This is the Barron Falls in Queensland, Australia. The fall is most spectacular during January, or the wet season as they call it, but is usually accompanied with rainy weather. When I came here in March, I was surprised to see how well the fall was holding up! I set up for this shot, and the light did the rest; I couldn’t be any happier!
This is a walkway at the Catalonia Royal Tulum resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico. My family and I stayed here for our vacation and we loved it. The weather here is a lot like Southern California, and the beaches are a lot like the ones filmed in Corona’s commercial. I even had trouble bringing my camera out to take photos because I had a hard time keeping myself out of the water! Anyway, after the first two days of crisscrossing this walkway and making up excuses to not take photos, I had to give in when I came across this scene.
P.S. I finally upgraded to the Canon 5D Mark II. This was shot at f4 at 400ISO; noise control is amazing! I have officially retired my Canon T1i, it had served me well! 
My second shot of Tokyo International Forum. This is a multi-purpose building where businesses host events in Japan. Kind of cool don’t you think? I would be totally impressed if Los Angeles has architecture like this for meetings!
This is the Dubuji Boardwalk at Cape Tribulation. We came here during the wet season, a time when rivers would usually flood after heavy rainstorms. We would hide under big leaves whenever we get sporadic rainstorms during the hike. It was fun but semi-miserable. I liked the whole part of taking in the environment and the setting, but knowing that my gears are vulnerable to moisture environments put off my confidence in capturing the essence of the scene.
The Webb Bridge is near the Docklands Park in Melbourne. This was my final stop in Melbourne before flying up to Sydney. Getting here was trouble. I got lost so many times even with a GPS. I didn’t know better though. Webb Bridge wasn’t a point of interest in my GPS, so I had to pinpoint nearby landmarks and make my way there. Eventually I got here, took this shot, and restored my peace.
After visiting Bath, I returned to London for an overnight bus ride to Edinburgh. I arrived at London a lot earlier than I anticipated, so I made another trip to visit Big Ben. It’s very pretty there at night, but for some odd reason the building next to the tower does not light up; so it feels like there is a disconnect between the buildings. Anyway, processing this HDR in color cannot really justify its beauty. After I converted this to a black and white, my inspirations start to boil up!
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is the newest resort on the Vegas Strip. We visited the resort a little after its grand opening in mid-December of 2010. The entrance to this resort is well designed with windows that reflect the city lights all around the area.
Climbing Mount Fuji was an intense experience! But since we started quite early, around 3pm or so, we got to take our time and rest at every station. We even got to the 8th station so early that we were stuck outside freezing our buns off because we didn’t reserve beds at the station (those beds run out quick!). At some point, we considered descending down to the 7th station and return after a couple of hours, but we ended up not doing that because we couldn’t justify the effort to climb back up. We resumed our climb shortly after seeing a trail of flashlights making its way up to the mountain. I took this shot at the 9th station, at a time when this trail was flooded with climbers. It was a beautiful moment. All the climbers had a common goal; to climb to the summit in time to watch the perfect sunrise from that glowing horizon.
This is the front yard of the resort we stayed at in Kuranda, Australia. It is a wonderful resort and it was the best lodging experience we had in this vacation. There was a lot of surprising encounters during our stay. Two of the more remarkable ones were petting a people-friendly Kangaroo that the resort keeps as a pet, and watching an incredible sunset from the resort’s pond. As I was composing for this HDR, I envisioned this to be my life in paradise.
The High Line Park is cool! It is a mile long elevated walking platform that cuts through buildings in Manhattan. I enjoyed walking through the park when I was there; it’s like a quick escape from the busy city life! I was happy to find this vantage point because I think this is a good illustration of how pleasant this place is! Plus, that IAC building on the left really pops!
