.

I also got some nice landscapes shot. I’m still learning how to shoot with my 17-35mm lens though. I was trying to use my circular polarizer, and the results were mixed, with some nice colors sometimes, and other times not having consistent colors across the blues of the sky. My understanding is that circ-pols work better at right angles to the sun, so I wonder if was transitioning between the “deep blue” and “not so deep blue” as I got the right angle part of the shot at one edge of the frame? Anyway, a mixed bag.

Another thing I continue to suffer from is softness in places using the 17-35mm. I think this is coming from not having the depth of field quite right, and sometimes from doing my own focusing. The focus ring on my lens is very loose, and the difference in focus is not great through the viewfinder (to my feeble eyes). I see the difference in a big way, though, in the final shots when I review them. It’s kinda hard to fix out-of-focus in Photoshop!

We also went to the Fall Festival at Shaw Conservatory. This was a bit of a let down — I guess I was expecting more. A half mile walk to the site from the parking area, only to find some food vendors waaaaaaay overcharging for their food, a few other tents (like for KWMU — our NPR station), and a few sellers of yard ornaments.

However, I did get to walk through the reclaimed prairie, and that was cool. I need to visit again, and shoot a full day there. Pretty, pretty place, and I’m sure much nicer without hundreds and hundreds of folks roaming about.

BTW, we did find Kurt and Kelly…. just as they were leaving. Oh well!

Yet another photo shoot of the sunset…. I do enjoy shooting them.

It looked like it would be a very beautiful one, so Molly, Darla and I loaded up Vlad (the Impala) and went to the Lake. However, things weren’t quite as nice as I’d hoped… just not enough color for my tastes.

However, the weather was nice, and the sunset was nice enough. If only I could get the softness out of my wide angle shots!

In a continuation of working waaaay too much, I got the opportunity to take a look at the sunrise this morning. Very nice, although once again, I shot too darkly. However, it still made for some beauty after working most of the night. Well deserved, I think!

Today, Sio, Darla and I decided to go to the Butterfly House and do some shooting and enjoying the butterflies. Enjoy we did, but shooting wasn’t quite so easy. That place is really humid, and as soon as I pulled out my lenses, the condensation buildup began. It took almost 30 minutes and a ton and attention, but I finally got them settled down and was able to shoot a few. My macro lens was still out being rechipped, so it was plain out long lenses. Ah well!

While driving to the bowling alley tonight, a hot air balloon was drifting past. Once I got to the alley, I got the camera and 100-300mm lens out, and started shooting. Pretty, pretty.

I would love to go up and take a ride in one. The quiet nature of the travel must be amazing. I also love the sound of them as they cruise overhead. What a cool sound as they cut through the air.

This was was particularly nice with a spectral scheme. One day, maybe I’ll make it out to New Mexico for the big race out there.

Our last day in Jamaica. What a crime!

The day started out with an early rise, and packing. For our last day, we were greeted with…. more rain. In fact, this was the earliest storm we had during the whole week.

Our flight didn’t leave until mid-evening, but we were still required to check out by lunchtime. We hauled our bags up to the lobby, hid them in the luggage closet, and hung out for the day, soaking up the last of the ambiance from this wonderful place.

Road Kill Walking

We boarded the bus around 4pm, and set off to Sangster International in Montego Bay. Since we arrived at nighttime, this was our only time to see the countryside between Negril and Montego. I’m still amazed at the livestock that seems to wander the streets at will. It wasn’t unusual to see animals struck on the sides of road either — a little gruesome.

Sangster was not very busy at all… in fact deserted would be a better word (at least compared to last year). The initial luggage check always makes me nervous. Opening my 7-day-old stinky clothes for all the world to see isn’t a big deal, but I’m always a little nervous that someone has placed something in or near my luggage that shouldn’t be there.

Cheeseburger in Paradise

After that, though, we had two hours of sitting around the airport duty free shops. By this time we were starving, so we all dropped by Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville for some big dinner and a cheeseburger in paradise. Good eats, and our last Red Stripe of the trip.

Four hours of flight later, we arrived in St. Louis around midnight. We must’ve been the only flight coming through, and even though the plane was packed, we still made it through customs in about an hour. A taxi ride, and we were home by 2am.

Again, Jamaica didn’t disappoint. Negril is becoming one of my favorite places, and I can’t wait until I can visit again. I know there are other places in the Carribean, but I feel like I’ve been lucky enough to find the best first.

The last full day we spent in Negril was not that much different from the rest: eating, swimming, raining.

We spent time at the beach, with more swimming and snorkelling. I sure enjoyed chasing stuff below the water. Poor flounders — I’m sure I’ll come back as one in the next life!

Wet Fronds

And it wouldn’t be an afternoon in Negril without a big thunderstorm!

Sunset

However, we got one of the only sunsets during our stay. Beautiful, but not as nice as last year. I think next time in Jamaica, I would prefer to go when there’s not so much rain! That really seemed to hamper shooting the sunsets this time.

Dinner was great, as usual. I still don’t see how this place could feed us the way they did. The food is amazing, and plentiful.

Entertainment was playing cards until late in the night, drinking rum and Coke and some goofy mixture of Red Stripe and 151. Good and potent!

Sunrise, waterplay, sunset, dinner, entertainment

Sunrise

I never saw the first sunrise while we were in Negril, but Darla got up early this morning to enjoy it. Unfortunately, she also discovered the bane of photography down there: lenses will fog up at the drop of a hat! Still her shots are pretty of the sun rising over the jungle forest.

Kelly and I snorkelled for quite a while, and discovered a little crab, another flounder and a pretty good size sting ray. He was about 18-24″ across, and was just where the shallows dropped off past the swimming buoy lines. Very cool to see!

What I discovered through all my trials with the Olympus and the underwater camera bag was that I need a different solution for shooting underwater! The bag was just plane uneven in front of the camera lens, and added a lot distortion if it wasn’t pulled tight. I suspect that a camera designed for underwater work — even something like a Canon A60 or A70 with its underwater case — would’ve been better. Live and learn!

Trouble in Paradise

Sunset was amazing! Today brought us our afternoon storms, but they stayed to the north of us, so we had the advantage of a big storm stretching from north to west, and the sunset just south of west. We had two terrific storm related events — a double rainbow and fantastic lightning.

Before we took our trip to Jamaica, I bought a device called a Lightning Trigger from an outfit in Colorado called Stepping Stone Products. I talked with the owner/creator about what the device would do, and had one shipped. I didn’t know if I would get the chance to use it, but figured I’d have it along for the ride. Boy, was that a good move!

I set up, facing north as the sun was setting, which was really lighting up the palms. I set up for shutter priority mode, and set the shutter at a quarter second. I thought there was something wrong with the device, as it started firing the shutter as soon as I plugged it in. What I figured out, though, was that the Lightning Trigger was firing off the lightning from the storm far out to the west off Bloody Bay.

I ended up finding two consecutive shots which I combined for the shot you see here. That lightning bolt lasted for over half a second, and allowed me to get a really, really great shot!

Now That’s a Fire!

What could match that? Well a little fire breathing. We were supposed to have a beach party at the resort, but the rain kept that all at the stage. We sat and watched the entertainment, which included a fire breather. We saw him last year, and it looks like he hasn’t incinerated himself yet! Once again, he was quite fun to watch, but hard to photograph. A lot of contrast between the fire and dark surrounding it.