Puerto Vallarta, Part 2

This is Part 2 of a two-part post about my photographic adventures at a resort in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, last October.  You can read Part 1 by scrolling down to the post below this one.

In addition to enjoying the resort amenities and time with the family, for a couple of days were entertained (and only mildly inconvenienced) when areas of the resort were taken over by a TV production company shooting an Apple TV+ comedy series, Acapulco, a rags-to-riches story set in 1984-85.  (The episode segments shot at our hotel will appear in Season 4 sometime later this year.)  Here's a link to the Season 3 trailer.

For portions of two days, the production areas included the hotel lobby and two tiers of the three-tiered swimming pool.  So, having a camera with a long lens, I transformed myself into a paparazzo.  I got shooed away several times, but it was fun to watch and photograph a professional location shoot.

Setup the first day began before dawn, with lights, reflectors, and extras around the pool.  Stars don't show up until later.  (Hmmm . . . there's one of those spheres.)

As with all location shoots, there's a lot of "hurry up and wait" . . .

Then the director shows up, and things begin to roll . . .

"You start over here."

"Wait, those chair covers and towels are the wrong color scheme.  Get them out of here!"

Meanwhile, the crew was setting lights, reflectors, and moving the telescopic camera crane into position.

Then the principal actors arrived.  Guess which one in this photo is the star.

Hair!  Makeup!

OK, time for the actors to take their positions . . .

Sound check:  1 - 2 - 3 . . .

And . . . Action!

While all this was happening, out in front of the hotel there were about half a dozen equipment trucks, and some vintage automobiles (including a 1983 Ferrari Mondial and what looks like a 1960 Bentley S2) were being off-loaded and parked in the front driveway for establishing shots.

Later in the day, the production moved into the front lobby where they changed out all the lamps and furniture.  I could only get a couple of shots before they ran me off.

Finally, the day after all the cast and crew had departed, the vintage vehicles were loaded up and taken away.

. . . and oops! . . . it looks like someone busted the left front running light on the Bentley.

If you would like to see these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!

Puerto Vallarta, Part 1

Early last October, I traveled with family to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to spend a week at an all-inclusive resort.  The facility was amazing, as you would expect:  pools, restaurants, spas, activities for adults and kids.

Beyond enjoying all the amenities and time with the family, I began to be intrigued by the poolside views, some of which looked good in black & white, others better in color . . .

On a somewhat smaller scale, I enjoyed photographing the artistic touches in the architecture and the grounds.  For example, all the walkways were delicately decorated with small embedded stones in mosaic-like patterns and lines:

Here's a closer look at some of the work:

All of the rooms have ocean views, so all the hallways are on the landward side of the building.  But every 10-15 feet the exterior wall has sections with small diamond-shaped openings . . .

. . . which at sunrise fill the interior hallway walls and floor with patterns of brilliant light:

But for me the most visually intriguing features on the property were giant antique gold concrete spheres (about 2 feet in diameter) on pedestals around the swimming pool:

You can see them at the very far left and right in this image:

And they unobtrusively appear in almost every image around the pool . . . like Woody Allen's Zelig:

Those of you who are familiar with my photography adventures know that I am a proponent of the strategy of "walking around the teacup" -- photographing an object multiple times from different perspectives and in different light.  So naturally I picked one of the spheres to be my "teacup."  Altogether I made more than 100 images of the sphere over a span of five days.  Here are seven of my favorites (the clouds really helped on a couple of days):

If you would like to view these images in a larger format, please visit my photography website, Todos Juntos Photography, by clicking here.

Enjoy!