Twenty-two Years Ago

This week I had a panic attack. I was looking on my hard drive for a series of work I did in Pozas, the Surreal Garden. I didn't always keyword back sometime in 2000's and that was when the work was shot with a Holga camera and medium format film. So using keywords wasn't helping. Running through folder names wasn't working either. Oh, I have backup hard drives but the panic starts to set in. Could this hard drive be dying? What else could be missing? What will it cost to have it restored if it isn't on the other backup drives? That is, if it can be restored. Finally I noticed a folder name, FotoFest 2006. It was inside the folder for the year 2006. My file plan is to put images in yearly folders and then in sub-folders chronologically by date made. These images were not made in 2006 but I opened it and there were all of the images I had been searching for. I melted back into my chair.

I guess at the time when I named the folder, FotoFest 2006 and put it inside the year 2006 it seemed like a reasonable thing to do because these images made up my Goldesberry Gallery FotoFest show in 2006. But it wasn't logical in 2016. It gave me quite a scare. And it caused me to look back at old images just to be sure they were still there.

This particular scanned negative was made at a festival in Ocotlan in the State of Oaxaca in 1994. Twenty-two years ago and yet when I look at these young men running through the crowd with the fireworks exploding from the structures over them, I can still remember everything about that night.

I've been a photographer for a long time.

Twenty-two years ago. Isn't that something!

The Resurrection - Mexican Style

Last night I watched an amazing celebration at the San Antonio Church. The plaza in front of the church is large and it was full with families who came prepared with stools for the elders to sit on or for the Mom's who were holding little ones. Around the edges there were vendors selling fast food and others selling candles of all sizes.

When we first arrived the music and prayers sounded solemn like many of the Semana Santa services and processions that I have seen in the last week but suddenly fireworks erupted from the roof and the bell towers of the church.

 

 

Up from the grave he arose;

with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;

he arose a victor from the dark domain,

and he lives forever,

with the saints to reign.

He arose! He arose! Hallelujah!

Christ arose!  

 

 

 Christ appeared with his arms outstretched and his white shroud loosened and flowing from his body. He was carried on a pallet covered in flowers through the plaza above the heads of the crowd. White balloons soared into the night sky, confetti drifted from the roof of the church as more and more fireworks lit up the sky. The music changed from solemn to snappy contemporary rhythms and everyone was singing and waving white pompoms. On the terrace of the church the priest was leading by waving a pompom and jumping up and down. A young man by the priest was like a cheerleader urging the crowd on.

 

We watched this joyful celebration for about 30 minutes and it was still going on when we left the plaza. It was the most joyous and beautiful religious ceremony I think I've ever been to.

 

 

 

 

RED at A.Smith Gallery

A friend of mine just bought this image. She was thinking about another image she had seen on my Pbase site. I asked her to take a look at this one because I like it a lot and I thought she might too. Those eyes, that direct look, and the wonderful face paint. It was pretty dark when I took it during the Day of the Dead celebration. I was afraid that it might end up blurry but the photo angels were there and it turned out okay.

She isn't the only one, besides me, who likes this image. Aline Smithson is the curator for Red at the A.Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas. A.Smith Gallery is a wonderful photography gallery but it is has also hung some amazing exhibitions and created a community of photographic artist. It is an honor to be included by Smithson with so many other amazing photographers in this exhibition. Red will be open from April 1 to May 15, with a reception on April 30. If you are in the Austin area, do yourself a favor and go see the exhibition.

Fire in the Sky

Last night we ate at Snoopy's Pier. Snoopy's sits on a little spit of land, almost under the Intercoastal Bridge by the Corpus Christi ship channel. It isn't up-scale dining by any means. Instead you order at the counter and within a few minutes they call your name. Your gulf-coast fried oysters or shrimp along with french fries are ready. They serve wine in the little airplane-portion size bottles and beer. Texas gulf coast fast food and it is okay. The main attraction in the evening is watching the sunset. Although we had wind and clouds all day the photo god blessed us with a beautiful sunset. The sun had already dropped behind the horizon but it left us this a fire in the sky.

The Posada Across the Street

In the last post I was a little sad that I had not seen a neighborhood Posada. Oh, the Posada led by the San Antonio Church was wonderful but there is something very special to me when it is a grassroots event. Ask and ye shall receive.

