just another photo album

i've moved

2010-08-20T12:57:00.002-05:00

I haven't been here in a long time. Times have been busy but all is great. Lali is a little angel and is growing super fast.

Anyhow, since moving back to the UK this blog has kinda lost it's purpose. I won't be updating here anymore but maybe sometime in the future it'll have a purpose again.

I'm now over at talljamz.tumblr.com where I'll be focusing more on my photography and photography findings from the web. (Also, tumblr is just a hell of a lot easier and crucially faster to use).

Adios,

Hola, me llamo Citlali. Hello, my name is Citlali. Bonjour, je m'appelle Citlali

2010-03-01T05:20:00.006-06:00

Me llamo Citlali Alejandra Robinson Diaz, Citlali significa Estrella en Nauhatl
My name is Citlali Alejandra Robinson Diaz, Citlali means Star in Aztec
Mon nom est Citlali Alejandra Robinson Diaz, Citlali signifie Etoile en langue Aztèque

Naci este miercoles a las 13.19 en el hospital Conquest de la ciudad de Hastings
I was born on Wednesday at 13.19 in the maternity of the Conquest hospital, Hastings
Je suis née mercredi à 13h19 à la maternité du Conquest hospital à Hastings

Pese 3,295kg y soy muy bonita y tranquila
I weighed in at 3,295kg and am said to be beautiful and calm
Je pèse 3,295kg je suis un beau bébé calme

Espero conocerlos pronto
I look forward to meeting you soon
J'espère vous rencontrer bientôt

Viry at 39 weeks

2010-02-17T02:25:00.003-06:00

It’s unbelievable how fast the past 9 months have gone. It only feels like yesterday that we were just a couple of excited kids running around Vallarta with a perma-grin on our faces when we found out.

We’re now at 39 (and a half) weeks with an expected due date of this Friday – so it’s really any time now.

Viry’s doing great, she’s been great throughout the entire pregnancy to be honest, especially considering how busy we’ve been (we’ve only had a wedding and then a cross-Atlantic move).

We’ve really enjoyed the past 9 months, it’s a pretty amazing thing to live through and it’s only the beginning. Something I perhaps didn’t expect is the presence that “frijolita” has had in our lives before being born. What I mean is when she’s born she will technically be “0”, but for us she’s already 9 months old. She’s been there the whole time, and its something that you really feel – especially for the last 6 months. She’s really reactive to our voices, to what Viry eats and she’s very much part of our conversations.

Our birth plan is to keep things as natural as possible and hopefully to stay a far away as possible from hospitals. We’re going to a midwife birthing centre for a water birth.

I can’t wait.

Blue Skies

2010-01-08T11:30:00.007-06:00

Yesterday we had some awesome light here, the kinda light you get almost every day in Vallarta...

If you're reading this from outside the UK you may not know that we're currently going through an exceptionally cold and snowy patch of weather over here. Almost the entire country is covered in thick snow and the temperatures are reaching close to record lows. This makes for travel chaos but when the sun comes out, like yesterday evening, it makes for stunning light.

I'm kinda obsessed with rich blue skies and I managed to capture these 2 images below, which really reminded me of an image I took in Mexico at about the same time last year at the beach in Boca de Tomates (third photo). Worlds apart but both beautiful.

Hola Mexico

2010-01-07T11:59:00.002-06:00

Hola Mexico ! desde el sur-est de Inglaterra donde estamos viviendo uno de los inviernos mas frios de la historia.

frijolita at 28 weeks

2010-01-07T11:02:00.004-06:00

Frijolita making her first appearance on the world wide web - seen here at 28 weeks (we're now at 33 weeks).

Change is hard, Change is good

2009-12-05T10:43:00.004-06:00

The contrast could not be any greater. From tropical oceanside town to countryside foresty village. We are now in the south east of the UK, just over an hour outside of London, in a small village called Northiam. I've never lived here before so although it's VERY different for Viry, it's also new for me. We're at last starting to get used to the cold weather and the early sunsets.

We're surrounded by fields and forests, about 15 minutes from the sea, it's a truely beautiful area and for the next few months this will be a great "base" for us. Once a job has been found and a baby has been born we'll move into our own place - where? who knows !

Anyhow, I think that this photo sums up the change we've gone through - we're in true "welly boot" land here.

Bye bye Vallarta

2009-11-22T12:52:00.008-06:00

It's already (only) been 2 weeks since we left our simple life in Vallarta and arrived to the UK. It's been an emotional move for both of us but we're happy and adapting to our new life in Europe.

I can't believe it's already been 2 years since I moved to Mexico. So much has happened over the last 2 years, kinda feels like I'm awakening from a dream... and we've still got so much more to look forward too. Viry and "frijolita" are doing great, the little one moves so much it's incredible. All Viry needs to do is smell a banana, or any fruit for that matter, and the baby starts kicking like crazy. Expected arrival date is around the 20th of February, so just around the corner now...eek.

Whilst it was sad to leave Vallarta I was sadder to leave my beloved Piticity, and Mexico in general. It's without a doubt become an adopted country for me. Mexico is a complex country and it's tough to describe to outsiders what it's like to live there. I think that many people judge Mexico with European or American morals and for that reason they fall into the stereotypes or the negatives. Amongst the hundreds of reasons why I love Mexico I think the one that stands out is the real sense of freedom. Back here in the UK everything seems regulated. Everything has instructions, rules, penalty fees, security cameras and you constantly feel that you're only a step away from some sort of fine. In Mexico, as long as you're sensible, you can pretty much do whatever you want, whenever you want, wherever you want.

Although we're now living away from Mexico it will continue to play a central part of our lives. One of our travel bags was full of maseca, dried chilies and various other foods that you can't find here - fresh homemade tortillas are now common in the Robinson-Diaz household.

So, on that note it's a goodbye to a pivotal part of my life, an adios to Vallarta, a see you soon to Mexico but hello to many great things to come. Arriba Mexico Cabrones !

Highway

2009-10-25T15:44:00.003-06:00

Just dug out this photo that I took in March - it's a long exposure shot of the highway entering Vallarta, taken from the Home Depot car park.

Puerto Vallarta from a different perspective 2

2009-10-24T21:06:00.005-05:00

Nathan over at licensetostill.com gave me the tip on this location a few months ago and only now that I've finished work I've found the time to go up there and take some photos. It's up behind the 5 de diciembre colonia and gives some pretty spectacular views of Vallarta and the surrounding jungles.

Along the sames lines as one of my previous posts I'm always interested in showing the not so touristy side of Vallarta. Few pics below and more on my photo site.

Cessna 310

2009-09-26T10:23:00.004-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to take a short trip from Talpa de Allende into Puerto Vallarta in a Cessna 310. Great experience and some stunning views of the jungles around Vallarta. Photos below (click on them to enter gallery).

Teotihuacan

2009-09-23T22:08:00.005-05:00

During our visit to Mexico city a couple of weeks ago we went to visit the ancient city of Teotihuacan.

When I first came to Mexico about 13 years Teotihuacan was the first pyramid site I visited. It's a huge huge huge place and very impressive. It's a much more intimidating place than many of the Mexican pyramid sites. Whilst many of the other sites (that I know) are set within jungle terrain, with pyramids scattered around, Teotihuacan is set in a valley, surrounded by mountains - laid out almost like a modern city. It was especially impressive when we went as it was a stormy day.

Pics below and here.

Viva Mexico

2009-09-16T10:25:00.004-05:00

Today, the 16th of September, Mexico celebrates it's Independence Day. It celebrates the start of the uprising against the Spanish rule which eventually ended with Mexico's independence. This year's Independence Day marks the start of Mexico's Bicentenary.

To mark the start of the day "El Grito" is performed in each town plaza at 11pm on the 15th. "Grito" means to "shout" and is a reenactment of how in 1810 Hidalgo rang the church bells of his town and "shouted" for independence.

We spent the evening with some friends from work and watched the televised "Grito", which is performed by the president of Mexico (Felipe Calderon) and the Mexico City Zocalo (below).

Viva Mexico !

Estadio Azteca - a childhood dream

2009-09-12T12:49:00.004-05:00

Many years ago my grandfather gave me an old book of the best Fifa World Cup moments, I love that book so much. The centrefold page has a huge black and white photo of a jam-packed Estadio Azteca during the 1970 Mexico World Cup final. From the moment I saw that photo, and because of the history the stadium carries, I've always wanted to see a big game at the Azteca.

This week that dream came true. Whilst on a short break to Mexico City with Viry we went to watch Mexico v. Honduras, a big game for Mexico as winning brings them ever so close to qualifying to the 2010 South Africa World Cup.

Needless to say, it was huge - everything I expected: road chaos, last minute rush to get into the stadium, capacity crowd (can't find the exact number but at capacity it holds 105,000), green everywhere, sombreros, costumes, lots of beer, flying cups, flying beer, NOISE, great atmosphere, a pretty decent game and best of all, a victory from Mexico (1-0). Experiencing a home goal at the Azteca is something you don't forget !

This is one of the panorama shots I took, click on it to see a few more pics.

Highlights from youtube, the length of the commentators "gooooolllll" reflects the explosion in the stadium (the goal did come late in the game).

The big news part 2

2009-08-07T10:41:00.008-05:00

The big news part 2 is the kind of news that takes 9 months to mature ... that's right, we're pregnant !

We can't wait ! we're about 3 months in, so "frijolito" is expected in about 6 months, around the 19th Feb 2010. All is well, Viry's doing great, frijolito seems to be doing great and so is papa. Happy days ! If I ever though it was sometimes complicated having a dual nationality this little one is going to have 3 ; MexiFrenchyEnglish!

We found out about 2 months ago and have already had 3 ultrasounds. The first one was done at 2 months and was unbelievable. Although our little frijol was super tiny his heart was flashing like a beacon - we could even see his little head moving. We had our 3 month ultrasound this week and he/she's grown so so much. Frijol was lying on his back wiggling his legs up the air and playing air-drums with his hands - a musician!

The next few months will perhaps see even more change with a potential move back to Europe - more on that later.

The big news part 1

2009-08-07T09:56:00.006-05:00

On the 1st of August 2009 my beautiful (then) fiancée became Viridiana Diaz Padilla "de Robinson" - that's right, we're now husband and wife! We're of course really really happy and enjoying some well deserved rest after what was a very busy 6 weeks of planning.

We had our ceremony on the beach in Bucerias, very simple and beautiful.

Barefoot in the sand.

Trying something new

2009-07-24T11:27:00.005-05:00

Summer in Vallarta has been very very eventful so far with lots of life-changing and extremely happy news that I'll post about in a few days. On the photography side I've been trying out new things and new revenue streams, notably the microstock market. I'm still unsure if it's something I want to continue but I'm giving it a fair shot before I make my mind up.

