Loyal readers most likely noticed that I wrote very few blogs over the past couple of weeks as I was traveling in Baja, Mexico. Part of the lack of posts was due to spotty Internet connections and part was simply because I was on vacation. But it was a working vacation as part of my time was spent capturing more photos to use on my Loreto Bay Home Rental Web site.

One of my favorite photos was taken after a rough hike up a big rock. Given the hot weather and the tough climb, I really worked for that photo. From that perspective, I was able to show the Sea of Cortez, the Sierra de la Gigante mountains and the development where my property is located.

A more amusing photo happened when driving to dinner I saw a cow munching the grass in the median. I just had to stop the car, get out and take some photos of my new bovine friend.

In observing others around me, I saw photos being taken in a different way. I almost always turn my phone to take photos in landscape orientation. Sure, there are some photos that are best taken in portrait orientation. Yet others almost always had their phones shooting portrait all the time. When you do that, you are often not getting the best photo. It doesn’t work well for social media or on many Web sites. Those who shoot video in portrait and breaking every rule in the book as far as I’m concerned. C’mon folks, turn your phone 90 degrees and shoot it right!

If you take a photo in the wrong orientation, you may have to take extra steps to get it turned. Most photos are saved on your device in JPG format. So even if you rotate it in Corel PHOTO-PAINT (or another editor) and save back to JPG, it won’t retain the rotation. You’ll have to save it to PNG or TIF, close the file, reopen the PNG or TIF and then save to JPG to get the rotation to hold. Does this sound like a productive workflow to you? Take the photo correctly in the first place and you can avoid the extra steps.

Did I also have some fun on my vacation? You bet. I had some awesome food and explored some of the local historical sights (which included picking up six hitchhikers). One day I went out to an island for some scuba diving and other days I snorkeled on the beach just outside the casa. On the last day I went on a glass bottom boat and befriended a red sea star (see below).

Yes, I put the sea star back in the water after taking photos. They are very resilient and can handle being out of the water for an hour or more. On the days when I went diving and snorkeling, I got up early enough to see the sunrise over the offshore islands. It was simply spectacular!

I’m already looking forward to my next trip South of the border!