San Miguel de Allende - Part 2

While San Miguel de Allende is an historic town with lots of vivid color, there are other interesting elements besides those great buildings.

Just up the hill of Park Juarez  towards Casa de Sierra Nevada are trees loaded with Great White Egrets this time of year.

In this photo, most likely a male (but I am no expert) is bringing back a stick for female to build the nest with.

When he lands beside his mate, this is the gentle tug-of-war between them for several seconds which can be seen in the photo below.

 She always wins and then starts to add it to the nest.

Just beside the hotel are a lot of steps that lead up to a favorite lookout point. I had to stop twice to rest on the way up.

 From this image it is clear to see that San Miguel sits in a bowl. A giant bowl but lots of steep walking.

The church with spires is 'La Paroquia' and to the left is the 'Bellias Artes', the national institute of Fine Arts. To give the front building more emphasis I desaturated the background a little. Otherwise the important items get lost in the details.

If you continue  up from here, you will find the  'El Charro del  Ingenio' Botanical Gardens.  San Miguel in the winter is very dry, hasn't rained once in 5 months and therefore one would expect more desert like plants. I am sure that in the raining summer months the foliage must explode in flowers before the next drought starts.

 This part of the cactus from above eye level is at least 8 ft long.

 You can also darkened and desaturated background to enhance the yellow new growth

 

In a dry environment the colors are mainly muted browns and dull  greens. Converting to B&W takes the focus away from the dull colors to stronger patterns.

 You can, with tools in Photoshop, enhance to subtle colors and make them stronger and more vivid. De-saturating the background and darkening helps to keep the focus on the plant.

Throughout the town, the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom. It's a bit strange to see a vivid lilac-purple tree with no green leaves.

 Also, the Monarchs are starting the northern journey and settling in the trees during the night. In the day time with the warm temperatures, they are very active and hard to photograph. I did manage with a long zoom and judicious cropping to get a photo of one of the monarchs.

 I love this place. People are very friendly and the food is great.


Niels Henriksen