Basically, microstock is the "web 2.0'isation" of digital stock photography. Whereas in traditional stock photography buyer's pay a fee depending on the usage of the image (price varies based on use & visibility), microstock sells royalty-free images at very low prices. Royalty-free means that more than one person can purchase the rights to use the image - the price of the image is more or less fixed, whatever the usage (there are slight differences). Low prices to the customer means very low commissions to the photographer - so it's a numbers' game. A handful of people in the world live from this market, the vast majority just make pocket money - so I really have no high financial expectations. It's more about the experience for the moment.

I've been at it for about 2 months now. It's a lot of work and really hasn't given much return so far (literally only about $50 so far). I can see it paying off long-term, for things like photography equipment etc, but it really does need a lot of maintenance to work. These microstock sites are extremely strict about the quality of the photos you upload. Basically the images need to be tack sharp, zero noise and have "commercial value" (resulting in fairly boring images to be honest). Sounds easy but it does take some adjusting to. My main concern isn't so much how much money I can make from it but more it's impact on creativity. Since I started I've pretty much been shooting exclusively for my stock portfolio and looking back through my images there's nothing that I'd hang on my wall. It makes you so obsessed with the technical side of photography that you kind of forget the creative side. I think the key to making it work is to really keep the stock shooting totally separate from my normal shooting. Perhaps dedicate one day every couple of weeks to stock, and the rest to my own work.

One of the microstock sites I submit to has a press-pass service. They help photographers obtain a press pass for events in return for exclusivity on the photos you take at that event. I tried this with the Concacaf beach soccer world cup qualifier that took place in Puerto Vallarta a few weeks ago and it all worked really well. I was able to get my first ever photography press-pass to the event and shot a couple of days of the tournament. Really exciting.

It was a really interesting experience. Once you get that pass around your neck you almost feel like you become invisible. I had more or less free access to the area around the pitch, coach bench and changing rooms. Sports photography is certainly an art in itself. It calls for very different technical skills, timing, permanent observation and anticipation. I managed to pull out a few nice shots. Selling them via microstock isn't really cost effective but I did it for the experience and will definitely do it again.

I'll post obout the "other" news in a few days.

Keith Dannemiller

2009-06-24T19:40:00.004-05:00

Keith Dannemiller is an American photographer working in Mexico City. I came accross his website a few weeks ago and it has some totally stunning black & white portraits from Mexico. All his images have such honesty and represent so well the Mexico I see here, especially it's youth, that I really wanted to share some of his imags here.

If you get a chance take a look at his fantastic work here : http://www.keithdannemiller.com (images below are ©Keith Dannemiller)

Goolgle Maps Punta Mita

2009-05-13T13:50:00.005-05:00

In case you hadn't noticed, google maps have recently updated their satellite imagery for the north shore of the Bay of Banderas, ie, the stretch that runs from La Cruz to Punta Mita.

Pretty useful for traveling surfers if you're looking to find the less-crowded surf spots around Vallarta.

cual virus ?

2009-05-10T17:09:00.004-05:00

In reaction to the first cases of the swine flue virus here in Jalisco the local authorities have decided to shut down schools, bars, cinemas and clubs ... again!. Clearly, for Vallarta this is another killer blow for our local economy, and for those of us who work in tourism (everyone) we're thinking this second shut-down is just silly.

A friend of mine has just created a set of "anti-flue" t-shirts that they're trying to get circulating around town so I thought I'd share them here. If anyone local is interested in getting a shirt give me a shout. They've also got some in English and I think they're getting some bumpers stickers made too.

Iguana

2009-05-09T10:39:00.002-05:00

A couple of days ago an iguana jumped from the roof of our house onto our truck (didn't know that they were such acrobatic animals).

Puerto Vallarta from a different perspective

2009-04-27T20:58:00.004-05:00

I'm totally diggin using lightroom to process my photos and at the moment and I seem to be constantly returning to this "sombre, scorched" effect. I know it's a far cry from the usual colourful images of Mexico and I don't know if I'm over-doing it because it's new to me, but there's something about this look that I'm really attracted to.

Let me know what you think of these colours.

collecting dust

2009-04-13T11:12:00.010-05:00

mich mex

2009-04-13T09:59:00.007-05:00

10 days ago we travelled to Michaocan for a long weekend break from Vallarta. The main aim was to pick-up Viry's little brother so that he can spend his Easter holidays with us. It was also our first time back to Michoacan in over a year so we were pretty excited.

The drive up to Morelia (the capital of Michocan) was, lets say, eventful. We left PV at about 2pm on Saturday which should have put us in Morelia by about 11pm - we arrived at something closer to 5am. To cut a long story short we had a flat on the highway at about 9pm. To make matters worse our spare was also flat. We spent the next 4 hours standing on the side of the highway, waving at cars & trying to arrange help (federal police / motorway agency / private mechanics ...) and finally help came by about 1am. The tow truck took us to a 24hr llantera (tyre repair shop) - but guess what, that was closed. Thankfully a group of truckers offered help, removed the tyre, broke into the 24hr llantera and fixed our tyre ! You gotta love Mexico ! So, by about 3am we were back on the road, all going well until we got to the Morelia exit, where one of our exhaust pipes fell off ! Piece of rope and a few minutes under the truck and away we went.

We spend a day in Morelia with Viry's mum and then a day in Sahuayo visiting Viry's sister - then headed back to Vallarta. The other main event of the weekend saw us practicing our "duck when you hear gun-shots", (no kidding), but that's another story and one that I don't feel comfortable blogging about - thankfully we're all fine.

So, as always, photo gallery is up, take a peek here. Actually, this gallery marks my first edited gallery using the wonderful Adobe Lightroom. I think my I've finally "frozen" my digital workflow (only been a year since I started seriously looking for "my" workflow). Enjoy

our world now

2009-03-25T10:41:00.003-06:00

I've just seen that Reuters have published the second volume of their book "Our World Now", an annual collection images documenting "the world in that year". The book looks like a "must-have" but what caught my eye was a comment made in the article.

My advice is to treat your yearly production just as we have done in the book. Look back at your work and do your own “my world now” edit. Put aside what you like, keep sequences where they make sense, search for detail, even go through your very best family pictures. Over time they will crystallise and carry new value.

I've had my dslr for about 2 years now and the sad truth is that I've hardly printed any photos. I have lots of photo albums back at home from when I was a kid shooting my Olympus OM-10, but non since I went digital. I think it's time I take this advice.

prestige & pollo feliz

2009-03-23T23:15:00.004-06:00

A few recently edited night photos taken around the Vallarta airport pedestrian bridge.

quimixto surf tourmament

2009-03-10T23:25:00.005-06:00

A few photos taken on Sunday during the finals of the 1st Quimixto Surf tournament.

vallarta charro

2009-03-03T13:44:00.007-06:00

A couple of weekend's ago was held the National Championships of "Charro" in Puerto Vallarta. In Mexico, a Charro is a basically a horseman, or a cowboy. The Charros wear traditional outfits with big sombreros and are pretty much the ultimate macho sex symbol of Mexico - the girls love em!

The event is known as a Charreada (think rodeo or stampede) and is considered a national sport here, it's hugely popular, especially here in Jalisco. It's a real family day out and there's as much entertainment in the stands as in the arena. Everyone takes the opportunity to get booted and suited with their leather boots, tight jeans, cowboy shirts and cowboy hats (male, female and kids alike) it's awesome. There's food and drink for sale everywhere, live Banda Bands playing all afternoon and lots of "Charro" items for sale.

I'd never been to a Charreada before so I was really excited about going, and it was really a great experience - if ever there's a Charreada close to you when visiting Mexico I'd definitely recommend it. I've put a few images below of the event, with the full edited set here.

pvbeat

2009-02-25T13:48:00.006-06:00

I recently stumbled upon an excellent Puerto Vallarta photoblog at www.pvbeat.com, which has regular updates by Shanti Castillo Gilbert.

Because Vallarta is such a tourist town the airwaves are awash with very similar "holiday-type" photos (not that I'm criticising this), so it's always nice to find different creative perspectives of the town.

take a peek.

yaka

2009-02-21T13:18:00.003-06:00

Work took me up to Playa Los Ayala last week, next to Rincon de Guayabitos on the "Riviera Nayarit". It's a beautiful little beach, one of those postcard beaches : small bay, crystal clear water, sandy beach, palm trees etc.

Like most business meetings in Mexico little time was spent talking business. The main subject of talk was a Yaka tree in this man's garden. The meeting ended with the harvesting of a ripe Yaka fruit and a tasting session. Yaka is a tropical fruit that looks like nothing else. When fully grown it's green, about 30 cm long and has a prickly surface.

I'd never tried it before and I'd definitely recommend it if you're coming to this part of the world. Aside eating the fruit (which is a little sour) I had a sweet milkshake made with the fresh Yaka flesh : delicious.

a new lick of paint

2009-02-18T11:31:00.005-06:00

After a few days of dodgy photoshop skills and amateur html coding I've just gone live with a new look and feel for my personal blog. As I mainly post photos, and I like large photos (who doesn't?), the main emphasis has been a larger content area to accommodate large images.

I've also changed the logo, the colour scheme and bought the www.justanotherphotoalbum.com domain name, which will direct to this blog. The next step will be to sync my smugmug page to this look and feel. Comments welcome.

radio nova - "the station to ease your frustration"

2009-02-07T22:43:00.004-06:00

I started listening to Radio Nova as a teenager in Paris, probably when I was about 15 and my heavy rock days were over. At the time I was playing both guitar and saxophone fairly seriously and was also developing a taste for electo music; so thats rock, jazz and electro.

Radio Nova is one of those "non-pop" radio stations where you're constantly challenged and introduced to new sounds from all over the world, whether it be electro, hip hop, soul, jazz, rock or a mash up of all genres - it's just the best free DJ you could ever wish for.

Some of my best memories of Paris as a teenager are driving around at night listening to the awesome sound of Nova on the car stereo.

Next time your in Paris give your ears a break and tune into Radio Nova on 101.5 fm, or tune in anytime via their webpage www.novaplanete.com (click on "Ecouter Radio Nova" to the left of the screen).

They also have a series of great compilations called "Nova Tunes" that you can find in most good music stores.

first trip to cabo corrientes

2009-01-28T11:17:00.010-06:00

I know Mexico pretty well now. Before moving to Puerto Vallarta a year ago I'd already been to Mexico 4 times, which when traveling from Europe is a fair bit. Until last weekend I'd never been further South along the Pacific Coast than PV. I've been to Quintana Roo a few times but the Pacific and Atlantic coast of Mexico are so different that you really can't compare.

Last weekend we decided on a short road trip to Cabo Corrientes, which is the stretch of coast that runs south after the southern tip of the Bay of Banderas (where Puerto Vallarta is located). After work on Saturday we packed some clothes, threw the spare mattress into the back of the Pick-up and headed south.

