Monday, August 6, 2012

Photo 1 of 3 from new photo series

This is the first image in an untitled series of three that I shot for a new Chilean magazine based out of Antofagasta. It is a mini story of a woman who sees herself on the street. The other two will be posted in upcoming days.




New Blog Layout

Any repeat visitors to this blog will know that the look has changed a few times over the last several months. I wanted to try out a different look, and at first I thought I enjoyed it. It was similar to the more dynamic looks of websites like Pinterest and 500px. But the more I used it the less I liked about it. It was nice and flashy but involved a little more effort to read posts and view photos.

I didn't like the way you could only click on one picture at a time, which opened in a new page, and then you had to click back to the posting to see other pictures. Considering the photos were the whole point of me making the blog I felt they needed to be displayed better. I also didn't like how the blog loads a little slower on certain computers since half the actions were animated. These may not seem like big deals, but then again they might, because the attention span of people is limited on the internet these days and it's important to have a smooth, seamless user experience.

I thought about going back to the old layout and black background. I then thought it may be better to have a white background since it is a little more flexible with content. I like the way black backgrounds make the photos look and the way it ties into my website. Yet, I feel a white background makes things feel a little less serious, and considering I write about a variety of things I thought it would be more flexible. Also, all the photos for each post show up in a nice little slideshow and you don't have to waste time viewing each picture in a new page. That is just a horrible, horrible design.

I may go back to black, or I may stick with white. I will see how I like it over the next few weeks. If anybody has any opinions about it let me know! I am officially making commenting available now. So please make your voices heard if you feel so inclined! Thoughts are always welcome!

In honor of being back in smoggy Santiago

Friday, August 3, 2012

Layover in Bogotá

Colombia is one of those countries that as an American growing up in the 80's and 90's, I was force fed a mostly negative image of. It is unfortunate that the media, popular culture and society tainted my image of a country before I really knew anything of what it was about. As I found out the other day, Colombia is way more than a country filled with cocaine dens where Americans are kidnapped the second they step from the airport. Yet, because of information forced in front of me at an earlier age I didn't know what to expect when finally getting to visit Colombia.

Traveling around South America I met a lot of people who have spent significant amounts of time in Colombia or planned to in the future. The image you get now, from people who actually know it personally, and not just from stories you hear on the news, is extremely positive. The saying I keep hearing is that the people of Colombia really want to shed the image of being a hostile country and go out of there way to do so.

This is exactly what I found. Unfortunately, I only had one day in Bogota, so I don't have the experience of somebody with a well developed personal opinion of the country. I got the smallest taste of what life in Bogota is like and it left me wanting a whole lot more. I had more random encounters with genuinely nice people in my 16 hours in Bogota, than I did in weeks of time in other countries. The positive image I have of this city is based upon the helpful and caring people that stepped right into my life for a moment while I wandered the streets.



Nestled amongst the Andes, with thick forests all around, the city itself is beautiful and oozing with colorful character that kept me enthralled for every minute I had there. The buildings were bright and well aged, with all the cracks, holes and peeling paint adding to the aesthetic appeal. Cobblestoned streets with vibrant grass popping out between the cracks, lead through tiny alleys and up steep hills. There is ever-present street art which really brings a unique energy to the city.



All I did, all day, was walk around, sit in plazas, eat and take pictures. I headed out of the airport at 9am and ignoring the advice of the information guy at the airport, I took a bus instead of the easier, faster taxi ride ($.75 vs $10). I really had minimal idea of where I was going. I looked at a half-loaded Google map for a few minutes and figured if I just found a bus going straight on the road out of the airport I would be able to figure it out. And it all worked out quite easily. Within 30 minutes I got to La Candeleria in the Centro which is a small neighborhood in the hills of Bogota.


My first encounter was with a nice Colombian man who happened to be homeless. I was eating a massive chocolate croissant-like pastry {photo} in a park and this thin, 20-something-year-old, absolutely filthy but completely unthreatening man approached me and asked me for a piece of my bread. I had just been thinking about how it's literally too big to eat alone, especially after a breakfast of coffee, some strange, mild white cheese, eggs with ham and bread. And he popped up to alleviate the situation. There was something about this man that I immediately saw he wished he didn't have to be asking for food, but was just so desperate he had no other choice. He cupped his hands, stood about 5 feet away and asked in the least threatening way possible for a piece of bread. I couldn't say no, so I ripped a tiny bite off for myself and handed him a piece the size of my hand. He said "que bueno, gracias," about four times before devouring it. He couldn't hide his sincere gratitude if he tried.

This looked even more appetizing before it was stuffed into a plastic bag, smearing all the chocolate drizzle on top.

Being from New York you get trained to ignore most, if not all, beggars. There are simply too many of them and more often than not they are ungrateful or overly annoying. But this guy was alright.