Last night just as Carly and I were getting ready to go to bed, I heard singing in the street. We flew back to the upstairs studio to get the camera and when I looked out the window, there was the Posada knocking on the door across the street asking to come in. I was afraid that by the time I got the camera and got outside that they would have moved on so I decided to shoot from the window.

It was a good decision because just after I took this picture, the door opened and this was the house that gave Mary and Joseph room in the stable. The little house is about 10 feet wide but still all the people who had been in the street, maybe 75 or 100 people, followed Mary and Joseph into the house. I love the small bouquets. I love the candles. I love the kids lighting sparklers. I love the music. I love celebrating Christmas in such an intimate way. How blessed I am that it all happened in the street by my house.

The Halloween Candy Man

Since I built Ned an altar this week, I've been thinking a lot about him. This altar thing is a wonderful tradition and I hope it becomes more entrenched in the United States. It isn't attached to another holiday. It is just about remembering loved ones who have gone ahead of us. I was raised to take flowers to the cemetery at Easter and Mother's Day, Father's Day and Christmas. Not a bad thing to do but it was another thing to do along with cooking, cleaning and entertaining for the holiday.

Now Dia de los Muertos is a day all to itself. The thing you are remembering and celebrating is the life of the one you loved. And even better is that I can build my altar right in my own home and every time I see it I think about how much Ned loved his tequila and sangrita or red wine or Snickers. Yes, all of those things are on the altar. And yes, he would sometimes have a Snickers along with his tequila and of course with his red wine.

So, any way for the last couple of days I've been thinking about the good times. Like the time we had tiny Snickers bars for Trick or Treat. We didn't have many kids come by so Ned and Tom Robinson had a great evening eating the bag of Snickers and polishing off a bottle (or two) of red wine. I've been thinking of all the Date Nights we had in the Centro where we sat at a table in the San Francisco Café and watched life go by while we ate and drank and talked. I still don't know how a couple who are married as long as we were could still have anything to talk about but we did. I've been thinking about Port Aransas when the kids were young and we built bonfires on the beach while kids had wiener roasts and played games in the sand. I've been thinking about the great trips we took. Sometimes I even have to chuckle at some memory.

Some people think their loved ones return on Dia de los Muertos. I don't know whether that happens or not at this time. But I do know that I feel Ned's presence often and always when I  really need him.

This was Ned in the Jardin on Halloween, 2011. He had just finished a round of treatment in Houston and we had driven back in time for Dia de los Muertos. There were lots of kids and it was the last time he handed out candy for Halloween. Yes, that smiling man is my Ned.

Staying Put

A few weeks ago an architect brought me a proposal about building a new house on a great piece of property. I immediately was taken with the idea. I don't really need more house but it would be lovely to have a lot that was large enough to have garage, a garden, a bedroom and studio on the first floor. I checked with my financial advisor and we talked numbers. After he told me I could do it if I could hold the line on the cost within certain parameters, the fantasy of building another house occupied my every thought. Then the owner of the lot decided he didn't want to sell.

I was disappointed but I was in lust with the idea of a new house. I looked at a couple of new houses and checked out another lot but as the days passed I started to think about what building another house would mean. It would take at least a year, maybe a year and a half. In many ways building a house is a very creative endeavor but it is also stressful.

Is that the way I want to spend my time? You know at my age even though I feel great, time is limited. Today I've been thinking about Joan Rivers. A week ago she was still moving and grooving. Her death is another reminder of why I came to the decision that I want to travel more and do more photography more than I want to build another house. I still have my bucket list and my blue highways list. I don't want to put those things on hold for a year.

So I'm not building or buying another house. I have some things that I want to do to Casa Mercer to spruce it up but I think I'll just stay where I am. Unless.......

Help Wanted

Shot from my front door last night. It was shot at 1/5 sec, f1.8, 1600 ISO. I'm using a 45 mm f1.8 lens on the Olympus OMD E M-1 so it is the equivalent of a 90mm f1.8 lens. The lens weighs maybe 5 oz. I really, really like this lens. It is sharp and has good contrast. A similar lens on a full frame camera would weigh in at a  pound or more and probably cost 3X as much.

