A visit to Salt Lake City

Last July I went to Utah for work, I had to spend the weekend there, so I decided to go to Salt Lake City and make a walking tour with my camera through South Temple Street to Temple Square. There are really cool buildings, churches and houses, so it is a great place for pictures. Also, there are a lot of trees, so it is a nice walk.

These are some of my favorite pictures from that day, I hope you enjoy them.











































Utah has a lot of natural attractions, great national parks, places for outdoor activities, etc., but if you visit Utah, don't forget to visit the city as well, specially Temple Square.

If you want to see the whole set in Flickr go here.

Manuel Antonio - A real paradise

A few days ago my husband and I went on vacation to Manuel Antonio, Quepos for four days. Our idea was to spend as much time as possible inside the Manuel Antonio National Park, mainly because this park is so incredibly beautiful that just by watching the ocean you relax a lot and that's what we needed, rest.

We got to Manuel Antonio on Thursday afternoon, we checked in the hotel and went to the beach to watch the sunset, it was amazing, I got to take a lot of pictures of it, there were some people with big cameras there too trying to catch that awesome moment. It was perfect, there were not so many clouds, there were not so many people on the beach, it was great. Even the colors of the sky after the sun was completely down were amazing.









The next day we got up early, had breakfast and headed to the park, it was Friday and there were a lot of tourist trying to get in. We were all set up with a cooler with cold water, fruits and sandwiches so we didn't have to go out of the park for lunch, we didn't want to leave that place, it is paradise.

In this park you get to see a lot of monkeys, raccoons, birds and different types of animals, this plus the beach, the ocean, the trees, the palms, etc. makes it a paradise for a photographer, so of course I took advantage of that and took hundreds of pictures, many of them of monkeys, they get really close when looking for food, they are cute and funny so they are great subjects for photos.

Last year I went for a day to Manuel Antonio and I got to take several pictures of the monkeys with my new camera, but a lot of them didn't come out right, it was a challenge because the monkeys are usually in the trees where there are not a lot of light, they tend to move really fast sometimes and but mainly because I wasn't used to my new camera yet so some of the photos were out of focus, underexposed, overexposed, things like that, so this time it was my chance to practice and I did, everyday I went there looking for monkeys to photograph, at the end I took more than a hundred pictures just of monkeys.



Monkeys are always running around in the park looking for food, they come and go all day. One day there was a family eating mangos and the monkeys came, so they started sharing pieces of the mango with the monkeys, but then they stopped, so one of the monkeys tired of waiting for another piece run really fast, grabbed a bag with a big mango in it and took off, on the way he dropped the bag and run with the mango, it was hilarious.





After running around looking for food they stop in trees and take a nap, usually in trees that are far from the trails so people don't bother them.



They also like to groom each other, "I scratch your back and you scratch mine" kind of thing.





I like to relax on the beach but I definitely have a lot of fun when the monkeys pass by running around.



I love this park, I love it because besides it is a natural paradise it is kept clean and well organized. In order to get inside the park everybody has to buy a ticket that is valid for the whole day. Inside the park you will find clean water, trash bins, toilets, showers and trails so there is everything you need to stay there the whole day. No alcohol is allowed which is great because that avoid many problems from happening. People go to the park to swim, get a tan, take pictures, relax and read, lots of people reading.







Besides all the obvious natural beauties I already mentioned, I took the time to photograph other things that caught my attention. Some of them are really small others are just old leaves or broken tree branches that some people might think are not too attractive, but they were interesting to me.









Manuel Antonio is a great place to visit, not only because it has this beautiful park but because they have that wonderful beach that is one of the cleanest beach in the country. Even though the town has grown a lot with lots of hotels they have managed to keep it "green" trying to preserve a lot of the rainforest, keeping the streets without trash as much as day can. A cousin of mine who lives and works there told me that when a big hotel is being built they do what they can to prevent them from cutting a lot of trees and to protect natural resources, also all the hotels are organized to send teams to the beach to pick up the garbage and keep it clean, they have free Wifi in almost all the hotels, looks like a very well-organized community.



If you want to see some more pictures I took during this trip, go to my Flickr account and check the Manuel Antonio 2011 set.

