I’ve recently updated my portfolio with the latest hotel work I did in 2014. It’s a great gig; I travel around to a bunch of amazing cities and stay at some really nice hotels, eat some local grub. Some of the places I got to visit last year were Sarasota, Boca Raton, Chicago, Baltimore, Orlando, Nashville, and San Diego, just to name a few.
Here’s a small sample of some of the hotels I’ve shot over the last year.
So 2014 has been pretty busy for me so far and i haven’t had much free time to post about the rest of my 2013 travels. I wanted to create a separate post for each leg of our Asia journey, but instead I’ll just put it all together in one post.
After only three nights of rest back in Atlanta, we packed up our stuff once again and headed out to Singapore via Tokyo. We spent one night near Narita airport and arrived in Singapore the following day. It was ridiculously hot there and we spent three days sweating as we explored the city. We easily could have spent a week there and it still might not have been enough.
Our next stop was Phuket. I had always wanted to see the beaches of Thailand, so I was very pumped about this part of the trip. We stayed at the Twinpalms resort, which was absolutely stunning. The service was on par with the InterContinental Bora Bora, but the prices were only a fraction. Phuket was so nice and relaxing, and we even took a boat trip through the Phi Phi Islands to Maya Bay where “The Beach” was filmed. Lots of tourists, but still an amazing paradise.
After Phuket, we took a short flight over to Bangkok, where we stayed at the Sofitel So, another beautiful hotel with top-level service. I never knew Bangkok was such an insanely large city. And the traffic is absurd. Makes me never want to complain about Atlanta traffic ever again. We spent three nights in Bangkok and had a chance to visit the Damnoen Saduak floating market. Simply awesome. We also spent some time walking the grounds of the Grand Palace and exploring the incredible artwork and architecture.
Our final stop before heading back to Japan was Hong Kong. I remember my mom telling me stories about her visit to Hong Kong when I was little. Ever since, I wanted to see the city and I’m so glad I finally got the chance to do it. The food. The views. Such a kickass city. I definitely want to go back and dig deeper into the heart of Hong Kong.
So I finally got a chance to see Asia outside of Japan, and while I loved loved loved every single one of these cities, my heart will always live in Japan and after these two weeks I was so ready to get back to Tokyo. And because I love Japan so much (and because we spent two whole weeks there), I will put up a separate post just about our trip to Tokyo and Kyoto. Yes, I know I’m being biased.
When my wife told me that she was headed to Seattle for work, I knew immediately that I was going to tag along with her and make a side trip to the Palouse region of Eastern Washington. Most people may not be familiar with that name, but they’ve definitely seen photos of the area. Brilliant green, lush, rolling hills of tall wheat that seem to go on forever. Baby blue skies with fluffy white clouds. The surreal image on your Windows desktop. Yet it’s as real as can be, and it exists right there in Washington, just west of the Idaho border.
The Palouse Scenic Byway stretches 208 miles, weaving in and out of these amazing green hills of wheat. Some of the farm towns along the way include Colfax, Palouse, and Pullman, where I made my home base for the week. I took my little Nissan Versa rental and left Seattle early Monday morning to make the 4.5 hour trek eastbound. Only it took me about 6.5 hours because I stopped every 20 minutes to take photos.
I spent the next three days driving my Versa on every dirt road in the county, and then some. Like every trip I take, I spent the prior weeks scouting locations from the comfort of my own home, mainly via Google Maps. I created a custom map with about twenty places I wanted to explore and used my iPhone to help me navigate through countless dirt roads. Every now and then, I’d find a beautiful red barn or an old beat-up truck, and I’d just pull over on the side of the road and start shooting. Sometimes, I’d shoot for 30 minutes without even seeing one car.
I could have easily spent an entire week in the Palouse, but I had to be back in Seattle by Friday afternoon, and I still had another place I wanted to visit. About an hour and half west of Pullman lies Palouse Falls State Park. While people visit the park to hike, grill, and camp, the main feature is the grand waterfall that drops almost 200 feet into a swirling pool below. I was absolutely blown away that such an amazing waterfall exists within this canyon out there in the middle of nowhere. I spent a few hours hiking around the falls, waiting for the best light and trying out different angles. I wanted to stay after twilight to get some star trails, but the clouds were too thick to see anything. So around 9PM, I headed north to my hotel in Ritzville before making my way back to Seattle the next morning.
My four days in the Palouse were definitely memorable. And while I’ll still say that Bora Bora is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen, strangely enough the Palouse region is almost as pleasing to the eye, albeit in a different way.
Here’s a full gallery from the trip.
When Inna said yes to my proposal back in February of 2011, one of the first things we agreed upon was the location of our honeymoon… Bora Bora. It’s always been at the top of my list of destinations. And although it took almost a year after getting married, we finally made it happen.
