Hmmm. It’s rule of thirds…. I think. Having fun too again with Lightroom. Straightened out the water line. I took this image while on a catamaran in the Caribbean and the original was completely irregular. These are my favorite pictures to take. Sailing adventures. I don’t sail well though on a mono-hull like pictured. I like the cats! The picture may also be a bit on the grainy side with more noise than I like because this was taken with my first digital camera; an old Minolta several years ago. This must be in the Nether Antilles near St. Martin or St. Barts.
I’m having a difficult time remembering all that was done with this image because I’ve been playing at backing up all my images to an external hard drive. In doing so the history normally stored in Lightroom has disappeared. From what I recall most of the changes were in the lighting along with decreasing exposure, increasing whites and enhancing the blues. I definitely did some sharpening and a vignette.
Here is the before picture that I wasn’t sure if I would ever use as it was too muted for my taste. This made it an easy choice for my addition to Stacy’s AfterBefore Friday Week 27 Forum. This is a great group to take a look at for ideas and creativity on how you might enhance your images. I know that I for one have learned a bundle of new ideas.
Great vacations for us usually start with a long trip from airport to airport and then a little recovery time. This one was that with a little added exaggeration which I will explain later. We started with a red-eye flight out of Phoenix, connecting at JFK and then arriving in St. Thomas USVI the next day. When this is our flight choice we like to add a one day hotel stay before going on to the catamaran for our sailing trip. It also helps to adjust to the time zones changes… somewhat…
Beach Duck
Marina at the Hotel
Near the Ferry Station
St. Thomas Landmark
Leaving St. Thomas on the Ferry
After arriving at the hotel, we enjoyed a lovely walk along the beaches at our first night hotel in St. Thomas, USVI; the Sapphire Village Resort. The hotel was located higher up on a hill a short walk to the boat docks and the beaches. In the picture of the docks, you can see the Villas in the background. We had a great view of the boat docks, but limited view of the ocean. The room was appointed in typical Caribbean style with bamboo type furniture.
Marina at the Hotel
During our walk along the beach we, of course, came across several beach birds and I, of course, couldn’t resist taking a multitude of shots at the little darlings. This White-cheeked Pintail was begging for food but we didn’t have anything to feed him.
Beach Duck
Staying for one night on the May 23rd at The Sapphire Village which turned out to be a good thing since Gus’ suitcase was nowhere to be found at the airport. Most of that first night was making phone calls, checking email and tracking the bag that the airline lost. Finally, it was located not in JFK New York where it would have been put on a plane to STT (airport code for St. Thomas) to then be delivered to the hotel.
Imaging my surprise to find it was heading to Dubai via Ireland and the next day we were leaving St Thomas to go to Tortola BVI. Then we would be on Festiva Sailings Catamaran island hopping. Just image the airline trying to island hop Gus’ suitcase and catch up with us. I can tell you that would have been a nightmare. So, after calling the airline and explaining Bob Dylan’s Style as in Alice’s Restaurant, the tale of the suitcase, the agent was able to reroute the bag. It arrived the following day just hours before our ferry left to take us to Tortola. And it was not the unnamed airline that found out where it was. It was me. I finally changed my method of search and tracked the bag via our connecting airline. The bag was in Philadelphia ready to go on a flight to SLL (airport code for Dubai).
After convincing the airline agent that if they didn’t get involved the suitcase would have been following us by slow boat as we Island hopped and would probably never catch up. Poor Gus. No swimsuits, no clean shorts of any type. All was not lost though and the bag did finally reach us. It appears that TSA took a look at the bag and it missed the plane. It was then sent back to Phoenix where it was then rerouted using the code SLL instead of STT.
I was so aggravated by the lost suitcase that I can’t even remember much about the hotel. Enough of this ranting, suitcase in hand, we are now on the Ferry and motoring onward to Tortola for a fun and relaxing Catamaran trip with Festiva Sailing.
We were tossing out bread pieces trying to attract fish for the snorkelers but this sneaky fellow got in on the act in a split second and stole off with the goods. This is my first post after returning from the British Virgin Islands aboard the catamaran Sealandia where this seagull stole off with his treasured meal.
I once saw a vivid piece of photo art that captured the Venice canals in all their color and history. Since then I wanted to visit there myself and look for the same spot. I didn’t find where the picture was taken but that didn’t stop me from shutter bugging over 100 images in Venice alone. Even though the days were cloudy the colors still shown through.
Reflections on Venice Canal
To view the full size image click on the SmugMug Logo.
This picture was taken a few years back when we joined my good Canadian friend on her sailboat sailing on Lake Ontario. We spent several days on the lake visiting different destinations such as Niagara on the Lake and other ports. The lake is similar to sailing on the coastal sea close to land since Lake Ontario is the 14th largest lake in the world, 193 miles in length, 53 miles breadth and the water surface is 7340 square miles. I think this particular picture was taken at the Toronto Islands along the shore line nearby the Yacht Club.
Reflections along the boat docks on Lake Coeur d’Alene in northern Idaho are a stunning array as the shades of blue colorize the water. This picture was taken with my first digital camera, a Minolta DiMage, and though I like it would not be suitable for a larger print format due to the limitations of the camera.
KC in AZ Cooks 