Dachs Thoughts

After gathering the group together and having a day to recuperate from our long travels, our first big excursion was to a UNESCO Heritage Site, the iconic Jatiluwih rice terraces located more-or-less in the center of the island, a couple of hours from where we were staying. This was our first experience of how insanely bad the traffic on Bali is, as it wasn’t that far geographically, but it took hours to get there. They are protecting this area as development has gobbled up much of this type of farming land in Bali. We took a nice hike down into the rice fields with our models and were able to make some nice pictures. Afterwards, we had lunch at a restaurant that overlooked to rice terraces.

After lunch, we drove not too far away to a relatively secluded Ye Hoo Waterfall (Air Terjun Yeh Hoo). It was a bit of a hike down the hill to get there, and it was quite beautiful. As we were secluded enough we were able to shoot some bikini and environmental shots with our models. We ended up with some classic images with bathing beauties in a nice waterfall.

One the way back towards our home, we took a different route to avoid some of the traffic and we traveled through some very traditional Balinese towns and were able to see the architecture and the local culture. At the last minute we made a change of plans, and rather than just heading home we went to capture some sunset shots at Pantai Nyanyi, a black sand beach on the southwest of Bali. I’ll blame my lack of sleep for my brain only semi-working, but even though I had brought a flash, I didn’t remember that and didn’t bring it down on the beach, so I primarily only got backlit shots. Nevertheless, it was nice to see the beautiful sunset and capture some interesting images. Afterwards, we headed for home.

In a year where I had been trying to pull-back a bit on traveling, in the last part of October 2023, I went on my longest trip ever and visited the south seas island of Bali in Indonesia. This trip to this rather exotic location was organized by my friend Humberto, an amazing photographer from Mexico who I have known from various UTadventure Yucatán tours, as well as from a wonderful tour through various historic Haciendas of Hidalgo México that he organized. I had never before traveled to southeast Asia, and I was surprised geographically and culturally by this island paradise.

From the time I left my house, it took about 31 hours of traveling to reach Bali. I flew from SFO through Taipei, Taiwan and then on to Bali. Bali is 15 hours ahead of my normal time zone, and I don’t think I ever really adjusted. One problem I had on the trip was insufficient sleep; but that’s typical for me on these long trips. One thing that surprised me was how close Indonesia (and Bali) are to the equator. In my mind it was much farther South. It is also quite close to Australia, and the Australians view it a bit like their equivalent of Hawaii. That’s why it’s good to travel, it helps you put some aspects of the world closer to reality. Indonesia consists of more than 17,000 islands and is a primarily Muslim country. But Bali is predominantly Hindu, and it is where most of the Hindus in Indonesia live. So that really colors the culture of the island.

I came in a few days before the official start of the tour, and when I arrived on the island I stayed at a hotel that was literally at the airport (I hadn’t quite realized that when I booked it). It turned out to be good as it was clean, comfortable and quiet and a good way to start the transition. A few days later we all started joining together in our base in Seminyak. We had two villas that were about a quarter mile apart. The whole group consisted of 11+/- people: we had 6 photographers, including myself, 3 of which I knew and 2 who were new to me, coming from the US and Mexico, and one of the photographers brought his wife; the trip was originally announced to have 3 models with some additional local models periodically added in — it turned out we had 4 wonderful models plus a local model for a number of shoots, coming from the US, Canada, Mexico, and Bali. I had previously worked with one of the models, Geraldine Haze from Mexico, but the others were new to me: Eleya and Spongegal from San Antonio, TX, Olivia Preston from Canada, and Balinese model Ayu.

The 10 day tour consisted of a mix of sightseeing trips to some cultural and geological highlights of the island interspersed with some focused opportunities to shoot with some of the models at several private villas. Some of the cultural / geographical highlights of the tour included:

• Jatiluwih — Rice Terraces (UNESCO Heritage Site)
• Yeh Hoo Waterfall
• Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud
• Overlook of Danau Batur, Volcano Crater lake
• Pura Tirta Empul Hindu Balinese Water Temple
• Nusa Dua Waterside Parkway
• Garuda Wisnu Kencana (GWK) Statue/Culture Park
• Pura Luhur Uluwatu Temple

This was a wonderful trip, exposing unique aspects of culture and geography, as well as giving us numerous opportunities to shoot with some talented models. It left most of us exhausted at the end, but full of many memories.