Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Basura Bajo

Basura Bajo (Trash Can Bass)

Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Humpback Tale a Fluke?

In what surely must be among the strangest whale photos ever shot, a mother humpback whale and her calf frolic in the Pacific north of Ixtapa. I watch both breach a dozen times. Between the electrifying leaps, both casually wave their fins and then smack them down on the water.

But then, in an instant, there is this curious study in the unison of opposites. The calf's smooth, jet black body completes a fluid leap, just as the cow raises her gnarled, graffitied flipper as if to show her approval.

Both forms, with little evident splash, look for all the world as if they'd been copied and pasted onto an empty sea. In perfect alignment, they appear to be the same size, but somehow it all looks impossible. It is not.

Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Reluctant Shooting

Zihuatanejo—in fact, Mexico in general—is full of photo-worthy images. Rich, vibrant colors everywhere you look. A surprising range of land- and seascapes. Amazing flora and fauna.

These are the easy images to capture.

Not so easy is trying to portray the beautiful, generous spirit of the Mexican people. I see it all the time, but I'm always reluctant to take the picture for fear of intruding, offending. It makes a lasting impression, but it is one I cannot often share.

This serious little girl and her young mother were standing on the pier in a village a couple of hours south of Zihuatanejo. The woman had been helping her husband and father-in-law pluck small fish from their cast net. She was so open, so quick to smile at us, so obviously proud of her daughter, that I couldn't help myself.
  

Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Panic in Zihua Bay

Roiling schools of bait fish glide like cloud shadows across Zihuatanejo Bay. Here, as in all of Nature, life's drama reveals itself to the patient eye. Pity the last to join the swarm, for predators ply its edges, where panicked flight sweeps the surface like invisible hands.

Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Lime Bisque

Mexican architecture loves dense, delicious color. In this detail, though, one savors the color for its understatement, a tart slice or two of lime surprising and delighting in a creamy bisque of shadow white.

Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Carved Alabaster Wings

The egret's strike, quicker than human reflex, snatches only water this time. The elegant mechanics of the bird's legs are drafted in a perfect "X." But neither leverage nor its golden grasp can counter the thrust without this single splendid beat of carved alabaster wings.

Snapshots from Zihuatanejo - Cast-net Concentration

At Playa La Madera, the cast-net fisherman scans the surface for signs of ojotones or lisas. They might darken the water like cloud shadow or roil the surface, but the signs are subtler the closer he gets.

He waits for his moment, for his range. In one fluid motion, his body gathers and then uncoils, his seasoned hands releasing the net with just enough spin to unfurl.

His extended tongue speaks to his effort and concentration, yet this time -- many times -- he is unsuccessful.