Aruba Skies [Sky Watch Friday]

   It was a wonderful hiatus from winter, albeit too short. After two weeks in Aruba, here I am back in a near ‘polar vortex’. So, all I can do is console myself with memories from images taken while I was barefoot in the sand. The two top pics were shot ca. 6:00 A.M., prior to sunrise, while a nice moonset was also underway. Since I was without a tripod, I had to try and steady my camera [an old  Canon A720 ‘point and shoot’] on the back of a chair. Both were taken using the aperture priority mode: ISO 200 for 1 sec. and f/4.0. I was surprised to see an almost ‘star burst’, since this usually requires an aperture like f/13 or smaller. There was quite a bit of color noise [spots], which I cleaned up a bit by using the spot remover in PS Elements and then converting to B & W.

  The pic below [from Jan. 2010] was taken during sunset. These two divi-divi trees are Aruba icons; it was my good luck that they were located a short walk from our resort; and, a year later the trees were surrounded with large rocks, I suppose for protection against vehicles crashing into them.