Photography class: Assignment 7 - Portraits

The assignment for this week was about portraits, we had a basic class about the different types of portraits and a few techniques, not a lot because portraits is a course in itself, so this assignment was to have a brief idea of how to take portraits. The assignment was to take 2 portraits of somebody else and this person was supposed to be posing for the camera, also I had to take another 2 portraits but in this case the person didn't have to pose, it has to be spontaneous so we can capture the person expresion without being influenced by the fact that a picture was being taken of them and lastly I had to take to self-portraits to get used to see myself in the other end.

Posing for the camera


This is a picture of my sister, posing in her garden with her orchids, which she loves. I took it in a cloudy day, no flash no other tools used.

Posing for the camera


My sister again in a different pose, similar settings.

Spontaneous


This picture was taken in the office with some good light coming from the window, again no flash used.

Spontaneous


This is from inside the office as well, lot of light from the window, no flash used. Made it black and white to hide a bit all the light that comes from the window in the top right corner of the photo.

Me


I took this inside my house, in my bedroom to be exact, during the night, I used a mirror and the external camera flash.

Me again


Same here, however since the position is different the flash created an effect that could make you think I took this one in the afternoon with sunlight coming through the window.

With this assignment I learned that portraits are hard, you need to get the light right so you can show people how they really are, self-portraits are harder, you have to be very creative to get a good photo. At end as usual it all comes to practice, patience and to be creative and most importantly to have fun.

I had my last class this week and this was my last assignment, the whole course and every assignment were very interesting, I learned a lot and now I am off to practice everything I learn.

I am going to be sharing all my photos in my Flickr account in case you want to follow me there and check on what I am up to in terms of photography.

La Paz Waterfalls and Gardens - 2 years after the earthquake

Two years ago there was an earthquake of 6.2 in the Richter scale in the area of Poas Alajuela, Costa Rica. It was very devastating, a lot of people lost their houses, their businesses and many lost their families or their lives. The roads were very affected, in some of them is still not possible to drive, others are open but with areas that only 4x4 cars can go through.

The area of Poas is visited by many tourist during the year, local and foreign, because Poas offers a lot of beautiful natural attractions like the Poas volcano, La Paz waterfalls, the rain forest and many more. However, after the earthquake people in this are have been struggling because the amount of tourist visiting the area has diminished a lot which affected their businesses.

Since before the earthquake my husband and I have been wanting to go to La Paz Waterfalls, but then the earthquake happened, we heard that a lot of the roads to get there were not safe, we didn't know the state of the place, etc. However, this year I am taking a photography class, so I said to my husband "this is the perfect excuse, let's go there, it is time and I know I can take a lot of beautiful pictures there, plus it is summer, let's go!", so we called and I made sure the road was safe to go and gathered a group of other friends who happen to be photographers aficionados as well and made the trip last Saturday. It took us like an hour and a half to get there, we took the road that goes through Barva and Vara Blanca and made it safely. Part of the road was really crappy but nothing terrible, if you have a 4x4 though. It was really impressive to think that after two years those roads are not fixed yet, specially since this is an area that depends a lot on tourism, what kind of government we have?

Anyway, we got there, it was foggy and a bit cold but in a few minutes we were off to see all the different and amazing things they have like butterflies, hummingbirds, orchids, monkeys, different types of birds, jungle cats, frogs, snakes and the amazing waterfalls.

I am not going to say more about how beautiful this place is, I am just going to show you some of the pictures I took so you can see the beauty of this place yourself.































It was interesting that when I presented one of my waterfalls pictures in my photography class my teacher thought it was taken before the earthquake, I had to say that it wasn't, that I took it last Saturday, he was amazed of how well the place looked, how well it has recovered. Also a classmate said that I was very brave for going there, which was a comment that made me think on how much people are still afraid of an earthquake that happened two years ago and how they think the area is not a nice place to visit anymore, I can see how that affects the local tourism and that shouldn't be, maybe the government, the Institute of Tourism should make sure that people are informed and help promote these areas as safe and beautiful places to visit.

Because of this is why I decided to write this post, to show the world that you can go to La Paz Waterfalls and to Poas and have a great time in such a beautiful place. Don't be afraid, just go and don't forget your camera!

If you want to see all my pictures that I took that day go to my Flickr account.