Twenty blocks later I had worked my way through a number of tiny side streets and I was crouched on the sidewalk shooting some biker making his way around a bend. An old man in his 70's with a thick white moustache stopped walking beside me to avoid getting in my way. He then proceeded to ask me how I was liking Bogota and told me about streets nearby I should check out. I got the feeling he was just walking home and saw some young foreigner half lying on the ground in his neighborhood. So why the hell not stop and talk to him? It was genuinely friendly moment between two strangers.



A few hours later I had made my way higher up into the hills. I had heard it's best not to go high up because it can get more dangerous. But everything about the day so far had been so enjoyable and I didn't feel the least bit threatened or anything less than pleasantly surprised by the people here. As I was taking photos of a window cleaner rappelling between two windows, a cop came up to me out of nowhere.



Generally when this happens I have no interest in talking to them and I assume he wants to complain about something I'm doing wrong. But this young cop came up to me just to recommend that I don't walk farther up the hill,  and even around here it is better to keep the camera out of sight, just in case. We then talked about why I was in Colombia for the day and what I do in Chile. He also let me know that he would keep any eye out while I was shooting around there. He was just really damn nice. What is it with these people?




While sitting down in a restaurant for lunch I asked the waiter what he recommended because I didn't know anything about Colombian food. He recommended trout with some sort of mushroom sauce. He came back to ask how my food was, and when I told him it was very good, he immediately flashed a smile. He was no doubt feeling proud that he made a good selection. Again, genuinely nice.



Getting a bus back to the airport proved to be a little bit of a hassle. Traffic here in the Centro at rush hour was chaotic. There was an endless stream of buses coughing out black exhaust, sitting in gridlock traffic across massive roads with no real lanes. The buses don't really have designated stops and just hit the brakes for whoever waves at them, where ever they are. That, or  it passes them by for no apparent reason.

After 25 minutes of confusion and realizing this location wasn't going to work. I headed to another mass of people on the side of a busy street and finally crammed my way onto a bus that was well over capacity. What I found fascinating is that people would hop on through the backdoor and to my surprise, every single person would pass money through a packed bus of strangers to the driver up front. The driver would then send their change back and it would pass through a dozen hands before returning. Somehow it would all make it back, every time.



I had several other encounters with nice Colombians throughout the day and it just left me feeling really good inside. It was refreshing to have so many strangers treating an outsider like family and experiencing an environment unlike a majority of cities I've been to. I don't know if all of Colombia is like this or if I just happened to stumble upon an uncharacteristically nice chain of events. But either way my first impressions are overwhelmingly positive and I can't wait to go back.





Monday, July 30, 2012

A Moment of Reflection While Stuck Somewhere Between New York and Santiago

*Note: I began this blog a few years ago as a way to showcase more of my photography that didn't have a home in my portfolios. Also, to write about any thoughts or subjects that I felt like without having any constraints or ulterior motives. I started writing to nobody in particular and had minimal readers. In the past several months a lot more people from all over the world who have no idea who the hell I actually am, have begun reading this blog. So in an attempt to offer some insight into who I am as a person I will be making an effort to touch on more personal thoughts, issues and details from my life. And for those who don't give a shit who I am, I will still have some sexy photos you can skip to. I will also begin to allow comments and would love to hear from people if they feel any reason at all to make their voice heard.
 

It is about 48 hours before I begin my journey back to Santiago. I call it a journey because there will be over 24 hours of travel between multiple countries. My flight leaves at 3:30am on Wednesday morning (I didn't even know they had flights that early), so obviously I won't be sleeping and will probably begin my trip to the airport with detours at a few bars. I then land in Bogota, Colombia at 6:30am and have a 17 hour layover. Fortunately, I can leave the airport and will get a free day to explore Bogota. My flight to Santiago then leaves at 11:30pm and lands at 5:05am the next day. So it sounds kinda shitty on paper, but getting to check out Bogota makes it all worth while.

The past 24 days have been creatively inspiring for me. There have been ups, downs, a lot of running around and a whole mess of thoughts, feelings and moments of reflection.

Returning to NY for three weeks felt like stepping back in time. I began a new chapter in my life by moving to Chile. I took a step in a completely different direction, but then, quite suddenly, I was back in NY working the same types of jobs, seeing the same people and living the same life of running in out of the city between work, friends and family. It was mostly enjoyable, but equally perplexing. I was doing work I enjoyed for companies I legitimately support and wanted to be a part of. I was seeing friends and family during all of my spare time and in reality I should have nothing to complain about. Yet, there was something inside of me telling me I shouldn't be here. My place in life is no longer in NY. Who knows where my place will be in a year or even four months. But at this exact moment I belong in Chile.

I have been battling these conflicting emotions since I first set foot in NY. These feelings, induced by my environment, offered a unique position for personal reflection. My time here has given me reassurance that living in Chile does make sense right now. My inner desire to return as soon as possible let me know that yes, I do enjoy it there and truly want to be there.