(In case you don’t feel like reading about the trip and you want to skip straight to the pics, here’s a direct link to the full gallery of photos from Bora Bora.)
Getting to Bora Bora from Atlanta isn’t quick. It’s a five-hour flight to LA, three-hour layover at LAX, eight hours to Tahiti, an overnight stay there, another hour or so flight to Bora Bora the next day, and finally a twenty-minute boat ride to the InterContinental Thalasso. Once you get there, you truly are on the opposite side of the planet, and it sure feels that way.
The InterContinental Bora Bora Resort and Thalasso Spa is one of the top resorts on the island, along with the Four Seasons and St. Regis. It’s absolutely stunning and I’m so glad that we chose this resort over the others. From a photographer’s perspective, it turned out to be perfect because the InterContinental has the best angle of all the resorts of Mount Otemanu. We were upgraded to one of the best overwater bungalows available, so the view from our deck was unbeatable. I can’t say enough about the resort, and if you’re actually planning a trip to Bora Bora, you should read my review on Trip Advisor. I can’t imagine any of the other resorts being any better than the IC Thalasso.
All images Copyright © 2013 David Kosmos Smith
During our eight days there, we took several excursions. The first was a 4x4 jeep safari on the main island of Bora Bora. We got into the back of an open jeep with three other couples and headed up into the mountains. Moana was an awesome tour guide and made sure we had a blast sitting in the back of that jeep. He showed us coconut farms, a Tahitian pearl farm, and leftover American bunkers scattered throughout the island from WWII. It was a great way to learn about the history of the island and the local culture.
Our next excursion was a 30-minute helicopter tour of the island. Our pilot showed us an amazing birds-eye view of Bora Bora and even took us out to a small neighboring island called Tupai, which is unique for its heart-like shape. I’ll include my aerial shots from this trip in a later post.
Our third trip was a private snorkeling tour with yet another amazing guide, Alfonse. This may have been the most memorable tour as I nearly lost my right hand to a blacktip shark. We had several stops on this tour. The first was a little spot where people come to swim with stingrays and blacktips. It was a little crazy being completely surrounded by thirty or so sharks and maybe just as many stingrays. But the fear subsided fairly quickly and it was a lot of fun to swim with them.
The next stop was a coral garden and the main attractions here were two moray eels. Alfonse coaxed the larger one to come out of his hiding hole with some food, but the second smaller one was a bit more aggressive with us. He came at me, snaking through the water with his mouth wide open, and he wouldn’t back down. I pushed my Ikelite underwater housing at him, hoping to scare him off. He didn’t care, and he kept coming. I ended up kicking my flippers at him to make him back away.
Next up was swimming with lemon sharks. Because of my longtime obsession with marine life, I’ve always known what lemon sharks were. What I didn’t know was how big they get. We ventured outside the surrounding reef and into the open ocean to a spot where some lemons usually hang out. As we pulled up, a bunch of blacktips approached the boat and I ignorantly put my GoPro into the water, hoping to get some nice video of the sharks. I had my hand just under the surface of the water and I thought the hull of the boat was protecting me from any sharks underneath us, but with all the action going on, I must have dipped my hands too deep and a nice blacktip saw the GoPro shining in the sunlight. He came out of nowhere and decided to take a bite, but the tip of his nose smacked my right hand and I was able to pull back quick enough. Keep in mind, this all happened before I was to jump in and swim with the massive lemon sharks. Alfonse took the plunge first and laughingly called for me to join him. At this point, I was a bit more nervous than I would have been if that blacktip didn’t just scare the shit out of me. Hesitantly, I stepped down the ladder into the royal blue waters and I looked straight down. Two fat eight-foot lemon sharks circled below. I didn’t venture too far away from the ladder, but Alfonse didn’t think twice to dive down to them, even grabbing one’s dorsal fin lightly and going for a short ride. Now, I’ve stood fishing in chest deep water with some small three or four-foot sharks cruising by me in Destin, Florida, and never felt an ounce of fear. But this was on a totally different level. These sharks were huge and they were circling five to ten feet below my feet. Talk about adrenaline rush. Bucket list: check.
The three excursions we went on were incredible, but even exploring the island on our own schedule was just as amazing. Bora Bora is truly a photographer’s heaven. Everywhere you look, there’s a beautiful shot just waiting to be taken. The sunsets each night were insane with rich cotton candy colors, the water as blue as you can imagine, and the clear night skies showed off the infinite number of stars in the universe. This was paradise in its truest definition. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to find a more perfect place on Earth, and I’m not sure that I want to. I couldn’t have asked for a better honeymoon and I’m glad it happened in a place that I’ll never forget.
