I’ve been traveling again. This time I joined some old friends (and some new ones) on a cruise to Cozumel.
It left out of New Orleans, so we had to spend a day or two in the Big Easy before getting on the boat. I love New Orleans. The food, the music, the culture – it’s all very vibrant and so photographable! But I told myself on this trip that it was more important for me to spend time with my friends than seek out good photos.
I brought one camera body (D700) with me, and 2 lenses (50mm f1.8 and 24-70mm f2.8), but I rarely took them out of the bag for fear that I would have to ditch my friends completely and succumb to the call of the camera.
Instead I used my iPhone 5 most of the time. That sounds so Chicago Sun Times reporter, right? Well, if there’s one thing I learned in photo school, it’s that it’s not about the equipment you have, it’s how you use it. The second thing (which is really the first), is be a human first and a photographer second.
With my iPhone I can snap a quick image, then put it back in my pocket to edit later. I don’t need to carry around large camera bodies or spend lots of time processing images on my laptop during my vacation. I can just enjoy my time off.
With those lessons in mind, I explored New Orleans with my friends. At one point (possibly the greatest time of my whole trip), my friends Claire and Beth walked the streets of the French Quarter with me at magic hour and we let the sounds of street musicians lead us through the French, Spanish and African inspired architecture. It was fantastic!
Anyway, here are a few of my favorite images from New Orleans.
After a day and a half exploring New Orleans, it was time to get on the boat. It was a smaller, older ship, and though it had been remodeled, it didn’t have some of the amenities that the newer, larger ships had. I spent a lot of time walking the decks with my phone, making pictures.
When we left New Orleans there were small storms on the horizon. Weather suddenly becomes hugely important when you’re trapped on a boat headed somewhere in the middle of the ocean.
We were on the boat for a day and a half before we arrived in Cozumel, and then another full day on the way back. That was plenty of time to capture life on the boat – everything from lounging by the pool to crew members swabbing the deck.
That last picture was when we arrived in Cozumel. (The ship on the right is ours.) I loved Cozumel. It was beautiful.
My friends and I split and went a few different ways during our 8 hour stay in dock. I insisted that we not book one of the traditional excursions through the cruise ship, and rather do our own thing.
We started off on a small trimaran with about 15 people, including crew, who took us to a couple snorkeling spots. Then we walked toward town a bit, had some lunch, walked a little more, then I decided there was nothing in town that would beat the water. I’m telling you, it was unbelievably gorgeous! So we turned around, found a rocky spot on the shoreline and jumped in. That was the best part of the whole day.
I couldn’t use my iPhone for underwater photos because I don’t have a waterproof case. Instead I used a point and shoot Olympus TG-2 waterproof camera. It worked great and was a reasonable price. It’s a tough little camera.
Anyway, after another day at sea, we returned to New Orleans and drove back to Texas. But not before I snapped a few parting shots.
Thanks for looking at my vacation pictures (which I now realize is sort of the equivalent of holding you hostage in my living room and making you look at slides). If you’d like to see more, please follow me on Instagram (@ashphotog).
All photos, except the underwater photos, were taken with an iPhone 5 using the Camera or Hipstamatic apps, then posted on Instagram.
Next post will be back to business, I promise!
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