iPhone fun in Maui

My wife and I recently returned from a weeklong trip over to Maui.  It was fabulous.  I love the place.  My previous visit was over 10 years ago, and ended basically on the first day when I took a stick in the eye.  No, that is not an expression.  I actually took a stick in the eye.  It tore off 75% of my cornea and I wore a patch like a pirate for at least a week.  That sucked.

But, that was 10 years ago and I was eager to return to actually see it for the first time.  It’s beautiful, just like you expect it to be.  And though this was not a “photo trip” for me, I did manage to squeeze in quite a few shots, thanks to my wife being supportive of this passion of mine.

I have already posted a couple of shots from the trip, but thought I would share a quick iPhone post with a few of my iPhone pics from the trip.  I took 320 photos with my iPhone that week, so this is likely the first of several iPhone posts from Maui.  :-) 

Sunset on our first night there...that was a nice welcome to the island!

 

Here’s another view of that sunset from just behind the hotel.

 

Sunrise on my first morning there.  It was easy to get up.  At 3am I was wide awake, thanks to being 5 hours off my normal time zone!  But hey it was obviously worth it!

 

This was on the beach behind our hotel, again on the first night, but before the sunset got all dramatic like in the first shot.

 

I grabbed this one while climbing around those rocks and getting soaked.  But what fun!  As long as the gear stays dry...who really cares?!

 

That’s it for today - thanks for stopping by!

iPhone fun in Panama City

I spent last week in Panama City, Panama - my second trip there in 6 months.  It’s a very interesting city, with all the fancy skyscrapers jutting out of seemingly nowhere, and the absolute poverty surrounding it.  Although I like it, I am not sure what to make of the place.  It’s both rich and poor - vibrant and dirty - busy and calm - beautiful and ugly.  It’s all the good and bad of progress wrapped into one.  Like I said above, it’s very interesting.  I think I will stick with that as a description.

While I haven’t had time to process my Nikon shots (though you can see my previous shots from Panama here), I did want to share a little iPhone summary of some of the sights that I encountered there.

Plus, I haven’t shared an iPhone post in a while, and I like to do so.  I have a huge backlog of iPhone shots, so there’s no time like the present.  Hope you enjoy them!

This is a view down the Cinta Costera, their walkway along Panama Bay...I spent a couple of hours walking here down to their old town known as Casco Viejo.

 

This is just a street scene in Casco Viejo...

 

And this is another one...

 

This is just someone’s cat. :-)

 

This church is beautiful, but old and falling apart.  I loved the altar here....

 

This is some sort of derelict old thing that I just found interesting, especially with the graffti...

 

And of course, no visit to Panama is complete without the Panama Canal.  This was a sunset I shot there, looking out towards the canal.  It was a beautiful evening!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the tour!

iPhone fun in Waco

I drove up to Dallas on Monday this week (from Austin), which means I had to pass through Waco, TX en route.  Waco is not a town I would normally stop in, but I had my camera so I decided to check out their suspension bridge which I had seen pics of online.  It’s pretty awesome! 

I have a thing for bridges anyways, so any excuse to fire some brackets at one works for me.  Of course my iPhone is always with me, so I also grabbed a few quick snaps with it as well.

 

As you can see,  had some pretty exciting clouds in the skies...and maybe I went a little heavy on the processing with Snapseed.  But, that’s half the fun of it, right?  I find with the iPhone I enjoy going past reality on the processing at times.  How about you?

 

When I was leaving the bridge, I took a wrong turn and happened upon a beautiful little church.  So, I ventured in there for some more bracketing and iPhone fun as well.  I left a couple of $ in their collection box, which the sign indicated was for preservation of the mural. Believe me, the mural is awesome and well worth preserving.  Glad I could help!

Thanks for stopping by today!

iPhone fun at The Bellagio

It's Las Vegas!  You're so money, baby!

I spent the first few days of this week in Las Vegas on business, though I did find a little time to get out and shoot, both with the Nikon and of course with my trusty little sidekick, my iPhone.  It has been a couple of weeks since I shared some iPhone pics, so I thought I could give you a little tour of The Bellagio. 

If you want to see all my “iPhone fun” photo posts, you can find them all by clicking here:  http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/blog/category/iphone

The Bellagio is an incredible hotel/casino located right at the heart of The Strip in Las Vegas, NV.  If you ever make it to Las Vegas, be sure and stop into The Bellagio, even if you are staying elsewhere.  It’s just a beautiful property.  It's fun just to walk around and see it all (and take some pics, too!).

One of the most well-known parts of it is the big lagoon out front, which hosts a water fountain show ever day.  It’s pretty awesome, though I was shooting all these pics in the morning (my preferred shooting time, especially in Las Vegas when all the tourists are asleep), so it was relatively calm.

Here’s part of the hotel reflected in their big lagoon out front...

 

This view is sideways across the lagoon, and you can see just the left edge of The Bellagio, then Flamingo, Bally’s and a smidge of Paris on the far right.  I am always looking for still water to get some reflections.

 

As I was walking up to the Bellagio entrance, I looked back and just liked this view.  At this point the Bellagio is behind me, and I am looking out across the lagoon, where you can see the Paris Hotel and the bottom of their Eiffel Tower.  I stayed in Paris this time - pretty cool spot.  And the nutella/banana crepes were fabulous!

 

This is the covered drive-up entry to The Bellagio.  It’s a grand entrance, but being rather busy (even at an early hour) I opted to focus here just on the ceiling, which is beautiful.

 

Once you enter, one of the first things you will see in the lobby is this wonderfully colorful ceiling full of glass done by artist Dale Chihuly.  It’s impressive!

 

I walked through the lobby, and there was a huge display set up for the Chinese New Year which is right around the corner.  It’s the year of the snake...so they had this massive snake on display, along with a bunch of other stuff like flowers, a boat (!) and a Chinese money tree.

 

The shopping in The Bellagio is rather expensive extensive but thankfully the stores were all closed.  I just grabbed this shot of the hallway, as I found it pretty inviting.  So much attention to detail here!

 

Lastly, I walked back to the front of The Bellagio to head out, and stopped to shoot this fountain, with Paris in the background.

 

I edited all these shots with either ProHDR or Camera+, or maybe both.  You can find my mini-reviews of these products here:

ProHDR review: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/prohdr-app-review/

Camera+ review: http://www.nomadicpursuits.com/camera-app-review/

Well, that’s a quick tour of The Bellagio in Las Vegas!  I will be sharing my Nikon pics of this place too, as I find time to process them.  Thanks for having a look!

iPhone fun in Chinatown

Last week was a very busy week for me, and although I spent the entire week in San Francisco, I did not even bring my Nikon.  Nope, just way too busy.  I did catch an hour's break one afternoon though, and decided to take a little iPhone stroll in Chinatown, which was a few short blocks away.

If you have never been to San Francisco, then be sure and put Chinatown on your list for when you do get there.  It's a very interesting place.  Enjoy the tour, and thanks for looking!

This gate sits at the main entrance to Chinatown...

There is a LOT of graffiti to be seen there, if you look in the right places.  Here is some that I found:

There are also quite a few Chinese grocery stores.  They sell lots of interesting food things.

Do some people actually eat starfish?  News to me.

A sign at some store...

In case you haven't noticed...dragons are a big deal here.

And this mural just caught my eye.  I guess Chinatown has been here a while!

Well, that's it for this "iPhone fun" installment!  I have plenty more planned, so keep checking back!

If you ever get to Chinatown, be sure and bring your camera...or at least your iPhone!

Thanks for looking!