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This was my first visit to Puerto Rico and I was surprised how much it reminded me of Miami. Only more humid, and there’s a lot more rum. Unfortunately, between the subzero temperature of our resort and the humidity of the tropical rain forest, my 50D was constantly sweating bullets like a cold can of soda in the summer sun. Every time I take it out of my hotel room, it’ll condense all over again and making it virtually impossible to shoot because my lens and viewfinder would constantly fog up. Even my weather proof L series lens was no match for the moist air. So here’s a tip for all the photographers out there who shot in tropical climates like the Caribbean– wrap a thick towel around your camera at all times while its in the hotel room, and make sure it is no where near the AC unit. I had to disassemble my lens to clear up the moisture so many times that my camera is now in the shop for a cleaning.
Although it did rain out occasionally during the week we were there, all in all, Annie and I had a great time during our lastest summer getaway. Hey, it’s the rain forest.
I lost count on the number of mojitos we had over the course of the trip. Mofongo was also a treat. My only gripe of the whole trip would be the fogging of the camera. So I wasn’t able to take as many photos as I usually would on trips like these.
All photographs were shot in Raw Format with my Canon 50D.
I used either a 16mm – 35mm f/2.8 Lens, 50mm f/1.4 Lens, 85mm f/1.8 lens, ISO 100 and ISO 800 while shooting at night with an off camera flash.
Post processed with Aperture by Annie Cok.
Just to start you off… here’s a picture of our hotel room.
As you can see, Annie had already turn it into HER room.
Ah, this was a lifesaver… no peeling at all after my sunburn.
LOOK, his and her toilet paper.
And his and hers toothbrushes… Ok, so I staged this shot. But don’t these two brushes look madly in love?
This is the many lobby of our East wing. Took this shot as we were heading out to the beach for the first time. Before the fogging up happened.
This is what I saw as soon as we stepped out of the hotel. But the camera didn’t see anything when I took off the cap. It got fogged up.
So after 20 minutes of wiping (bad idea) the lens. I was finally able to catch this thing before it got away.
YES, it was moving. Fast too. I saw more movement from this one iguana in that 20-minute timeframe than all of the other ones I’ve seen before. It was roughly the size of a big loaf of bread from Whole Foods.
(50mm f/1.6 1/6400sec ISO100)
hmmmm… These are his and hers beach chairs.
Finally it’s dinner time, Annie was trying to look her best for Palio’s, the only dress code require restaurant in the resort.
While impatiently waiting for her to get ready, I took my camera out and got a few shots.
(50mm f/1.4 1/40sec+- ISO100)
And this is the chandelier in the restaurant. Mind you it was really, really dark in this place.
(The following few photos were shot using ISO 800 with a super slow shutter speed. Then I brightened up in Aperture)
This was so good, was the best Buffalo mozzarella I’ve had in a long time.
Yes… Yum.
I forgot what I had for dinner. Apparently, it was so good that I forgot to take a picture of until it was completely finished.
But I remembered to take a picture of the dessert. Tiramisu.
See satisfying. I approval.
After dinner, we decided to take a walk around the pool and the beach.
Annie took my camera and asked me to jump in.
So I did… JK.
The light in the pool was kind of illuminating everything around it.
So I put away my camera flash and just wanted to take advantage of the available light.
Came out kind of nice.
(50mm f/1.4 1/20sec ISO1600 -0.3ev)
But when we got down to the beach, it was basically pitch black. So I have no choice but to break out speedlite which I used off camera.
(50mm f/1.4 1/10sec ISO100)
The following day, or the day after, hmmm I don’t remember. We went out for a tour of Old San Juan.
The first place we stopped at was the
Constitution Hall (El Capitolio) of Puerto Rico.
Didn’t think there was anything special about it.
Then we went to Castillo de San Cristóbal in Old San Juan. Basically an oceanside battle fortress.
Now this is more interesting place to take pictures.
(50mm f/1.4 1/25sec ISO100 +0.7ev)
(16mm f/2.8 1/800sec ISO100) 
(50mm f/1.5 1/6400sec ISO100)
Then we walked around town trying it pick up a souvenir or two.
But all we found were the same thing we could basically get back in the states and of course, there was a lot of rum.
hmmm. I think the photo speaks for itself.
And then we got hungry. Decided to find a place that serves the best Mofongo
in town. Since we didn’t know anyone in PR to recommend us any. We used our best traveling wisdom to pick out this restaurant. So we pick out the one with the best decor.
They first served us with some freshly baked bread with whipped guava butter. Annie seems to like it.
And one of the very few US photos.This is probably the one piece of evidence that I was there taking these photos.
(85mm f/1.8 1/50sec ISO100)
Our food is here. What we ordered. Seared Ahi Tuna.
And of course. Mofongo. I had some grilled shrimp. Giant prawns. But once again, I put down my camera and didn’t take any photos. =(
And some more Mojitos.
Try to kill some time after our meal, before we have to get back to our bus. We walked off the touristy stretch and into the residential area.
This is it. Or at least as many photos as Annie has processed. I hope you enjoyed the photos.
