shutter to think

philanthropic love

Naomi Lawler, 34, an American expat living in San Miguel de Allende, originally from Wisconsin by way of San Diego, dedicates her weekends to two orphaned sisters, Angeles and Elena. She has been a host mother to the girls, whose ages are around 5 and 8-years-old, for nearly two years.

“I feel that everyday they are integrating and its complimentary because it expands their minds to understand various cultures,” said Madre Chuy, Mother Superior of Casa Hogar Santa Julia. There are four nuns who care for 40 girls at the San Julia de Hogar, where the sisters live during the week.

The city of San Miguel de Allende has a population of about 60,000 residents and is one of the wealthiest cities in Mexico. Nearly 8,ooo expats from mostly America, Canada, England, and Australia live in the city and boasts 130 non-profit organizations supported by grants and donations from the expat community. Virtually no funding comes from the Mexican government. 75% of expats are retired and live on fixed incomes.

Surfer Portraits

I'm working on a storyboard about a little surf town in Mexico and got distracted in making these images of local surfers for the blog to share. These guys have seen their little fishing village transform over the past 10 yrs to a tourist destination. And now, themselves have gained a little from the tourism, such as providing a business teaching surfing, or taking surfers out on charter boats, and family business of restaurants and bars.

Burro -

Tigre -

Jose Luis -

Chile -

Tarzan -

Sayulita Shaper

Rogelio Ramos is a long time shaper and surfer, and is from one of the five original families in this tiny fishing village turned surfer tourist town. He has seen the growth of tourism in his town evolve over the past 10 years. Here he works in his shop, creating and shaping a board from a blank.

la playa

i'm editing a little project on surfers in sayulita and i stumbled across these pictures that makes me miss the ocean and surfing so much. evening light...little rollers and longboarders. well okay, so its flat, but at least the environment was heavenly.

Cockfighter portraits

I forgot to post these from my portrait series on cockfighters.

Project Luz -- Friday, June 26, 2009 at 111 Minna, 5-9pm.

The last couple of months I have been helping facilitate a fundraiser for Project Luz, a photojournalism workshop program for marginalized youth in Mexico. The fundraising event takes place this Friday, June 26, at 111 Minna from 5-9 pm. Funds raised at this event will go directly to three workshops this summer in the states of Sonora, Mexico, and Oaxaca. We will have raffle prizes, silent print auction and live music. This will be a very fun event!! I hope to make it to one of the workshops to teach.

Mexico wedding in May

This wedding took place at beautiful Las Trancas hacienda. Thanks to the fabulous photographer Holly Wilmeth for having me there to photograph!

poblanos.....chiles!

Chile harvest outside of San Miguel de Allende. Not too colorful as the peppers were green, but it was a beautiful blue morning!

   

 

Festival of Valle de Maiz

The community of Valle de Maiz, the oldest neighborhood of San Miguel de Allende celebrates the Holy Cross with a 3-day event, and a parade on Sunday -

 

Jaripeo -- cattle style

I think typically at these rodeos cowboys ride bulls, but in this case, the ranchers of Las Canas used their own cattle grazers. The event was just outside of San Miguel de Allende, at a ranch/pueblo.