Tulum 2010

[DetectorGuy]

We just got back from Mexico and I wish I had more dives to report about but We only got in the two. This other family we went with didnt want to spend a bunch on diving so I kinda got the shaft. We had a bunch of fun anyway.

The first night we stayed in Puerto Morelos. The next 7 nights we spent just North of Tulum at Tankah Bay. The last couple nights we stayed in Cancun near the point.

I brushed up on the free diving quite a bit. There was a nice reef about 300 yards from the house we rented and we messed around on that for a few hours everyday. I took about a thousand photos and learned a lot about photographing in clear water. I made the mistake of using the wide angle lense in the cenotes and it tripled the length of the caverns so the lighting looked very wimpy. I think I like the macro shooting better with my little camera. It doesn't have the horsepower of a nice camera. 30' is about max distance with it from what I could tell. The wind was fierce with 6-8' waves outside the reef and plenty of turbidity just inside the reef. Tankah Bay was a nice shallow bay about 14' deep on average so the snorkeling was perfect.

Spent a day body surfing in the waves at Cancun and everyone is fairly sun burned. Once I get all the photos sorted out I will post a couple of the better ones.
John

[DetectorGuy]

I was looking at my photos and found these of me holding this 10' albino python. This street performer had it and he started talking about changing peoples perception about scary things, then the conversation went into his main goal of removing trash from some of the nicer places in the world. He was a freak but he had a cool snake.

[DetectorGuy]

Here are 3 of me playing in the waves. The 4th one is of a cop posing with a folding stock sub machine gun outside a club in Cancun.

[mermaid]

Great pics John!  Looks like you're having a really good time (your daughter looks "thrilled" about that snake :-\ )

[Indigo Blues]

Some dives are better than no dives! Glad you had a lot of fun in the sun and waves. Great job with the pictures too... Pat

[jasondbaker]

You probably needed more light (i.e., strobes) to use the wide angle effectively.  What's great about this type of lens is that you can get closer to your subject.  And getting closer is the key.