shutter to think

Antigua

Hay unos fotos nuevos a la izquierda < -------- se llama "Antigua".
There are some new photos to the left called "Antigua" pictures taken with a holga in May 2007.

Procession

Hola amigos. For my journalistic adventure, I brought my Holga to Guatemala to take pictures while I spent the day in Antiqua with my reporter friend Julissa. I love my Holga. love it. her. I think its a her. Annnyyywayy, I only got one roll out of the day. We mostly spent the day doing logistics stuff and planning our trip and stories. So out of that roll i got it all scanned so that I can finally share some pictures. This one is a procession around the central park. It was the week of Mother's Day and the catholics honor the virgin mary and all mothers with daily processions.

Being in Guatemala and shooting our stories, I really felt like i had a great sense of purpose. A purpose greater than what I'm doing at the paper I shoot for. Over there, a third world country, people understand the role of the media, of photography. They understand what our role is in the world. Here, I can't even cover a story about 60 of our Napa County firefighters [UPDATE 6/28: apparently only 12 of the 60 are from Napa] who are battling blazes in South Lake Tahoe. Its really frustrating. I feel like my purpose here is insignificant and the fact that I can't bring home the pictures that show the courage and endurance of these firefighters doing to protect the people and surroundings of Angola. Its important to show these pictures, to understand what their job entails, and to appreciate that they put their life on the line to do what they love. I understand that. And I want to show that. I love my job...or rather I love the idea of my job. But when I can't do my job as a photojournalist, I question what the paper thinks the role of news photography is in their community. They say they lack the resources because we are down two reporters (so if you know of anyone looking...there are openings for education and for ag) but what we really lack is the work. Or what they really lack is the risk. Without risk, there is passiveness and there is no story. I question my role here at this paper if we dont' cover the biggest news story of the summer in our area. At least this is the closest thing to that...Bay Area residents love Tahoe. For some, its their second home, whether they actually have a cabin or they camp. Its an environment that we all appreciate, care, and love.
This passiveness here is really smothering me.

Who the Duck is this photographer?

http://www.whattheduck.net/

Summertime

Ahhh the long lazy dayz of summertime, wrestling your brother on a log (submerged) before the waterfall of death! ah-ha! well there's no waterfall of death in the Napa River....maybe just 5 feet is greenish murky yuck. Here two brothers battle it out on that submerged log. I swear its there.

another blog

sorry getty sports, i think i may have found my new favorite blog. getty news blog. my window.
y'all check the world out....http://blogs.gettyimages.com/news/

Nascar zoom

This year the newspaper I work for covered Nascar. That's right. that's all I have to say about that. Last year an editor determined that America's number one sport wasn't worth covering because it isn't in the Napa Valley, so it aint news. I"m not a big Nascar fan, although its growing on me and the excitement is fun, nor am I a superstar sports shooter (i can bring one home for the team) but I do know that Nascar is the supercharge all three - baseball, basketball and football - championships in the US. To not cover it would and could potentially loose single-copy sales at the newsstand. It could actually decrease the circulation. But how many folks in the Napa Valley see Nascar? Or better yet, how are we affected by Nascar? Anyway, at this point who cares. I was stoked just to be there one day, although a practice day. It was exciting nonetheless.

Where was I going? oh yea driving with Tony Stewart in an Impala around the track. yea. so last year we instead covered a media/pr goofy event featuring tony stewart and the CHP to promote safe driving the week of nascar in sonoma. around the infineon track, the chps or chips (remember?) chased down tony stewart, driving an impala, and eventually would pull him over on the straight and ticket him, lights twirling like a disco, oh yea, and at the finish line. cheesy. anyway, on the track the media were surrounding the driver's side of the car where he was seated. Since I'm not familiar with shooting with a ton a media, I was really turned off by the whole thing and hung out on the other side of the car just watching. Mr. Stewart himself then rolled down the passenger window and asked if I wanted a ride. Yeah, you bet. Around the track? Holy smokes. I asked, have you driven this car around the track before. Nope, he replied. Oh you're kidding me.

Nascar from last year - looks like a sunday drive

And what a ride it was zippn round the infineon track feeling the car slip around hairpin corners going 50, 60, 70 oh my god 90. No doubt that the fear in my heart and my adrenline pumping, i wanted to scream, lierally hanging on to my beloved Red Sox cap. Oh yea and my cameras too. Fortunetly I got one decent shot with the light as my friend that came off a white wall and illuminated his face. You wanna know what its like racing around a track like infineon with a race car driver? like a ride on a roller coaster with your eyes closed. the only reaction stewart had was we nearly missed an oncoming semi on the track - a semi on the track? yea, maybe he missed the freeway, but all stewart said, whoa that's not suppose to be here.

this year at practice -

And Vallejo native Jimmie Johnson leaving tracers around a bend -

Meet Dewey

Last weekend I photographed a man named Dewey, a Napa resident and horse rancher. It was an assignment that really didn't have a story peg other than a mere recognition of this man's life and accomplishments. But it was a nice morning tot'n around in a go-cart around the ranch meeting the horses. In WWII he flew the same plane my father flew in Vietnam - a C-47.
I think this horse's name is Skippy.

