Be back in a couple weeks :-) - DPChallenge Forums

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.0G IF-ED

08/02/2010 10:31:01 AM · #51

A yellow wall, and Penny at sea...

jbsmithana

Nikon D300

08/02/2010 11:04:39 AM · #52

I'm glad we are not having a Yellow challenge this week! Or greean,, or red, or orange ...

08/02/2010 11:50:50 AM · #53

It IS pretty funny; what could be less Caribbean than medicine or operator? And so it goes...

R.

08/02/2010 12:27:43 PM · #54

Met this gentleman the other day, skinniest adult human I ever have seen. Seemed healthy, though. He and Yak talked basketball. He gave me permission to shoot this picture...

Click for full size original...

08/02/2010 07:12:21 PM · #55

Cairn at the Baths, and a few TOYz...

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

08/02/2010 07:43:26 PM · #56

One more for the night; tonight's sunset, from Fort Recovery, Tortola. We go back to St. John tomorrow midday, and do not know if we'll have internet there. If not, then 'til we meet again, this is your DPC Caribbean Connection over-and-out :-)

MattO

Nikon D4

08/02/2010 07:51:38 PM · #57

You know for a guy who was gonna be back in a couple weeks, I don't think you ever left. :D

08/03/2010 02:22:11 PM · #58

Originally posted by MattO:

You know for a guy who was gonna be back in a couple weeks, I don't think you ever left. :D

Well, yeah, I did, sorta, kinda. I mean I'm not there, I'm here, and here isn't where I was when I was there, see? Anyway, I was completely neither-here-nor-there from 7/25 to 8/01, when the boat couldn't find a connection.

And now I'm in a villa on the side of a hill on St. John for a few days, and we have everything here, so I'm back here (or is it there? Or elsewhere?)...

Anyway....

R.

ETA: speaking of here-there-elsewhere, here's the view from the villa on St. John...

And the Master Bedroom, hand-held.

Message edited by author 2010-08-03 18:38:57.

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/04/2010 04:48:47 AM · #59

I'm mostly just doing this in my spare moments so I don't have to do it all at once sometime later, LOL. Obviously, hardly anyone's reading this thread. Anyway, here's the ferry from Tortola to St. John, and the kitchen at the villa where we're at now.

pixelpig

Sony Alpha a55

Sony DT 1.8/50mm SAM

08/04/2010 04:58:56 AM · #60

I think lots of people are following this thread, just not posting. I'm in it for the pictures, & I'm very glad you're posting as you go. My drab & dreary life gets a little pick-me-up every time I visit this thread. So, thanks!

Ja-9

Nikon D750

08/04/2010 05:22:13 AM · #61

ahhhh, I'm reading it Robert...wonderful pictures...makes me want to go to the islands...where I've never been before...glad ya'll are having a grand time..

Germaine

Canon EOS-7D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f / 4L IS USM Lens

08/04/2010 05:30:15 AM · #62

Keep those posts coming. I'm living vicariously.

sfalice

Canon PowerShot SX60 HS

08/04/2010 06:02:19 AM · #63

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

I'm mostly just doing this in my spare moments so I don't have to do it all at once sometime later, LOL. Obviously, hardly anyone's reading this thread...
R.

LOL - with 1,164 views for this thread already, you're right, probably

Nobody's reading about your adventures.

jbsmithana

Nikon D300

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 12-24mm f/4.0G IF-ED

08/04/2010 06:55:01 AM · #64

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

speaking of here-there-elsewhere, here's the view from the villa on St. John...

And the Master Bedroom, hand-held.

Some Villa! Looks like we could all stay there.

08/04/2010 07:12:20 AM · #65

View of the pool, the bedroom wing, and the view :-)

Nikon AF Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D

08/04/2010 12:32:25 PM · #66

And here's the pool in the rain...

frisca

Nikon D70

08/04/2010 02:42:28 PM · #67

If I were you, I'd never leave that place!

08/04/2010 05:03:04 PM · #68

We just got in about a half hour ago. I'll post some pictures of my own here tomorrow.

bergiekat

Canon EOS-5D Mark IV

Canon EF 24-70 2.8L II

08/04/2010 05:15:29 PM · #69

What a fabulous adventure! Beautiful photos. Really makes me want to go back. Did you get the opportunity to hit Trunk Bay while on St. John? Loved that beach - breathtaking. But, then the shots you have shared thus far look like it was a magical trip! Glad all are home safe. :)

Looking forward to the pictures!

