shutter to think

Guatemala's food insecurity

While famine rages in Somalia, many other countries face hardships also due to the rise in food prices and climate change. This is very much the case in Guatemala, where farmers can no longer predict the time to plant and harvest production is very small. Heavy rains and long droughts prevent healthy growth of crops, in particular maize, where the cost of corn rose 40% since last year. There is plenty of food in Guatemala, a country where half the population lives in poverty and violence is 4x more then Mexico. However most of the food production is for export (mostly to the US).  Small farmers are especially vulnerable, where half the crop is for family consumption and the other half to sell at the markets. This year, many small farmers have produce low yields of crops mainly due to extreme weather (heavy rains, and long droughts).

Here are two images from my film edit. the scans are low res until i can get home to make higher quality scans, but was anxious to share since i haven't posted on my blog in a few weeks.

birthday snaps

Here's couple of snaps taken during my birthday last week that I spent with my boyfriend, our dog Reese, and a couple friends in Monterrey. We also went to the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, which had an impressive salt water tank and sea horse exhibit. :o ). but the rest of the exhibits or habitats were smaller then expected. We also were scouting surf & skate spots, and checking out the beaches during the beautiful evening light. We then stopped at the Lone Cypress Tree, a famous 200-year-old Cypress, along the 17-mile drive in Pebble Beach. (equipment: a dusty old 500C Hasselblad, the popular Holga, and trusty G11).