Didn't Think It'd Be This Long...

When I said I'd have images up in a day or two, that's what I thought I meant, not almost a week. *sheepish grin*

I was going to do just one or two images, but with the delay, I thought I'd do 5. These images are mostly from walking around in downtown San Jose, Costa Rica, on my trip there in March. The last is from that same trip, but in the same neighborhood as the hostel I stayed in.

The first image is of the building for the housing ministry (Ministerio de Hacienda). I just thought the building looked cool. All the images here were taken with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi. The settings for this particular photo were ISO 100, 18mm, f6.3 and 1/100 sec.



This next image is of the National Theatre (Teatro Nacional). I thought it was a beautiful piece of architecture. The settings were ISO 100, 18mm, f7.1, and 1/125 sec.



The next image is of a bust of the founder of Costa Rica, Jose M. Castro Madriz. I was tempted to clean the bird droppings off of it, but I couldn't get it to look right. The settings were ISO 100, 33 mm, f5.6, and 1/50 sec.


The next image is of the metropolitan cathedral. Costa Rica is, by and large, a nation of Catholics. There is a statue of Pope John Paul II outside the church (it would be to the left as you're looking at the church from this angle). I only regret that I didn't take a photo of the statue, but I intend to go back to Costa Rica as soon as possible. The settings for this photo were ISO 100, 21mm, f7.1 and 1/125 sec.


This last image was just for fun. This is one of the restaurants I ate in while I was there. Granted, it probably had something to do with the fact I was a tourist, but I got great service from a very helpful waiter. When I seemed to be struggling with the menu in Spanish, he gave me one written in English without me having to ask. I will go back when I get back to San Jose. As you may be able to tell, there is a Domino's Pizza location next door. Instead of cars, they use motorcycles with carriers on the back. :)

I did use Photoshop to edit out the little bit of graffiti on the front, but other than that, I didn't have to do a lot to it. The settings for this photo were ISO 100, 24mm, f7.1 and 1/125 sec.


I hope you enjoyed looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them. I won't make any promises, but I will try to get more images up soon (hopefully not another week).

About time...

Welcome to the Caught Looking Photography photoblog, and I’m Alan, your host (I spent too long in radio not to say that). You may be asking yourself, “Self, why did he call it Caught Looking Photography?” I’ll explain. I have, at different times in my life, umpired youth league and high school baseball. When a hitter goes down on a pitch he didn’t swing at, we say he was “caught looking.” I can also say you’ve been “caught looking” at my pictures.

Most of the photos here, at least for now, came from a recent trip to Costa Rica. An absolutely beautiful country with an incredible variety of plant and animal life, it’s not to be missed. I would go back in a heartbeat. You simply must see it for yourself.

Anyway, most of the photos from Costa Rica will fall into one of two groups. The first group is from my travels around the capital of San Jose on foot. The day before I left, the Costa Rica edition of the international Cow Parade opened. A lot of the cows were placed early and are depicted here. Some are a little odd, but they all reflect the art/culture of Costa Rica in one way or another.

The second group is from my tour of some of the stunning beauty outside San Jose. The tour included the Poas volcano crater, La Paz and San Fernando waterfalls, a boat ride on the Sarapiqui River and a canopy tour through the rainforest. I didn’t get pictures of all of the animals I wanted, either because they moved or the boat did, but I’m sure you’ll agree that Costa Rican wildlife is a wonder to behold.

You’ll notice that the photos have a watermark with my copyright info. I wish it wasn’t necessary, but in this day and age, you do what you have to in order to protect your work when you post it online. I’m working on a way to sell prints online (sans watermark), but until then, we’ll have to deal with it (putting the watermark on is almost as much of a pain as looking at it).

I'll get the first photos up in the next day or two, but until then I'll keep working on editing them while I've got time. If you have any questions, leave a comment on this post and I'll reply. Pretty soon I'll have a new domain name so I can have you email me directly.