The drive was great fun. After Boca de Tomates the road runs through some spectacular mountain terrain and fairly quickly, and with only a bit of altitude, the vegetation changes from jungle to pine. At "El Tuito" we turned off the highway and headed east back towards the ocean, following directions towards the village of "Maito".

The Road to Maito is a 48km stretch of mountain road that is mostly dirt road. Dusty, sandy, rocky and very very empty, only really suited for 4x4s' or large pick-up trucks. On the way out, along the entire 48 kms, we probably only saw another 5 vehicles, of which 2 were heavily armed army trucks scouting the surrounding forests for drug plantations.

We arrived at Maito to find a huge stretch of virtually empty beach with strong onshore wind, heavy pounding beach break and miles and miles of sand - a very different landscape to both Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit. There was a small hotel at the beach at Maito but we decided to drive a few kilometers further south to the village of "Tehua" (Tehualmixtle), a really cute tiny fishing village hidden inside a natural port and shielded from the onshore wind a waves. We scouted around, contemplated sleeping in the truck on the car park but decided to head to the next village to see if we could find anything better.

The next village was Ipala, which is tucked behind a large beachfront lagoon. Just before Ipala we found some fantastic cabins for rent. There are actually 2 different businesses renting cabins, we stayed at the first one's you come across driving south. There are about 5 cabins for rent and they're on a hill, beachfront and with the most spectacular views you could imagine. No hot water, no electricity, and in our case on Saturday night, no one except for ourselves. Paradise. We drove down to Ipala and found someone selling tacos which was perfect. 10 Tacos and back to our "Robinson Crusoe" cabin for dinner and a night of beer and domino's !

The next morning we drove to the other cabin place to get breakfast and then went down to the beach. Whilst the beach is stunning the current is really strong and the beach break bone crunching - so basically pretty difficult for swimming.

After the beach we headed back to Tehua for lunch. Tehua is known for its fresh Oysters which I just happen to love. We sat down at one of the beach restaurants and ordered a plate of fish ceviche and 12 oysters, which come fresh from the port to your plate.

After a few hours relaxing at the Tehua beach we headed back to PV. Leaving Teuhua we gave some old guy a ride to El Tuito (if you have a Pick-up in Mexico it's pretty normal for people to jump into the back when your stopped asking for a ride). The guy was pretty interesting and in the space of 1 hour tried to sell us a piece of land, a parrot and a dear...

Another great weekend trip in Mexico. I really wish that I didn't work on Saturday mornings to make the most of all the places to visit, but I really can't complain. These and a few more photos are on my smugmug site.

Matanchen Beach - look before crossing !

2009-01-16T11:10:00.006-06:00

The wide, 8 km stretch of beach at Matanchen (just south of San Blas in the Mexican state of Nayarit) is often the scene of activities not usually associated with beaches.

It seems the norm is to drive straight onto the beach, and then drive up and down until you find a nice spot to chill out. Added to this are the numerous ice-cream, atole and bread sales vans, and excited kids racing on their dune buggies and competing for the widest doughnut - always entertaining.

Click the photos to see them in their full glory.

Pozole !

2009-01-14T16:22:00.008-06:00

The festive period ended-up being busier than expected and not much time has been devoted to either the blog or the camera. I've decided not to continue with the weekly blog diary, but I am still aiming at frequently posting to this blog - and of course keeping up with the photography.

Over Christmas Viry's older sister came to visit for a couple of days, filling our little house to the edge. To be honest it's always nice to have a full house for Christmas. In all, there were 8 of us, each sleeping on any spare piece of flooring we could find - along with the 2 cats, Daisy the dog and the temporarily adopted Nena the puppy (she's now gone).

Christmas eve was fairly standard, with midnight presents, food and drink (actually, the midnight presents aren't the norm in Mexico, that was just to keep me happy). We ate Pozole which is a fairly traditional dish here for festive occasions (as seen in the photo above). The super-sized cooking pot had to be purchased especially. On Christmas day we drove to Matanchen for the day and even did a pit-stop at Viry's grandmother's house (who I had never met before). The drive was entertaining as we only took 1 car, a small Nissan hatchback. Most of the return trip was spent with 3 in the front, 3 in the back and Rosy in the boot (not joking). I'm always surprised by the attitude to road safety here (or lack of).

New Year was a calmer affair and we just stayed at home and celebrated with a bottle of Champaign, the Christmas turkey (that we didn't cook at Christmas) and the traditional 12 grapes at midnight (1 for luck for each month of the new year). We ran outside for the 12 chimes and the entire Pitillal turned into one huge improvised fire-work display. Everyone suddenly started firing rockets out of their windows.

Since then all is calm in the Pitillal. Viry is looking for a new job and my work is... well ... is.

I've also been learning quite a bit on the old photoshop. I found a set of videos by Chris Collins at www.cbrush.com which are excellent and that I highly recommend for anyone learning photoshop and photo editing workflows.

Cheers to 2009 !

Diary for week 52, 2008

2008-12-23T15:45:00.004-06:00

- Last week's free time was dominated by Viry's discovery of Jack Bauer and his perpetual quest to save the world. I've already watched all of the series in the past and with Viry we're revisiting them. Therefore, lots of TV time last week.

- Viry left her job at the start of last week and will start next week to search for a new one.

- This week we're dog-sitting for a friend (so that makes 4 humans and 4 animals living under our (small) roof). It's a little puppy that Rosy found on the streets and gave to a friend. Not sure what it is but looks like a cross between a bull-dog and a labrador - very cute but very crazy.

- The weekend was super relaxed (aside the frantic activities at CTU). We're now gearing up for Christmas with some last minute shopping. This will be my first Christmas away from my family which will be kinda sad but at the same time will be my first with Viry, which will be great.

- Feliz Navidad !

Vincent Laforet Pipeline Project

2008-12-18T09:38:00.007-06:00

Vincent Laforet is about to embark on what sounds like a pretty awesome project. Over the next few weeks he'll be filming a short film on Jamie O'Brien at Pipeline, using the new Canon 5D MKII, and a host of other equipment.

Vincent was one of the first to get his hands on the 5D MKII prototype and shot the incredible video, Reverie, over only 2 days. You can read about that here.

Vincent's work is pretty spectacular and his openness via his blog is a great insight to the industry. He'll be blogging daily about the filming of the Pipeline film so make sure your RSS feeds are setup - looks like it going to be super interesting.

Diary for week 51, 2008

2008-12-17T12:03:00.006-06:00

- Main event of last week was the Virgin of Guadalupe celebrations in downtown Vallarta. Previous post. It was a really interesting experience and I'm really glad that I took part.

- Sunday morning I dropped off Viry to her work at 7am and drove north to go surfing. Unfortunately everything was flat, from Sayulta to Los Burros so no surfing was had. When I got home I made some fish ceviche to make up for it (our favorite Sunday dish).

- Happy 4th Birthday Noah!

- Just realised that my week numbering is off by 2 weeks - oops.

Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

2008-12-13T21:40:00.009-06:00

Last Thursday was the eve of the "Día de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe" (the Day of our lady of Guadalupe). It is probably one of Mexico's most important religious events and celebrates the apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin in 1531 on a hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City wikipedia here

The image of the Virgin of Guadalupe is very prominent here and is probably one of Mexico's most important national, religious and cultural symbols. I very often see in people's wallet the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe alongside photos of family members, the image decorates many buses and cars and it's not uncommon to see people wearing t-shirts with the image.

All over Mexico the eve of the Day of our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated with "Peregrinaciones", or pilgrimages. The most important being the one that takes place in the Basilica of Guadelupe of Mexico City, which houses the "tilma" (robe) wore by Juan Diego. History recalls that after Juan Diego saw the Virgin her image miraculously appeared on his robe and has remained ever since.

In Puerto Vallarta the event is celebrated by many, especially as the main church of Vallarta is named after the Virgin of Guadalupe. Viry's hotel organised one of the processions into town and we took part. We started at Peninsula and walked to the church in downtown, approx. 5km. Our procession included some flag bearers, traditional indigenous dancing, a marching band, a truck carrying a young girl dressed as the Virgin & a young boy dressed as Juan Diego - and then about 100 of us walking behind. In the group there were also 4 men carrying a statue of the Virgin. The walk took about 3 hours, lots of stopping and starting, lots of chaotic traffic and lots of spectators.

I was impressed by the number of people downtown. I was expecting a big turnout but there were literally thousands of people packing the streets, of all ages, of all social backgrounds - in a very relaxed and friendly atmosphere. In all, there were probably about 10-15 different procession groups, from different hotels and civic groups, each with it's own truck, music and decoration. The closer we got to the church the more compact the line became, all waiting to enter the church, pass in front of the altar, leave offerings and then leave by the side door. The church literally had a huge line of people circulating through it's doors, for hours on end.

We eventually entered the church, walked through and left through the side door. There were also mariachi groups walking through the church playing music, pretty cool. Outside the church there was a big screen and projector TV showing live images from inside the church and loads of quality street food. We walked around a bit, got some food and then headed back home, we didn't stay for the mass.

I took my camera but was taking hand held shots with no flash throughout the night, pretty tough, especially as I don't like to let my D80 go too high in the ISO range. I've put a few shots on this post and check out the rest in my gallery.

Boca de Tomates

2008-12-09T11:56:00.001-06:00

Diary for week 50, 2008

2008-12-09T09:50:00.002-06:00

- After 3 months I finally went surfing this weekend. On Sunday I went up to Punta de Mita and turned into La Lancha (judgment made due to number of cars parked across the street). The walk down to the beach is so much easier now that the rain has gone, no more swampy mud and lost flip-flops. At one point a snake jumped out infront of me and gave me the scare of my life! (I'm always a little be edgy when walking there alone due to the crocs that most likely live in the river). Anyway, the swell was good and the line-up was packed, a real change from my summer 8am sessions. However, my time out of the water really showed and I sucked ! I probably caught 2 or 3 mushy waves. The good news is that my daily swimming and running has made a huge difference to my stamina in the water.

- Last week I went for an evening walk from the Marina to Boca de Tomates to take some photos, coming shortly.

- Friday night we went to a club in town to celebrate one of Viry's colleague's birthdays.

- La Paloma (the pickup truck) has had it's long awaited service, new oil, plugs, filters, brakes etc...

- Tonio (the kid from the shelter we've been logding) went back yesterday.

Death all around

2008-12-04T10:41:00.011-06:00

Finbarr O'Reilly writes a short piece on the Reuters Photography blog about the atrocities taking place (continuing to take place) in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

His direct writing style mixed with his powerful photography really hit me this morning and I felt compelled to share it. Shocking images are all around us today and it seems that we've almost become "immune" to the world's horrors. This article tells the story with such honesty that it made me stop and think.

Check it out here, it's fantastic journalism but will probably ruin your day.

"Most of the victims perish far from sight, deep in the bush. This time, death seemed all around."