 

This image would have been better, and certainly would make a better print, shot at a smaller aperture and lower ISO and that would require a tripod. I have a small travel tripod but still it would be a nuisance to carry to dinner or a cocktail party. I want to go out to photograph at night with the camera on a tripod and no other agenda but a photo shoot.  I'm hesitant about doing that by myself. If I'm going to do some serious night photography, I need to hire an assistant who can be on the watch for what is happening around me while I'm setting up the shot.

 

Anyone looking for an occasional night time job?

Viernes de Dolores

 The beginning of the Easter season started last Sunday with the arrival of Senor from Atotonilco to the San Juan de Dios church. Tonight is Viernes de Dolores, Friday of Sorrows. I've written several times in my blogs about this night of altars in homes so I'm not going to do that again but it is likely that every year I'll go out to photograph it.

It is hard to photograph. The light is low and usually very yellow or orange and sometimes there are two different colored light sources in one frame or it is a spotlight right into the lens of your camera. I've tried different things to balance the color somewhere between what it was and neutral but I'll probably second guess myself in the morning. A tripod is a hindrance rather than a help and even if you have a tripod people still move.

This morning walking home from centro I have found something to add to my list of things to photograph during Easter. It is in front of the Ramirez Mercado where stalls are set up in the street to sell the flowers, herbs and grass for making the altars. The street was shut to car traffic and tarpaulins were stretched this way and that to block the sun. It was lovely. I have already marked my calendar for 2015 so that I will not forget. I hope that by next year I can attach a tag to the file that will send you the wonderful smell of the herbs.

 About the little girl in the first image, she is adorable isn't she. I had just stepped in the doorway to photograph the altar and I glanced to my right and there she was, handing me a refreshment. I just hit the shutter button and this time it worked...well with a bit of cropping it worked.

My Street at Night

It wasn't exactly the middle of the night. More like 5:30 AM, the first day of Daylight Savings Time in Mexico. And it was the day that Senor de la Columna is brought to the San Juan de Dios church for Easter. It was really, really hard to roll out of bed but I had not been to the procession in several years and I wanted to go see it.

I love the colors of the lights and the shadows. There is something so peaceful about the street but also it is erie. I like photographing close to home. This shot was handheld. Not quite good enough for a print so I'll probably have to roll out of bed another time and head down the street with the camera on a tripod.

The Lord of the Conquest

Today is the Celebration of the Lord of the Conquest. It seems like a strange thing to celebrate and celebrating it with Indian dancers in Indian costumes is also strange to me. That does not stop me from enjoying the festival. This morning as I was walking home from my session with my trainer, the dances had started. I didn't have my camera but that was alright because I wanted to come back at night when I thought I'd get some better images.

It is not easy to get good images at night around the Jardin. The lighting is so difficult. There is a mix of lighting and it is almost impossible to correct it....not to natural....but to something that looks interesting. Added to that the lighting is very low. Out of all the images that I shot there are only three or four where the color and blur work.

The Jardin was packed with people. Mexican families with children. They watched the dances, bought little pull toys for their toddlers and ice cream or corn swathed in mayonnaise for the rest of the family. The couples sat at the stools in front of the vendors selling hamburgers and hot dogs. The teenagers gathered in clumps in the Jardin more interested in each other than the dancers. And the American and Canadian tourists watched from the sidewalks taking it all in. What a great story they will have to tell when they get back home.

Night Colors

I went into the Centro on Thursday evening to see and photograph the Altars in the churches but before I could go to see the altars I had to go to a meeting. When I came out at 7:15 there were already long lines to get into the churches. Since I am so short, if I had stood in line and gone into the church all I would have been able to photograph is someone's  back. I was with a couple of friends so we walked around a bit then had dinner. Although it is difficult to get good images hand held at high ISOs, I love the color of things at night. Most of what I shot will not ever be seen but I like these two.

The minute I saw the incredible green curtains hanging in this doorway, I knew I had to shoot it. And who could possibly resist a beautiful sleeping baby with a rose turban. Dad was holding the baby so tenderly and the abuela was sitting by his side. I asked if it was okay to take a photograph. La abuela said okay. The light was a horrible orange color. It took a little adjustment in Lightroom to bring the image back to more neutral color.

Friday of Sorrows

Tonight I photographed some of the Viernes de Dolores altars in my Colonia. If you would like to see some more of the images click here to go to the gallery.