Day 14 Pictures

We had a windy day yesterday, so we actually had some waves. Turned the shutter speed way up to catch these bad boys rolling in.

I had to get one of the wave curling. It is may favorite part of watching waves come into shore.

We played a game yesterday called, "Stand Your Ground." We all plant our feet in the sand and resist the waves the hit us. When we got farther out (since we would progress further out) we would like arms and form a wall, that way no one got pulled out to sea. Best game ever.

So it was a little foggy when we started our walk to Oia, but if you look closely you can see some white buildings on the edge of the land. Yeah, we walked there. It was about a 3 hour hike, not too bad, but there were some rather interesting trails that definitely would not fly in the United States at all, but they were really fun.

So if you can sea the little mountain-ish thing in the upper right side, just right of the white building, that is Imerovigli. There is a tiny white speck on the right side of that mountain-ish thing, and it is a monastery. Imerovigli was a city that we walked through, and one we also this past weekend.

So this was one of the pictures that capture the essence of leaving the Shire. I just love the waving grass in the wind, with the sun in the background.

One of my classmates held his ground so that I could catch the sun right above his head. It shines awfully bright over here. Many got burned, even me.

Here is a super vivid flower. It almost looks like I edited the color, but no editing was done. So much beauty packed into this little island.

Here is a snapshot of Oia through the plants. All the white buildings below make up the city of Oia, the city on the North-Western tip of the island of Santorini.

These are where the sunset photos commence. I have to get a shot of a cross on top of church. We learned today that many of the churches on the island (a whopping 550) are privately owned. That explains why pretty much every single one we have come across is locked. Sorry if anyone was looking for pictures of the inside of churches.

I got the sun between the church and also a rock jutting from the side of the mountain (they tend to do that here).

This is the location that I staked out at. So this is where the photos get real cool. I personally like that the windmill is in the picture, but since it is just rope linking the support it doesn't dominate the photo.

Some of these may look very similar because I was playing with different shooting styles. Bumping up ISO, changing aperture focus, longer exposure, etc.

I like that the windmill is almost just a silhouette in this photo. This sunset was just awesome. I was extremely happy that there was some clouds, because they always make sunsets that much better.

So this is when I switch to my small lens (18-55mm). I was able to get all the clouds of the sky, and I also got to keep the ground nice and dark, since I didn't want to highlight the ground, just the beautiful sunset.

I like this one, because I can't see any one the ground in this picture, so you are left wondering if it's part of the island or is it a man-made island out on the water.

Switched back to my bigger lens (75-300mm). I also changed the quality of the photos to RAW.

You can start to see the sun setting here. It actually sets behind an island, so you don't get that thing where the sun hits the water and you get a line in the ocean, at least not at this time of the year.

I like that you can see the different layers of light in the sun, and also the mountainous features of the island that it is setting behind.

This is a picture where I wanted the focus to fight. Is the focus the setting sun (which creates all the painting in the sky) or is the focus the alost silhouetted windmill (which dominates the photo)?

Catching the last bit of sun setting. It happened so quickly once it got to one point. Cameras were clicking everywhere. There must have been at least 300-500 people all over the coast line (in between buildings, on the sides of mountains, on the stairs leading further down to the ocean, everywhere).

So this was taken about 5 minutes after the sun set. I like the pink to purple coloring in this photo. I don't like to post edited photos, but this one will be editing, mostly just straightening everything out.