Smoky Sunrise

With an offshore breeze the smoke from the Rocky Fire has been filling the coastal valleys the past couple of days. This has made for some pretty spectacular sunrises. Here is this mornings sunrise from over the Mendocino Range. God bless, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a Tamron 150 - 600mm lens.

Entrepreneurial Costa Ricans

The Costa Rican government has made a shift into focusing the countries efforts into education and tourism. The Tamarindo area where we stayed caters to tourists. Because of this we met a lot of people that have jobs that are directly tied to the tourist trade. We had Hugo a chef who runs Private Chef of Costa Rica. He prepared us some amazing meals when we stayed at Hacienda Panilla. If you ever go to to Costa Rica look into hiring him to prepare some meals for you. He is on Facebook. They were delicious and the price was in line with restaurants in the area. Part of our group hired Pablo to take them on a surfing safari. He was a former Peruvian big wave surfer who now makes a living taking surfers on tours along the Cost Rican coast. On one of our morning walks we ran into Coco. Coco was a Panamanian that makes artistic creations out of coconut leaves. He was making a hat that he said was going to pay for his breakfast. He made us a flower and a grasshopper. When I gave him some cash for it he responded that it would be used to buy him bread for his lunch. Later on we met Isabelle who was a morning fixture for many people in Tamarindo. She makes corn tortilla empanadas that are a hit for everyone. She sets up her stand beside the road selling nonstop to tourists and Cost Ricans alike. For lunch one day we purchased shish kabobs hot off the grill from a family that has a roadside bbq right on the road next to the beach. We took a tour of the Tamarindo estuary with the salty Gerardo who pointed out a crocodillo and a wide variety of birds. He runs a variety of tours with some business partners. We also met Marvin who sells leeche fruits for five dollars a kilo beside the road. He showed us how to plunge our thumbs into the top of the fruit to peel it back to get at the sweet nugget of fruit inside. One of the most common sights and sounds of Tamarindo are the bird whistle sellers. You can hear and see them warbling with there wares on both the beaches and streets of the town. We bought whistles from Francisco and a woman. They were great to talk to. All of the Costa Ricans we met were extremely helpful and friendly. What a wonderful country.

My Only Take on Costa Rican Amphibians

I was really looking forward to photographing frogs when I was in Costa Rica. I'm always seeing these images of these fascinating glass frogs and other cool things. I was a bit disappointed when we had to cancel our trip to the rainforest where they are found. We realized it was going to be a long, long bus ride to the rain forest so we canceled. The day we would have done it I caught a really cool looking little guy next to the pool in the morning and I posed him on a branch to photograph him or her. It was similar to the Pacific Chorus Frogs we have in Mendocino County except it was quite large about quadruple the size. When I asked the maintenance guy at the villa where we were staying what it was called he told me it was a Garande Frog or is it a toad. I'm not too sure.... God bless, chris Image created with a Canon 7D

Howler Monkeys

As many of you know that follow my photoblog I love to photograph small mammals. The Mantled Howler Monkeys of Costa Rica were no exception. In researching where we were staying I had found that there were many howlers to be found. The first morning I was up bright and early in search of them. About a mile from where we were staying I spotted a group of them crossing high above the road on what looked to be a cable tv line. Later I found out that this is actually nylon webbing put up at frequent road crossings to prevent them from being hit by cars. This turned out to be both a challenging and a great spot to photograph them. They were almost always either backlit or hidden in the trees eating mangoes. They used the telephone lines as a highway and later when we stayed at a hotel in Tamarindo I found that they used the roof tops as a means of travel as well. The mothers with babies were really cute. I must say that they were one of the high lights of our trip. God's love and blessings to all, chris All images created with a handheld Canon 7D and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. Exposures and settings varied. #TeamCanon,

Family Vacation

It has been a long time since our family went on an extended vacation together. With the kids in college and working summer jobs it gets a little bit harder to pull something together. When my brother in law suggested a trip to Costa Rica we jumped at the chance. After a bit of wrangling we pulled the trip together. We flew into Liberia Costa Rica. There we rented a small Suzuki Jimmy. It was a tight fit that barely squeezed all four of us and all of our luggage for the hour and fifteen minute long trip to Hacienda Panilla near Tamarindo on the Pacific Ocean. What was supposed to be a short journey got extended when we missed a turn making it quite a bit longer. With the longer trip we got a good look at the Guanacaste Region. The region was made up of low mountains with a lot of small ranches and a few beautiful streams flowing through. Interspersed through out the mountains were flat lowlands with pastures full of Brahma cows. Costa Rican houses were scattered along the narrow two lane highways that have no shoulders. Almost all had a dish or two on each one. I loved the color bright colors and the flowers planted around them. Arriving at Hacienda Panilla we were directed to the house we had rented with three other families. What an amazing place! It was a Spanish Style Villa with courtyards and patios. A much higher standard than I am used to when I am out taking pictures. I usually opt for a motel six! It didn't take us long to settle in and hit the beach. More to follow. God's blessings to all, chris

Prayers Needed

Greetings to all from California. I have been offline for a couple of weeks vacationing with my family in Costa Rica. While we were there we received news of the the devastating fires in California. We are all safe but the people who have lost their homes and the firefighters need your prayers. Here is our view of the smoky sunrise from our house this morning over the Mendocino Range to the east. God bless, chris

Angel's Breath in the Morning

This morning the fog has been drifting back and forth across the ridge top where I live. Whenever I see this I know it will make for great photography. I grabbed my camera and walked down our foggy road looking for images and I found some really nice ones of the crepuscular rays beaming into the forest. Crepuscular rays is just a fancy name for sun beams or as we like to call them, Angel's Breath. Crepuscular rays are caused by the scattering of light in sunlit areas from water droplets (fog), dust or other fine particles in the air. Whatever you want to call them they are pretty cool and make for some beautiful images of the forest. All images were created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 17-85mm lens. The exposures varied. May you have a blessed day, chris #TeamCanon,#canonbringit