Jekyll Island

I'm back from my vacation and have put together a selection of photos for you to enjoy. I've learned to travel with a minimal amount of gear so I don't have to lug heavy equipment with me. For this trip, I had my old 30D SLR with 3 prime lenses: 20mm, 50mm, 100mm macro. I also brought along my point and shoot Panasonic Lumix. With that range, I find that I can get plenty of variety in my shots which cover my need to be shooting while still relaxing on vacation.It's funny: I'm a fairly introverted person, yet I enjoy photographing people more than I do landscapes.

I was invited to join my brother, sister-in-law and niece on their vacation. Michelle's family has been going to Jekyll Island as long as they can remember. We were joined by her father and twin brother, along with a couple of their friends and kids. Jekyll Island is off the coast of Georgia with plenty of bike trails and beaches. You can read more about it here. I spent my week at the beach, managed to read three books, went on various bike rides (the first time I've been on anything that pedals since my knee rehab) and got to know a wonderful group of people.

The three fish marked the outside wall of our house, located on the corner of North Beachview and Bliss. It was a block from the beach and had a pool and hot tub. Talk about being spoiled.

A little shadow action of Grace and her dad on our first trip to the beach.

Beach soccer!

A few details. There were sand dollars nearly every step you took at low tide.

These were our back yard companions. Anyone that knows me, is aware of my fear of bugs, especially spiders, so I took this picture to challenge myself. These guys were monsters, at least the size of my fingers. They are called Banana Spiders and the larger one is the female with the tiny male in the background. Thankfully I had a zoom with me because there was no way I was getting any closer to those furry blue legs.

The outside of Millionaire Village before and during sunset.

Grace watching the sunset.

If you look at the bottom of the picture, you can see a soccer ball. It was accidentally kicked into the marsh, but was recovered with a pool skimmer. Quite an impressive feat considering how far away it was.

I had a blast getting to know Linden and Rowan over the course of the week. Both of them have killer blue eyes.

They worked on a giant batman symbol in the sand.

Grace really enjoyed the inner tube in the water.

There were plenty of pelicans at the beach, fishing. I caught this brown pelican hopping on the water as he took off.

Private Property.

Linden getting out of the water.

Fun at the playground.

Not everyone gets to vacation with super heroes, but I did. Here's Captain America playing tennis.

Grace got some great swimming lessons from Nicholas.

Then she took my point and shoot and snapped this great photo of Uncle Kevin and Colleen in the kitchen.

We posed for a goofy self portrait.

The beach with the tide coming in.

I spent a couple mornings at the beach before everyone else to get sunrise pictures. I like the colors of sunrise better than sunset. What about you?

Palm detail.

The palm trees reminded me of giant pineapples.

An old shrimp boat straight out of a Jimmy Buffett album cover.

I couldn't get enough of the twisted trees.

Although there are plenty of sea turtle nests on the island, we didn't see any, so I thought I'd make a sand turtle.

I brought the point and shoot with me into the ocean to get a few group shots. It took Grace a few days to warm up to the water, but she turned into a little fish in the end.

Born family shot. Unfortunately, Grace's hair is blocking a couple people...

Frisbee!

Robin and Batman even made a few appearances during the week. I felt very safe with so many super heroes in the house.

Grace enjoying a smoothie, and her dad looking on amused.

Grace jumped into a dinosaur matching game and was so proud of herself, she had to show Colleen.

Nicholas and Grace taking a self portrait with another camera.

I requested we head down to the beach on our last day for some group shots after dinner. It was right at the golden hour, one of the best times of day to shoot.

This is Grace's new smile face. I hope it doesn't last for too long...

I asked Linden and Rowan to do a serious pose and the result I got was the picture to the right. Rowan's got it down, but Linden has a bit of a Zoolander pose going on. Too much!

It's hard to see it, but there are a few fish jumping out of the water to the left of the crashing wave. This dog was having a blast trying to catch them.

Grace and Uncle Kevbo.

We watched a lot of Olympics at night, so Nick wanted to show off his dismount pose.

Grace and Colleen.

As luck would have it, a passerby happened upon us as I was taking our group picture which meant I had to get in a shot, boo!

Despite getting a nasty sunburn on my first day there, I had an absolute blast.  My highlights were being included in the super hero club (I was told I could be Super Girl), talks during bike rides, swimming with real waves (I'm used to the Long Island Sound) and of course getting to spend time with Grace. It was so nice to not know what day of the week it was and to not be dealing with any deadlines. As I said, I'm really bad about taking vacations, but I'm going to work on that.

Thanks to everyone for including me and making me feel welcome!