>

You can now see all my photos from the trip so far at the Sosauce.com gallery.

In the end I took a long walk along the beach, camera in hand all the way. Here are some photos from today…

A sea lion:

Looking back at the Norwegian Sun, my home for four weeks:

Others walking on the beach:

I took photos of non-ladies on the beach too, but meanwhile:

A bike and a ship:

Working with nets:

This dog followed me for many miles of my walk. Later the dog patrol tried to catch him:

A sea lion on the pier:

As I framed the sea lion for a closeup, it shed a single, tiny, milky tear. So cute!

I’ll post more photos tomorrow…

This is a three exposure HDR photo, something I’ve not used yet with a human in the frame. Normally the idea is to make sure nothing is moving, as you get a fading effect. You can, of course, use a long exposure to makes sure moving subjects disappear completely. Here I set the timer, got into position, and kept as still as possible. The focus is slightly off, but otherwise I’m happy with the picture.

Today I’m in Puerto Madryn, Argentina, a city that exists purely for the seals and whales and walruses and penguins. I have four hours to fill, so I hope to see at least two kinds of large sea mammal/bird.

I only took five photos in Montevideo. Two of Bob and Nora, one of the cruise ship, one of some tango dancers, and the photo above. It’s a HDR photo, but the tone mapping is, I hope, not overly unrealistic.

Thankfully Bob and Nora, some friends from Germany, were in town. They are traveling around South America, and a cheap cabin on the Norwegian Sun cruise ships turned out to be a good value way to round Cape Horn. Norwegian Sun? That’s the cruise ship I’m working on right now! We missed each other by one cruise, but it was good to spend the day chatting with old friend, catching up on what they’ve been doing since June. Facebook is good, but long conversations are better.

Note, the following photo was taken under the red umbrellas, which really, really screwed up the colour balance. Rectifying it results in the green background… which I find a quite interesting effect.

Here’s a photo of two lizards fighting. Yes, more lizard photos, but I found this subject endlessly entertaining in Aruba.

Also, I’m not sure yesterday’s photo worked at all. It didn’t show up in my google reader anyway. Here it is again:

Last night I stayed up way too late, mainly because it was the first time in 20 days that I’ve had free and fast internet connection in bed. I uploaded the photos from yesterday, including the one above. Those dogs were just so cute!

After breakfast Paul and I got a lift to the ship from the hotel. After the king-sized bed, large bathroom, and balcony of the hotel, my inside (no window) cabin with a single bed is a bit of a step down. The light in the bathroom takes 40 seconds to turn on and my knees don’t fit under the desk. Thankfully I’m only on board the Maasdam for three nights.

The official checkout time at the hotel was noon, and I’d purposely not done so before leaving. I left the ship again at 1130, in time to return to the hotel before midday, and jumped on the shuttle boat out to the private island again. My key card didn’t actually work in the little box thing, but the pilot didn’t notice.

On the island I mostly sat under a palm tree, listened to music, read, then swam for a while, then repeated the list over. I also took some fun photos of more lizards, all of whom were far, far more active in the hot sun than they had been the previous evening.

Back on the ship I discovered a friend was on board, so chatted with him over dinner. Many, many, many people talk to me about wanting to be a guest entertainer (of course, my job is one of the best ever), and lots ask for my advice about all kind of things. Not many people, it seems, have what it takes. They have skills, sure, but so often they seem too comfortable in their current position. They won’t put in the work to break through and become both a good singer/musician AND a good performer. No matter how well you can play a piano/guitar/etc, if you don’t have a show, you’ve got nothing.

Anyway, John is doing all he can to get the performering skills to go with his musical skills. It’s good to see someone actually listen to my advice, even though he is going about it in a different way than I imagined. I may go into more detail about this on my blog in the future, as I have a lot to write about.

Normally when I stay overnight for work I stay in a pretty average hotel. Not to shabby, but nothing amazing. But this hotel is a cut above the usual. When I checked in I was told “Here’s your keycard. You’ll nee that if you want to take the shuttle-boat to the private island.”

A hotel with a private island? This is a new experience for me. Instead of joining some other guest entertainers in the hotel bar I decided to take that trip to the private island. The speed boat comes right into the hotel lobby via an underground water inlet from the habour.

The island wasn’t particularly exciting, but I guess that’s the point. I could relax and swim and just hang out without having to worry about anyone swiping my camera or phone. I took photos of flamingos to go with my earlier photos of lizards and dogs. I also spent a while setting up my zoom lens to get a perfect shot of my juggling while sitting on a hammock in front of the sunset.

And, by the time I got back to the hotel lobby, the other guest entertainers were still sitting at the bar, so I joined them for a chat and drink. I did other things today, but I don’t need to write about them now.

The second show had only half the audience by numbers, but the energy was still very high. Due to incompetent volunteer I fell off my rolla bolla in the finale, which sort of caught me out. Thankfully the audience went with my recovery, and there followed my second standing ovation.

Today is day 19 onboard the Prinsendam. This is the longest single contract I’ve ever done. I bought a bottle of wine back in Portugal, and it has been sitting in my fridge for over two weeks. Last night I took it to the officers bar and shared it with some musicians. Or that was the plan. In the end I drank most of it myself, and woke up this morning with a bit of a hangover.

Normally a hangover wouldn’t be a problem, but this morning I had to do an informal coffee chat with the cruise director, where I get to talk about my story and show and juggling, then take questions from the gathered cruise guests. Funnily enough this draws just as many people as one of my shows, and the theater was full again.