Diary for week 49, 2008

2008-12-02T15:30:00.002-06:00

- I've really started to get into my daily swimming. Last week I went every day after work without fail and felt so much better for it. The daily swim has now become a daily swim + run. It's between 500m and 1km of swimming and the same running.

- On Thursday walking to the beach I spotted a crocodile swimming in one of the Marina Golf courses' water hazards !

- On Friday and Saturday Viry had her final exams, so now her "licenciatura" is officially finished.

- On Saturday morning after driving Viry to her exam I had some time to spare before work andwent for a walk from the Marina beach to Boca de Tomates. It was a really nice walk and pretty amazing how, after such a short distance, you can leave the busy city behind and find a quite "jungly" beach. As it was early there were lots of net fishermen working in the river mouth. Very picturesque.

- The plastic Christmas tree went up this weekend - earlier than normal but we picked it up from a friend on Sunday and couldn't wait.

- A year ago Viry did some voluntary work in a kid's shelter in the Pitillal and she got quite close to the kids. Last week a couple of them ran away and came to her for help. Since then we have 1 living with us, not sure for how long!

Surfing the Cornwall streets

2008-11-25T16:53:00.002-06:00

Diary for week 48, 2008

2008-11-25T10:46:00.005-06:00

- Very quiet week last week and I'm scratching my head to think of what I did. The money front is kinda tight at the moment so we haven't really been doing much recently.

- Trying to save money on petrol so haven't been up to the north shore to go surfing in ages (boooo) - note to self : "get your arse outta bed Sunday morning and go" , but I have been swimming regularly so does make up for it a bit.

- Christmas decorations are starting to go up around town and the supermarkets are full of plastic trees and decorations. It feels strange in this weather to be honest, this will be my first Christmas in a warm place.

- Painted our bedroom on Sunday, that's pretty much as exciting as it got!

Diary for week 47, 2008

2008-11-18T12:19:00.006-06:00

- Finally downloaded the available Heroes Season 3 episodes so spent many hours with my eyes fixed to the laptop screen last week ... dam, season 3 is kinda getting out of control.

- My office is about 5 minutes from the closest public beach access and I hardly ever go swimming - which is criminal! I can remember whilst in my old job, being stuck in my car on the M25 on a rainy cold day driving to somewhere exotic like Margate, I would look forward to my move to Mexico and promise myself that I'd make the most of the warm sea ... the reality so far is that I don’t. So, starting last week I'm having a quick swim after work. I swim from the Bay View Grand (just after the runway) to the first pier, probably just under 1Km. The aim is the increase the distance bit by bit.

- Monday was bank holiday here (Mexican revolution day). Both Viry and I managed to get the day off work so we spent the day with Rosy, Consuelo and her kids at the Conchas Chinas beach.

- There's a new addition to the family. My cousin Virginie gave birth to her 3rd child, "Emilie".

Marina Vallarta by night

2008-11-14T09:53:00.007-06:00

Some of my first night-photography shots taken using the D80, taken from the balcony of the "Liverpool" shopping centre opposite the Maritime terminal. I played with both the kit 18-135 lense and the 50mm prime lense and was once again blown away by how superior the prime lense is.

Looking north

Parking booth at the "Liverpool" exit

Swimming the Pitillal River

2008-11-13T10:15:00.006-06:00

2 weeks ago on Sunday we went to spend the afternoon by the Pitillal River (same name as the Colonia we live in). A friend of Rosy's came along with 2 of her kids, Ronaldo and Kenya. Lots of people were enjoying the water which is much more refreshing than the ocean water at this time of the year.

We brought along some fish ceviche, a few cold beers and some fruit and just chilled and splashed around with the kids. The river is really shallow and has a nice strong current, so you can just sit and let the rushing water cool you down. Simple fun.

In about 3 months the river will be totally dry, until next year's summer rainy season.

Looking West towards the Sea

Crossing the river

Kenya

Diary for week 46, 2008

2008-11-11T13:57:00.003-06:00

- Finally had a more active week at work with some promising things going on, so fingers crossed.

- Spent Saturday and Sunday cutting down as much of our drive-way tree as possible. The tree "sweats" a really sticky liquid which leaves me needing to clean the truck every weekend. I don't have a ladder so I was climbing over all available walls and windows - I'll need a ladder to do the rest, that will be next weekend's job.

- We had the first rain since about 3 weeks on Sunday night.

- Daisy the dog went missing for a few days last week but returned on Saturday with no apparent wounds.

- Spent a lot of last week working on Rosy's business (soon to graduate from massage and complimentary therapy school). Been working on the website and various promotional material (business cars, flyers etc).

- Sunday night we all went out for a drink at Bill's in Versalles.

Family visit photos

2008-11-07T10:13:00.005-06:00

Iz, Nick, Noah, Luca and Kweku - thanks for coming to visit - it was great fun and we had a great time with you all. Vallarta seems somewhat quiet now that you've all gone ... so come back soon, you're of course always welcome.

I've uploaded some of my pictures onto my gallery site so feel free to go take a peek.

A big fav of mine - so cute

Classy

It's amazing how happy the boys look in all these photos

Alpha Zulu

Luca

Say cheese ! Not sure what Luca's looking at though

ps. I think that my laptop screen resolution isn't correct. I've corrected the white balance and exposure to look good on my laptop at home but they seem too dark on other computers. Can people tell me if these, (and other photos I upload), look too dark on their screens please? Thanks.

Diary for week 45, 2008

2008-11-04T15:06:00.004-06:00

- This past week I've really felt the difference in temperature here. I can more or less spend an entire evening at home now without breaking a sweat - real luxury !

- The pick-up truck that I've been driving for the past year is now officially ours! Originally we had it on loan from Viry's sister but we've decided to buy it from her - so now I officially own what is possibly the most polluting and expensive vehicle to run on the planet - kinda kills my green credentials but it's all we can really afford to buy for the moment ...

- On Friday I checked out some of the festivities in the Pitillal for the Day of the Dead and on Sunday night Viry and I went for a walk downtown. On our way we visited the PV cemetery which was really interesting. In France, the 1st of November is the "Toussaint" or All saints day, and is a day where one goes to the cemetery to clean and flower the family graves - so seeing the cemetery in flower wasn't so much of a suprise to me. However, what I didn't know is that people here have, what I can only desribe as, a small "party" with all the family members at the graves, in memory of, and to spend time with, the family members that have passed away. There were large groups of people, young and old, sitting around the graves eating and drinking. There were even musicians offering their services to the families. It was a really nice experience and I think a very healthy way to remember those that have died.

- On Sunday afternoon we went to swim in the Pitillal River, just next to the Ex-Hacienda del Pitillal colonia - great fun.

It's hard taking really good photos

2008-10-31T20:16:00.009-06:00

This evening I went for a walk through the Pitillal down to the main square to see some early "Day of the Dead" celebrations. The day of the dead (Dia de los Muertos) is this Sunday but the Pitillal had some early cultural events tonight; a funeral march and an Altar competition (Altars are "shrine-like" constructions in memory of, and with offerings for, the dead).

I walked around with my camera soaking in the atmosphere, taking photos trying to capture what I was seeing and feeling. When I got back I downloaded my photos onto the computer and, as so often, I had a few OK shots but my pictures didn't really capture the atmosphere. I was once again reminded how much I have to learn in photography, and how much of an art it is to capture the small things that make up the atmosphere in such a special place like this. The warm air with mixed smells of tacos, grilled corn, exhaust, dust and vegetation / the rumbling pick-up trucks with their loud banda music / the kids playing football on the plaza / groups of men standing around drinking beer / old men selling balloons / the numerous street food stalls / families strolling and enjoying the cool afternoon air / the church bells ringing / kids riding their tuned-up mopeds with flashing neon lights and blaring hip-hop music / speeding buses with their chromed double-exhaust pipes... and the list goes on.

Anyway, as always, I love the atmosphere here in Mexico, especially on a Friday or weekend evening around the main square where everyone comes to relax. I've put a few images on this post and I'll be adding more photos to my smugmug site of the Day of the Dead festivities.

The main square decorated with traditional paper flags (composturas)

An Altar on display at the main square

An Altar's floor decoration

Diary for week 44, 2008

2008-10-28T15:51:00.004-06:00

- Last week was the last week of my sister's holiday, and like all good things, went by very quickly. We had a few nice dinners in town and even a couple of clubbing nights.

- Friday night was their last night so we had a nice bbq at our house in the Pitillal. The kids were super happy to finally meet Daisy the dog.

- Everyone left on Saturday and the rest of the weekend seemed very quite - Sunday was just a relaxing day.

- Whilst the days are still really hot here we're starting to get lovely fresh mornings (fresh as in about 24°c). We also haven't really had any significant rain in about 2 weeks.

- Still haven't been surfing since I've got back - hopefully this Sunday.

Market meltdown photography

2008-10-24T16:39:00.011-05:00

At the moment it seems impossible to escape the 24hr news coverage of the financial crisis and the photos accompanying these stories. Every time I visit a news website or open a news feed I'm greeted with pictures of screaming constipated-looking men in funny coloured suits or pictures of men looking totally totally knackered with absolute despair in their tired eyes. You find that after a few weeks the pictures repeat themselves over and over again - good time to not be a trader.

Anyway, in the midst of hundreds of similar photos there are a couple that I like, especially the following 2 which seem to go well together. Both are taken from the Wall Street Journal's "Pictures of the day" blog that you can find here, one of the many photo blogs that I regularly read.

The first picture is at the crude-oil options pit of the New York Mercantile Exchange, it's a crazy picture. There are 3 people that stand out in the chaos - 1st. the freaky screaming man who looks like he's about to commit murder, 2nd. the guy below him who's face is illuminated by his PDA and 3rd. the guy to the right of the screaming man who looks totally shattered - he either want's to give up on life or is really pissed off by whatever the freaky man is saying.
(Jin LeeAssociated Press)

The second shot is of stockbrokers at the Karachi stock exchange with a very much more laid back feel, and even a cuppa tea.
(Athar HussainReuters)

Piñata

2008-10-22T10:47:00.005-05:00

A couple of weeks ago 2 of my little neighbors, Cesar and Carlito, celebrated their birthday on the same day. As is the tradition in Mexico the centre-piece of the kid's party was the Piñata, in this case a Goat painted in the colours of the Chivas football team (Chivas translates as "Goats". They are the football team from Guadelajara and are the pride of Jalisco. They're the biggest club in Mexico along with the America of Mexico City).

Carlito and Cesar were both also wearing their Chivas shirts which was super cute. Each kid (starting with the smallest) took turn in trying to smash open the Piñata, which when achieved, releases a load of sweets and is followed by a kid stampede.

Couple of shots from my window looking down onto the kids.

