Beautiful British Columbia - Part 5 - Travel Photography

Our adventure with travel photography continues.  Some of what we saw before you can check out in my previous post: Beautiful British Columbia - Part 4 - Travel Photography. We've spent a couple of gorgeous evenings at Chesterman Beach. It is one of only a few places on this end of Vancouver Island (close to Tofino) where you can enjoy a sunset.  It was a bit chilly with a strong wind picking up sand that was showering us mercilessly and I was glad I took both my cameras with me, because I wouldn't dare to change a lens in those conditions. And there was a lot of things to capture and without my 200mm lens I would miss out on a lot of shots.. But even if I was there without them I would still enjoy both evenings a lot. It is so relaxing to walk on a beach, watch other people going on their strolls, listening to the waves crashing around you.  Add to it a beautiful sunset and you are in for a treat! Here is a few shots from both  outings. I hope you enjoy!

Kasia

To be continued..

Beautiful British Columbia - Part 4 - Travel Photography

After a day of hiking around Vancouver (see Beautiful British Columbia - Part 3 - Travel Photography - our visit to Lynn Valley) we've decided to do a bit less walking and took a drive to the Horseshoe Bay to explore it a bit and search for a location for a sunset.  We've stopped at a few places along the way and ended up staying for a few hours on a little rocky beach. Don't ask me where these shots were taken, because after a while I completely lost any idea of where we were.. The tide was still pretty low, when we've arrived and it allowed me to take my macro lens and take a closer look at some barnacles and seaweed as well as the surrounding views.  The unfortunate thing about travel photography is that we can't always wait for a better light, having limited time at a certain location. But even with that in mind, using a bit of a different angle one can manage to get a few lovely shots. Here is a few of those from that outing.. Kasia

To be continued..

Cabo de Gata - As I Saw It.. Part 2

After spending a short time at our first stop at Cabo de Gata (some images from there you can find both in my post Cabo de Gata - As I Saw It.. and Mac's post  Cabo De Gata and more Fuji X-Pro Landscapes) and taking some more shots of plant life as well as views of surrounding cliffs and rocks we've decided to try and find a way to get to some of the interesting rock formations we have noticed from the hight of the cliff down by the sea.

So here we were, travelling the narrow roads in search of views and experiences.  Looking for more places to visit and things to see. At some point we have spotted a trail leading down to a little beach and we've followed it to the end.  The land was very ragged there. Sharp volcanic rock eroded into fantastic shapes and the colours of it varied greatly as if Mother Earth decided to enhance the design of the vista some more.. As if it was not pretty enough ;) And all this surrounded by the bluest waters ever!!

Well, of course I was still trying to catch the best wave so took a few more shots of that  ;)

as well as tried to capture some of the strange rocks that erode into "bricks" giveing people a chance to leave some mark behind, saying that they were there and appreciated the beauty of this place..

And than it was time to say good-bye to Capo de Gata and take the road back to Almerimar to spend the last moments enjoying this lovely, lovely place before we started to head back to Madrid...

Kasia

And now for something completely different: Dragonfly

The other day when I was coming back from work, I've noticed something large sitting on our window sill outside.  It was quite still, and didn't even move when I got closer.  It was a huge dragonfly.  I always wanted to catch one, and this proved to be a great opportunity.  It was sitting motionless for a long time, so I managed to grab my seldom used macro lens and the camera of course, and had a mini photo session.  One thing I've noticed that the dragonfly did not want to smile or pose.  It just sat there.  I tried telling jokes and asking nicely to move this way or that.  It all fell on def ears.  I apologize for no smiles and no posing, but still the dragonfly was kind enough to allow me to take some portraits of it, before it got tired and flew away. Enjoy.

Las Vegas

We had an opportunity to visit Las Vegas for 4 days with my company. It was a wonderful trip albeit very tiring. One thing I have to say, it's not a city to take small kids to. There is lots of walking involved if you want to visit all the sites, or you have tons of money then you can cab it. I did some photos of the strip, but they your typical snaps, which are not really worth mentioning, since everyone seen Las Vegas strip many many time. The photos I want to present were taken on a car trip to Valley of Fire and Hoover Dam. We rented a car for a day picked a few interesting tourist spots and went on our way. This was the time when I was kicking myself for not taking my proper camera. The photos were taken with my Leica D-Lux 3. It's a nice small point and shoot style camera that actually captures RAW images. But I'm not going to do a review of it, since you can find it all over the internet. Back to the trip. First we visited Valley of Fire.

It is a park situated about 40 minutes out of Las Vegas. I would assume they called it Valley of Fire is because this whole desert valley, surrounded by very old mountains, has these red/orange rock formations thrown all over it. All these rock formations have been carved by water.

It's definitely a place I could have spent more time on. But time was short, so we had to press on. On to the Hoover Dam. The scenery on the way was absolutely breath taking. The total emptiness of the desert and the mountains is just humbling.

Hoover Dam was another amazing site. The sheer size of the structure, just wow.

The rest of the photos can be found here. We got back monday morning at about 3:30. I would love to visit these places again with more time and a proper camera. Maybe someday.