Roatan need i say more?

So the next stop on the cruise was Roatan which is in Honduras. Can I just say wow! Roatan was by far my favorite port, I don't know if it was because it was beautiful there at the port or because of the excursion we went on. If you ever find yourself on a cruise and your stopping in Roatan I recommend doing the Gumbalimba park excursion(if it is available). The excursion took most of the day but was definitely worth it.



At the start of the excursion we all got on a bus and drove a good while till we got to the park along the bus ride we learned a little bit more about the island and about where we were going. They told us that we were going to want to rent a locker because when we went on our tour in the park and we got to the money area in the park they might steal our stuff! once we were there it was so beautiful it was full of beautiful plants and flowers I had never seen before and animals too!


The scenery there was so breathtaking it is hard for me to explain in words, everything just felt so tropical and natural I had never been anywhere like it before. The plants life had some that I recognized like hybiscus and palm trees but there were plenty that I didn't know.

 This tree was so spikey I couldn't resist, it made me want to climb it but I'm sure the spikes wouldnt hold me! The palm trees were one of the first thing to greet us when we got there.

Next up is the animals! First lets just talk about how huge the iguanas got over there! They were massive! the orange one was so huge I'm almost sure he couldn't move! Ok he was big not fat but still I think we would have been almost as tall as me well I guess that's not saying much seeing as I am already short! The iguanas would just roam about the park and hang out where ever they pleased and when they go hungry the amazing park people would have the lettuce out for them.

We made our way to the parrot area where we were greeted buy beautiful parrots and we even got to have them sit on your shoulders! We weren't warned ahead of time but apparently the parrots liked taking buttons off of shirts... When the parrot got on my dads shoulder the parrot immediately went for the top button of his shirt! There were a lot of parrots just lounging around so I snapped a couple shots off just so I could show you the beautiful creatures!

The monkeys were so cute! The one above was apparently in timeout because once he hugged you he wouldn't let go for 30 min! That didn't stop him from performing for us! He wanted all the attention in the area so he just made himself know. The monkey to the left was one of the ones that would sit on your shoulders. He was so cute and adorable! This pic was taken in between sitting on peoples shoulders, he posed for just a second before getting back up and begging to be on someone!

So these next two are other animals we encountered, the first one was rabbits! Yes you heard me right, those on the top are rabbits, they looked more like giant rats to me! The picture below it is one of a humming bird not moving his wings! Either the humming bird is lazy or we just got lucky. After we did the park thing we were driven to this resort where we got to go swim in the ocean! This was my first time all cruise in the crystal blue waters. There wasn't much of a difference except for the fact that you could see everything. One of the things that made me laugh was that there they were walking around selling things and the thing he was selling was a skydiving experience that was one dollar to go up and 64 to come back down.


These last couple of shots were from the boat at we were taking off, the water was so clear that you could just see right through it! I will go back one day!

So until next time enjoy!

You better Belize it!

Today I will be showing you some pictures from Belize! For Belize we had to anchor 5 miles away from the city and be taken to the city in small-ish boats like this one on the right. It wasn't that long of a ride but you could definitely feel the water more on this boat. 

While in Belieze we tried some local drinks mine call called a panty dropper I believe and the other one was some blackberry frozen thing.

In Belize we did an excursion to a jungle park where it had a butterfly house full of these owl butterflies, which actually there was about 50 or so there but the guy said that they usually have hundreds but they were attached by ants recently. Among the pictures are a couple other butterflies and flowers from in there.

Over all Belize was a very laid back port for us because the excursion that we went on was very relaxed, we were able to walk around and do whatever we wanted. There was a pool to swim in there where I tragically lost my waterproof camera...to the water... but we wont go there for now...

The water in Belize ranged from pretty to normal for me lol, the closer to the land the water got browner like we have here in the gulf but there was this amazing line where the land dropped off and the beautiful water began. The water ranged from green to blue and all was gorgeous! I've finally gotten all the pics up on my personal Facebook so if you are friends with me which most of you are then you can go check out all the pictures from the trip. Until next week :D

Wait... its... Costa Maya!!!

Thats right! I was in Costa Maya! Last week as you all know I went on a cruise! The first stop of the cruise was in Costa Maya so I figured I would share with you guys the pictures from the trip! These blog posts will mosly be about the land and what we did and less about how I got the pictures but i did shoot manual most of the time unless I handed the camera to someone else to shoot.

First of all can I say the water was so BEAUTIFUL!!! I was so used to the muddy brown water of the Gulf of Mexico that I forgot how pretty everywhere else was! I cant wait to go back and see the water again!

So the first day of the cruise was a whole day at sea but how can I complain when every time I would look out I would see this crystal clear blue water? Since this was my first cruise I honestly didn't know what to expect but it was so much better than anything I could have imagined. When we docked we were greeted with music and dancing it was so cultural and fun! Now the one down side was that there wasn't much of a sandy beach because mostly near the water was rocky not sandy but that didn't stop me from laying out!




I was joined by Pikachu and his little friend HPV (Yes I have giant microbes of STDs all thanks to my best friend lol!) So we laid out in beach chairs soaking up the sun, and don't worry we put sunscreen on!








The next thing I wanted to show you was this guy! He painted pictures with spray paint! Everything the painted was done using spray paint and random things like scrap paper! It was amazing to watch him work he was so fast and it just blew my mind! He was so talented and I am proud to say I have one of his amazing works to hang up in my room so does my mom and my brother!

And lastly one of my favorite things about Costa Maya I got to hold a baby lion! Obviously I didn't take this pic since I am in it but still I had to post it because how often do you get to hold a baby lion! Best part can you guess his name? Yup you guessed it Simba! He was so cute, I felt so bad because he was sleeping but all proceeds went to a good cause helping out the wildlife in Costa Maya.



This was only our first stop on the cruise! As I go through all of the pictures from the other ports I will make some random blog posts so you will probably get another one sometime this weekend from Belize! Also I will have pictures from my cousins wedding on the first day at sea as one of the blog posts as well so keep an eye out!

Families!

So todays blog post is about shooting families! (no not with a gun...) So a couple weeks ago my friends asked me to do pictures of her and her children so we set a time and place and met up. Now children are not the easiest subjects to shoot because half the time they don't want to do it.

When you are working with as many children as I was you are more than likely going to end up getting one or two who don't want to do it. Which is perfectly fine because you just work with it.

Like this shot, he was just sitting there while we were setting up a family shot so i took it real quick because candids are amazing especially in family portraits. Candid shots show the true nature of the family portraits not just sitting and posing, unless thats all your family does...

Yes I did do some posed family pictures and those were fun like the image on the top I had to work facing the sun so when you are facing the sun you have to position yourself just right so you don't get sun flare, also putting on the lens hood helps too. For this image I didn't have to worry about the sun because it was behind me I just had to worry about my shadow being in the picture. There is one of two ways to remove your shadow in a picture like this, you can do it in photoshop or you can back up and zoom in. I backed up because I had the room to back up.

As I mentioned above candid shots are the best, so keep your camera trained on the people you are shooting because you never know what kind of shot you are going to end up with.

So Next week there will not be a blog post because I will be in the middle on the ocean! I will be on a cruise doing pictures of my cousins wedding so I wont have any internet :0 so I will be back in after that with pictures from you guessed it! The cruise! That will probably take up multiple posts because I will most likely post about the wedding and then the excursions separately.