Copyright © 2013 David Kosmos Smith
One of my best friends and his family stopped by Atlanta the other day on their way home to Colorado from Florida. I got a chance to hang out with his kids at the pool and I figured it was a great opportunity to play around with my Ikelite underwater housing for my D7000.
I had a blast! The kids obviously didn’t need any direction… they just played around, jumping into the pool, which made for some hilarious facial expressions underwater. I forgot to bring my mask with me to the pool, so I had to shoot blindly, but it was surprisingly easy with the ergonomics of the housing.
Underwater housings are pretty pricy, but if you ever get a chance to shoot with one (maybe a friend has one?), I’d definitely recommend it. Looking forward to playing with this some more!
Yesterday, we took Inna’s mother to Zoo Atlanta. I haven’t been in about three years. We strolled around for a couple of hours and I took some casual photos. Tested out the D800 with some high ISOs in the indoor reptile exhibit. The resulting noise wasn’t too bad.
The zoo itself is pretty nice, although a lot of the big guys (lions, gorillas, giraffes) were too far away or hidden. Nevertheless, a fun day at the zoo.
Back again to Lithuania for two weeks. I’ve been wanting to go during the winter to see Vilnius covered with a blanket of snow, but I’ve also been warned about the ridiculously frigid temperatures. But I got very lucky with this trip. Apparently, the weather had been pretty nice just before we arrived. A few days after we got there, a big snowstorm came rolling through and dumped about 4-5 inches on us. And all this without any crazy minus temps.
We actually got a small little dusting of snow a few days before the bigger storm came through. This photo was taken in the backyard of Inna’s mom’s house in Lentvaris, just outside of Vilnius.
Now, it’s off to Vegas next week to get married. I’m sure I’ll have something to post after that trip!
I’ve been wanting to get back to New York for a while now, and we recently had a nice opportunity to go, so we spent a few days up there. We left last Wednesday and spent three nights at the wonderful little Ink48 hotel.
The weather was absolutely gorgeous the day we arrived. I really wanted to watch the sunset from under the Brooklyn Bridge, so we headed over there about an hour before it went down. We stayed there for a while and then walked across the bridge once it got dark. The wind completely died down and it was amazing. I’ve never walked across it before and it blew my mind. It was so beautiful up there.
Starving, we made our way down to Chinatown and had some late night dumplings at the Wonton Garden.
The next morning, we went up to the top of Rockefeller Center. The visibility wasn’t that great, but it was still an awesome view and I got a nice shot of foggy Manhattan.
Afterwards, we had lunch at Rock Center Cafe and then watched some ice skating.
We spent the rest of the afternoon just aimlessly wandering and doing a little shopping. We made our way over to Yakitori Totto, which is my favorite restaurant in NYC. It’s an authentic Japanese yakitori joint and the food is amazing. However, it’s tiny and if you don’t get there early enough, you’ll definitely be waiting for a bit.
The next day, we strolled through Central Park and hit up Rockefeller again for an attempt at a sunset shot. But the visibility was horrible and you could barely even see the Empire State Building. We watched all the high school kids ice skating for a bit before heading back to our hotel to meet a friend for some drinks. Ink48 has an awesome rooftop lounge with one of the best unobstructed views of Manhattan.
Our last day was St. Patty’s Day. Of course, we wanted to check out the parade, so we walked over to 5th Ave, but there were so many people we could hardly see anything. Got some street food for lunch and found a spot in Times Square to eat and chill for a while. It was definitely a strange experience that day. We really felt like we were thrown into a Jersey Shore episode. I didn’t think those people really existed in such numbers, but there was a green Snookie on every corner. Scary stuff.
After our interesting Jersey-leprechaun experience, we cabbed it to LaGuardia and caught our flight back home. When boarding the flight, I asked our captain if he would allow me to shoot a time-lapse out my window from gate to gate. He was totally cool with it, so I used my Gorillapod and propped it up on the armrest. Didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but I will probably edit it and post it soon anyways.
All in all, had a wonderful trip to NYC. Love that place and hope to go back again this winter!
Last weekend, we took a short road trip from Atlanta up to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Some friends of ours invited us up to a cabin overlooking the Smoky Mountains, so we spent the weekend up there exploring the scenery, grilling out, and drinking some bacon vodka.
Normally, the drive to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge is just over four hours, but we opted for the scenic route on 441 that took us straight through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and got us there in about six hours. It’s a gorgeous drive and I highly recommend it, opposed to the highway route through Knoxville. We stopped about four or five times to check out the views, which is why it took us an extra two hours or so.