Wine life

Here are some pictures from the Napa Valley Wine Auction I covered a few weeks ago. The auction is a fundraiser in which wine industry-related folks and others similar, raise funds for non-profit orgs in the Napa Valley. Mind you that this isn't opened to the public so put back your wallet my friend unless you fork out $2500 for cocktail hour and dinner. That's not even the auction. Folks here are high bidders. This year's highest bidder for a trip to Italy and a mazarati went for $1.3 mil.

One fun aspect for shooting for a newspaper in the Napa Valley is photographing food and wine. I am now requesting that I eat all the food and wine I shoot, because its soooo yummy. : ) Aw i keep dreaming that they'll hook me up....i would say i eat and drink good food and wine about once a week, if I'm lucky to land a food assng. You know, so i can better capture the spirit of the wine. : 0. I swear its probably the only newspaper that considers wine tasting like drinking water. But the bummer about this is that I can't even afford to buy my own bottle! Oh its such a tease! Most high end wines are at least $30. Yea, my bill for a bottle is 10...maybe 15 if I drive some extra mileage that week.

Margrit Mondavi, with her husband, Robert, greets Bill Phelps at the Napa Valley Wine Auction -

Last week I photographed a wine party celebrating the opening of a new winery, Castello di Amorosa. Its a 13th century replica of a Tuscan castle, compete with moat, although dry, iron-gated enrtrance, 5 towers, a dungeon (a labrynth of a wine cellar), oh and most important, a torture chamber with an antique iron maiden. For pictures, go to napavalleyregister.com.

A tower overlooking the valley -

New Story....

a photo essay on the guatemalan border town of Tecun Uman, called Streams of Hope, in the photo album section to the lefty left. that way <------
more to come....

Field Trip

Today I went to Connolly Ranch which is a farm with barnyard animals and a garden to educate kids about farm life. I photographed a group of kids from a homeless shelter in San Francisco. here are two outtakes.

City girls taking a break -

This little guy was shaking water from his hands at everyone trying to cool us from the heat. Just a cutie. He is four-years-old -

cowgirl

its a hot day in napa and the newspaper is two whole days behind on the heatwave that's hitting us and tommorrow will be another miserably hot one, still with no heatwave story. I don't know why the delay. anyway, so no hot day picture.
But, here's a picture from last month's mustang adoption. A cowgirl eyes a mustang she hopes to adopt if there are no other bidders.

Abuelita

Hi Friends!
Here's another picture from my Tecun Uman story. I love this abuelita on the raft, patiently waiting to cross the Suchiate River, holding her handbag. While my experience on the raft wasn't nearly as calm as hers, it was certainly adventurous. I'm missing Guatemala!

where are the pictures you ask?

You ask, and I can't believe its June - graduation time for the shooting stars in Napa Valley A-1 section lede photos makes the news, the only news in this town. But not my beloved Guatemala. I'm still working on those edits but will be posting in the photo album section on the left that way so you will see! being back in napa has only made me want to go back for more because the place full of life, of endless color and spontenaity as are the chicken buses and Catholic processions. There are so many stories that connect us to mexico and central america but everyone is focused in iraq while my head spins because I know there's something in the works down south thats gone amiss and forgotten. just a hunch.

I just watched the awful notes of a scandal with cate blanchett whom i like (and they played a siouxsie and the banshees song can you believe along with showing an old album....ah what is it...kaleidoscope!! because I have it, if not all). there was a line somewhere in the movie that said "mind the gap". it struck me because what it meant is that hazy middle between what you see yourself wanting to be or what it is in reality. The gap is the hazy middle that says pay attention to the gap because the gap is just as important as my dreams and reality. Like my constant obsession for the big break in my career or that I live in Napa and I could try to love it maybe by trying every 300-something wineries that are here. Ouch. A confession. I need a little spice in my life (for certain my boyfriend and dog are the real spices) and little news in the groove and I just hope those Guate stories find a home so I can go back for more....so that maybe someday I'll be surfing again and not dreaming so much of something better. There's not a perfect place in the world, I realize its more a state of mind and, for me, there's no place better than when I'm shooting an amazing story or surfing the waves of a distant storm.

Memorial Day

While there were pictures of touching ceremonies and stories on war veterans over the Memorial Day weekend, I was out on patrol with a Napa County Sheriff at the rambunctious Lake Berryessa shooting partiers. When I was younger, in high school - those long ago and fuzzy days, a lot of my friends went to the Lake. I don't know why I never went. But thankfully I didn't. Thousands arrive over the weekend, packed and stacked side by side in cramped and dingy campgrounds (other resorts are quite run down and dated) to party the weekend away. About a good half are late high school and early age college kids. So here's a picture of a typically scene at Berryessa. Yes, there are families present, trying to maintain a functional, family event while teenagers binge drink. Its Napa County's version of Daytona's spring break. The only unfortunate thing was the closure of Pope St. Bridge where hundreds of boats gather in a cove to party. Its quite a scene and one that I looked foward to to make some pictures in all that mess. Last year, I shot it from a 50-ft jumping rock.

A quieter scene -