4/9/09: a good day, revisited

At this time three years ago, I was feeling pretty destroyed. I had finished my MBA the previous December, which was a huge relief and a major burden off my shoulders. I had assumed that my life would become less complicated immediately upon graduation, but as fate would have it, I had been promoted the week after I graduated into a position that ultimately ended up combining the responsibilities of the job I thought I was leaving with the job I was receiving. Cue the madness--80 to 100 hours of work almost every week until I got a different job 18 months later. Almost two years have passed since I left that job, but in many ways I still feel like I haven't recovered, and in many ways I feel like I will never recover. I don't regret it, however, because it laid a foundation for things that were to come, including all the international work and travel opportunities I've had these past three years.

Anyway, going back to 2009, I needed a vacation. Grad school had forced me to put off vacations, purchases and the like. Not long after I graduated, I decided to buy a DSLR and get into photography more now that I "had time". I also decided that we, like many Minnesotans, needed a warm vacation. I became enamored with the idea of going to Mexico, and since I often can't impulses once I have them, that's exactly what we did. We arrived in Cancun on April 8 and stayed at Secrets Maroma, an all-inclusive resort in between Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

I don't consider myself a DSLR expert now, but at that point in time, I was a complete novice. Still, I was having fun figuring things out and dutifully lugged all my gear everywhere so as to be able to take advantage of whatever opportunities might arise. As I typically do, I woke up early on April 9 and decided to try to photograph the sunrise. Right away, I had problems. The A/C in our room was quite powerful, and all my lenses fogged up as soon as I walked out the door. The beach was about 100 yards away from our room, and while it was bright enough for me to see where I was walking, it wasn't so bright that I could get away with shooting without a tripod. I had brought a gorillapod, but getting it to balance properly with the horizon line was really difficult, and the ocean breeze only complicated matters. In the end, however, I was really happy with the shots I got that morning.













All of these were taken with a 15mm fisheye or a 24-105 f/4L lens, I believe. I may not have had any other lenses at this point in time. I can't remember now.

That day was a very relaxing day, and we didn't do much other than lay around, eat and swim. Later in the day, we did explore the resort and beach some more, and below are some photos from those explorations.







This vacation sticks out in my mind as one of the best we've ever taken, possibly because we've never taken another like it. We went on a Caribbean cruise last year, and while we had fun, it didn't turn out to be the vacation that I was expecting. I had figured that much of our time would be spent on beaches like this, but I don't know why I had that idea. After all, how often do you see a big harbor next to a nice tropical beach like the one you see in the above photos? I have yet to see one. In any case, April 9, 2009 was a great day, and all in all, the entire week was excellent. I could totally use another vacation like it right about now.