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Greta's blog (Day 5, February 20th 2017):

Today is photography day! After a breakfast in the room of eggs & bacon, we headed down to the lobby to wait for our pick-up for the day. A while back, Mike had signed us both up for a 6 hour photography class called “St Lucia By Kirk”. Greta doesn’t really know how to use her DSLR camera (other than in auto mode) and Mike wanted some extra instruction on composition.

The class started with our group sitting on the patio near a small park in Castries (the capital of St Lucia). Our class was a couple from Kansas City, plus a number of “special guests”. These included Kirk’s wife, a good friend of Kirk who wanted to re-take the class to build on what she’d learned earlier, his assistant, two ladies from the Rendezvous Resort (who were there to learn about his business in order to start promoting it at their resort) and two ladies from the St Lucia Tourism Board. Kirk has gotten a lot of good reviews in his first 4 years with the class, and apparently the tourism board has taken notice.

First, Kirk explained the basics of aperture, ISO & shutter speed. Then we got into the composition of photos, introducing us to ideas including the “Rule of 3rds” and the “Michelangelo Concept”, plus how to work with different types of light and how to use a polarizer. We then headed across to the park to practice taking pictures of flowers where one would be in focus in the lower corner of the picture and one would be out of focus in the upper, opposite corner. After we worked with that for a bit, we crossed the road to a small marina off of a BIG marina where the cruise ships dock. He just let us go to take pictures for a while and then each of us could individually go over the pictures with him. We tried a number of things and both got some great photos as well as a ground level view of those massive ships not so far away.

From there we took the mini-bus to a Catholic Church that was undergoing renovation. It was beautiful inside but quite dark, which was the point – to help us figure out how to take pictures in a dimly lit area. Mass started soon after we arrived so we could not stay long. We then walked down the street a bit to the front of a semi-busy one-way street, where we took turns standing in the middle of the road, by the cross walk and taking a picture down the street (obviously when cars were not coming). We also took pictures looking down the sidewalk on a covered walkway. Both of these situations gave us a feel of how to take pictures using a wide angle as well as depth perception as a street moved off in the distance.

After that we headed to “The Hardest Hard” for an authentic St Lucian lunch. We all had the choice of Curry Beef Pilau, Fish Broth with veggies & mahi mahi, or a Lamb’s neck dish. Mike & Greta both chose the Beef, and it was very good. There was a hot sauce you could try with it, which was very good but VERY hot. Locally bottle juice was also available - Mike had the passion fruit & Greta found a new favorite drink in Tamarind.

After that we headed to Marigot Bay. We first stopped at the top - looking down onto the bay. We took a few pictures from that location and then the bus took us all the way down to the bay & marina itself. We’d been to the Bay with Dive St Lucia to pick up some snorkelers, but now were we on land. Kirk explained a little bit more about light, and first we took some pictures on the near side of the bay. We then took a water taxi to the other side, where there was a beach, vendors, restaurants, a few residences as well as a resort. Everything on that side that was built needed to be boated over … you can’t drive to that side of the bay. Once again Kirk sent us off on our own to take pictures for a while and then would go over concepts & ideas, as well as “what story we wanted the picture to tell”. We spent a good amount of time here, and even watched a man climb up & down a coconut tree to pick coconuts – of course, we all took pictures of him as well. Then back to the water taxi & our mini bus.

We thought we were done at that point, but he had the driver make a short stop at an overlook where the cruise ships came into port for Castries. There was a fantastic view from there and definitely worth a photo stop. The day was great – plus we got to visit with some people from KC where the guy likes to water ski & wake surf, and the gal used to visit Minneapolis a lot for work – so we had a number of things to chat about. The St Lucian ladies also were a lot of fun to visit with, and sometimes we were able to get a few “mystery” questions answered … such as what were the big fruits handing off of trees (Calabasas – which are inedible), what a St Lucian almond in its skin looked like (much bigger than the almonds we are used to) and some basic info about Pigeon Island, which we are hoping to visit.

Once we got back to the resort, we were done in for the day. Mike downloaded all the pictures, and we sorted through them, getting rid of poor attempts or duplicates that we’d both taken. Greta went on a walk before sunset to the top of the resort, or as far as she could go on the road – THAT was quite a hike. The sunset came at around 6:15, even though on-line it stated 6:30, so tomorrow we’ll have to watch earlier and try to enjoy the whole thing. Greta then headed out for a quick walk down to the minimart to buy more bottled water, and then a slower hike back up. Per her Fitbit, from the mini-mart to our villa, it was approx. 600 steps and 15 flights of stairs. Wow!

That evening we stayed in and had some wine/cheese/crackers for supper. A good way to end a busy day.

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Last updated: Mon, Feb 20, 2017.
Copyright © Mike vanMeeteren, 2017.