A Peek Into My Mind

Hi Guys,
Happy New Year! It’s been such a long time since I’ve last posted. I’d like to get back into taking pictures and also blogging in 2012. 2011 was kinda rough for me. The past is the past and we move forward.

WAAAY last year, I snapped this photo of my pals J & Mary while hanging out with them somewhere in the South Bay.

J and Mary are one of my favorite couples to hang out with. J always has the witty puns and Mary always tells him they’re corny. They make me laugh so much. They’re so cute together.

I met these two at my office waay waay back in the day. If you go to earlier posts (sometime in 2009) you’ll see a post from their wedding. Time has flown by and now they are expecting their first child.

Mel and John are a few of my closest friends. I often realize how much I miss them when I remember all the fun times we had at the office. But now i just visit them at their house. I’ll probably pop by in a few weeks to go swimming. Cali-winter weather and all.

I’ll be back next week with a few scanned photos. Stay tuned, please… haha

And so, finally, we arrive at my last destination. Italia!
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes… all the answers to your questions are: YES!
Yes, I went on a gondola ride.
Yes, I saw the Leaning Tower of Pizza.
Yes, I went to the Vatican.
Yes, I saw the Colosseum.
Yes, I threw money into the Trevi Fountain. (I think it went in)
Yes, I saw the Sixteen Chapels.

But if you haven’t noticed, I hardly show photos of buildings and landscape. It’s mostly people. I’m more drawn to people and their faces. So, bear (or is it ‘bare’) with me as I show photos of people I encountered in Italy.

I love the bus (and public transportation). You never know who will be sitting by you. This was on the bus ride to Venice. She’s so happy with her baby! Cute! Did you notice the baby? I hope so…

“That’s amore!”
Actually, we went on a non-singing gondola ride.

No, this kid isn’t blind or handicapped in any way. He just blinked as I snapped the shutter. I liked the lightning of the photo (when it was in color) so I wanted to post it. He was just drawing on the sidewalk.

Yes, this is like the zillionth photo of an old person. But there’s something about wrinkles on a person that draws me to them. Much, much older people who have very defined wrinkles are interesting to me. People who have little wrinkles- not so much.

It rained while we were in Florence. We were strolling through the Leather Market when the thunder started booming and then the rain started falling. My mom always carries an umbrella with her, rain or shine, so we were cool.

She really likes selling produce.
We hopped into the mercantile to avoid some of the rain.
When you go to Italy and IF you choose to do some farmers marketing, you do NOT touch the produce. You ask THEM to touch the food. It’s standard etiquette over there.

How much time do I have?
Rome (and Venice) is all about time. Everyone’s always rushing to get from one place to another. It’s like NYC. I love NYC.

Two-plus weeks of my life was spent on planes, trains, buses and automobiles. I had to pack and re-pack, going from hotel to hotel to hotel. I walked all over the place. I had to wake up early but sleep late. Between delayed flights and 9+ hours of travel time on some days, I was exhausted. Would I have traded it for sleep and rest? NOT A CHANCE.

I really hope you all enjoyed the pictures I’ve posted over the last 5 days.

From the bottom of my heart, Merci, Gracias, Obrigado and Grazie to all the people who let me photograph them, and to those who had no idea I was.

And thank YOU to all those who take the time to visit my blog.

That mean’s “Thank You” in Portuguese.
Yes, my friends, I went to Portugal, the city of Fatima to be exact. What was in Fatima? If you’re interested in doing a little bit of reading, you can click here

Outside of Fatima, is a little city called Nazerene. Here are some of the people who live there!
She sells nuts.
All I wanted was a photo of her, but she started pouring nuts in a bag. As I was giving her a euro, she started pouring more and made me pay 2 Euro. I laugh now, but felt exhausted as I was trying to say, “no, no, just a little bit please.”

Not the lady walking… the dog!
No one ever made a rule that said street photos have to be about people. hehe

I don’t think she has teeth. But I love the wrinkles. You’ll notice that in the above 2 photos, the ladies are both wearing all black. In the Nazarene culture, when someone you love dies and you’re a woman, you wear black… FOR-EVERRRRRR.

Oh, man. The first time I saw this guy i KNEW i had to take his photo. He was our bus driver, Roy.
Obrigado, my friend. You took us safely from France to Espana and finally to Portugal.
What facial/body characteristics make him a memorable person?

The last 2 shots look down from Nazerene to some city (I can’t remember anymore) in Portugal. I made them kinda/sorta draw-y/postcard-y.
Yay for Photoshop!

I called to my friend, Frank, “How’s the view?” as i was walking up to get ready to take a photo. He yelled back, “ITS BEAUTIFUL!”
What do you guys think?

It’s not over yet, friends. There’s still one more major stop along my trip. Any guesses?
Stay tuned!

