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ON FIRE

9/7/2016

That night I couldn't sleep, I was tossing and turning. At around 4:20 am decided to get out of bed, walked into the bathroom and brushed my teeth. It was my day off and I wanted to sleep in so bad!

So I brewed my self a cup of joe and grabbed my camera gear and went on a short 10 minute drive to this spot to watch the sunrise. At first, it started out really normal but suddenly, everything changed. I rushed out of the car a looked for a simple composition to capture the sky on fire. What a great reward for not getting my sleep, enjoy!!!

On Fire

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GEAR LINE UP FOR ICELAND TRIP

9/5/2016

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As I write this post the day for my trip to Iceland is fast approaching. So, in preparation I took all my photography gear out and cleaned it all. All memory cards were formatted and tested as well as all the cameras. My tripods were lubed and inspected for proper functionality. You can never be too prepared!

For this trip I'm not taking any chances---I have a back up plan for everything. I can't afford to miss a shot due to equipment malfunction, so I'm taking everything with me. I'm also taking three external hard drives to transfer the pictures from the memory cards into them. You might be asking yourself: why three? Well---after having lost a lot of pictures due to faulty hard drives, I'm just being really cautious and a bit paranioc about safeguarding my images once the leave the camera.

Make sure to visit my social pages frequently as I'll be posting more updates over there. See ya'll soon and happy shooting!

Gear Line Up for Iceland Trip

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NEW TRIPOD SETUP

8/27/2016

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In preparation for my upcoming photo trips I decided that it was time for a new tripod/head setup. Did quite a lot of reasearch and decided not to get a mortgage in order to obtain a sturdy and reliable combination. I found a great deal on an used Induro AT-313 aluminum alloy tripod (now discontinued) for only $120!!! This tripod is a beast and weights like one too, but for the price, quality of build and sturdy shooting platform it is, IMHO, a great piece of equipment. Next, I bought a RRS BH-40 Ballhead (yes I know, IT IS EXPENSIVE!) but hey, with they money I save by buying an used tripod I could afford this ball head.

I'll be doing a review later down the road to share my thoughts and experiences with this new set up. Stay tuned and happy shooting!

New Tripod Setup

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PLANNING A TRIP TO ICELAND

8/16/2016

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Finnaly, my wife and I decided to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the World...Iceland. The decision was really easy to take, but the logistics of the trip...well, that's been a little bit more challenging. We wanted it to be memorable and would like to pack everyday with fun filled activities as well as the must do's of Iceland.

So, the tedious research process started. We got onto Google and a plethora of results showed up in my screen. There are many travel agencies that offer tailored holiday packages to visit Iceland. After narrowing the list to the top three contenders...the email saga started. I had a list of crucial questions that were asked to all the companies. After a lot of back and forth, taking into consideration factors such as, budget, quality of services offered, variety of tours , activities and, of course, Trip Advisor reviews, we chose Nordic Visitor as our travel agent in Iceland.

Nordic Visitor assigned us our own travel agent that was in charge of helping us plan the perfect holiday in Iceland. The personalized service was one of the factors we took into consideration because we had the same person answering our questions, not a scripted answer, if you know what I mean. We decided to book the 10 day self drive tour around the whole country, woohoo!!! Our tour included a compact car with 1GB of in car WiFi (perfect for sharing our vacations on Facebook), use of a GPS, hotel room for 9 nights, a cell phone for local use and 24/7 service just in case we needed it.

If you would like to follow us during this adventure, check out my Facebook and Instagram pages as I'll be posting regular updates there.

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LAUGHING GULL

8/15/2016

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While on vacations I had the opportunity to photograph birds. As you already know, I went on my fourth Caribbean cruise on board the Carnival Fascination. While docked in St. Thomas, a big flock of Laughing Gulls were flying around looking for a treat from the ship passengers. They're really confortable with humans as they're pretty accustomed to our presence.

I took advantage of that and got really close to them, snapping a couple of pictures like this one. One note...this birds are really agressive when it come to food! Cruise ship employees advised some of the passengers not to feed them due to a recent incident in wich one of this birds attacked a passenger. I guess I was lucky...enjoy!!!