Welcome to the Chronicles of
~ the St John Adventures ~
Thursday 6/17/2010
Well, it is our last full day in Paradise! Damn, this week sure went quickly! Not that it is a surprise at all, but it is not a reality you necessarily want to face. It is a pretty day, if not exactly beach weather at the moment
Last night was a fabulous evening! Kerrie made enchilladas which were wonderful. She also made a handmade quacamole that was superb. Jeff handled bar duties, and had a couple of impressive concoctions, as well. Me? I sat back and let them do their thing. I sort of felt bad - I am pretty used to being involved, but this was great! There was a cruise ship headed out to sea last night, and we noticed that there was lightning on the horizon (it was dark at this point). That brought up a conversation of how do you shoot lightning, and that brought out Jeff's Canon Sureshot, which has enough latitude in the manual settings to let us try to shoot some lightning. We sat out there, and almost immediately got a decent shot. But who wants to settle for decent? So Jeff and I are sitting out there, missed a couple of chances due to the slow processing time of his camera, but then got lucky, and took a fabulous lightning strike - well framed, fingers of lightning all over the place, the whole nine yards! I would love to show it to you, but I don't have a card reader for his camera. Thus, Jeff has to email it to me - which I hope he does, since it is probably the best lighning picture I have ever shot! Then we sat down and tried to eat by candlelight, but the wind was strong enough to blow the candles out, even in the hurricanes. It was still a great meal. Then we sat on the loungers watching the stars, the clouds and the lightning - so cool when you can see all that at the same time! When the rains came, we went inside and chatted some more, until it was time to call it a night. Like I said, a great evening! Today, the skies are cloudy, the air filled with the sound of pins being bowled down by giants. The points of the island fall into and out of view, as curtains of rain go by them - but somehow have missed up thus far. Luck being what it is, won't hold out forever, and at some point we'll get wet. It will pass though. We do need to so do some things to get ready for departure tomorrow, and given the weather, who knows if we'll get to the beach. But then, that is why you will have to check back in, and see how our saga continues. In the meantime, let me leave you with images of the coming rains....
Fair winds!
1343 - Drying out at Villa Caribe Well, it definitely does not look like it is going to be a beach day. We have not seen the sun for long today, although it is certainly brighter than it was earlier! In some ways, it does not matter - we have a pool! And we have used it! Jeff & Kerrie were here earlier today, and there was some good news! While I did not have the card reader for CF cards (the "film" in his camera), I did have a cable that fit the usb port that is built into the camera! So I lifted the lightning images from last night, and now I do not have to wait for Jeff to email them to me! Here is the first image we got of lightning last night.
It is not bad, and with some cropping, it would be quite a nice image. And I suppose I would have been pretty happy with it, until we managed to shoot the next one. Now the funny part is that Jeff got used to things happening while the camera was processing the image we had just taken, or just being pointed in the wrong direction. So when this strike happened, he was sure we had missed it, so he grabbed my shoulder and was shaking me in comisery. Of course, I knew that I had hit the shutter a couple of seconds before the strike had happened. My greatest fear was that there would be another strike while he was shaking me, and that the second strike would be this big smear across our already good image, thus ruining the picture. And with the shutter being open for 15 seconds at a time, that was a very real possibility. So I am sitting there going "Don't touch meeeee.....!!!" The girls were falling over themselves laughing about me not wanting to be touched, and the light went off in Jeffs head that we might have caught it. Now, it takes that camera about 10 seconds to process the 15 second exposure, and it was a very long 10 seconds. But Jeff was screaming like a little girl doing a dance when he saw the image flash onto the back of the camera. Here is why:
Yeah, it was a nice shot. I might have a new background for the laptop! I might even have to print it when I get back home. I am glad that I had that cable, and could share it with you. Today, so far we went into town and bought a couple of souveniers for people, and some more of that spice rub for us. We checked out some new shops that we hadn't bothered with before. Then we came back and had lunch - burgers, of course. Now those are almost gone. Knowing that today was going to be a light picture day, I went downstairs to shoot a couple of the "gallery" to show you. You have seen pictures of up here. And that makes sense, since this is pretty much where we spend all of our time. But there are 3 bedrooms downstairs, and there was some careful thought put into those accomodations, too. The bedrooms themselves are nice, but they are not much different from the ones up here. But they reside on a long, wide gallery, which if you didn't have the deck up here, would be pretty nice, complete with a pair of sitting areas.
Obviously, the views from there are pretty nice, too. Just thought I would round out your knowledge of the villa a little. There is one other thing that you guys might be able to help me out with. There is this cactus plant that you see growing all over the place down here.
Is this stuff Blue Agave? The stuff they make tequila out of? If so, the islands might have a new local liquor to make! Anyway, I have made arrangements for our ride from the ferry to the airport tomorrow, and the pelican brigade is swinging by (a group of 3 pelicans that fly on the currents near the villa pretty much every day), so I am going to go and take in the view. I can only hope you are enjoying your day as much as I am mine.
Keep Smiling!!!
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All Images and Accounts of this Adventure are strictly the doings of the Author, and have Nothing to do with the Official Positions or Opinions of Timethief Photography, its affiliated divisions, or anyone associated with the company. If you have any issues with the accounts, how people or places are portrayed, or with any statements of fact, take it up with him! Of course, he'll probably be off on another adventure!
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