08/05/2010 04:00:57 AM · #70

I'm getting a fair number of comments regarding whether the colors can really be that bright and saturated. The answer is "Yes, they can!" Here's the original and the processed version of one of the questioned images. As you can see, the colors are pretty much there; the processing is in the area of Topaz painterly effects to block out features a little more strongly, which seems appropriate for these hyper-saturated tropical scenes.

And, Welcome back, yakety-yak :-)

R.

08/06/2010 06:59:39 PM · #71

Finally, I have found some time to sort through some of the images from our trip. I'll post some for now and more over the weekend and next week if it takes me that long. Many of these are straight out of the camera because I would take forever in post processing if I went through my normal workflow. Besides, I think that I got my new camera set pretty well to output decent, basic jpegs that look pretty good except that some of the reds are a little oversaturated.

These are some pics that I shot at Soper's Hole in West End, Tortola about an hour before

Bear_Music and

PennyClick arrived from St. John via ferry.

- - -

and I was first on the draw when we first met in person outside of the customs office at the ferry dock

Does a bear actually swim in the water?

Me and Ramona

and the crew minus me behind the camera

Here are some shots taken at and around The Baths, Virgin Gorda. This is one of my most favorite places in the world.

- - -

This is the view from our first mooring the morning after our first night out -

Ramona went paddleboarding at The Caves on Norman Island, site for the inspiration of the book Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson - - -

- - -

I've got tons more pictures to sort through and process, so I'll put some more time in tomorrow and the next day and the next..............

08/06/2010 07:26:45 PM · #72

Looking good, Yak. And, to answer your question, bears DO swim in the water, although they prefer to be photographed AFTER they get some tan...

R.

08/06/2010 07:53:23 PM · #73

Originally posted by Bear_Music:

Looking good, Yak. And, to answer your question, bears DO swim in the water, although they prefer to be photographed AFTER they get some tan...

R.

Yak's do too. Why do you think that I wore a shirt most of the time, even when I was in the water?

Here's another one that I had to post tonight. This was a bit of fun to take...

How was your trip back home? I was very happy to find that customs has once again established the border in San Juan where there are no lines to deal with. The last couple of times that I visited Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. John, I had to clear customs in Miami. What a freakin' pain that is. Clearing customs in San Juan is a breeze.

08/06/2010 09:02:32 PM · #74

Originally posted by yakatme:

Our trip was fine, albeit lengthy: we left the villa on St. John at 7:20 in the morning, were at the ferry dock at 7:40, and the ferry left for St. Thomas at 8:00. We arrived at St. Thomas about 8:20, then we took a taxi van with some other people clear across the island from Red Hook to Charlotte Amalie, where the airport is. That took the best part of an hour, and got us to the airport 2 hrs and a bit before flight time.

Now, bear in mind that we'd already cleared customs and immigration a few days earlier when we went from Tortola (British territory) to St. John (US Territory). So, much to our surprise, we had to clear customs AGAIN in St. Thomas in order to get ON the plane to Puerto Rico, which of course is also a US territory. Anyway we had to do all that, then hang around for an hour and a half, then hop to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and sit around THERE for 2 hours to catch our flight to Boston.

We finally got to Boston about 6:30, so that's over 11 hours at that point.

Now, from Boston we take a bus to the park & ride lot on Cape Cod, where friends would pick us up. We got on the bus fine, and it filled up big-time. So then the driver, having collected passengers from 3 terminals at Logan Airport, remains at the curb at the third terminal and proceeds to start collecting prepurchased tickets and/or cash from all the passengers, about 45-50 of them. Normally there is an agent to do this as the driver drives, but for some reason not today. So there we are blocking the bus lane at Logan airport (until the trooper made us move down the road a ways) for fully 45 minutes before we hit the road for Cape Cod, so we didn't get to the Cape until 9:30, 14 hours after leaving the villa on St. John.

I did snag a good bottle of blackstrap rum for 11 bucks in San Juan, though :-)

R.