David's Images of the Day Photoblog
Morning view of off-shore oil platforms from the deck of the MV Explorer.
My mother outside of Josefina’s Mexican Cooking Class. When I get a chance I need to post images from the cooking class.
I took this image 2 years ago while driving into Yosemite National Park. I noticed something bright red in my rear view mirror. This was not red flashing lights, but rather something red in the woods. I turned around and found these flowers blooming. I did not know what they were — a plant or fungus. They were later identified as Snow Plants (Sarcodes sanguinea). Although plants, they do not use chlorophyll for photosynthesis, but rather get carbohydrates from coniferous trees via a shared mycorrhizal fungus.
.
One of the more interesting places that Juleo took us in Leon was The Museum of Traditions and Legends. This used to be a prison before the revolution where Juleo spent some time as a teenager.
We had to get up early in order to depart for the Tarrales Bird Watching field trip at 05:30 AM. On the bus ride to Tarrales I got a grab shot of some school girls waiting for the bus to school. A good fraction of the folks on this tour were part of the Road Scholar contingent attending the Enrichment Voyage. As such the average age was higher, and we knew that we would not be hiking as far as we did yesterday to the volcano. Even though we left early, it wasn’t early enough for best bird viewing. Also, my 70-300 mm lens did not have the reach to get good images of the birds we did see. Our guide was good at finding the birds in the canopy. I only have one image of a midget owl, and it is a crop zoomed to 100%. It would have been a bit better if I took my D3x body with double the sensor size vs. the D3s body. I took the D3s because of the better low light capabilities coupled with the 70-300 f/5.6 limits. Jon got some better images with his 400 mm f/4 + TC.
After the Owl, I then switched to my 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens and focused on closer objects. In addition to close-up images of insects and flowers, the 105 mm lens is also great for people. The remainder of the following images are of a small girl in Tarrales, a local jail, a close up of a China Berry, and of a flower with a bee. Then images from the bus ride back to the M/V Explorer. A school girl, Guatemalla mass transit, a coconut vendor with his machete, limes at a produce stand, woman walking past a produce vendor, a cross-eyed guy next to a “Prohibido Estanciona” sign, woman vendor cutting coconut, her son, and several images from an open market produce vendor.
Individual images in the slide show can be viewed and/or purchased here.