Before

Carlito at work

An attempt to preempt the release halted by Carlito

Diary for week 42, 2008

2008-10-21T14:01:00.006-05:00

- The last week has been super busy and super fun. Viry, Rosy and I have been sleeping in Kweku's room to spend as much time as possible with everyone.

- The kids are loving PV and are loving the water. Noah has made lots of little friends and they're spending their time jumping and splashing in the pool. Luca is a little less sure about the pool but he still goes in with his daddy.

- We've had quite a few dinners out and the kids have been with us everywhere, so lots of late nights for them. Luca loves the guitarists and singers that come to perform in restaurants.

- Saturday we all piled into the pick-up (5 in the front and 3 in the back) and went to Destiladeras beach along the North Shore for a sunset BBQ. Carne asada and shrimp skewers - can't get much better than that.

- On Sunday we all went to a fresh water river on the South Shore, it's about 20 minutes into the jungle from Mismaloya (better know as the Predator set). Kweku (who has brought his beloved mountain bike to PV) set off first on his bike and we followed a couple of hours later - he won, but was absolutely knackered after the very tough uphill cycle. We all had a great time in the river and the falls - really refreshing compared to the warm sea water at this time of the year.

- As always when around kids I find myself taking countless photos of Noah and Luca, they're just so beautiful and photogenic - especially with the awesome light we get here in the evenings.

Noah at sunset

Luca at sunset

Jungle waterfall fun

Tropical storms at night

2008-10-15T10:12:00.004-05:00

Now that I have my tripod here in Vallarta I can try to capture some of the last tropical storms of the 2008 storm season. These are my first attempts at night lightning shots with the D80 (first in Mexico or anywhere).

These are all taken from the top of the Westin Club Regina which is in the Marina Vallarta Hotel Zone.

Diary for week 41, 2008

2008-10-15T09:39:00.002-05:00

- I spent most of last week tapping my fingers counting down to days to when my family would arrive in Vallarta. Kweku arrived Saturday morning and my Sister, Nick and the kids arrived on Saturday night with a couple of hours of delay. The kids looked surprisingly well after having passed about 14 hours stuck in a plane.

- Sunday we all chilled by the pool, which the kids absolutely love. Noah's getting really confident in the water and pretty much spends all his time in the pool - either jumping on Kweku and I or towing us around on the bodyboard. Noah's latest Spanish word is Manzana - well, "Manzana juice"

Happy times

Diary for week 40, 2008

2008-10-06T16:40:00.003-05:00

- Last Monday was a nightmare of a day. It started with a 03:30am wake-up call to catch the 06:30am Brest-Paris flight. That bit went ok, but the rest didn't. Paris Charles de Gaulle airport was covered in thick fog and the incoming AeroMexico flight (that was supposed to go back to Mexico) was diverted and landed in Lyon! (which is only on the otherside of the country... I still don't get that bit). Then, a security check on the plane in Lyon found something and the plane was grounded - and hence my flight canceled. To cut a long story short, after lots of shuffling, pushing and begging I got onto a plane the next day that would get me into Mexico City in time to catch a connecting flight to PV. That rest of the afternoon was spent bored in a 2 star airport hotel watching TV - I didnt have the courage to go into town, even if I should have used the opportunity to go catchup with some friends.

The majority of the passengers on the plane were non-business Mexicans, returning from holidays I guess. It was pretty impressive to witness because they were so so chilled out about the whole event. Being FrancoEnglish, I can tell you that a telling a bunch of my countrymen that their flight has been canceled is a much less civil affair!

- I finally arrived back in PV on Tuesday night and was greeted by Viry and Rosy. Obviously I was real happy to see them again, and so too were they (or perhaps they were just happy to see the tonnes of chocolate I brought back...)

- I went back to work on Wednesday afternoon.

- Only rained once since I've been back, and it was only a tiny shower compared to back in August - so I guess the rainy season is over. However, it's soooo hot. Because there is less cloud cover we get more hours of direct sunlight and we're constantly at 34-35 °C in the afternoons.

- Sunday I spend the day painting the back yard walls, which had turned black/gray/green from the summer humidity. They're now a glimering white !

- Really looking forward to next weekend. I have my sister and her husband along with my 2 little nephews coming to visit along with my good friend Kweku.

Diary for week 39, 2008

2008-10-02T15:28:00.003-05:00

- Bit late this week as been traveling back to Mexico over the past few days (canceled flight out of Paris on Monday night - nightmare).

- Last week we traveled to Lille (North East of France, very close to Belgium) to spend time with the grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins...

- Back to Brittany on Thursday where we had some gorgeous September weather. Sea was as flat as a pancake so no surf.

Le Mont Saint Michel

2008-09-25T17:04:00.001-05:00

Le Mont Saint Michel

Le Mont Saint Michel

Diary for week 38, 2008

2008-09-22T13:04:00.004-05:00

- On Monday I took the train from Cornwall to London. This week has been spent between my sister's house in Maidenhead (outer M25 London) and my former flat in Shepherds Bush (West London).

- In Maidenhead it's been quality time with my awsome little nephews and the family, in Shepherds Bush just good old chillin with the boys.

- Parents arrived on Tuesday from France.

- Saturday was Dad's surprise birthday party (60 yrs). My sister organised a boat trip along a stretch of the outer London Thames. There were lots of Dad's school and college friends, some of which he hadn't seen in over 30 years so the surprise was complete for him. It was a great day.

Noah

Noah

Noah and Luca

A 60 yr old Dad and a relieved Mum, after months of "keeping the secret"

Kweku and Andrew teaching me the concentration needed for the Wii

Diary for week 37, 2008

2008-09-16T05:39:00.009-05:00

- Last week in Brittany the weather brightened up and we had a few nice days. We went sailing on Tuesday and had excellent conditions off the port of Merien.

- Discovered a nasty ding in my shortboard (my shortboard which lives in France) which needed some fiberglass and resin patchwork. Not exactly pro work but it will do the trick.

- Went scouting for waves but there was nothing working, too much wind with too little swell. Hopefully next week when back in Brittany I'll get the opportunity to go in the water again.

- Drove around an area of Northern Brittany with my parents visiting some beautiful coastal villages. Great excuse to play with the new lense.

- On Friday I took the ferry across the Channel to Cornwall to spend the weekend with my good friend Alistair, his fiancé Kelly and their beautiful baby boy Finley. The weather was again really nice and the surf conditions pretty good. On Saturday Lunchtime we had a session at Crantock (just south of Newquay) which had some pretty powerful big sets but the onshore wind was making it real hard work. Sunday we had an early morning session with offshore winds and nice swell. Obviously, the water is super cold compared to PV but you quickly got used to it - just feels awkward wearing a wetsuit again.

Alistair with cold feet

- Sunday afternoon Alistair and I spent most of our time cutting down a tree in his garden.

Out and about in Brittany

2008-09-10T05:40:00.008-05:00

New batch of photos uploaded onto Smugmug from my past few days out and about in Brittany. I'm really enjoying the new lense - great blue tones and super sharp for portraits. I've got the feeling it's rarely going to come off my camera.

I've put a few sample photos below, the complete gallery can be seen here.

Typical shutter stop with the traditional "Breton Blue" coloured shutter

Typical scenery of rural Brittany

A French classic, the Citroen 2 Chevaux, parked at La Torche, Brittany

Paddle Board surfing at La Pointe de La Torche, Brittany

Walking over the dunes down to the beach at La Pointe de la Torche, Brittany

Diary for week 36, 2008

2008-09-09T15:31:00.005-05:00

- Very relaxing week at home with my parents so far. The weather has been rotten so not a great deal of outdoor activities. It took a few days to get over the jet-lag so the poor weather wasn't so bad.

- We went to the coast on Friday to watch the storm hit. The Port of Doelen was full of locals and tourists watching the spectacle. The port has a large wall to shield the boats from the swell, and when storms hit the waves crash over the wall - pretty spectacular. It' however pretty tough taking photos as after about 5 minutes your lense is covered with water drops.

- Other than a few outings to the local beaches I've pretty much just been playing with my camera and new lense.

Nifty 50

2008-09-09T12:08:00.005-05:00

Big week for my D80 (and for me too), with the arrival through the post of my new Nikon 50mm f1.8. Very simple lense, super sharp and much faster than my current kit Nikor 18-135 lense.

After only a few days of shooting I'm hugely impressed with the difference a quality lense can make - I'm especially enjoying the larger aperture for indoor photos.

I already have a wish list of future lenses, but given their price I think it'll be a while before the next (especially eying the Tokina 11-16mm at the moment).

Angry Atlantic

2008-09-05T17:27:00.007-05:00

No surf thus far in BZH - here's why ...

Angry Atlantic at the Port of Doelen, Finisterre, Bretange, France. 5th September 2008

Journal de la semaine 35, 2008

2008-09-02T15:55:00.004-05:00

- Eh, Oui, Bonjour de la France, or should I say, "Demat a Breizh".
So, here I am writing my first post outside of Mexico, on the Northwest coast of France in a region called Brittany, or "Bretagne" in French (or "Breizh" in the Breton language). The weather is obviously very cold compared to PV, and even more so this year at the end of what has been one of the worst summers in history in this part of the world. I'm wearing a jumper for the first time in about 5 months, have my first blocked nose since 8 months and already miss Viry - but I'm happy to have arrived after a long trip and I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and friends.

The Flag of Brittany.

- So, over the next few weeks I'm going to try to share with the world-wide web (well, with the few visitors Mr Google Analytics tells me I have) the beauties of this region.

- The flight went very smoothly. I flew via Houston on Sunday night so missed any potential effect from Gustave. The Air France flight to Paris was excellent; with Champaign in economy class! a great dinner and a small bottle of red-wine to help knock me out for a few hours - Vive la France !

- Back in PV last week not much to update on. The work on the "falling house" behind us has now extended onto another house. They seem to be doing more re-construction than demolition so hopefully they'll be finished soon.

- Last Thursday was my last day as English teacher at the "UNE" University in Las Juntas. I started that job to help out a friend, supposedly only for a few days, it ended up being a 4-month long thing. I'll never forget my first day, I was so so so scared and I had no idea what to do. I was standing in front of a bunch of expecting students and was so close to making a runner! After a few days I really got into it and it was a great experience. Really made me appreciate the work that "real" teachers do - not an easy job. So, if ever you meet a local that says "trousers" instead of pants - it's one of my students !

Diary for Week 34, 2008

2008-08-26T16:01:00.004-05:00

- Main event of the week was the "Miss Westin" beauty contest. Viry's hotel has the contest every year for staff and she was one of the representatives of the Club Regina section of the hotel. Unfortunately another girl won. Apparently everyone knew that "the blond girl" was going to win. It seems that like in many Mediterranean regions of Europe people are obsessed with blond people in Mexico. (She wasn't even pretty ... or perhaps I'm just being bitter...)

- No surf this weekend again as it was my last weekend before my Summer break to Europe and I had some shopping to do (of which I did none). Next surf will be back in the cold Atlantic water next week.

