Been Cruisin'

sm4him · Jun 11, 2014

I know you all missed me terribly last week. :lol:

I went on a seven-day cruise to the Bahamas--Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay (my favorite place on the planet, so far) and Nassau. All places I'd been before, but this was a longer cruise, and I went with my best friend and her family.

The trip could not have come at a better timeor at a worse time. Some of you read my thread about my good friend who drowned on Memorial Day. Neither I nor my best friend really wanted to be gone for a week when our other friend (the wife of the one who drowned) would need us so desperately--but on the other hand, we both knew that there would be others who could be there for her, and perhaps this time away would help us be more prepared to minister to her when we got back.

We DID have a spectacular time. We did nothing except eat, sit by the pool, swim, eat, drink, sit on the beach, eat, drink, read, sit by the poolsleep for a few hours and repeat the process. It was awesome.

I really didn't take that many pictures at all. I think my heart just wasn't in it, and I needed the rest more than I needed to be constantly looking for photo ops. I did take quite a few pictures of the people I was with, just not of scenery, beaches, etc. I'd even bought a VND filter and a travel tripod specifically to use on this trip--never even considered using either of them the entire week.

Anyway, here's just a taste of the trip. None of these are spectacular photos, just a glimpse at where I've been.

1. Half Moon Cay
This is my second trip to this little island and it is seriously the most beautiful beach spot I've ever been to in my life. The "main" beach area is owned by Royal Caribbean--the rest of the island is actually a bird refuge. I'd hoped to go birding here, and even brought my Sigma 150-500 with me just for this spot. But in the end, I only ended up with about 45 minutes to myself--I did take a short walk along the nature trail (and will post a few pics in another thread), but saw very little of real interest in the way of birds. I'd love to go back sometime and have more time for photography here.

HalfMoonCay_0772editweb by sm4him, on Flickr
I *swear* I straightened this picture. However, I can't promise that I wasn't drinking margaritas at the time.

2. Docking At Grand Turk

GrandTurk_0293editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

3. My Next Home

Nassau_0960editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

4. Lighthouse at Nassau

Nassau_0958editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

5. The Colors of Nassau

Nassau_0916editweb by sm4him, on Flickr

Not too much point in a lot of C&C on these, but general comments and witty banter are certainly still welcome!

oldhippy · Jun 11, 2014

Nice set sharon, looking forward to seeing more. Love HMC and Grand Turk . Been there on carnival a few times. Thanks for posting. Ed

mmaria · Jun 11, 2014

I know you don't really want to hear about pictures and how the scenery looks amazing and how we all envy you... you just want to hear that

baturn · Jun 11, 2014

What mmaria said!

PropilotBW · Jun 11, 2014

Nassau is certainly a beautiful place! I like your shot of the lighthouse.

sm4him · Jun 12, 2014

Thanks all!

mmaria said:
I know you don't really want to hear about pictures and how the scenery looks amazing and how we all envy you... you just want to hear that

Aww…:hug::thanks!
You're right, of course, I care more about being missed when I'm gone than how much you like my pictures. :lol:

Although, I'm okay with knowing you envy me too… :lmao:
Heck, now that I'm back, *I* envy me…I wish I could do that about once every 3 months!! And all winter…

DarkShadow · Jun 12, 2014

Welcome Back stranger.Actually I did miss you really but figured after the last untimely unfortunate thing that happen you where doing some healing. Your shooting again,that's a good sign.:heart: Looking at #3 umm a Nice helicopter on standby my be in order.

mmaria · Jun 12, 2014

sm4him said:
Heck, now that I'm back, *I* envy me…I wish I could do that about once every 3 months!! And all winter…

lol!

Designer · Jun 12, 2014

Of course I missed you! I'm glad you had a good time. Beautiful shots!

BTW: I would be happy to straighten #1 for you.

IzzieK · Jun 12, 2014

Welcome back. Glad to know you had a good time and a good rest. Now back to work! :lol:

Let us see some more shots...

sm4him · Jun 13, 2014

DarkShadow said:
Welcome Back stranger.Actually I did miss you really but figured after the last untimely unfortunate thing that happen you where doing some healing. Your shooting again,that's a good sign.:heart: Looking at #3 umm a Nice helicopter on standby my be in order.

Thanks. I'll admit, this loss has affected me more than I even expected, more than any other death except my own father's, and even if that, at least we knew it was coming with my dad and had a little time to prepare somewhat.

The "shooting again" designation may be a bit premature. Yeah, I took a few pictures on the cruise, but probably less than a third of what I might normally take, and I haven't so much as picked up my camera since I've been back. But then, I've pretty much just worked and then gone over to my friend's house every night. I eat dinner with her, to make sure SHE eats, and then we sit and talk until she's tired enough to go to bed. She draws the line at letting anyone stay with her at night, saying she has to get used to staying alone, but she's glad for company any other time.
All week, I'd been sort of planning on a photography day tomorrow (Saturday), but as the day approaches, I fear my heart is still just not in it. I'm sure eventually I'll get excited about it again, but I'm not there yet.

Designer said:
Of course I missed you! I'm glad you had a good time. Beautiful shots!

BTW: I would be happy to straighten #1 for you.

Thanks, I appreciate that. Feel free to straighten it--I honestly don't know WHAT was wrong with me when I worked on that photo. I mean, that's not even a little bit straight! I'm wondering now if I even did straighten it; I remember looking at it and thinking about which line to use to straighten it with, but maybe I got distracted after that and never actually did it. I keep meaning to fix it, but…yeah. See paragraph above, where my heart just isn't in it.