That means “I Love France” in… French!
I had a wonderful time in France and stayed in 2 different cities: Paris & Lourdes. If you’re not familiar with Lourdes, it is in the south of France. I promised myself that I would visit Lourdes again.

Here are some photos from the 2 cities.
When I read a book oh street photography, the author had this great photo of this man reading the newspaper. Here’s mines. I wish i was actually closer, but I don’t wanna be too obtrusive when it comes to photos and other people’s person space.

I like people who smile.

Souvenir Stand.

I like this photo of the Eiffel Tower because its not the normal, entire tower. I hope you like it, too.

Hey, kid. Awesome job with the skateboard.
I like how he’s looking directly at me, and his hair over his eyes. I took this in Republique. A city outside of Paris, if i’m not mistaken. I’ve never been very good at geography.

Okay, so lets move to the south of France. Here are a few shots from Lourdes.
It was cold and rainy the night we got to Lourdes.
This was taken the following morning– while the city was still asleep. I was on the balcony at the basilica in Lourdes.

If you don’t know the story of Lourdes, you can click here. This city if filled with people who are sick, hoping and praying to get cured. Women like the ones photographed volunteer to help the sick. Yes, I want to go back to Lourdes one day.

One more photo-
Yeah, its not black and white. But I think this photo looks great with this filter applied to it. Its my “fashion magazine” shot. I was still in Paris when I took this.
I like this photo. Period.

I spent less than 24 hours in Spain, which made me sad. But I enjoyed 10 days in Spain back in 2009. I love Spain. For some odd reason, I feel at home in that country; the city of Madrid especially.

I visited Salamanca. Kids run around laughing and playing together after their siesta is over.

To commemorate my short time in Spain, here are a few photos. Again, some “street photos”.
Soccer or, as us more cultured people would say, futbol! The number 1 sport in the world, and also my favorite sport!

Sorry, kid. The skinny guy in the jeans is way-fast and really good with his feet. I think the kid in the shorts almost broke his ankles trying to get the ball.

I smiled as I watched the kids running and playing. I thought about how simple and happy their lives are. Although, they seemed to be yelling at me to stop taking pictures of them… or maybe they were yelling at me to take more pictures of them? I’m not quite sure.
Don’t worry kids! My blog only reaches like, 0.00000000001% of the Earth’s population- and that’s being optimistic!

>Beep. Beep.
Cute little car.
Cute little couple.

Hi Friends,
I’ve been away for quite some time. I haven’t blogged in about a month, but with good reason. I’ve returned from a 2+ week trip. I’m not ready to post all the photos I’ve taken, as I’ve only been back home for about 2 days. But here are a few. It’s my first attempt at street photography.

Guess where I went.

Action shot! In this particular city, everyone rides a bike, and that’s a parked car!

A bit of voyeurism, I suppose. As I sat in the metro, I saw this lady. I wonder who she’s talking to and what they were saying. It must be something to smile about!

Very cute. When I got off the bus, I saw these two love birds. L’amore.

Total give away! I’m sure you know where I was now.
This guy + others, illegally sell souvenirs. But that doesn’t matter because people go ga-ga for souvenirs.

I hope to post some more photos soon.
Until then, take care

My friends are SERIOUS campers!!
They made my Labor Day Weekend more awesome than it already was!

Thank YOU, RnG!

Did you guys know it’s World Photo Day? If not, well, it is.
In honor of this special day, I’d like to post some photos I took.

I went to the beach recently and rode my bike around. I love riding my bike along The Strand.
I’m posting this photo because I was riding my bike while taking the photo. I estimated the focal point, let one side of the handle bar go and snapped the shot. Then I immediately let go of my camera and grabbed the other side of the handle bars to regain my balance.

Everybody out of the pool!!

Shh! He didn’t know I was taking this photo.

“Let’s boogie!”
I wish i could have gotten a shot with him looking at me.

At a quick glance, what do your eyes focus on first?

“Lets go fly a kite… or two.”
Cute, right? I think so.

I went to the park on Sunday. It was cool. Great food, great people, great times!
Two pals: Tracy & Kitty.

Birthday guys: Steve, Warren & Joe
It looks like this photo has another photo over-layed on top of one another, but it’s not!! Thats just the way the photo came out! Odd, in a cool way, right? My 35mm is magical!

LOL! You had to be here to understand why Warren was laughing. He dropped his ice cream and J caught it in his hand. Oh, you’re not laughing? Well, like I said, you had to be there.

Ladies Man
Jacob just met this gal at the park and they spent the day together! Cutie!!

LOL! Cup in hand!!

SWISH!
Look at Trace AND Charlotte in the back!! Awwww…

This photo makes me smile. Mills and Nala just hanging out in the shade. Or, is that Kobe? I can’t remember…

Awwww… Kobe, or is this Nala? I don’t know anymore.

Still shooting with films, guys. I used film with a really low ISO (100) and yet my shots still came out extremely grainy. WHY?! If you know how to fix it, let me know, ok?