Challenge Walk MS 2009

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society had a fundraising event this past weekend (09/11 - 09/13).

Participants walked 50 miles, Friday through Sunday, from Carlsbad to downtown San Diego, in an effort to raise $1,200,000 and find a cure for MS.

I volunteered as a photographer to document the last 10 miles on Sunday. The day's walk began at Ventura Cove/West Mission Bay and ended at Pantoja Park in Downtown San Diego. I spent half a day, from 8:00 AM to 1:30PM, driving down the route, stopping at every rest station, and taking a bunch of pictures.

Although I drove between each rest stop, there were a couple times where I just couldn't find a parking spot close to the rest stations, specially in downtown SD, so there was some inevitable walking involved, and by the time the event finished my feet were pretty sore. It was until the next day that I discovered that I had a blister on my right foot. Jeez.

I can only imagine how the Challenge Walk participants felt after finishing those 50 miles that Sunday. Way to go guys and gals!

Worldwide Photo Walk

A very interesting event took place on Saturday July 18th. 32,000 photographers in 900 cities hit the streets, camera in hand, and took pictures of anything and everything. To learn more about this event go to http://worldwidephotowalk.com .

I went out with several other Tijuana photographers and took my share of pictures. The one above was not staged. I found the bottle just sitting there on the window ledge, snake image behind it. I looked at it and that common question came to mind, "What's your poison?"

Monterrey, Nuevo Leon

A couple weeks ago I made a quick trip to Monterrey, Mexico to visit a very good friend who fell ill. Sadly, he passed away the day before my scheduled trip back to my hometown (Tijuana). In a way I'm really glad I was able to see him one last time, but saying goodbye forever is not something I can do easily, especially to someone I was very close to.

I lived in Monterrey for almost two years, made very good friends, got a new set of relatives ( I got married while living there) and absolutely fell in love with the city. Monterrey is a perfect blend of old and new. Old colonial architecture suddenly changes to the newest, trendiest shopping malls and business complexes.

I was there for about three days during this last trip, but I was only able to set aside about three hours one morning to walk around downtown Monterrey, carrying my camera, hunting for images.

The image above is of a home in downtown Monterrey. This is typical of the old colonial style where the front door is flush with the very narrow sidewalk. Not very practical by today's standards, but I love that type of architecture. Even with the extreme heat (Monterrey is terribly warm during summer) I enjoyed walking around taking pictures.

Testing testing

A couple months ago I got a great price on a used Bronica ETRS medium format system on eBay. Yeah, it's a film camera. Purists of the digital age normally ask "why do you want to be using a film camera?" "You can get the same results with a digital camera."

Well, I got into photography back in the late 80s, so in my case it was Minolta cameras with Kodak B & W and Fuji color reversal films. Color reversal? Huh? Just a fancy name for slide film. Remember those carrousel projectors? Some young folks probably don't understand a word I'm saying.

Anyway, I use digital cameras for 90% of my work nowadays, but still shoot film just for fun every so often (35mm and medium format), and honestly, film has a different "feel."

The picture above is from the first roll I ran through the Bronica. I really liked it, not really because of the subject, but because of the nice contrast and extremelly shallow depth of field. It really has a different look than what you normally get with a DSLR, or a 35mm camera for that matter.

You be the judge.

Picture taken with a Bronica ETRS with 50mm f/2.8 Zenzanon MC lens on Tri-X 320.

Vera's Veil at 4th & B

Vera's Veil recently played at 4th & B in downtown San Diego. This is one of my favorite pictures from that evening.

Vera's Vail at Kashtan European Bistro

I got together with a couple band members from Vera's Veil and their manager last Friday at Kashtan European Bistro. We did an informal shoot while they played some of their songs and some covers.

Their music is really good. Check them out at MySpace.

Flickr Tour to Ensenada

Last Saturday me and my wife joined the "Flickr Tour La Baja" folks for a one day trip down to Ensenada. This is a group of guys and gals who are very interested in photography, and who get together more or less regularly, meet at a predetermined town or area (mostly San Diego/Tijuana), and shoot it up (in the good sense of the word).

These tours are a lot of fun, but are definitely not for those who like to hop into the car and drive to the store around the corner. Aside from having some skill behind the camera, one needs to have enough stamina to walk non-stop for at least seven hours (ok, minus one hour for lunch). But time sure flies when you're having fun. You get to find a lot of interesting photo opportunities, and see how other people work behind the camera.

When you've got a small crowd of say, ten photographers, walking more or less together all over town, you kind of get the idea that the result will be ten copies of the same object. Well, it sometimes happens, to a certain degree. But the benefit here is that in the end you see a lot of variations of one single subject, be that different angles, exposure, depth of field, or postproduction work.

Most photographers are loners, so joining one of theses groups every so often is a refreshing experience. Hell, if nothing else, you get to talk about the latest lens you purchased without getting those blank stares.

I took the picture above while walking along Ensenada's black market. Despite the negative conotation the name gives it, this place is harmless. It's a long alley near the harbor, lined with fish stores, little stands selling all kinds of odds and ends, and the little restaurants that serve the fish tacos Ensenada is famous for. Rubio's just doesn't compare. Oh, and I don't own that chain.

Anyway, this little girl was sitting on a bench with her family. From her expression she's either extremely bored or extremely tired from walking allong the harbor. Either way she looked really cute.