- I haven't been able to find any pics, but on the news last night there was short video of a big fat crocodile splashing about in the water at a beach in Nuevo Vallarta , I bet the swimmers were impressed !

Rain and houses

2008-08-24T21:54:00.006-05:00

I commented on a recent post about the torrential rain that we had last week, well, it seems to have taken it's toll on our block of houses.

On Friday night we had a couple of police and "Protecion Civil" trucks park in front of our house and all our neighbors were out chatting and pointing fingers. I though some robber was being chased but the next morning realised it had nothing to do with crime at all.

Our block of houses is made up of 8 small houses on a hill, there's a line of 4 at the bottom and 4 at the back, with a staircase running up the middle of the front 4 to the back 4.

Our house is to the right of the photo, where the yellow curtain is hanging. You can see the effect of the rain and humidity on our neighbors wall.

The majority of the rain water is carried down by the street which becomes a real river, but it seems that it's also been working it's way down under our houses and has eroded a big chunk of soil under one of the top house's foundations. At 8am on Saturday a truck pulled-up with a bunch of young workers, they pumped up the Banda music and started digging away. I left for work at 09.30 and they were still working hard at 3pm when I returned. They just kept at it until 5pm. Two guys where digging in the yard of the house and there was a rotation of guys carrying buckets of mugs back to the truck, over and over and over again - dam hard work.

This guy's probably doing this for the 000'th time - hard

From the top of the stairs

They pretty much dug up to the foundation of the upper house, stuck a few supporting beams and it hasn't moved since. Luckily we haven't had any rain over the weekend and (I hope) they'll return on Monday and finish off the job. They reckon they'll have to do the whole row of houses - I really hope not because the house they were digging from was totally messed-up with mud.

The dug out section, more or less up to the foundation of the upper house

Anyway, at 5pm a guy turned up with a crate of cold Coronas', and like pretty much after every event in Mexico, everyone sat down and chatted over a couple of well deserved beers.

The reward to a hard day's work

SoulArc Skateboard

2008-08-23T10:32:00.007-05:00

Growing up in Paris and being about 5 hours from any decent swell meant that my buddies and I would always be looking for ways to slide down the local asphalt. Roller skates, roller blades, skateboards and then onto longboard skateboards. We moved onto longboard skateboards when we moved from bodyboarding onto surfing. The hilly Paris suburbs were perfect terrain for it. Our boards were homemade, mainly because the things are so dam expensive.

All that to say that this new board looks pretty fun. It's got two decks, an inverted metal lower deck and a riged wooden upper deck to give spring to the board when carving. It's called the SoulArc board, you can check them out here. It looks beautiful.

Diary for Week 33, 2008

2008-08-19T11:58:00.012-05:00

- Last week we had the mother of all rain storms (that I have seen so far anyway). Thursday chucked it down from about 8pm throughout the night. Most of the roads in the Pitillal were totally flooded (like about 30cm+ deep). The drive home was a bit of an improvisation to avoid the sections too deep to drive through. With the force of the rain and the wake from the cars the water was seriously choppy in some sections. It's quite a funny scene when it rains heavy here. You find that most people don't bother trying to avoid the rain, it's just impossible - so, everyone is soaked to the bone. You see business women in high-heels and nice clothes wading through knee-deep brown water, men in suits doing alike, kids playing in the water, business franticly trying to sand-bag their shop-entrances and cars abandoned in the deep water etc... it's crazy. Everyone and everything is just soaked - we're starting to get cracks in our walls and they're constantly damp ... Vallarta in the summer !
I have the ambition to take some photos of the traffic mayhem when it rains. Not to sure how and where but needs to be done.

- Rafa went back to Morelia on Wednesday and the house seems pretty quite now.

- Last week was the final week of the Mexican school holiday's so business is really getting slow now.

- No surfing on Sunday. I had a migraine at the end of last week and was feeling pretty tired so decided to just rest (plus there was no real swell). The sleep-in on Sunday was majestic.

- A new weird bug came to visit us on Saturday - the freakiest moth/butterfly I have ever seen. It was probably about 8cm wide, light brown and had an amazing "stick" camouflage. It flew around our heads for a while and then settled on the TV cabinet - giving me the perfect opportunity to take a shot.
Update on 20/08 - Thanks to Bluetiggy's comment, I can reveal the identity of this moth. It's a White-lined Sphinx (Hyles lineata).

- Totally totally stoked to be mentioned on Ed Flandung's photo blog Quality Peoples. Ed's blog is one of my daily reads and pretty much gave me the inspiration to start this blog alongside my photo gallery. To anyone who is interested in surfing, Mexico or just great photography, Quality Peoples is a must. Thanks Ed.

New photos added from Birthday weekend

2008-08-16T11:03:00.005-05:00

Glassy lake just outside of San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico

Ice-cream car, Matanchen, Nayarit, Mexico

Donuts on the beach, Matanchen, Nayarit, Mexico

Diary for Week 32, 2008

2008-08-12T14:57:00.006-05:00

- Last week Viry and I started our "get fit programme". We're swimming most evenings after work at some local pools.

- Very excited to have bought my flight ticket for my trip back to Europe for a 4 week holiday in September. Will be in Brittany first 2 weeks of September and then London towards the end of the month - not looking forward to my usual leg-room issue however, especially for a 20+ hour journey.

- Sunday Rafa and I went surfing at La Lancha. Once again we were the first in the water and we had a great time. The waves were great fun, probably about 4-5 feet with some bigger sets. When we left at around lunch time there about 15 people in the water, the most I've ever seen at La Lancha. A surf-school boat also turned up. Everyone was crowded around 1 break so I went to an empty (no so good - but empty) break and had wave after wave to myself - great training.

- I'm pretty sure that Sunday was the hottest day of the year so far - I don't know for sure but I think it must have hit about 35°C in the afternoon. After surfing we went for a swim with Viry at the pools and then just vegetated for the rest of the afternoon back at home - there's not much more you can do in this heat. Paradox is that when it gets really hot here lots of people catch a cold! I have one - the result of sleeping with no covers and the ventilator on high !

Vincent Laforet at the Olympics

2008-08-10T19:18:00.007-05:00

Over the past few months I've been using RSS feeds to keep up with news back in Europe whilst over here in Mexico. I've recently started to use Netvibes (as recommended by Sandrine) and I've become a bit of a RSS junkie - it's simply the best thing that's happened to the internet. I've subscribed to many excellent photography feeds like Shoot the blog, it's great because it enables me to discover loads of photographer's and their work - great inspiration.

Anyway, thanks to all my RSS feeds I came across Vincent Laforet, a New York based photographer that is covering the Olympics for Newsweek. Whilst in Beijing he's blogging about his daily work as a photo-journalist - giving a fresh view of the event, a really fascinating insight to a professional photographer's work and loads of great tips.

Also check out his portfolio, his work is amazing.

Vincent Laforet's portfolio

Vincent Laforet's Olympics Blog

Santa Cruz, Matanchen and San Blas photos

2008-08-06T11:48:00.005-05:00

The internet at home still isn't working (it's actually because we haven't paid this month) so the photos from my birthday weekend trip to San Blas are being posted in drips.

Some photos below to set the scene, more to come over the forthcoming days.

Up and close with my beast, with a big "get out of my way" front grill!

Local kid cycles to Santa Cruz break

Yummy sunset

Diary for week 31, 2008

2008-08-04T09:56:00.006-05:00

- The week went by fairy smoothly, especially as it was only a four day week for me. Work is much the same.

- We out a couple of time to our local for a few beers and wings.

- We had a massive downpour at the end of last week at rush hour, I think it was Thursday. Driving home from school took ages. The section of the Pitillal that always floods was bad, lots of cars were turning back but I went for it. Unfortunately I got the the red traffic light and was sat in water which came up the door of my pick-up truck (so about 20-30 cm deep) - totally crazy. Thankfully, I wasn't stopped too long and as soon as the light turned green I slammed the accelerator and got through fine.

- Saturday afternoon joined Rafa at the pools for a quick swim, was very hot so after that we just all chilled at home.

- On Sunday Rafa and I did the early morning surf outing again. Dropped Viry off at work at 7am and then drove North. First, we went to La Lancha. Unfortunately because of the rain the night before the jungle hike was too difficult; too much mud and just really difficult to get thought, so we went to another spot called Los Veneros and Albercas - flat, and then ended up at Burros which was small with 15 surfers on one wave. I Ended up not surfing. The local surfers were doing a beach clean-up operation so I joined-in while Rafa played in the water. Spent a couple of hours picking-up garbage and talking to the local surfers. Rest of the day was chilled at home.

- Very close to buying my plane ticket to Europe for the summer hols, cant wait!

- I still need to put up last weekend's photos on Smugmug but my home internet is down - must do it this week.

Diary for week 30, 2008

2008-07-29T13:22:00.008-05:00

- Last week not much happened - mainly recovering from the stomach bug from the week before. A week of antibiotics and simple food really...and no alcohol :(

- On Saturday, for my Birthday, Viry took me on a surprise boat trip to the south shore of the bay, to a small beach called Las Caletas. There, there's a jungle show with traditional dances followed by dinner. It was a really nice evening, nice food, nice wine and a great surprise.

- I think I had all the Mexican birthday traditions on Saturday. First, Las Mañanitas was sung to me a number of times (Las Mañanitas is the Mexican "Happy Birthday" song - nothing to do with the "Happy Birthday" song that most of us know), second I was soaked a few times (in general for any type of celebration there's a surprise water fight) and finally I had to bite into my Birthday cake - which is followed by with a push from behind resulting in a face of birthday cake. Photos to come.

- Sunday morning we (Viry, myself and Rafa) got up early to drive to Matanchen and San Blas. The drive was fine and we got there at about 10:30. We had breakfast at our favorite beach and then went to San Blas to buy some shrimp and insect repellent - returned to the beach and ate all afternoon. We had some fish ceviche and a wood-fire grilled fish (known locally as Sarandeado). We stayed the night at the same beach location as the small restaurant there also have a few beach huts for rent. We got the one closest to the beach - started a wood fire and ate our shrimps watching the sunset. We all managed to sleep fine thanks to the repellent (the area is know for it's mosquitoes - without repellent your invaded in minutes).
- In the past when I've been around there I've never seen much in terms of waves, although I know there are many world-class waves in that region - anyhow, I didn't have my board with me. There was swell this weekend and we saw a number of awesome surf spots at various corners of the bay - kicked myself to not have brought the board - but next time it's the first thing I'll pack.
- Monday morning we went to San Blas and chartered a small boat to go to an area called "La Playa del Rey" to go clam fishing. The boat sails you over the port entrance (which is actually the entrance to a huge network of swamps surrounding San Blas), and then it's a 30 minute walk through a heavily infested mosquitoes area - incredible, you immediately have a cloud of the dam things around you - thankfully, the repellent more or less works. The area we were supposed to go clam fishing wasn't very appealing, it was a brown-water swamp area in a deserted area, so we decided to walk on until we hit the beach. The beach was also totally deserted, obviously due to the lack of accessibility. It's just a long stretch of open ocean beach with waves rolling-in until the horizom. We only stayed a short while and after a quick "cool-down swim" and a new layer of repellent we headed back. That stretch of coast goes north for hundreds of kilometers and the land that runs along it is all swamp - I can only imagine all the unknown surf spots along there ...
- For the rest of day after our long hard walk we chilled back at the beach and then headed back to Vallarta in the afternoon. Once again, a fantastic weekend-getaway in Matanchen.

