Off to the beach

10:35am - Water photography's been a challenge for me.  I have my ND filters now, polarizer, tripod, and stepping down the camera, but still get washed out white for things like waterfalls.  I'm off to the beach today (bare feet, yay!), so will try to over- and underespose some photos in efforts to merge them into HDR images after.  Below are some samples.  I like the vivid colours.

9:50pm - Today was a great day!  I challenged myself to get up when the first alarm went off, so was up a few hours earlier than I have been these past few days.  I went to the grocery store to stock up on healthy lunch and off we were.  My mom's been doing well for the last week, so we've been sightseeing like crazy tourists.  Earlier in the week it was Johnston Canyon, although we never reached the canyon.  There, however, she had walked about 400m each way, which was a huge improvement for her breathing. 

So today started off early as we had a big not-so-local day ahead of us.  Leaving town was great, so the first place we hit was Miami Beach.  The water there was calmer than I had expected.  Apparently a lot of kayaking (and canoe?) racing/training stuff goes on there, and we were lucky to see a lot of guys gearing up in the parking lot.  In the water, however, I only saw one guy practicing.  In the nearby meadow, younger groups were partying.  Lots of booze around the water as well.  After scoping out the reacecourse, it we were off for a few hours at the beach.  This was a big unexpected thing for me.  I love feeling the sand between my feet, and I sure would not have expected to feel it this summer!  We caught up, did lots of talking, and just enjoyed being out in the sun.  The evening was wrapped up with real German pancakes (potato, not like the breakfast variety).

As for the pictures, I think I need to sign up for some photographer workshop one of these days.  Water is difficult to photograph!  I took about ten different shots of several scenes, and still don't have anything I'm very happy with.  Below are a couple of touristy shots.

Just north of Miami Beach

Soft sand

Tomorrow I'm getting a small tattoo.  I still haven't decided exactly where yet - small of my back or ankle?  I'm also going through one of those times again where I'm debating a pierced nose.  I keep deciding against it to not have a screw and post inside there, which I think would feel funny.  Or belly?  Rebel new me?