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.
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:
On Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I styled a photo shoot with two young women who are also good friends. I did all the make-up myself and chose a location here in Mineral de Pozos, Mexico. The San Pedro ruins provided the perfect backdrop for my shoot. Alejandra and Malenii were terrific models and very patient with my broken Spanish language instructions (thank goodness for universal hand signals). Thanks to Jaime for being my translator when needed and teaching me phrases for future styled shoots with Spanish speaking models. I love how these turned out and I think I’ll make it an annual project here in Mexico.
These images are available as fine art prints and licensing.
Camera: Pentax 645Z
Editing Software: Adobe Lightroom, Alien Skin Exposure 7
On Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), I styled a photo shoot with two young women who are also good friends. I did all the make-up myself and chose a location here in Mineral de Pozos, Mexico. The San Pedro ruins provided the perfect backdrop for my shoot. Alejandra and Malenii were terrific models. My previous post shows the medium format color images from the shoot. This post features the digital infrared images using a Supercolor IR filter.
These images are available as fine art prints and licensing.
Camera: Nikon D300 (IR conversion)Editing Software: Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop
November 1st is All Saints Day or El Dia de Todos los Santos in Mexico. The deceased children (little angels) are remembered on November 1st with toys and colorful balloons adorning their graves. In Pozos, on this day, the children dress up in costumes and go to various homes to collect candy, much like Halloween night in the USA. A group of us gathered at the home of a friend with bags of candy and greeting the children. There were many more children than we expected and we ran out of candy. I photographed them as they came into the entry to collect their sweets.
We’re coming down to the last day of the annual celebration to honor the town’s patron saint: El Señor de los Trabajos (The Lord of Work). Yesterday was a busy one for Pozos — the day before was quiet because of heavy rains. We wandered around in the evening, looking for yummy food from the street vendors and photographing the scenes encountered. We saw tons of market stalls, food stalls set up everywhere, carnival rides, street dogs looking for scraps, indigenous dancers in colorful costumes and headdresses, and people of all ages making their way on their knees to end their pilgrimage at the church at the top of the hill. Here’s some of the scenes I captured yesterday.
Yes, it’s a big week here in Mineral de Pozos, Mexico. It’s the annual celebration to honor the town’s patron saint: El Señor de los Trabajos (The Lord of Work). Many Mexicans pray to El Señor de los Trabajos to help them find work to provide for their families. This is also the patron saint of our parroquia.
This week is a busy medley of processions, native drumming, dancing, marching bands, music, markets and food stands along with the constant artillery pops of firecrackers and fireworks at all hours of the day and night. There is so much going on, it’s overwhelming to experience for the first time. This fiesta is something the entire town prepares for and looks forward to all year. The fiesta will end on Sunday with the arrival of a large pilgrimage of indigenous people from Mexico City and other states of Mexico.
I love photographing Pozos and and feel blessed to live here. I will post more images as the fiesta continues, but here’s a sampling of what I photographed earlier today.
We recently had our first long road trip inside Mexico after being invited by local friends to stay with them as guests at a laguna-front casa in Bacalar located on the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula near the border with Belize. We spent time swimming in the laguna, ventured into the jungle to see the Mayan ruins of Dzibanche and spent a day wandering the beach at Mahahual along the Costa Maya. Here’s some IR photographs from the trip.
On Friday, we went searching near La Granja, Guanajuato for what we were told was an old hacienda. We took a narrow, washboard, rutted, boulder-strewn “road” for 10 kilometers off the main highway to the supposed location.
Initially we didn’t see anything worth exploring, but after asking at a little family “store”, it turned out we were a few hundred feet from the hacienda. We drove up to the exterior walls and found a chapel, some outbuildings, old farm equipment, a corral, and a large “lawn” in front of a house attached to the chapel.
While Carol was taking photographs, a man came out of the house moving towards a truck that was parked out front. I was uncertain what to make of the situation, as we were on what was apparently private property. But I called out to the man and approached him, telling him my name, and saying we had heard about the hacienda and were curious about it.
I asked him if it was still a working hacienda, and he said “claro, que si” and pointed to all the machinery (OK, that was a dumb question on my part, but I wanted him to talk about the place). He didn’t look entirely convinced of what we were doing there, but when I asked him what he raised, he seemed to soften a bit, and proceeded to tell me about the cattle and goats, plus the fields he had planted with sorghum (a special strain from the states called “Kickapoo”) for the livestock, and maiz and frijoles.
Somewhere along the way we made a personal connection, and before we knew it, he was taking us on a full tour of the entire hacienda. We wound up spending 2 hours being led around the property, listening to stories of the history of the area. We listened to the life story of this man who bought the hacienda 18 years ago, and has been lovingly restoring it ever since.
By the time we were finished, we had met his family, exchanged phone numbers, and walked off with gift of 1.5+ kilos of home-made queso fresco.
Only in Mexico.
— Writing courtesy of my husband, Charles Vance.
