Up Above the Beach at Tulum in Mexico

Looking down at the beach near the Mayan Ruins at Tulum in Mexico from high up above on a bluff. The building of the ruins known as El Castillo can be seen at the far left, and of course the blue water of the Caribbean is at the right.

This view may look somewhat familiar, because I shared a few similar photos in an earlier post, Visiting the Beach at Tulum in Mexico. And yes, this is similar to a photo in that post, but it is different. Slightly different vantage point, and some different processing, too. So I thought this one was worth sharing as well.

We really did stop every few yards, it seems, as we were walking along the overlook from the ruins to get back to the parking lot and meet the tour bus. Laura might even say that it seems like we stopped every foot. But the view was so breathtaking, with the greenery and the ruins and the blue water, that I wanted to try to capture it as best as I could, which meant making several tries, just to make sure they turned out well. And now it seems that so many of them turned out well that it is difficult to know which one to share. So that’s why I’m sharing this one now. And believe it or not, there are even more great photos slightly similar to this one, but I will try to wait a while and space them out a bit. Just to hopefully keep anyone from getting tired of them. As if you could get tired of a view like that.

Do you ever feel like you are being watched? Did you get that feeling from looking at this photo? Maybe zooming in on part of it will explain that feeling:

It seems there was an iguana watching us as we were taking this photo. In fact, the iguanas were everywhere there. All over the ruins. All over the beach. All over the pathways. It was fun to sometimes see people running away screaming from being startled by an iguana. Usually girls, of course. But these iguanas were much larger than the small lizards that we have at home, so I could see how one would catch you off guard. I don’t think they meant anyone any harm, but it is much different than seeing something like a cat walking around. Maybe if the iguanas were furry, that might help their image a bit. Or maybe that would make them look even more strange, now that I think about it.

Anyway, the natural views were great there at Tulum, even when they included some living, breathing nature looking back at you.

God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. - Genesis 1:25

About the photo:

I wanted to give this photo a somewhat “natural” look, while also bringing out the amazing colors of the greenery, the water, and the sky. So I pushed things a bit, while trying to keep it all as real as possible. And I dialed up the golden tones a bit more than in the previous photos in the link above, just to emphasize the sunny day even more.

Here is the before-and-after comparison, if you want to see how it started out:

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR
Date: July 18, 2016
Location: Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico