Merry Christmas!

It's been a wonderful Christmas weekend so far! Yesterday I take a big group from the States scuba diving at Natural. Not a bad way to spend Christmas Eve. This couple wasn't part of the group, just  a couple of hangers-on.

Last night we hosted Christmas Eve pot luck dinner for a bunch of "misfit toys" or "orphan gringos" as one of our number called us. So much fabulous food and so much fun!

Hope your holidays are filled with warmth and love and joy and that the new year brings you health and happiness.

Happy Holidays!

Tonight's the night!!!!

Some time tonight someone will eat the 4,000th Peanut Butter Burger.

Don't know about our World Famous Peanut Butter Burger?

It is a handmade, hand-seasoned 100% all-beef burger, grilled to your order, then served on grilled fresh local bakery bread, topped with peanut butter and sweet pickle relish. #warmcreamysaltysweetmeaty The way it all comes together in your mouth in nothing short of amazing.

And tonight, we will reach a major milestone. We have a great gift package for whoever gets # 4,000: Standup Paddle Board tours from VerdeAzul, Discover Scuba Adventures from Darryl's Diving Adventures, gift certificates from Levain Artisan Bread, Fusion Art and Floral and Ola Lola's, portrait photography sessions and more.

Wish you were here.

Diving with new friends

It's a strange kind of in-between-time right now. No surf to speak of (unusual), not the usual howling December/Christmas winds (very unusual) so not much kite surfing, and just enough rain to keep visibility marginal for diving (not so unusual).

Even so, we took Marie's (and now our) friends Mark and Leslie diving at Crashboat. Despite the 25-30 foot vis, there is always something beautiful to see. The limited vis encourages you to look closer, for little things.

There is supposed to be a little surf bump later this week. We'll see. And here's hoping the vis finally cleans up soon!

Fade to black (and white)

Back in the Dark ages, B.D. (Before Digital) I used to do a lot of black and white photography. For years I had my own darkroom. I even got into large format with one of those "cumbersome" 4"x5" view cameras. ("Cumbersome" seems to be a descriptor that always accompanies "view camera.") But S.D. (Since Digital) I've done very little with b&w. Yes, I've played with it in Photoshop but I've never been very happy with the results and so just let it go.

The other night Elaine had a dream that I was photographing surfers in black and white. When she told me about it, it triggered a new thought. Whenever it's cloudy, I avoid shooting surfers because because the light is flat and relatively colorless. But what about black and white? Maybe b&w could be a way to "save" those cloudy day shots. This was an especially interesting thought since we just went through two days of good waves but crappy light.

So I started doing some studying and more, serious experimenting. I'm certainly not an expert. but I've come a long way from where I was. 

Yesterday I went out to Surfers Beach on a beautiful sunny morning. Right at the end of my photo session it clouded over.  This gave me new material to work with.

What do you think of the results?

You can see more of the color surf photos on our website, PuertoRicoSurfPhoto.com
and on Flickr.