The walk over to paradise...

The day started off as most mornings do close to a court house police sirens blaring loudly over the morning rush hour traffic.  The fact that it was comming from the direction of  the Government House in Nassau pushed me in the opposite direction.  Yes towards the earth shattering sound of cruise ship horns and the smell of sun block. 

Thats just the morning and not really part of the walk over to paradise island.  I was in Nassau to shoot a wedding and the idea was to walk over to the venue for the reception (the Colonial Hylton) for a recce.  Of course things got out of hand... you walk some where do a recce try to find a store to buy a cold Heineken completely miss the liquor store across the road and the next thing you know you're 1½ miles from where you've started on a bridge headed over to the largest hotel in the Caribbean (someone correct me if i'm wrong).

On the way though me and my good friend ( the doomed groom) took in some sites.

Cathedral On George Street

Shoppers on Bay Street

 Lawyers on the way to the Court House

Shoppers on Bay Street

Rum... Heineken... Heineken..Rum ...choices choices...

boats...boats... 

 

Complex by the Paradise Island Bridge

Tunnel On Paradise Island

Funny thing about that tunnel... its below the water level (to allow yatch to pass into the Atlantis Marina)... and I think it leaks.

 Well the rest of images speak for themselves.

And the whole reason for walking over there.... well its my reason and im sticking to it....

Alas if only there were bikini clad models in the background...

Black River and the D's birthday

Andy kept it a secret way into our run up the river.  That is until his son called and gave him the big up he deserved.  Of course we were shocked that our bredren didn't tell us of his big day.   Possibly because of fear. 

There was constant talk of feeding the "white man" to the resident reptiles.  In any case there was no tossing overboard of any tourist well at least on our boat.  So big  up! Andy.

Even without any need of ritual sacrifice to the river gods we were graced with still waters and clear skies.  This was to the dismay of those who wanted a dramatic clouds to compliment the towering mangroves and dense river cane.  

 ISO 400, 1/800 sec @ f6.3

 ISO 400, 1/2000 sec @ f6.3

The day however was young and they eventually got their wish.  Large well defined cumulus clouds rolled in and the sky lit up in brilliant white.  And almost like clockwork so did the river traffic.

ISO 400, 1/640 sec @ f8

 

ISO 400, 1/2000 sec @ f7.1

ISO 400, 1/500 sec @ f7.1

Although i was not shooting with a polarizer i loved the colors.  A colleague shot with one on his lens i'm waiting to see his images.  Having shot with one before i opted to keep it off this time to get stronger relections on the water.

ISO 400, 1/1600 sec @ f6.3

 

ISO 400, 1/2000 sec @ f5

ISO 400, 1/2000 sec @ f7.1

Next  Post:  The walk to Paradise Island

Hiking up to Catherine's Peak... and back down.

The common mistake most people make hiking is wearing thick sweaters, a track suit and slippers.  Funny enough though you can get away with that on Catherine's Peak.  The entire track is paved. Its quite a good  climb of aproximately 1060ft from New Castle.   The surface is more forgiving for city slickers in slippers and their paraphernalia.

  ISO 160, 1/10 sec @ f7.1

   ISO 640, 1/125 sec @ f5.6

 











ISO 640, 1/100 sec @ f8


It's claimed that the peak is named after Catherine Maria Long.  Why a white woman would make the terrible hike back in the 1760 is beyond my reasoning.  Oh did i say terrible, i meant challenging. Every JDF soldier that does the run probably laughs when they read online about the 1.5 hour round trip that i should take a hiker.  It is said that the run for the soldiers takes them 25 minutes to the peak and 9 back down.

 

ISO 640, 1/250 sec @ f8

ISO 640, 1/125 sec @ f5.6

 

ISO 400, 1/000 sec @ f8

Yeah for those who don't know a little spring below the peak feeds into the Catherine's Peak Bottling plant.
Hopefully the activity around Catherine's Peak dosen't affect the water quality, cause you know what they say "never drink from the streams below the coffee line".

ISO 160, 1/160 sec @ f6.3

 ISO 400, 1/1600 sec @ f6.3

First Entry - Fire Works

So I've finally got the ball rolling on this blog thing.  Thanks to Andy and Seymour for the push.  If you're reading this and have not seen my portfolio give a look at it here.

Just back from the Bahamas i had missed Christmas day in jamaica.  Boxing day was spent hiking up to Catherine's Peak (see my second post when it comes).  I had also missed the plane crash and was not feeling to go out to shoot wreckage.  No gore no glory.  Enough photographers have done it and it was getting old.  Probably the reason its called "news" capturing a scene after the fact is just that, just a scene.

Fast forward 5 days and i'm driving out to the palisadoes, friends in tow.  At least this year we  have cups for the champagne.  Gathering the failings of the year before (Gallery here)

 ISO 100, 5 sec @ f8

A steady wind contributed to a little camera shake.  This year i was prepared... 

wireless trigger... removed lens hood ... got to the spot early enough to have a nice stable spot.

ISO 100, 2 sec @ f7.1

Unfortunately the wind was blowing in my direction and the smoke from the fireworks drifted towards the palisadoes.  While some shots were dramatic with the fireworks lighting the smoke, the rest  of the show was better just watched with some friends and champagne (in a cup).

ISO 100, 2 sec @ f7.1