The minute I walked in the room, I ran to the balcony to capture the storm. The humidity fogged the lenses for about 20 minutes, but as soon as it cleared, I got the tail end of a lightning storm. A recent shoot in Cancún was off to a great start.
I’m sharing a few photos here, but I was really there to shoot video with my buddy Jeff Roldan of Creative Realm Entertainment.
We were primarily there to shoot a VSS Mind course / conference led by Anik Singal.
We were also there to shoot stock video for Jeff’s stock video company, Focus Footage.
This was… remarkable. This mama turtle was laying eggs before making her way back to the Caribbean Sea. The entire event took a couple hours in the middle of the night. Being a bit exhausted the next day was totally worth it to watch this from beginning to end. I’ll never forget it. And to give you scale, her flipper was bigger than my flipflop.
Meanwhile, there were babies wandering around the beach – aimlessly. We scooped dozens of them up and put them in the ocean. Statistically, very few make it, but I’d like to think all of ours survived the next part of their journey. This little guy was being held by a local the next day.
With virtually no light (to “protect their eyes”) a large group watched as the conservation team helped them make their way into the water.
Coconut milk. Fresh.
Mayan ruins. Notice the red water. More on that in a sec.
Hanging out with some of the VSS folks. Being all-inclusive, we were constantly eating. Just… constantly.
This is just some of the aerial footage we captured for Focus Footage. I highly recommend watching this teaser Jeff put together: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl9RHqMEbQg&feature=youtu.be
Did I mention we ate a lot?
This is a tide pool full of this dense, fluffy seaweed. It was a bit of an epidemic in places. The locals were shocked at how much there was and even had to bring in bulldozers to remove it. In a few cases, the seaweed stained the water reddish brown, making it look like a Biblical plague.
Jeff and I headed a couple hours down to Tulum. I believe this was taken in Playa del Carmen in the Quintana Roo district.
This was an incredible sunrise. Most people love sand, but to me, this was paradise.
Easily, one of my all-time favorite restaurants. No walls. No menus. A few plastic tables. Impossible to find. We hung out with a local we met on the plane and he gave us an amazing tour. We never would’ve even heard of this place otherwise.
Yeah, we enjoyed meeting the locals.
A private neighborhood. Life in the Yucatan peninsula is especially great for some folks.
A quick shot with the VSS group.
And I’m sure you wanna see a still of the lightning I captured. I love how God’s power is heard and felt in a lightning storm. Just the tip of the iceberg.
Overall, a successful and memorable trip.
