Ziray Studio Labs » photos

Railay Beach, Thailand

Mike — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:01:27 +0000

As part of our much belated honeymoon, we ventured to Thailand with two goals in mind: rock climbing and scuba.

The first night we were there, we found a tiny rock climbing shop down from our hotel, the Haleeva (which I’d recommend, though a bit up from the beach, but we didn’t care). They took us on their boat to Railay Beach, a peninsula accessible only by boat since the top is bordered by large mountains. We climbed for the first half of the day, ate lunch on the beach with two girls from Germany (we met so many Germans on this trip) that we met rock climbing and walked over to West Railay Beach where it was filled with people enjoying the beach.

Our goal however was to find a cave that was recommended to us. A bit of a ways up the beach, we found more rock climbers and eventually found a cave with fixed ropes and ladders inside. A flashlight was definitely needed (one was lent to us by a local climbing shop) as we traversed back and up inside this cave. It eventually came out 50 feet above the rock climbers we had previously encountered with a gorgeous view of one of the beaches.

Railay Beach, Thailand

Top of the climb in Railay, Thailand

Ana at the top of the route

After a little while, it started to get crowded

Low tide

On the boat back to Aonang

Aonang Boardwalk

Sunset

Railay Beach, Thailand is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

City of Rocks

Mike — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 20:00:25 +0000

We visited the City of Rocks National Reserve in southern Idaho and camped there for two days. We also got our first real rock climbing experience.

City of Rocks

City of Rocks is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Colombia

Mike — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 03:02:47 +0000

The past few months have been one great thing after another.

I got the opportunity to spend New Year’s Day in Colombia, which is better than any fourth of July celebration in any American city. In the US, where there’s an hour of fireworks displays, in Medellín, Colombia, the fireworks last the entire evening, night and into early morning. If one didn’t know any better, you’d swear you were living in a war zone with constant gun fire. It was truly amazing. The same thing happens on Christmas.

I also got married in Colombia, so that was kind of a big deal. We rented out a extremely fancy club and partied until 4AM; then, we went to an after party. Also, my family got to see the amazing landscape that happens in no other place in the world except Colombia.

Too many things have happened since, so I have to keep this short, or not post it at all

Enjoy the photos:

Colombia is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week: Faces in Places

Mike — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:15:32 +0000

We went to a Latino Festival in Roanoke, which was filled with Colombians. The food was great, the people were interesting and the displays were very beautiful. We met a mother from Colombia whose little girl dress in the traditional dress from Antioquia, the state that Ana is from. Then two Colombian girls danced a traditional dance from the coast area of the country.

The next two photos are of ours and a friend’s dog on our recent hike to McAfee Knob.

Colombianita

Colombian Dance Team

Kiara

Ollie

Photos of the Week: Faces in Places is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – Food

Mike — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 14:15:58 +0000

Took some simple snap shots for this week’s topic. We made some pumpkin pancakes and Ana made some edible cake decorations for a friend’s birthday cake. They’re absolutely adorable.

Photos of the Week – Food is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – Pets

Mike — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:25:17 +0000

Ana, Kiara and I went to Grayson Highlands recently for a few days of camping and hiking. It was awesome.

Photos of the Week – Pets is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week: Living Things

Mike — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:40:42 +0000

We got a new puppy this past weekend. We finally decided on naming her Kiara. Her shelter name was Lupe, but we wanted something that we picked out since she was going to be our dog. Ana checked out all the shelters, petfinder.com, Craig’s List and everywhere else she could think of online. We had actually went to the Franklin County Humane Society looking for another dog that Ana saw, but she had been adopted that previous weekend.

Instead, we found Kiara in a cage outside, scared to death of the other barking dogs around her. She wouldn’t even come out, but instead cowered into the corner. Ana climbed into the cage and Kiara instantly cuddled up to her. Kiara had actually been returned to the shelter two days before by a women with health problems who couldn’t handle the activeness of a collie puppy. Real intelligent. She was also infested with thousands of ticks, which the humane society had over looked because of her fluffy hair, the fact that the vet was on vacation and that she had only been there for two days.

But she’s adjusting well and Ana has already begun training her in various things and taking her on long walks.

Photos of the Week: Living Things is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – Motion and Speed

Mike — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 13:37:41 +0000

While I took a lot of photos this week, since we have a deadline fast approaching I didn’t have time to specifically take photos for this theme, so the last one is a bit of a stretch. But, in the very least, they’re still photos of the week. Enjoy!

Here’s Sam’s submission.

Photos of the Week – Motion and Speed is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – Summer

Mike — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:30:59 +0000

Our photo challenge was “Summer.” Luckily I was in Jersey with a pool so I got some easy shots.

Here’s Sam’s submission.

Photos of the Week – Summer is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – Black and White

Mike — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:36:08 +0000

With the advances in digital photography and the cost of high quality cameras so low, everyone has become a photographer. However, few realize what it’s like to shoot with film and fewer still, to shoot with actual black and white film.