It also enforced a thought that I already knew. That there are more important things in life than money. I'm 26 years old and money has never been a goal for me. I have turned down more work opportunities than I prefer to think about, but everything has turned out in ways I am genuinely happy about. I am realistic and understand the importance of money in life, but only use it as a tool to make other things happen. I don't want it just to have it and certainly don't care about excess. I prefer enriching life experience over a secure job. I find far more fulfillment and happiness in achieving personal goals and discovering as much as I can about people, the world around me and most importantly myself.

Photography has been a way for me to release a lot of creative energy I never before knew what to do with. It also gave me a way to legitimize my wanderlust desires and more productively process my thoughts and experiences. Photography has become an obsession, and something I do for personal interest and nothing more. I do strive to work for certain companies, doing certain types of projects and using these opportunities to challenge myself creatively and ideally support myself financially while doing something I love. But making other people happy and working a shit job where I'm miserable just doesn't fit in my path through life. I have way too many things that I want to accomplish, and way too many things I need to experience, to waste years working a job that doesn't offer an enriching or fulfilling atmosphere.

Being here for a short while, with no concept of how long it will be until I return, forced a lot of importance onto how I spend my free time. It made me aware of the friends that mean more to me. The type of work I do and the lifestyle I live means that I meet a lot of new people. A lot of them are cool people worth knowing, but it sometimes makes it overwhelming to keep in touch and take certain friendships beyond the surface. So moving to Chile and then returning has made it clearer who I truly care about on a deeper level. The sad thing is that I didn't get to see half of them this trip. There just wasn't enough time. But at least it helps me see where my efforts should go.

I am set to return to Chile with a restored sense of creative inspiration and personal thoughts to process. As perplexing as my time here has been it has been insanely productive on a number of levels and I look forward to seeing how things play out in the future. Some of these thoughts may seem out of the blue, and partly out of context, but oh well, hopefully you all will get to know me better in upcoming posts and it will begin to make sense.

And for all of you looking for some sexy photos to skip to, I'm sorry. There are none this post because I'm not on my own computer. But it will give you something to look forward to, I hope!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Still Alive

For everybody geting bored with my lack of posting I promise I will have lots of posts coming up (although probably not for a couple weeks still)! Between working for Nat Geo, working for Airbnb, shooting some footage for a band, writing, shooting my own photos and seeing friends and family I have had about 23 minutes to myself since I've been here. It has been exhausting but of course a good time. I have also, been eating my face off. Mostly binging on Thai food.

I'm currently at my friends apartment so I have none of my photos to post at the moment. This is officially the lamest post I have ever posted. But it is just to let everybody know that I am still alive and cooking up something good!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Random Photo - Santiago Centro

This is a photo taken from Cerro Santa Lucia looking west towards Santiago Centro.



Monday, July 2, 2012

Heading to NY

This Thursday I'm heading back to NY for a few weeks to work my ass off, see family and friends and indulge in all of the things I can't get down here. Of course I'm talking about eating. Thai, burgers, real Italian, Mexican, pizza, Indian... I am going to eat my face off and it is going to be awesome.

Anyway, leaving Chile and heading back to NY is bringing up some mixed feelings. Of course I'm excited to see my family and friends and I'm excited to get back to NYC for a short while, but just as much I'm upset to be leaving Camila and Chile. It always seems that even when I try to settle down in one place I still manage to bounce around a little.

I'm also, strangely enough, very excited to work. Anybody between jobs or any freelancers know that if you have periods of little to no work, when you finally get some you are stoked to go back. I'm not saying I'm without work here. It's just the pay here is so low that it feels like I'm practically working for free, so making some decent money is oh so appealing. It also doesn't hurt that I'm going to be working on a TV show for National Geographic. Even though it's not my dream job, it is still for my dream company, so it's a step in the right direction. I'll also have some photography assignments on my spare days too. So basically I will be going nonstop for three weeks. 


Why exactly am I going to NY? Well the whole idea came from the fact that I really NEED my snowboard and equipment. I didn't bring it to Chile initially because Camila and I weren't positive where we would end up and I didn't want to have the burden of a huge, heavy bag to drag around. Of course, I almost immediately regretted not bringing it. So the idea to go back to NY, work my ass off to pay for my plane ticket and save up some money was born. It appears to be all working out quite well. Hopefully I didn't just jinx it...


Once I'm back in Chile I will be able to get up in the mountains and get you all some awesome new ski and snowboard photos! It has been way too long since I've been able to shoot any mountain sports and I'm craving it like no other. It is my ultimate photography passion, and snowboarding is my ultimate non-photography passion. And anybody who knows me personally knows I've basically had endless summers for the last two years. Heading to South America during our winters, just to head back to North America for more summer. And now I'm doing it again ironically. But it's all for a reason and I'll still have a solid two months of winter when I return.

Since I'm going to NY, here are some photos of NY:
Long Island City, Queens with the Manhattan skyline


 Midtown Manhattan

Midtown

The New Museum


My postings for the next few weeks may be a little less frequent than I would prefer, so I apologize in advance, but I will do my best!