442 - Balneario Municipal El Aserradero
Part of me still can’t believe we made it all the way to the east side of the Yucatan from Washington state. Even though it took 6 months to get here, we’d been driving like madmen the past three days. I think we just about hit 18 hours.
The town we landed in was called Bacalar, which was a small lagoon town about 3 hours south of Cancun, and 1 hour south of Tulum. It definitely had some American vibes to it, so I knew we were getting close to the major tourism. You can tell by the influx of hipster white people that thought Cancun and Tulum were too cliché- so went an extra hour south.
When we first arrived, our goal was to shoot this old fort, which appeared to be the main feature of the town. After closer examination, we decided otherwise. It was pretty small and not exactly photogenic.
Either that or I have no idea how to shoot ruins. I had some trouble at the Pirámides de Teotihuacan, so it’s clearly something I need to work on. I think it’s the non-symmetry that gets me. I want clean lines and perfect architecture, not crumbling buildings.
But I wasn’t in the mood to fight against the curve today, so we walked a little further. What we eventually stumbled upon was these mini docks in the marina that had palapa shacks on them. And there were a LOT of them…
We found one that was public and walked down it, as the sun started to approach the horizon. But it got real awkward real quick. There were all these people at the end that were clearly from Europe, and there wasn’t a lot of room to stand. They were all swimming and drinking beer, while their kids were running around naked like lunatics. And here we were walking in with massive cameras and tripods.
Is having your kids naked while your drunk a normal thing in Europe?
We awkwardly sat down on a bench and looked around. Realizing I didn’t want to look like a total creep, I decided I’d bust out my drone. After all, I hadn’t flown it in forever because the app had been broken for Android. They somehow managed to get their app banned from the App Store, so it just crashed whenever you opened it.
I never had time to figure out how to get it working again.
But on the long drive, I FINALLY figured it out. An app update is needed from their WEBSITE, not the App Store. Since it’s a Chinese company I’m just going to go ahead and assume they’re stealing all my data now.
Go ahead China, take my drone shots of Mexico. See if that helps you invade the USA.
Once my drone got airborne, I realized this was going to be a treat. The water was crystal clear turquoise, the docks and boats were more colorful than a pride festival rainbow, and not a single kid’s dick was in sight.
I ended up snagging about 4 different dock shots, that all came out dope. As I’m writing this, I still can’t decide which ones I want to feature here, so I’m just gonna post all four. Fuck it:
“Right Angle”
Taken on DJI Mavic Mini
[ISO 100 ~ 4.49mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/100s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Pier to Nowhere”
Taken on DJI Mavic Mini
[ISO 100 ~ 4.49mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/50s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Four Leaf Boat”
Taken on DJI Mavic Mini
[ISO 100 ~ 4.49mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/50s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
“Broken Pier"
Taken on DJI Mavic Mini
[ISO 100 ~ 4.49mm ~ f/2.8 ~ 1/50s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
God I missed flying my drone. I can’t believe I haven’t used that shit in over a month. Honestly, I’ve come to a realization with the Mavic Mini though. It’s only worth taking shots with it if they’re top/down shots, because it’s dynamic range is so horrible. Keep that in mind if you’re thinking about investing in a cheap drone.
By the time I landed my drone, the European family was gone, so we were able to go ham on some pics of the dock. Well, Haley was able to go ham. My dock expectations were ruined by yesterday’s shoot at Isla Aguada, and this place didn’t look anywhere near as epic from the ground.
I ended up with one abstract shot of some leaves in the water:
“Pick Up Sticks”
Taken on Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
[ISO 1000 ~ 70mm ~ f/4 ~ 1/200s]
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
I think this blog post had a reverse climax.
And with that we called it a day. Next stop... Cancun! (Or should I say America Lite? ;)
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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