Happy Easter

Happy Easter everybody. I am not religious but my family still gets together for the big 2. Christmas and Easter and I will be on my way shortly for Easter Dinner and an egg hunt where I will be competing with my 2 year old niece… She’s going down.

Last weekend I painted Easter Eggs with my other niece and nephew. But when I sit down for an afternoon of arts and crafts, I commit. Which is perfect for me because my mother-in-law loves finding elaborate arts and crafts tools every year and the only kid who plays with them is me. In the time it took the rest of my family to dye and decorate 3 dozen eggs, I made two. This is one of them and it’s St. Thomas themed.

 

When my nephew Owen asked me why I was taking so long with one egg I told him that “It’s about quality, not quantity.” He replied with “what’s that?”

I also have a few more shots I’d like to share from our vacation. This one Kara took while I was cleaning the lens.

These are from the ferry ride over to St John for our hiking day.

Last but not least are some of my favorite portraits I’ve ever done. Not because of the result, but because it was an idea that was floating around in my mind for a while now.

Basically Kara and I sat on a small path next to a fairly busy road in St Thomas and set the camera on a tripod. I set the camera for 30 second exposures – meaning you have to sit as still as possible for 30 seconds, and all the headlights going by lit our faces and created really cool strobes behind us as they passed. That’s why our faces are blurred out, it’s impossible to stay perfectly still!

I love coming up with something and testing it out-not knowing how it will turn out!

More from the Virgin Islands

There’s just no pleasing some people. The most common comment I’ve gotten from last night’s post is I didn’t post enough photos. I’m really not holding out over here, this whole blog is just me, sorting through my photos, cherry picking my favorites, and then uploading and writing about them. The whole process takes hours. Plural.

So bitching aside, I realize that people wanting to see more is actually a compliment. And that I created the blog in the first place so I could show my favorite photos to anyone who would take the time to look at them. So this is the conversation I’ve been having in my mind while I was editing tonight. I do appreciate all the comments and views.

Tonight’s first photos are from one of the world’s “10 Prettiest Beaches” – Magen’s Bay in St Thomas. I agree, it’s very pretty.

 

 

This photo was taken by my lovely wife pictured above on the ferry ride over to St John for our hiking day.

 

And here is a hermit crab that I actually took with my iPhone. It’s actually the best photo I got of a hermit crab because my camera was packed away and it was super humid at this section of trail. Just goes to show, good photos can be taken on any equipment.

 

And yes, some awesome editing software helps as well. Here’s another view from the secluded  beach at the end of the trail. Also I have a couple shots of the Rum Mill at the end of the hike.

 

 

 

And finally, the iguana hanging out in front of our hotel.

 

Tomorrow will either be some photos from my baby shoot or even more from the Islands. We’ll see how I’m feeling tomorrow.

Island Vacation

Hey everybody. It’s been a while.

I have some photos to share from my recent vacation to St Thomas last week but I’m feeling very, very tired tonight. I promised myself I’d post something since it’s been so long so let’s just dive right in.

The first photo is from our balcony at our hotel. Down to the right is downtown Charlotte Amalie, the heart of St Thomas.

Here is a beach in St John you can only find by hiking down an old rum-runner’s path. The whole hike is 2.2 mi and 1,000 ft down.

Here is our last beach day in St Thomas, I really wanted to nail that postcard beach photo.

This is one of my favorite shots from the trip looking out from one of the staircases in our hotel. The long afternoon light really added a nice dramatic touch.

That’s all for tonight. I have so much more stuff to post as well as stories and a baby shoot, so stay posted. I have a feeling I’ll be posting a lot this week.