The development process was the best part because you didn’t get to see your photos until you hung up your role of film on the drying line. Often times, you’d forget you even took some of your shots and be pleasantly surprised. There was no looking at your LCD screen after every shot, there was no deleting bad pics so that you could shoot more on your already full memory card. Different films yielded different colors, grain and style, which can now be duplicated in a computer, but it’ll never be the same. This week’s photo challenge was an attempt to force everyone to think about shooting for a purpose rather than for an edit in Photoshop later.

Disrepair

Branches

Yoga

Photos of the Week – Black and White is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – People

Mike — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 13:45:31 +0000

This week was a bit hectic and so we chose an easy topic to do. Admittedly, this post is a bit weak, but they were shot on full manual, so they did have a bit of thought behind them. All things considering, it’s a surprise I even had time for these photos. Next week should be more productive.

Enjoy the photos below:

A photo of Ana, her mother and her older brother

Ana's aunt making the traditional Colombian wedding cake

Photos of the Week – People is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Photos of the Week – After Hours

Mike — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:01:58 +0000

Sam and I started a photo project. It’s pretty simple: a theme and a set of photos (3-5) taken that week. This week’s theme was “After Hours.”

I always take photos, but rarely do I have time to post them. Since I have peer pressure now, it pushes me to go out, take some more photos with some thought behind it and finally post them.

Here’s Sam’s After Hours post.

A Tree Grows Through It

Night Frame

Light Streaks on Fairfax

Fairfax at Night

A Sleeping Petunia

Photos of the Week – After Hours is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Laberinto Scuba Dive

Mike — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:27:00 +0000

Time in: 14:34
Time out: 15:16

Max depth: 51 feet
Avg. depth: 37 feet

This was the second dive on Bushnell. Our dive boat was so tiny that it only held one tank per diver, so a support boat had to follow us out to Bushnell to exchange tanks so we could do a second dive there. It was 50 minutes away, so there was no way we could have gone back to the resort like with the other dives. We had a 36 minute surface interval, which barely gave us enough time to do a 45 minute no decompression dive. By the time we got into the water however, we had enough time to do a ~50 minute dive to 60 feet, but since we only went to a max of 51 feet, we were well within the limits of no decompression diving.

The Labyrinth was full of canyons in the reef, most of which were big enough for one person to swim through. The reefs were high and filled with some beautiful fish. Three barracudas swam by to check us out.

Bushnell – Laberinto

Ana

Juanca hanging out

Our 3-minute safety stop 15 feet below the surface

Hanging out on the anchor line

Our divemaster taking a nap

The resort as seen from the wate

Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Laberinto Scuba Dive is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Scuba Dive

Mike — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:49:50 +0000

Time in: 13:18
Time out: 13:58

Max Depth: 54 feet
Avg Depth: 39 feet

The water temperature was a warm 84 degrees (according to the dive computer) while the air was only around 80. At those temperatures it’s so nice to jump in the water. Even so, Ana gets cold while diving and wore a 3mm wetsuit.

The dive site was a 50 minute boat ride away towards the north west part of the island where the sea floor raised up to a depth of about 60 feet. It’s basically an underwater mountain (see map below) with a gorgeous reef that sits on top of it (see the sketch by our divemaster in the photos below).

The dive yielded gorgeous reef formations with spots of white sandy sea floor. The sandy floor allowed us to set down in a place that wouldn’t harm the reef so we could get better look at some of the sea creatures such as a Caribbean lobster and various plant life.

Isla Fuerte – Bushnell

Barracuda

Lobster

Bushnell off the north west coast of Isla Fuerte. A mountain in the middle of a deeper part of the sea.

During our briefing on the site, our divemaster drew a rough sketch of the reef formation.

Isla Fuerte – Bushnell Scuba Dive is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs

Isla Fuerte – El Planchon

Mike — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:11:02 +0000

Time in: 15:09
Time out: 15:57

Max Depth: 36 feet
Average Depth: 23 feet

We spent the night at Moñitos, on the coast of Colombia, before taking a ferry from Paso Nuevo with Just Elena, Juanca and Ana. The morning water was too choppy for diving so we waited until the afternoon. We made sure everyone was ready and equipment was setup properly since everyone except me hadn’t dived since Florida, which was about 6 months prior.

The dive boat we dived from was small and only held about 10 tanks. We entered the water with mask, snorkel and fins and were handed our scuba tanks. We then descended along the anchor line to the wreck which was a former lumber transport that sank off the coast of Isla Fuerte. It was 150 meters long, 10 meters wide and the deck was 8 meters high.

We saw squirrelfish, French angelfish, rainbow parrotfish, a lionfish and two creole wrasse trying to mate.

Even though I had 9 lbs of weight, I, as well as everyone else, was under weight.

Isla Fuerte Dive One

Ana

First dive we encountered a sunken ship, used to carry cargo.

Juanca and Elena

On top of the cargo ship

Lion fish are relatively new to this area of the Caribbean and started showing up after a hurricane swept through.

The top of the ship has rotted away

A latter to go down into the ship

Squirrel fish swimming on top of some brain coral

Top corner of the ship

Juanca

Isla Fuerte – El Planchon is a post from: Ziray Studio Labs