Beautiful Mexico

2008-07-23T22:33:00.008-05:00

Such an atmospheric scene in El Pitillal. 23rd July 2008 at about 20:30

Smugmug Keywords

2008-07-22T10:22:00.005-05:00

In my mushy stomach state I had some free time over the weekend so I decided to see what I could change or improve on my Smugmug site. When browsing peoples albums in Flickr I tend to use the "Tags" function quite a lot and realised that Smugmug has the same function (called Keywords), but I wasn't using it. In general I find that tags really help browsing photos as you don't need to know which albums to look into, you just choose a subject.

I've got to the stage where I have loads of galleries, categories and sub categories that if you don't know where to look my Smugmug site is pretty un-user friendly.

So, I spent hours tagging all my photos with location, subject and colour and I've created a separate page and icon (icon on top banner like on this blog too) called "Keyword Cloud" and I'm pretty happy with the result. It's the classic Smugmug Keyword page where you just click on a word and you get a bunch of photos that have been tagged with that keyword.

Check it out here, www.jamierobinson.smugmug.com/keyword

Diary for week 29, 2008

2008-07-21T16:48:00.010-05:00

- Monday night Viry and I went for a 14th July drink in the Marina. We went to a bar called called "El Faro" which is a bar at the top of a lighthouse. Great views and cool breezes.

- Saturday I went again to spend the afternoon with Rafa at the pools.

- I forgot to mention in last week's diary of the new addition to the family - another cat. Rafa found an abandoned cat close a river and brought it home. It's a black kitten with white paws - very cute. He's been called "Botas" (boots), because of his white feet. So now we have 3 cats and 1 dog !

- On Sunday went to La Lancha again with Rafa to go surfing. We left home at 06:30am, dropped-off Viry at work and then drove towards Punta de Mita. I've been watching the swell all week as we've had 2 hurricanes sweeping past our coast this week (we have another one this week) and was expecting big conditions. When we got out of the truck we could already hear the waves so the forecasts seemed correct. After the 20 minute walk through the jungle the scene was pretty special. Clear swell lines moving onto the beach with sets probably 6ft +, and no one in the water. We walked up the beach to the first bluff to get a good high view to choose the best spot to go. We actually ended changing spot about 3 times - and whilst the waves were at the rendez-vous my stomach wasn't. Even though the swell was big the conditions weren't easy to surf. The current was real strong and it was difficult to keep in position and I kept on getting pushed away from break point. After about 2 hours of switching beach and a screaming belly we decided to head back home - where I spent the rest of the day in bed and ended up by seeing a doctor.I probably have a stomach infection and I'm on antibiotics for a week - great timing !

Looking north from the Southern bluff at La Lancha (that's Rafa on the right). Might not look that big in the photo but where about 10mrs above sea level and that far out break is way out)

Looking north from the Southern bluff at La Lancha

Looking south from the Southern bluff at La Lancha. This breaks opposite the river mouth

Retrievr

2008-07-16T12:55:00.006-05:00

Retrievr is an experimental tool which attempts to find Flickr photosbased on a sketch. Basically, you have a small area on the web page where you can select your paint brush size and your colour to draw an image that you would like to see in Flickr. Retrievr then tries to match that sketch with some Flickr photos, and displays you the results. If it doest return what you want, you can either edit the image or start from scratch.

Whilst the tool is in it's early stages it actually works quite well, especially when searching for specific colours and shapes. For the moment it's just a tool to play with, it only searches a fraction of Flickr's database and it has no stated commercial objective - but with the democratisation of digtal photography and the large number photo-sharing websites out there it could lead to some pretty powerful search engine tools. I've put below 3 sketches I made and the results it gave me.

1. Searching for a "Wave"
2. Searching for an "Eye"
3. Searching for a "Sun"

June July Smugmug photos

2008-07-15T22:51:00.003-05:00

Finally got round to uploading some new photos onto my Smugmug site. I'm really trying to think much more before uploading photos now. They've all had a bit of post-processing (mainly crop and levels). The result is that there are obviously less photos, but I think the quality is improving.

Here's a quick extract from the galleries.

Rafa at the pools. Definetely my favorite portrait shot of they year so far.

The Boggie board at La Lancha.

Raindrops in the Pitillal.

A very big smile.

Vagabundo fire

2008-07-15T09:18:00.005-05:00

Yesterday around lunch-time a small tour & Whale-watching boat "El Vagabundo" caught fire in the bay directly in front of the Malecon. Passengers jumped to the water and were rescued by boats close to the scene. From what I've heard, one of the employees of the boat was badly burned.

Photo courtesy of Sarah from www.vallartascene.com

Diary for week 28, 2008

2008-07-14T16:17:00.012-05:00

- Fairly busy day at week which is always good, I hate it when it's quite in the office

- Starting to play guitar with one of the teacher's from my school. He's putting together a band. We played together last week which was nice as I hadn't touched a guitar in 7 months !

- On Saturday after work I took Rafa (Viry's little brother) to spend the afteroon at the Villa Vera pools (Villa Vera is a hotel that has been bought by Viry's employer). Took some nice photos that I still need to upload to Smugmug.

- Sunday was an amazing day. Got up at 06:00 am to drive Viry to work, and with Rafa, I drove north to go surf hunting. I've been wanting for ages to find an access point to La Lancha, which is a wave I surfed 4 years ago when on holiday. Back then we took a boat to the spot. I got loads of great surf spot access info from a local who has a great surf/photo blog here but I've just never had the time to go and look for them. Anyway, 1 hour drive later, after passing the correct place 3 times we found where to park. Ran across the road and found the small "secret-ish" opening in the jungle and headed down towards the water. It's about a 15 minute walk through a mosquito infested track, muddy, and kinda difficult (especially if your not sure your going the right way). Finally, a quick wade through a stagnant yellow river and you arrive at and awesome awesome awesome beach. A little walk further north and your at La Lancha wave.

Small beach with 2 bluffs, and a range of waves. You have the 2 point breaks, of which the best is the north end as the waves break over a reef. The south bluff has a nice easy left breaking over clean sand which is where I kept to most of the morning. There are also moving breaks in the center of the small bay. Spent about 4 hours in the water, of which 3 totally totally alone. Raising sun, clean warm water and 3-4ft glassy waves, only board shorts ... dribble dribble dribble.

The sets weren't very regular but who cares, I had the time of my life, and it was great to get to know my new board better. Lots of hooting and shouting from Jamie. Rafa had a bodyboard and also had a blast. After 3 hours a couple of long boarders joined me and we each took turn to get the big sets. Then at midday a boat turned up with 4 other surfers. My arms were jelly and I got my share of waves so we headed back to the car. Smugmug photos to come.

In the afternoon, we picked up the girls and went to another beach to chill out.

Planning on doing exactly the same next Sunday and I friggin cant wait !

- Hurricane Elida is still there, probably swinging further westwards than in the chart below but should still give us some good swell.

Now Tropical Storm Elida

2008-07-12T10:32:00.006-05:00

Ok, so Hurricane FIVE-E never was. It swung overland too early at the start of last week and instead of passing out to sea and pushing up the Jalisco and Nayarit coast some nice swell, it instead gave us a week of crap rainy coolish weather.

However, and it looks like it's going to be a big however, ELIDA is now looking pretty serious, working her way up from Acapulco today and should be swinging westwards away from PV on Tuesday next week - which should give us some pretty nice surf mid to end of next week. This does me no good because of work during the week, but at least I'll try to get some good shots if it pushes surf into the bay.

Some sites are forecasting some pretty huge wave predictions, this one from wetsands.com puts the biggest sets at over 26 ft ! Hmmm, not sure about that but should be big.

Small French Cars

2008-07-11T10:15:00.005-05:00

Just went to check the weekends swell forecasts (crap) on Magicseaweed and went to browse July's popular uploaded photos and came across this one which is great. Currently, it's July's highest ranked photo ! It's a shot from Ireland, at Inch Reefs and Strand.

Some of the user comments are great, this one's my favorite.

Insight, Dopamine

2008-07-07T15:55:00.004-05:00

Collection of awesome photos by Dustin Humphrey for the surf/sk8 wear brand Insight51. The campaign's been entitled Dopamine.

The shots were apparently taken in Bali, but I'm not sure if they've been edited or if the sets were actually created underwater. Whatever the method, the result is dam nice.

Diary for week 27, 2008

2008-07-07T09:35:00.016-05:00

- Viry's little brother arrived Saturday morning for the summer holidays and will be with us until August

- Went to the beach yesterday with everyone after Viry finished work. We drove up to Sayulita with the boards, some fish ceviche prepared in the morning and a few beers. The aim was to catch the aftermath of Hurricane Douglas but the waves were just sloshy and all in all not great. We got there at about 4pm, and after about 1 hour in the water there wasn't really anything surfable. To be honest though, any time in the water is still fun (especially here, board-shorts and nothing else). After that, we went to another beach called "El Tizate" for another dip.

- Rained most of the afternoon and all night. When it rains hard here (which it does pretty much every day now) the roads become rivers as there are no gutters in the streets. Yesterday, there were areas of the Pitillal with about 10-20 cm of water which is real fun to drive through.

- Had my proper "rain" baptism Sunday night when we got back. It was really really chucking it down so we decided to all run out into the rain. May sound kinda childish... which it is... and it's great fun!, and sooooo refreshing. Ran around for about half an hour!

- So Hurricane Douglas swept close to our coast at the end of last week. Apparently there were 2-3 meter sets inside the bay on Thursday!!! I really need to follow this stuff closer, even if only to run down there and get some nice pics. Anyway, missed that one but we've got another promising one on its way called FIVE-E, which is currently not too far south of Vallarta - various swell forecasting websites are forecasting 12+ feet, so gotta be more attentive this time. Finger on trigger and board ready ! NOAA forecast is sweeping away from Vallarta on Tuesday morning - I think I'll be getting up early for the next few days and checking the local beaches.

Feels like 39

2008-07-04T16:43:00.002-05:00

Here comes the heat !

