Costa Rica Trip Report

Here is the first installment in my photographic report of Costa Rica 2014. 

Location 1 was Playa Flamingo, Guanacaste Costa Rica.  (Flamingo Beach). 

Getting to Flamingo Beach we first flew into San Jose, the capitol of Costa Rica.  On our way down we saw a few volcanoes somewhere in central america from our airplane. 

And some cool cloud formations at sunset. 

We spent one night in San Jose, then the next morning we went back to the airport.  on our way back we stopped for a photo in front of the San Jose Temple. 

Once at the airport, we boarded a plane to fly to Tamarindo, which is not far from Flamingo Beach. The plane only had 20 seats, so it was a pretty fun ride. 

The plane also only flew at about 8,000ft, so we got a pretty good view of the landscape when we weren't in the clouds.

Once we got to Tamarindo, we got into a taxi and went to our hotel.  We were on the first floor, so we had a small patio with a hammock on it. 

Right as we stepped out onto our patio, we were greeted by this large iguana.  It hung out near our room the whole time we were there. 

We spent our time walking up and down the beach. 

The beach had a lot of small snails that would burry themselves under the sand as the waves came in.

We also took a boat ride and got to snorkel. 

We went back to shore as the sun was setting.  

I enjoyed the wind in my hair.

The rest of the shots are my favorite landscapes from the couple of days on the beach. 

Costa Rica Preview

In the coming days I will post photos from our trip chronologically, but for now here is one shot from the morning we left to come home.  

Volcan Arenal from hotel El Silencio del Campo 

fun with balloons

so we put water and food coloring in some balloons

we threw some

 some broke

some bounced

then we slashed some with a screwdriver

which was really cool

20 shot bursts at 60 frames per second

Nikon 1

More High Key Trials

I've been trying to play around with my settings to improve the high key portraits. Isaac's a good sport but only has patience for a few pics. I think I am just starting to get the hang of it.....

Ice is Crazy

So we had a very cold January. The lake was frozen solid. Then the last half of February was pretty warm. The ice started to melt. That's when things get crazy. When the ice melts there are all these huge sheets of ice just floating around in the lake. Then, the wind and the current pushes them all to this side of the lake. When they get here they crash into the shore, sometimes pushing sheets of ice dozens of feet up onto the banks (bringing broken off pieces of the shoreline with them) or they just crash and build up into these huge piles of crushed ice. No kidding, many of them are over 8 feet tall. Then as the sheets that are still in the water slow down they are left with all these crazy cracks and formations. It is really wild.