Day 5

Day 5 - "Biker Chic"

My wonderfully patient sister offered up her bike spoke bracelet for day five. For all you women: click here

For the men: I've got nothin

Day 4

Day 4

"You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." - The Dark Knight

Too bad Harvey didn't have these sweet shades!

Day 3

My first attempt at day three was in the form of an outdoor self-portrait, but the winds decided that I should shoot indoors.. so I did! This is the wonderful Kate, and just of camera is the lovely human light stand Megan. These women made day three possible! And just in the nick of time. Stay tuned, more (on time) photographs to come!

Day 2

"So... Will these eggs hatch?" "...Do you see any roosters around here?" "...oh..."

Day 2 of my 365 comes from the Chugach school chicken coop and their mama hen, Cami (who also happens to be my own mama hen!)

I set up a inside of the fenced in coop, shot for a few minutes while being cooed at, got dirty, and emerged (in one piece) with this shot! The chickens are able to stay surprisingly clean, though I can't say the same for my shoes. The gear required a little cleaning, but I am ready for tomorrow's shot!

Project 365 - Day 1

"Are you feelin' lucky, punk?"

This is day one of Project 365, my quest to post one photo each day for a year. It so much more than pressing the shutter once each day, it is about improvement, and having a tangible result at the end of this year to show progress.

With my project comes a theme: each photo will involve off camera lighting. I was inspired to both do a 365 and further my off camera lighting skills from Clark Mishler and Nathaniel Wilder with help from here

Be sure to check in! I'll be posting every day ;)

Beach Vendors, Surfing, and The Bathtub Piña Colada

These star (and one moon) pictures were my attempts at capturing the lunar eclipse on the 22nd. The moon was a beautiful redish orange (which can be seen tinting the sky in the moonless photo) which was quite hard to capture. Seeing as I had no tripod.. or anyway to keep the shutter open... I was stuck with the good old ground and a few rocks for the shutter. Although my patience ran out after a few shots (20min for the top one) they are my first success (maybe) at capturing star trails!

The bathtub Piña Colada

The aftermath of the mud massage

The week in paradise quickly blows by in a blur of beaches, fish tacos, and guacamole. The town of Sayulita is a beautiful one with just the right number of restaurants, surf board rental shops, and naturally.. beach square footage! But every good thing has a darker lining.. and for the beaches in mexico it is the vendors. Untold numbers of them roam the beach trying to sell their wares, to largely no avail, and to the annoyance of the the tourists trying to relax. Though that might be the view of some, for me it was a great opportunity to practice my spanish and take photographs of beautiful and very unique people. The picture above is of a vendor (who's name I cant recall) born in Italy! Some just walk on by, but the ones who strike up a conversation and try to learn a little about you are the ones who win in the end. (we ended up buying two pieces of handmade jewelry from him)

The highlight of my time in Sayulita was not the sand or the tacos or the lavish rental house.. but surfing! Yes, thats right! The waves were great for beginner surfers, and the town was full of board rental shops that offered lessons, but I didn't need them. My uncle (soon to be) Brian is a budding surfer, and he kindly offered lessons for my cousin Laura and I. The water was full of people of all ages learning to surf, and now I was one of them. Alas, as I was the one learning to surf, and without a waterproof camera, there are no photos of us learning to surf! Such a sad tale, hopefully it can be rectified by hunting through others photos.

Shockingly enough, the casa grande did not have internet, so I am posting these photos back in chilly Anchorage while I sift through the thousands from the trip. More to follow! Stay tuned.

¡Vivé estoy bueno en Sayulita, Mexico!

Sun, surf, family, food, and sun! Did I mention sun? Oh yeah, theres just a little of that.

With all the family safely out of the country for a christmas get-together in the land of español, anything can happen.

Lazy day spent on the beach drinking margaritas on the beach? Yup.

How about getting lost in fields of mysterious jungle fruit looking for petroglyphs? Naturally!

The open ended vacation is the best kind, and the Dalton family embraces that to the fullest.

But we like to pad our vacations with large, over the top rental houses and fantastic feasts, all of which have been documented in detail and will be posted for your drooling pleasure!

Sadly, internet is scarce in the small town north of Puerto Vallarta, so this is the first of many Mexico posts, stay tuned!