A few years ago I saw a travel photo of my friend Lauren Lewis standing in one of the most beautiful natural infinity pools in the world.  This image really made an impression on me and I knew that one day I would have to try to shoot an image there.  Turns out that the location is Hierve el Agua, a few hours drive into the mountains outside the city of Oaxaca, Mexico.  Created by natural spring that has a very high mineral content, thousands of years has left cascading deposits that flow down the mountain side in frozen waterfalls.  On the top of this unusual formation are pools of water where bathers can swim on hot days.

As reluctant as I am to get up early, we were in our van by 7am and at the pools by 9am when they open.   I was just able to take these images before the hoards started to arrive.  Thankfully, I was traveling with a group of photographers that appreciate shooting without other people around.  This is one location I would love to photograph over and over again just to see how different cloud formations, sunsets and sunrises affect the images.

Normally, I pride myself on having crisp in focus images, but while shooting this I accidentally dropped my neutral density filter into the water.  I dried it carefully and put it back on my camera, but I didn’t realize that the water had left behind a really nasty film.  The effect of this film was an incredibly beautiful soft focus.  Although this is not my normal modus operandi, I actually love the effect.