Karen and I just returned from a short cruise to the “Mexican Riviera.” Not a big deal, just seven days with three stops: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, and Cabo San Lucas, plus the Port of Los Angeles.

However, what I did learn was that there are lots of photo opportunities in a territory that we are not familiar with. For instance, palm trees; we don’t see many of them in Nebraska, so I had a ball photographing palm trees! Now, I suppose the Los Angeles Camera Club (if there is such a thing) has seen so many palm tree photos that they are sick of them (much like we are with capitol photos and sunsets over Holmes Lake). But, to me it was all new territory!

Included in the “rare” category for this boy from the farm in Nebraska was the ocean, ocean sunsets (better than Holmes Lake), seagulls (the big ones, not the water-going “pigeons” that we have here), sea lions in natural habitat, whales (you don’t see those in Holmes Lake, either), pelicans, frigate birds, albatross, rock formations, suspension bridges, old Spanish mission churches,  native entertainers, beautiful beaches, and every kind of boat and ship imaginable! I brought home over a thousand images, and left many hundreds in cyber space over the Pacific Ocean (all of the deletes of images that didn‘t turn out). I know that is not a lot for digital, but consider that we only made three ports of call.

The point is, look at all of the photo ops that we got from a single short trip! And, you don’t have to “go to sea;” there’s a wealth of beauty in Colorado, South Dakota, and Wyoming, any one of which is only a day’s drive away. Even a jaunt down to Kansas City and St. Joseph will reward you with a lot of new sights to photograph. Some of our larger lakes will reward you with seagulls, lots of shore birds, fish (being caught), larger boats and other “new” opportunities.

Finally, how about the historic buildings all around us? This is one of my favorite subjects, simply because I want to see these structures preserved, as they are in Europe and other regions. Lincoln has a multitude of beautiful old mansions; not just the few that you hear about, but many that you have to find buried in shrubbery and trees. If you run out of material here, every medium-sized town across the state has more. Just drive up and down the streets, and you will be amazed. In short order, you will be able to identify the approximate period in which each was built. Cities with an abundance of older buildings include: Nebraska City, Ashland, Omaha, Seward, Beatrice, Fremont, Wahoo and others.

Give you any ideas? I hope so. We all need a little push to get our engines going in the spring.

 Clark Springman