Head to head with a 6cm Giant Cicada

2008-07-02T12:40:00.006-05:00

Following-on from my "bug" comments in my last post we were visited by a 6cm Giant Cicada on Monday night. I was making some horchata water when this thing crashed around the kitchen and landed on the kitchen sink. Freeked me out because its so noisy as it crashes into everything.

They produce a really unique loud sound which, since the rainy season started here, dominates the night (that is, when my neighbor hasn't got her music ridiculously loud). The sound is like a really long chic-chic-chic-chic-chic, zwEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... This one sang to me whilst I tried to catch it (also made me jump, I'm a chicken when it comes to bugs).

Image below.

In real life it's about the same size as on the screen - huge

Diary for week 26, 2008

2008-06-30T09:40:00.010-05:00

- Not much new at work this week, a few interesting leads at work so fingers crossed

- A/C has finally been installed in the classrooms at the University where I work - AT LAST, no more soaking wet Jamie trying to teach English

- Massive downpour and lighting show Friday night - strongest rain since I've been here. The rain is getting more and more regular, pretty much every morning now. Every time we get a lightening show I kick myself for forgetting my tripod in France

- With the rain being constant now there is a new influx of bugs in the house. The usual huge cockroaches are around (but my super duper spray sorts them out), but were getting more beetles, frogs, still lots of geckos but we like those, loads of annoying flying ants, lots of mosquitoes and yesterday I found a really weird cockroach (I think), never seen them that shape and with such long whiskers (I'm sure that's not what they're called).

- On the subject of animals loads of bats come out when the sun goes down here. There's a bat's nest directly above our bedroom window, when lying in bed it's quite entertaining watching them swoop in and out. However, they do sometimes "get is wrong". Since I've arrived we've found 2 bats in our bed, poor things, they get scared sh**less. First one made me freak out, second one I was brave enough to grab (with a towel) and set free !

- I got my first real stomach bug this weekend so a very non-eventful weekend for us. Not sure what it was but it wasn't pretty. All OK now

Boom

2008-06-27T15:55:00.012-05:00

Scary (but amazing) set of pictures from the nuclear test conducted in French Polynesia in 1995.

Taken from http://www.collthings.co.uk

Exactidudes

2008-06-25T10:01:00.008-05:00

I found this on the Photoshelter Blog (http://psc.photoshelter.com) and find it totally awesome. It's a photo project called Exactidudes by Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and stylist Ellie Uyttenbroek which was "inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 13 years. Rotterdam's heterogeneous, multicultural street scene remains a major source of inspiration for Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek, although since 1998 they have also worked in cities abroad." (text from Photoshelter).

Click on the photo to go to their website to see the other sets.

82. French Touch - Bordeaux 2006

Diary for week 25, 2008

2008-06-23T09:14:00.004-05:00

- On Monday spent the morning house prospecting for work. It was a door knocking exercise in Valle Dorado and I Spent 2 hours on the street and was soooo hot, got back to the office totally soaking wet - very tough.

- Last week was dominated by Viry's graduation which all went very well. Her sister, mum and little brother arrived on Wednesday morning. On Wednesday afternoon was the church mass, then the official ceremony at the Westin Hotel. Marching band and offical flag procession followed by the usual handing out of diplomas. That night was the graduation party which was also at the Westin. Ended up staying there until about 05:30am with Viry, a colleague of Viry's, her boss and a random Argentinian who was a guest at the hotel. Very entertaining night, very difficult next morning.

- Stayed at the Hotel all Thursday and checked out Friday.

- Saturday night went we went out to a friends flat and then to the wings bar - so pretty much 4 constant days of going out, my body isn't as young as it once was, however, nice and restful Sunday.

Diary for week 24, 2008

2008-06-16T14:05:00.006-05:00

- PV had a very unusual week of weather. We had the first rain on Friday night and pretty much until Thursday we didn't see a ray of sun - which is practically unheard of. Normally it rains in the morning and clears in the day before the afternoon rain - here we had an entire week of cloud and pretty cool weather (24ish degrees). Since Sunday, the weather is back to normal and Sunday was super super hot.

- Viry had her last exam on Wednesday!, graduation this coming Wednesday night.

- Was reading a lot last week about my D80 and thanks to an excellent forum on flickr I've discovered a load of new cool stuff.

- Went out a couple of times last week to the chicken-wing bar.

- Happy Birthday Izzy!

The post processing journey begins

2008-06-12T09:41:00.010-05:00

The time has come where my photo collection is getting out of hand, both in size, organisation and quality. I've been reading for a while the various solutions and software packages available in Ubuntu and I've settled for DigiKam. For the time being, I don't want to get too much into Photoshop or Gimp (Gimp is an opensource equivalent of Photoshop), forcing me concentatrate on taking good photos (with the camera) and keeping the post processing simple : cropping, straightening, lense warp correction and adjusting lighting & colour levels. All this can be done via DigiKam, along with ranking and classifying (like Aperture, Lightroom etc).

Theres a number of reasons I'm doing this :
1. Better organise my photos (DigiKam has a very powerful search / filter system)
2. Have a better method for managing RAW vs JPG
3. Have a better way to delete photos
4. Learn to post process
5. Ensure I upload onto Smugmug more "finished" photos (at least on things like cropping & straightening)
6. Go through each Smugmug shot and "clean it up"
7. In the long term, start printing photos (which is really whats it's all about right - seems I kinda forgot that after I bought a DLSR).

To keep a record/diary of this steep learning curve I'm embarking upon I've created a new gallery in Smugmug "The post processing journey begins", where I'll put "Before & After" photos. The aim is to document what I'm learning / share it / and also forces me to stay active at it. Any comments welcome.

Diary for week 23, 2008

2008-06-07T13:35:00.012-05:00

- On Tuesday night Viry and I discovered a new bar that does awesome chicken wings - loads of super spicy flavors (thinking Kweku here), plus free pool table and big screen football. Result.

- Totally surprised by appointment of Sven as Mexico's national coach. My gut instinct tells me that it just wont work, but hopefully he'll prove me wrong. Mexico should to be a much better team than they are and have some world class players. Hopefully Sven will be able to make more of a "team" out of a group of "stars", tough challenge.

- Excited about Euro2008 starting, but sad that I'll miss most of the matches due to the time difference - live score internet here we go... Allez les Bleus !

- Left the lights on on the truck on all day on Wednesday whilst at work, resulting in dead battery. Thankfully a colleague of Viry's came by to give me a jump start.

- Viry had her last class on Thursday and now has about 10 days of finals.

- Since last weeks violence outbreak things have kinda calmed down a bit. Still lots of police patrolling the streets and the 3 road blocks remain in place. There have been a few arrests and a number of heavy military weapons along with drugs have been seized. I believe that there have still been a few more gun battles and a few executions. At the start of the week a guy was shot dead in front of his house in the new housing development area called "Fluvial", which neighbors the Pitillal. I also read that there was a drive by shooting in front of Plaza Marina which is where I work. However, all in all things seem under a certain level of control.

- On Friday night (06/06) the "Rainy Season" officially started in PV. The skies have been cloudy for a couple of weeks now, bringing up the humidity, but we'd only had a couple of feeble short spray showers. Friday night was the first real shower and started at 20:30 and was still raining when I woke up Saturday morning. First time in five and a half months that I've seen "real rain". Sunday the rain intensified into a real torrential downpour. For me, it was really really refreshing. We had clouds all weekend and the thermometer didnt go any higher than about 24 degrees which is such a change. It did however make the steep road in front of our house an outdoor theater for even crazier than normal car skidding shows. We have a hill which in many other places in the world would not be converted into a road. It's soooo steep and has a speed bump right at the bottom meaning that cars cant get a good run-up. People often turn up in an old banger and let pride get the better of them. They'll try once, get half way up, screech the tires like crazy and then roll back down. The thing is that they'll try over and over and over again. On Saturday car after car was skidding down the hill.

- Saturday night we went out to the same bar as Wednesday. Ended up staying quite late - leading to a not very fresh state Sunday. Lazy Sunday with Euro Football all day, very nice.

Matanchen weekend getaway

2008-06-03T00:25:00.016-05:00

On my diary log last weekend I commented on our weekend trip to Tepic and Matanchen, saying that I would write a post about it... it's only taken me a week to get onto it, here it is.

When I think of great weekend trips there are a few which come straight to my mind; a drive to the coast with my 2 surf soul mates Alistair and Andrew, a weekend to anywhere in Europe with my University soul mates (Kweku, Omar, Leo), or just some quality time with my family. Now, Matanchen is definitely up there.

I've lived most my life in big cities and have always dreamed of living by the sea. I now live here close to some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I'd always wondered what it would be like moving to a place like this and yes, it's awesome, of course it is, but I realised a funny thing last weekend; wherever you live in the the world, whether it be Shepherds Bush West London or Puerto Vallarta Mexico, you still need a break from time to time - a change of scenery, a bit of fresh air. So, to us, who live by the sea, driving up the coast about 3 hours to a different bay, a different beach, and different town, is our "beach gettaway", kinda strange really.

Matanchen is a bay in Nayarit, about 3 hours north of Puerto Vallarta, about 45 minutes west of Tepic. The drive there from Tepic is totally stunning. It's a beautiful curving mountain road (totally newly resurfaced mountain road) around the Sanganguey volcano, driving through the "Sierra de San Juan" and fields after fields of rich lush Mango and Banana trees. Banana trees have the most vivid bright green leaves and Mango trees are just really funny looking things. As we left Tepic really early the air was really crisp and cool (and change from hot and humid) and mixed with the odor of banana trees it was amazing. As there's a lot of coffee produced in that area we stopped in a small village to buy a kilo of the local produce, along with a bag of banana flavored bread which I totally totally love.

Google Map of area here.

The Matanchen Bay has kilometers and kilometers of virtually desertic beach. We stopped at "Los Cocos beach" to have a quick look at where Viry's Grandmother's restaurant once stood. The Matanchen coast was devastated in 2002 when hurricane Kenna struck (Wikipedia article here) and things have been slow to recover. When I came 2 years ago with Viry many ruined building were simply abandoned. This year it seems that things are moving on, but it remains still very underdeveloped. (The hurricane destroyed Viry's Grandmother's restaurant which forced her to leave). After Los Cocos, we drove to Tepic to buy a few kilos of ridiculously low priced shrimps. We also took an hour to visit a Crocodile park (the swamps that run aside Matanchen are home to many crocs). After the crocs, we spent the afternoon lazing at a beachfront restaurant and feasted on garlic & chili shrimps and a grilled fish. The bay is also famous for clam fishing - apparently in early morning you can literally just sit in the water and dig out kilos of clam with very little effort. We spent about an hour with our hands in the sand and collected about 10, next time we'll get there earlier.

I've got some photos uploaded into Smugmug, slideshow here.

Blu street art

2008-06-02T10:09:00.005-05:00

Phenomenal piece of work from the artist "Blu". www.blublu.org. Fairly long video but worth every single second.