We had a short but fun hike to Laurel Falls one day and got about a half-day of skiing in on another. And by “skiing,” I mean standing off to the side watching crazy out-of-control people flying down the slopes screaming “I… can’t… stoooopp!!” Definitely not the kind of skiing I’m used to after having lived in Colorado for seven years. Man, these people do not know how to ski up there!
It was a short weekend, but we had a great time just relaxing in a beautiful cabin. If you haven’t been to the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area, I definitely recommend it. Lots of fun up there!
Oh, and sorry to all those other cabins around us for practicing our Bigfoot calls all night long. Hope we didn’t keep you awake.
Inna and I have made trips to the Bahamas for two years in a row, including an engagement trip just about a year ago. And with my mom’s birthday being yesterday, we decided to bring her along this time for a birthday present, making this our third year in a row to Paradise Island.
We flew in direct from Atlanta on Friday morning and strolled around the property a bit, checking out the beautiful aquarium they have. We then walked down to the beach for a while and then, of course, headed to the casino where we proceeded to get our arses kicked.
We really didn’t do a whole lot while we were down there. Just ate, gambled, and hit the beach. Had some crappy weather on Saturday, but Sunday was gorgeous and we got lucky with a beautiful sunset.
I really love this place. If you can get down there, do it. The property is enormous and beautiful, and despite being cut off from the main land, there’s actually quite a bit to do there. It’s a great place to visit, whether you have kids or not.
Earlier this month, Inna had to travel to Munich for a few days for some meetings, so we decided to make it a week-long excursion and I would tag along, exploring the city while she was stuck in offices all day. Fair trade, no?
We departed Atlanta on a Saturday evening and arrived in Munich on Sunday. We spent the first couple of days wandering around the city, taking in some sights and consuming lots of wienerschnitzel and sausages. And beer. Big, blisfful steins of beer.
After spending the day checking out the castle and the village below, we made our way back to Munich and took a flight home first thing in the morning. It had been a while since my last trip to Germany, but I was reminded once again why I love that country so much. You can’t go wrong with the food, the city of Munich itself is gorgeous and historical (like anywhere else in Europe), and the people were incredibly kind. It’s definitely a city we could see ourselves living in and hopefully we’ll make our way back there soon.
After our trip to London, Amsterdam, and Paris, we returned to Lithuania to relax for a few days and start planning our second side trip. We decided we wanted to see Scandinavia, so we booked tickets to Stockholm. We would spend three nights there, three in Copenhagen, three more in Helsinki, and then round out our trip with another three nights in Riga. We wanted to visit Norway, but we figured it would require a separate trip on its own just to see all the fjords.
So off we went to Sweden. Now let me say, I’ve been to quite a few major Western European cities before. London, Paris, and Rome have always been my favorite. But I was completely blown away by Stockholm. The history, the architecture, the layout of the city, the people, the food… all amazing. I can’t say one bad thing about that city. Well, except for a really crappy Mexican restaurant called Taco Bar that we made the mistake of trying. (Yes, I know… but tacos sounded amazing at the time!)
Regardless of our bad Swedish-Mexican experience, Stockholm, in my opinion, is the most underrated major city in all of Europe. It’s definitely a place I wouldn’t mind moving to.
Don’t get me wrong. Copenhagen is a lovely city. It just seemed a bit dirtier and didn’t quite have that “wow factor.” But we still had a blast and I got some nice shots of the Nyhavn waterfront, where a lot of cafes and pubs are located.
We took a short ferry ride to Suomenlinna, an 18th century island fortress just ten minutes from Helsinki’s port, and spent all day there. Not a whole lot to do in Helsinki, but it was still a beautiful city to explore.
We were blown away by the beautiful architecture in Riga. Old Town felt like some kind of fake city built by Disney. The food was quite good and the cheap prices made everything even better.
Funny little story: The hotel we stayed at (Opera Hotel) was right across the street from a movie theatre, so one afternoon we decided to see X-men: First Class. Now, Latvia’s second official language is Russian. So being that the movie was in English, both Latvian and Russian subtitles were provided. “No problem,” I thought. The movie’s in English. Well, little did I know, half of that damn movie is in French, German, and Russian. Inna ended up having to translate the Russian subtitles to me in English just so I could understand what was going on.
Even better… once we got back to Lithuania, we decided to see Planet of the Apes. Same deal. Half of that movie is in sign language with Lithuanian subtitles. Awesome.
On May 24th, we set out to Lithuania to set up home base for about three months. From there, we’ve decided to take some side trips to travel parts of Europe. Our first side trip took us to London, Amsterdam, then train to Paris and back to Vilnius. We just booked a week-long excursion to Greece and we’re currently trying to plan a Scandinavian trip as well.
These are just some random shots taken with my iPhone over the last few weeks, in chronological order.
