I posted the photos on Facebook so they could be shared and tagged easier. Click here to check out the photos.

If the anyone would like a copy of the photos in full resolution just click here and send me a message.

In my current class, I’m getting an overview of Adobe Lightroom and a refresher course in photography fundamentals. This is my second photography class ever and the last class was nearly a decade ago – probably long overdue.

Here are some of my favorites from the first two weeks of class.

It would seem that Jamaica has one species of spider and they are everywhere, it might be a Garden Spider. Aside from spiders there were plenty of butterflies and dragonflies. The crabs are really colorful; I was surprised at the range of colors and yet they blend easily into the rocks. I found several species of lizards, but I primarily photographed Anoles. Other lizards were plentiful had a varying color schemes.

Click on the photo below for the full size version of the panoramic beach photo - its  8,759×2,459 and about 3.7MB so it may take a few moments to load if you have a slow connection.

Instead of breaking these photos into tiny separate posts by category I combined a bunch of photos into a medium sized post. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Enjoy!

Jamaica’s National Bird is commonly known as the “Doctor Bird” or by the more proper name Red-billed Streamertail. The photos I took are of an immature male Streamertail hummingbird; the trademark tail feathers do not develop until adulthood. I recommend visiting the Rockland’s Bird Sanctuary if you ever go to Jamaica. It was owned by a woman that trained wild birds to eat out of her hand.

Jamaica provides crucial wetland habitats for birds such as the threatened West Indian Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna arborea) which should not be confused with the close relative Fulvous Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna bicolor). Among the ducks, I thought the bird with the red beak was a coot (it swims with with the coot signature neck movement), it turns out to be a relative called a “Moorhen.”

The appearance of a Great Egret in the wetlands was unexpected because it typically only winters in the Caribbean and we were visiting near the end of summer. I almost mistook it for a Snowy Egret, which is very similar but has a couple distinctive features, i.e. Great Egret has black feet and a yellow beak whereas the Snowy Egret has the inverse.

This past August I went to Jamaica with my wife. We went to the beach a lot and sampled some of the local culture. For the most part I just took photos and I took a lot of them. In hindsight I should have taken more

At this frigid time of year I want to be reminded of warmer climates and it has been over 4 months since we have returned so to help the process along I will be posting photos from Jamaica in installments. I started with the “Abstract” category because, frankly, my photo organization software alphabetized the categories.

Enjoy!

Nathan Gross

The Provo Tabernacle caught fire about 3AM December 17th 2010. I drove by the fire around 6AM on my way to work but I did not have my camera. The building burned throughout the day and was still smoking and steaming when I took these photos around 2AM on the 18th. The street on the south side of the Tabernacle was completely closed off, but I was able to get some pictures from the NuSkin parking structure which is directly to the west of the building.

I’ve never been in the Tabernacle but it was on my list of Provo centric photos I planned on taking. Its difficult to wrap my head around the Tabernacle being gone. It has been a landmark in Provo for over a hundred years and was destroyed in a day. I always intended to take photos of the Tabernacle at the “optimal time” including time of day, weather conditions and time of year… however, instead of focusing on what-might-have-been I’m reminded of this aphorism by Mason Cooley, “Regret for wasted time is more wasted time.”