Trying to avoid the dreadful February’s of North Georgia, my wife and I booked a cheap flight to the Mayan Riviera of Mexico.  Just before I left I finally got my hands on an elusive Nikon D7000.  The company can’t seem to keep up with the demand and everyone has been back ordered since its release in October.  I was able to shoot a few shots of our son the day before we left him with family. My immediate response, “Whoa!”  Its fast, smart and did I mention fast!  Autofocus speed and trigger response is critical when photographing children, particularly my child; a most difficult of subjects.   Below is some of the fun.

We flew into Cancun and quickly hightailed it out of there.  We’ve never been, but we knew it just wouldn’t be the scene we were looking for.  We needed more tranquility…

Something like the beaches of Tulum to start things off.

 

The town of Tulum became our base and walking the streets at night made for some great low light scenarios to put the camera to test.  I didn’t bother bringing a tripod because neither weddings nor lifestyle portraiture allow for control over the subjects.  I promote my subjects to be active and naturally spontaneous.

Paddle boarding looks like the hot new thing!  These guys were part of a weeklong all inclusive fitness retreat out of a nearby beachhouse next to our snorkeling spot.  …Maybe next time…

The dreamy little calm bay of Akumal became our second home away from home.  Snorkeling with giant sea turtles, and a 7 ft Spotted Eagle Ray made it easy to set the camera down and practice enjoying a vacation.  (I need lots of practice.)

Meanwhile, Fawnna would pick up the new rig a go on her own photo safari especially when there was flowers around.  She took about half of the pictures in this post!

 

More of her images..this time from the inside of our cabana in the magical town of Vallalodid.

Here’s the cabana door.  Why has it been all busted up before?  Should we be worried?  The calming blue paint over the destruction masked any fears I might of had.

Unlike the costal towns, Valladolid boasts history and culture and an overall urge to set your watch back a couple of hundreds years.  Its been a very important town since the times of the Mayans and then the Spanish came in the 1500’s and really did it up.

While in town, be sure to take a dip in the underground freshwater cave pool known as Cenote Zaci.  This little oasis can be found a few blocks away from town center and really hits the spot on a muggy day.  Its almost 300 feet deep and cute little eyeless catfish come up from the deep to nibble at your toes.

Local Mayan women still handmake incredible textiles using only what God gave them; their hands and feet.

No trip to the Yucatan interior would be complete without a visit to some cool ruins.  We hit up Coba ruins due to the Indiana Jones-like jungle setting and lack of crowds (compared to Chitzen Itza.)

You have to get up early for shots like this.

You can’t climb to the top of the highest pyramid in the Yucatan and not get a picture of yourself looking cool on top…right?  Alright maybe this is a little too cool.

Let’s digress back to floral images, yeah.

This was the weirdest little armored sea slug thing I have ever seen.

Trying out some more hand holding at sunset time in Akumal bay.  These exposures are around a half a second.

 

Hope you enjoyed the pics.  The rest of my review will highlight some pros and cons of the D7000.

 

PROS:

-everything is lightning fast-

-the autofocus is the smartest ever-

-the control layout is perfect-

the image quality is amazing-

-low light ability blows away cameras that cost four times more money-

 

CONS:

-the HD video ability is useless-

(No plug in for an external mic so you end up hear all the grunts and groans of the autofocus motor)

(The fulltime autofocus of the video feature is a joke, its still slow and inaccurate.)

 

Leave a comment, if you feel so inspired!