Skip to main content

Day 5 - Trip Wrap Up

We are back from our short trip down to the Florida Keys.  It was a nice little relaxing trip and different from our normal two-week vacations.  This trip was not meticulously planned and was just thrown together a week before the trip, with a very loose list of activities and lounge time.  Unlike our normal vacations, which are planned months in advance and involve detailed itineraries, none of this lounging around stuff.  

The flight back was ok.  But the Miami airport sucks, because of the super long walk from the rental car place to the check-in desk because they are doing construction in the airport.  Also, the waiting areas are super tiny, but that didn’t faze us too much since we hung out in the Delta Sky Club till boarding.   I was unhappy that we arrived at our destination, but our bags did not.  They were put on an earlier flight, but due to weather in DC got delayed by four hours so they arrived at Dulles after us.   We should of just went back to the airport to get the bags, because it took them till almost 11:00 PM to deliver them when they arrived at the airport at 9:00 PM.  I could have had them home by 9:30 PM, if I went and got them.  Really the only major frustration of the trip.

Overall, I would like to do the trip again, but I would like to do it with some friends.  The resort we stayed at has private beach houses, and I think it would be nice to share one with a couple of friends for the week.  Also, sharing a cabana with friends would be nice.  I also would like to see more of the State Parks on Key Largo, they looked nice, but we didn’t go to them except for the snorkeling trip.   

This wasn’t really a photo vacation, so the photos are more snap shots than great landscapes.  But if you want to see some pictures from our trip, you can find them here: Florida Keys. (Galleries are under the map.)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 Year in Review and Looking Forward to 2025

This year felt a little off for me; I think it was because I was in a mental recovery mode.  I finished my graduate program in June and immediately went on a week-long vacation to Palm Springs.  I do not recommend Palm Springs in June; way too hot.  I didn’t realize it at the time, but the graduate program mentally and physically exhausted me, which I think showed in some of my creative work.  But being able to work with great people like Natalie Hanrion , Coralinx Cosplay , and Anastasia B kept me motivated.  While I didn’t attend as many Cosplay Photo Shoot events as in the past, the ones I did attend were helpful in keeping the creativity flowing.  I also took some time this year to reflect on a few things and will be making some changes for 2025. In 2024, I shot 6241 frames, which is a 30-percent decrease from last year.  I edited 3187 frames, which is a 40-percent decrease from 2023.  I think this year, I started focusing on being very min...
Post a Comment
Read more

First Session of 2025 - Queen of Hearts

My first official shoot of 2025 was with Lady Cels on January 4 th , to shoot her Queen of Hearts cosplay based off the NoFlutter Design. For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 2 Phottix Strobe 1 FJ400 Westcott Strobes 60-inch umbrella with sock 1 rectangular soft box 1 bell reflector grids 2 C-stands 1 Platypod Sandbags Backdrop stand Savage Primary Red Spyder Color Checker Card A-clamps   Gold ring wedding altar pieces Playing cards Flowers Styrofoam block Scotch tape     The set up The inspiration for this shoot was obviously the Queen of Hearts, but I took my set design cues from the original NoFlutter drawing.  I wanted to create something similar to the swirls used in the background of the image, so I started looking at wrought iron garden fences and ended up on gold we...
Post a Comment
Read more

Snow Session

On January 9 th , Washu Cosplay and I did a slightly impromptu snow session at Great Falls National Park.   This was possible because of the passing of the Explorers Act which allows photography in a National Park with a model without a permit.   Before you get too excited, the law limits equipment and the size of the party; you are allowed your camera, tripod, and handheld lighting equipment, and the group can be no more than 5 people, which includes the photographer, model, and assistants.   So, there are no big lighting setups or big crews; for big shots, you will still need a permit.      For this session, I used: Photography Equipment Props/Miscellaneous Cannon R6 24-105 mm Lens Transmitter/Trigger 1 speed light 1 light stand     The set up For this shoot I was mixing flash and natural light.  In most cases, my model was partially backlighted by the sun.  Thus, I u...
Post a Comment
Read more