Amazing four days of diving here on Gili Air with 3W Dive!

Every so often something happens in your life that blows you away. Tonight’s night dive provided that unforgettable experience for me.

After descending to 60 feet, we turned off our lights and were greeted by complete darkness and silence, both of us floating in space. We started moving our arms and legs and the darkness turned to light. Thousands of plankton began glowing all around us, following our movements, shimmering brightly. It was a truly magical experience and something I will never forget.

Go try something new tomorrow and surprise yourself!

While walking along the beach on the Island of Gili Air, Indonesia the other evening, I came across this gnarly old piece of driftwood in the sand. After 30 shots or so, I finally captured this photo. I was shooting handheld so capturing the waves movement while keeping the camera steady was somewhat of a challenge. The waves remind me of insect wings, hence the title.

Feel free to share if you like! Thanks guys!

The first morning I was on the island, this is the sunset i saw from the front of our hotel.  I was blown away and had one of those “wow” moments that photographers crave.  Enjoy!

Thanks for visiting!

Today I wanted to share a few of photos from the rice paddies just outside Hoi An, Vietnam.  Renting bikes (only $1 for the whole day!), we explored for hours, and came across this water buffalo herder working the fields.  I called him over, ended up scaring his buffalo, and got some portrait shots with him and his ride.

Feel free to follow me on Facebook if you haven’t already, http://facebook.com/adam.allegro.  I post more regularly there than on the blog, as well as share all the Instagram photos I take.  Thanks and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting!

Pin It]]> http://catchthejiffy.com/2013/02/26/the-buffalo-herder/feed/ 0 http://catchthejiffy.com/2013/02/21/monkey-island/ http://catchthejiffy.com/2013/02/21/monkey-island/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2013 07:40:30 +0000 Adam Allegro http://catchthejiffy.com/?p=4212 Welcome back!  My mailing list has had some issues the past couple of weeks but I think it is fixed now.  Stay tuned because the blog is currently undergoing some updates and should be finished in two weeks or so.  Let me know what you think after its complete!

I am currently in Hue City and enjoying every minute of it.  I spent about 10 days in the north, visiting Hanoi, Sapa, and Halong Bay, and am now making my way south.

Today I wanted to share some photos from Monkey Island in Halong Bay.  What a beautiful place… We were somewhat plagued with cloudy skies, but the trip was still fantastic.  We spent an afternoon on Monkey Island where we hiked, swam, and spent time with the monkeys.  Here are some of my favorite shots.  Feel free to steal the first two as Facebook Cover Photos if you like.

Feel free to follow me on Facebook if you haven’t already, http://facebook.com/adam.allegro.  I post more regularly there than on the blog, as well as all the Instagram photos I take.  Thanks and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting!

I am going to spend Chinese New Year here in Hanoi and photograph the fireworks, then heading to Halong Bay for a 3 day, 2 night cruise around the islands.  After that I may take a few days and trek around Sapa, where all the beautiful rice terraces are located.  Keep checking back!

Today I took went on a tour to visit the Perfume Pagoda, a series of Buddhist Temples built in to Limestone caves in the Huong Tich Mountains.  The central temple of this complex is the Perfume Temple (seen below).

Thanks for visiting!

As I get ready to depart China, I wanted to post some of my favorite images from the past month backpacking south through this wonderful country.  China is a huge country filled with unique culture, exciting cuisine, beautiful scenery, and interesting history, not to be written off by any avid traveler.  So, without further blabbering on my part, here are some of my favorite grabs from 9 or 10 cities spread across central and southern China that I had the opportunity to visit.  Off to Vietnam!

Feel free to follow me on Facebook if you haven’t already, http://facebook.com/adam.allegro.  I post more regularly there than on the blog, as well as all the Instagram photos I take.  Thanks and enjoy!

One of the primary reasons I spent 9 days in the Guilin area was to photograph and sightsee around the Li River.  My favorite town, Xingping, is particularly famous for its Cormorant Fishermen.  These guys are so cool – they have these awesome birds who dive for them and catch their fish.  They tie a little string around the birds’ neck so they can’t swallow the fish, but reward them after the fishing is complete.  It is said that one fishing bird is as good as three fishermen.

These photos were completely unscripted (unlike what you see all over google images when you search for Cormorant Fishermen, not that there is anything wrong with that…), and shot on the fly, two from a moving boat while panning with a moving fisherman in the pouring rain (you can see the droplets hitting the water and also coming down from the sky), and the other two just before sunrise, handheld at ISO 1000.  The portrait was of one of the fishermen we saw walking back to his boat after he put his little workers away.  As always, I would love to hear from you!

Feel free to follow me on Facebook if you haven’t already, http://facebook.com/adam.allegro.  I post more regularly there than on the blog, as well as all the Instagram photos I take.  Thanks and enjoy!

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you’ll join me in Vietnam!

Yesterday evening I climbed up Laozhai Hill (almost directly on front of my hostel) to watch the sunset.  There is a cool little pagoda you can view the entire northeast from.  Since I wanted the sunset, I was forced to boulder across 50 meters of jagged rocks, setting up my gear above a steep, steep drop.  No idea how high I was, but you can check out the photo below to get an idea!  There was nothing but the river below, so one slip up and I would have been toast.  Fortunately, I was pretty methodical with every movement, resulting in me not dying There wasn’t much of a sunset, but the fog/haze began to glow  for a few minutes, casting a beautiful yellow hue on the Li River Valley and allowing me to catch this shot.  Let me know what you think!

Thanks for visiting!  Check back soon!

Its weird because I don’t think I’ve ever posted a photo of myself on the blog, let alone a bunch of them.  Don’t fret though, I have added a travel picture as well to quench your photo thrust.  Enjoy

First off, here is a shot from the Rice Terraces of Longji.  Hiking up the mountain was a bit strenuous, but when we reached the top, the magical view over the Rice Terraces made it all worth it.  Here is my favorite shot from the day.

And now for the fun shots.

There you go, all clean again.  Thanks to Anna for taking the photos with my iphone for me