Travel Photo: Stream Scene from Okinawa

There's really no such thing as getting lost on the island of Okinawa.

But, you can become temporarily misplaced.

Follow any stream, trail or, road out of the jungle.

Sooner or, later you are bound to find the ocean.

What I do, when the younger dudes go climbing and trekking up slippery rocks is stop.

Then, make believe I'm doing something important.

That's how I got this scene of a stream flowing through the northern hills of Okinawa.

The Map It Okinawa dude must have thought I was temporarily misplaced.

After he climed every hill and waded through all the streams in the area, he came back and found me.

He helped me carry all my camera gear back down the mountain.

It's a good idea, after you reach a certain age, to have someone younger travel along with you.

He even has one of those GPS gadgets and, can probably tell you where this photo was taken.

The location isn't all that important to me.  I just like to take the pictures.

If we happen to head back up that way again I don't plan on going to this spot.

What I would do, is find another stream to checkout.

When the young adventurers get too far ahead of me, I'll do it again.

Just get myself Deliberately Misplaced  and shoot another scene in the jungles of Okinawa.

It's a blast !

1st Visit to Shimashii-Ozato Castle: An Unplanned Photo Essay

Don't ask how these things happen because I haven't got an answer.

The plan for today was to go shoot a bird from Africa but, he never showed.

Next, we went down the east coast of Okinawa to see if this old gal, who decorates her yard for the

Tanabata Festival, had started hanging her stars and streamers yet.

Nothing was hanging in the trees.  And, nobody was home.

So, Doc Graff looks up in the hills and points at some tower.

He thinks Ozato Castle may be somewhere, up there.

Son of a gun if he wasn't right.

Neither one of us had ever been to this castle before, because it's so hard to find.

And, I could kick myself for leaving all my short lenses behind.

Big Bertha, the Sigma 50-500mm, isn't the kind of lens I would usually use for castles.

The way to stop having these unplanned photo essays would be to take all my camera stuff

with me when I go out shooting.  I want to go back and do this castle right.

Guaranteed, if I leave Big Bertha home when I go back to Ozato

THAT CRAZY AFRICAN BIRD WILL SHOW UP !

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The Lunar Eclipse Photo You Want Isn't Always The One You Get

Last night we were supposed to have one of those total eclipses of the moon.

That'd be the second one in a year.  The photo above was taken in Okinawa, Japan JUN 16, 2011.

We loaded up a car with all kinds of camera gear, way before sunset.

That way we'd find a good spot, up in the mountains for some clear shots.

The science people were saying the best views would be from the Asia Pacific Region.

That's where I live.

The weather looked sort of like this on the way up to the mountains.

That was my first clue that I wouldn't get the photos I was planning to get.

But,  island weather can take sudden turns and we had a few hours before the eclipse.

Things didn't turn out as we expected, though.

This is just a wild guess but, I'm thinking, if we'd have stayed a fifth hour in the mountains, this is sort of how the total eclipse of the moon would have looked from Okinawa, Japan.

About 9PM, after unloading all my camera gear from RyukyuRu's car, I was walking home and saw the moon peek through some clouds.

The man in the moon was probably thinking he'd see something like this.

Well, what if the dude in the moon was trying to catch a shot of us eclipsing down here ?

Maybe he got something like this.  Hah !

Better luck next time.....

Did anyone out there catch the DEC 2011 lunar ecplise photos they wanted ?

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