Cypress Tree Series

As I process some images of my cypress trees I will post them here to show these majestic trees in their environment.  There is a surreal quality about these old giant trees standing alone out in the water.  Their trunks are split open and their top broken by lightning, but yet they stand there for hundreds of years.  Being in around them evokes a sense of peace and quiet in me. 

Kayaking

I finally got out today to do some kayaking on Blue Cypress Lake here in Florida.  It has been windy for several weeks and that makes for a hard time to be out on the water in a kayak.  I enjoy the big skies here in Florida.  Hardly a day goes by without a magnificent sky full of clouds.  The land may be flat but the skies make up for it.  The summer heat is starting and with it comes strong thunderstorms each day.  They usually strike in the mid afternoon after the days heat builds up.  They are a freighting to experience and to be caught out in one could be deadly.  Whenever I am out photographing in the summer I keep a sharp eye out for the changing weather conditions to be certain I can get to safety when the lighting starts.  The cypress tress intrigue me and I find I like them best without there leaves.  They are one of the few trees in Florida that loose their leaves for the winter months. 

Street photography in Mexico

While in Mexico I visited a moderate size city of San Juan Del Rio a number of times to do some street photography.  It is a city in central Mexico that is busy with street vendors and a lot of activity going on all the time.  It was a great place to just walk around around feel the rush of people going about their daily business.  The city has several beautiful catheralds in the old historic district with wonderful architecture.  I came across this lady while walking along a side street.  She saw I was photographing and came up and started talking to me in fairly good English.  She was a colorful lady full of energy with animated talk and gestures.  She was entertaining to watch as she spoke with great passion about herself.  I made a couple of images and thanked her for her time and continued my journey through the city.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Juan_del_R%C3%ADo

Judy

There are many subject areas that I am drawn to with my photography.  One of them is to record the human condition that I come across in my travels.  It is rare that I go out photographing solely for that purpose.   It usually happens with an unplanned situation or event that happens while I am in an area  photographing.  Over the years I have produced a large portfolio of people images that I have come across in my travels.  For me they are very rewarding images, with most of them being made with the slow setup of a large format camera.  In my formative years with photography I came across the works of Dorothea Lang and the many other great and inspiring photographers of the Farm Security Administration.  These photographers captured the difficult lives of people caught in the depression and the time of the devastating dust bowl era.  Looking at their work I could see and feel the desperate lives of these people existence.  Although my time is very limited with the person that I am photographing, the successful images, have a timeless quality that is common with recording the human condition.

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/dorothea-lange/watch-full-film-dorothea-lange-grab-a-hunk-of-lightning/3260/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm_Security_Administration

Bull Riding, Mexican Style

When we were in Mexico we would spend many days just driving in our car through the mountains looking for small towns to get a feel for the local culture.  On one of our day trips the road we were traveling on came to end in the small town of La Trinidad.  We noticed a lot of people in the streets and plenty of old pickup trucks parked everywhere.  We pulled over and got out to look around and soon realized we came upon a big community event, bull riding Mexican style.  The people were crowded around an old outside arena waiting for the start of the rodeo.  Bands were playing and food was being served from vendors.  We worked our way into the crowd and up near the fence to see the show.  This particular bull rider must have been the crowd favorite because he got a big roar of applause when his name was announced.  I have watched professional bull riding for many years and have always enjoyed the sport.  This guys ride was the first time I had ever seen someone ride a bull without holding on.  It was a magnificent ride and the crowd went wild with cheers and applause.  I was impressed with his talent and thought to myself that he could have been a very competitive rider here in the States.  We spent the afternoon there watching different Mexican cowboys take their chances at bull riding, but non came close to this guy's ride.  We ate food made friends with the locals and had a very memorable day.
We made a few more trips to this small town afterwards and came across a man working in his opal mine.  He took us through his mine and later we had dinner with him and his wife and bought some of his opals.  You never know what a small back country road can take you to until you get out and explore.

Toiling under the sun

If you  have ever spent any time in Mexico you have seen hard work going on all around you.  People there work hard just to provide a simple lifestyle.  Our lives are full of abundance when compared to the daily lifestyle of the average person in Mexico.  Here we live thinking about what we can obtain in our future while they ask themselves how can I feed my family today.  One thing I noticed about the Mexican people, is that they work hard six days a week, but they value celebrating life with festivals, food, and surrounding themselves with bright colors just as hard as they work. 

Helping Hand

When we travel in Mexico we always stop in the small towns and walk around and find a little restaurant to have lunch.  It is a good way to sample some of the local fare of the region we were traveling in.  Many of the restaurants have open fronts and the cooking takes place on a grill as you enter.  It is a good way to see what is being cooked and ask a few questions of the types of food offered.   We enjoyed the many meals we had in Mexico except for ones with chicharron.
We noticed that many in the of small towns we would see the owner of the restaurant provide a free meal to an elderly person.  It is common practice in some regions to give a helping hand to the elderly and provide them a good meal each day.  I made a photo of this little lady in a little mountain town while we were having lunch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicharr%C3%B3n