Rosarito and the Guadalupe Valley

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Stephen Fischer Photography

The final winery on the itinerary for our trip to Guadalupe Valley was Vena Cava. It is also one of the more unique ones I have seen, half underground, with the roofs constructed from the hulls of old fishing boats.  There, we took a tour that had been prearranged, and enjoyed a tasting of some of the more delicious wines of the day, waiting for the later afternoon golden light.  Later, after exploring the grounds on our own in search of unique photographic compositions, and enjoying the pleasant weather under an unusual terrace constructed from recycled drip line tubing, we then made our way back to our camp at Puerto Nuevo.  There we enjoyed a final bonfire that evening at Denise's place along with a few other local Americans in camp, recounting the days events and general experiences of the visit.

Equipment-wise, I decided to keep the gear to a minimum for this trip.  I packed my Canon 5D mark III body with just the one 24-105 f/4 L-series lens, plus a polarizer filter and lens hood for mid-day sun.  I also carried in my non-descript satchel a 430EX flash in a bounce configuration for some limited indoor shooting situations. For other low-light still photography conditions I carried a small Gitzo travel tripod. This only ended up being used for some seaside sunset situations.  In review, this gear choice was appropriate, not too encumbering, and helped reduce standing out in the crowd.

Overall it was a fruitful trip, being highly educational and helping enlighten myself about this region of Baja California and the people here. Photography was challenged in many situations due to harsher mid-day lighting, so one needed to be creative with compositions in an effort to work around this.  But that is typical for such travel photography, and something that such experiences help to further encourage your photographic skills and how to be more creative in coming up with something interesting.  It was a great opportunity to capture images of an area that is unique and more off the beaten path, and best of all, just a convenient jaunt over the border from San Diego.  Having Diane and Denise as hosts for this trip was a great help, handling the planning, our lodging, breakfast, water, and transportation. Their hospitality, confidence and connections with this area made such a trip both enjoyable and possible, enabling access to areas that would have been much more difficult otherwise.

by Stephen Fischer