weekend getaway

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At any given time, you could have found me with at least 2 different cameras while I was in Turks and Caicos. Since I was not able to swim or do much physical activity, I figured I’d spend my time laying around or capturing images. (Which is an amazing plan if you ask me). So I ended up bringing 4 different cameras on the trip, 5 if you count my iPhone.

  1. Sony A7II
  2. DJI Mavic Pro Drone
  3. GoPro Hero 5 Black
  4. Canon T70 film camera

It may have been a little excessive to have at least 2 cameras on me, but that was the only way I was able to capture everything I wanted without having to go back to our room to get a different camera. But during the day, I loved having the GoPro and Drone. Both of these cameras allow such different perspectives that I’m not used to when just shooting with my Sony.

But to be honest, I’m usually very cautious when flying my drone in front of a lot of people. I know a lot of people don’t like it. It can be noisy and a disturbance so I try my best to only fly when there aren’t as many people around. One morning, Andrew and I woke up early just to fly the drone. It was great because at 6 am we were the only ones on the beach. I was free to fly wherever I wanted. But I do like images with people in it…

So the next morning, I chose to fly around 8 am. There were a few people on the beach but not as many as there would have been if it were later on in the day and I didn’t fly as long as I did the previous day. But it was great because the sun was completely out and the colors in the water were looking amazing. I especially like looking at all the shadows the sun created.

My camera settings for this image is F2.2 at 1/2200th sec and ISO 100 with my DJI Mavic Pro.

All photos available for print and licensing >

I’ve been noticing a trend lately. A trend just between Andrew and I that we’ll agree that we’ll travel somewhere or go somewhere fun and then I have to do all the work. Like pick the travel itinerary, hotel, etc etc etc. But I’m not even mad about it because that means I have full control over everything. LOL. So when we decided we were going to go to New York for his birthday, I was on the hunt for a great hotel.

We used to only stay in Starwood hotels. At one point of time I had so many points on our SPG Preferred Member account that we used to stay in hotels for free all the time. Unfortunately, all those points have gone away so we were debating whether or not we wanted to stay with them this time. We figured staying in a new neighborhood and change of scenery would be nice and let us get to know a different part of New York. So I found this great place in Chinatown for us to stay.

The room was nice and everything but the best part was the rooftop. As soon as we put our stuff down in the room, I grabbed my camera and I was ready to go all the way up. Since the sunset is earlier in the day for winter and it was a cloudy day overall, I knew I had to get up there as soon as possible if I wanted to get a “day time shot”.  The lighting was a bit difficult to work with. I actually re-edited this image 6 or 7 times before I finally came up with something I liked.

My camera settings for this image is F4 at 1/100th sec and ISO 400 with my Sony A7II and 70-200mm zoom lens.