Last year, I brought my drone with me on some of my travels so I could take some aerial still images. Here are my 20 favorites from my travels to Italy, Bosnia, and Mexico.
Although I mainly use my drone for still images, I took some video too. Here’s a short film of some of the drone video highlights from 2018:
Birds Eye View 2018 from Carol Watson on Vimeo.
Earlier this month, I traveled with my husband from our home here in Mexico to his fatherland – Cuba. It was the first time he had been to the country where his father was born and raised. The plan was to have this trip be a way of discovering the spirit of Cuba by spending a week in Havana. We spent time with a local guide/photographer and visited various classic locations in Havana and strolled along the streets where his father likely spent time as well. My husband really enjoyed discovering “his people” and we’ve already talked about returning to Cuba again.
I brought my color infrared camera with me and took a series of images while we were in Havana.
For more images, check out my Steller story:
This past Spring, I traveled to the Netherlands for the first time with my daughter. We happened to be there right in the middle of tulip season, so it was imperative that we pay a visit to the famous Keukenhof Gardens. The gardens were not far from Amsterdam and even closer to where we stayed in Haarlem. We bought tickets for the gardens at the tourist center in Haarlem. Our tickets included a bus ride that let you off a few blocks away. Keukenhof is massive and there were a ton of people spread out over the large gardens. This place is a flower-lovers dream! Thousands of varieties of tulips and many other flower varieties are arranged along various pathways dotted with buildings that contained more flowers plus cafes and gift shops. There were bike rentals (of course!) just outside the garden entrance so you can cycle around the tulip fields in the area.
I took an incredible amount of color photographs while I was there but also had my infrared camera with me. Here’s a few of my color infrared photographs that I shot during that visit:
For more images, check out my Steller story:
July 1st is Canada Day and this year Canadians are celebrating Canada’s 150th birthday. On July 1st, to honor this special celebration, I spent most of the day gazing through 15 years of photographic archives and selected 150 of my favorite color images shot in Western Canada where I was born and raised. Oh Canada, my home and native land. You’re so beautiful! Here’s my Canada 150 in a slideshow:
Canada 150 – Happy Birthday to my home and native land! from Carol Watson on Vimeo.
Returning to Austin as part of the SXSW Festival Photo Crew was great fun. It wasn’t my first time taking part in SXSW, but it was the first time I was on the SXSW Photo Crew team. I spent 7 days working on assignments during the festival. I photographed sessions and events for the SXSW Interactive, SXSW Film, but the more challenging and memorable assignments were for SXSW Music. It was grueling for me working late into the night, but being such a music-lover, I’d definitely do this gig again!
Here are some of my favorite concert photography shots from the festival.
(top) Bonus Junk, (bottom) Cut Chemist with Mr Lif and Myka 9
(top) Mobley, (bottom) Keeper
(top) Twister, (bottom) Weaves
(top) Mantra, Matthew Logan Vasquez, (bottom) Jimmy Eat World
(top) Tokyo Police Club, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, (bottom) Panthéon Roccoco
(top) Pantéon Roccoco, (bottom) Ozomatli
(top) Ozomatli, (bottom) Residente
(top) Residente, (bottom) Agnes Obel, Albin Lee Meldau
(top) Maggie Rogers, (bottom) Charlotte Cardin, Rag’n’Bone Man
This is the second year in a row that I was lucky enough to be the portrait photographer for a prom for teens and young adults with special needs in McAllen, TX. Sponsored by the Tim Tiebow Foundation and United Health, the Night to Shine 2017 event was a collaboration between Calvary Baptist Church along with local non-profit charities including Capable Kids Foundation (my daughter is the president), AWARE-RGV, and RGV Down Syndrome Association.
The prom was a great success and the ballroom at the McAllen Convention Center was packed with hundreds of people having a wonderful time! All the planning and hard work by my daughter and the team of organizers and sponsors made this a very special evening for these young people. There were volunteer make-up artists, hair stylists and shoe shiners at the event throughout the night to bring out the beauty of each teen and young adult. You could see it in their faces as I photographed them — they felt amazing. Once again, I took the approach to provide very basic direction and let each of them decide how they wanted to pose. I wanted the final portrait to be an extension of their personalities. Here’s a small sample of the portraits of these amazing young people from this memorable evening.
I traveled a fair amount again this year and my infrared converted Nikon D300 comes with me. I thought I’d finish up 2016 with my favorite infrared images from my travels throughout this year.
Zion National Park (left), Barcelona, Spain (right)
Santa Maddalena Val di Funes, Italy
Lago di Carezza, Italy (left), Passo Gaiu, Italy (right)
Passo Sella, Italy
Las Fallas in Valencia, Spain
Barcelona (left), Mineral de Pozos, Mexico (right)
Val d’Orcia, Tuscany, Italy
Near Cortona, Tuscany, Italy
Passo Giau, Dolomites, Italy
Michoacan, Mexico
Michoacan, Mexico
Check out more of my images by viewing my story on Steller:
One of my favorite traditions to photograph in Mexico is Dia de Los Muertos. This year, since our streets in Pozos are undergoing major construction, many events had to be canceled. So, I spent a couple of days in San Miguel de Allende and photographed the various calacas and Catrinas that are abundant during Dia de Los Muertos and the annual La Calaca Festival. A rainstorm put a damper (literally) on the events later that night, but the rain held off until the end of the Catrina parade. 
Check out more of my images by viewing my story on Steller:
Photographing landscapes in digital infrared can yield some interesting and surreal results. I always bring my IR cameras with me to Italy.
Check out more of my digital infrared images of Tuscany by viewing my story on Steller:
Photographing landscapes in digital infrared can yield some interesting and surreal results. I brought my coverted Nikon IR camera with me to Italy. Check out my digital infrared images of the Italian Dolomites by viewing my story on Steller:
