The Hustle: Tapete

This will be the last one in The Hustle series. It was the last day and our last walk through the barrio. We met some of the kids’ families, took more photos, and took in the scene around us. Half way through our walk we came upon a house where the family makes these mats made of dried reeds. One of the coordinators asks if they can show us the process and he obliges.

It was awesome to see him in action. I was even able to get a few rows in and must say that it was pretty meditative. This is definitely my favorite set and wanted to end it on this note.

I’ll be m.i.a. again for a week or so as I need to catch up on some projects. I will be back though! See you soon.

Carlsbad, CA

It was a warm day out. A friend and I went up to Legoland to drop off a ticket for her sister-in-law. She hit me up the night before asking what I was doing the next day. It just so happens that the day before she text me, another friend and I had planned to go to LA but not until noon.

We left at 8am, dropped off the ticket and on our way back we stopped to take some pictures. This was on the way from Carlsbad, but I can’t quite remember what area this was.

 

SD to Ensenada

One night, I got a little more intoxicated than I wanted to and definitely should not have driven home (I do not condone this behavior). Well, attempted to drive home anyway. What should have only been 10 minutes, ended up being 60. Sixty long minutes of getting lost in TJ (Tijuana for those that don’t know). But that’s a whole other story. What prompted the trip to Ensenada stemmed from seeing signs to Rosarito as I was trying to get home that night.

Originally, the plan was to take a day trip to Rosarito. After getting there about 45 minutes into the day, it would have only taken up a couple of hours so heading down to Ensenada seemed to appeal even more. 

I drove through Rosarito looking for a spot to eat, but nothing really stood out to me. 

Headed back on the scenic route towards Ensenada. Didn’t realize there are 3 toll booths each way. Glad I had some cash on me. 

There was a road that ran parallel to the highway which had restaurants along the way, so I exited and came across a little area called Puerto Nuevo. Ended up eating at a restaurant called Angel Del Mar. My server, Armando, was great. Allowed me to enjoy the day and was always available when I needed anything. Apparently Puerto Nuevo is known for their lobster, but I had the fish instead. It wasn’t a lobster kind of trip just yet. But it sure was a Bloody Mary kind =) 
The food and the view were good. Even though it was a little chilly and breezy that day, I wanted to sit on the upper deck outside to enjoy the sun and just take in my surroundings.

After eating, I walked around a bit to check out the area and take some photos. 
Got back on the road, kept on to Ensenada ending up at the port side instead of going central and went down some random roads.  

After a few hours, headed back towards the border. Thought that I would make it back home by 5pm, but I got in the medical services lane and had to double back to the border line. Except… I got lost in TJ again and ended up at the Otay side of the border about an hour later. One day TJ, I’m gonna concur your streets! Til then, I need to learn Spanish and look at a map.

All in all, it was a great day and being at the Otay border didn’t end so bad.

Little adventures

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted. Since getting a car, I’ve been a lot more active. Hanging out with friends, driving around with no particular place to go, and hiking. This past weekend I went with a friend to the Bay Area and gathered the rest of my belongings. Making it the last weekend as a resident of the Bay Area after 13 years of being there. It was a good closure to that chapter in my life. Went to an event that a friend of mine produces, ate at the restaurant I used to work at, went wine tasting and spent a little time with some friends i’ve made while living up there. With that also came brainstorming conversations for the next chapter in life. Setting the wheels in motion to put on events and accomplish goals we’ve set for ourselves throughout the years. And nothing short of many photography opportunities along the way! Here are some photos that I’ve taken over the last couple of weeks. More to come! 

Travelling to SF… by bus

I don’t know what it is about these last few months, but Lady Luck has ducked out quite a few times. It all began at the end of March when my rental car was broken into and my backpack, with my laptop and just recently purchased Canon T3i inside, was taken. I had the camera a month and had been taking a lot of portrait and landscape shots which were all on my laptop of course. From then on, it was a downward spiral. I’m pretty sure it had to do with the evil side of Lady Karma stepping in to relieve the more lucky version. Can’t say that I’ve been the best person over the last year so I guess I had everything comin. None-the-less, the aftershocks are still being felt no matter how hard the pretty lady hangs in there.

Fast forwarding to today (June 26th). I’m heading up to San Francisco to shoot a fashion show tomorrow for a designer I’ve had the pleasure of shooting for about a month ago. But not without Mr. Murphy stepping to lay down some laws. Everything was set. I was going to leave early in the morning and get there in time to take care of things before heading to the event. However, the time I was planning on getting there turned out to be a couple hours later than prep time for the models. Wanting to get as much of the day on file as I could, I started preparing to get on the 1015pm bus in order to be in Oakland in the morning. I have a place in the East Bay which is why Oakland, but that’s beside the point.

It was no big deal at first. I went online, a seat was available and I filled out all the necessary boxes then… my payment wasn’t processing online. I tried three times so I chose the option to pay cash. Here I am thinking that payment was being made at the bus terminal. Eh eh. Try again. I had to go to 7-eleven to make my cash payment. Mind you, payment needed to be processed in a certain amount of time or the reservation was no longer valid. I got off work at 720, made the reservation at 735ish, packed then we were supposed to head out to my cousins house to pick up my laptop with a fresh install of Lightroom and CS4 on it. Yah yah, they’re on CS20 but hey, it’s better than Darktable on Linux.

Anyway, I read the email with payment instructions and good thing I did. So off to 7/11 we went, arriving there around 8. We get to 7/11, open up the confirmation email and the guy looks at me like I’m crazy. Never having done this before, I figured they just put in the reservation number and all is done. Nope. Wrong again. So he’s asking me what he’s supposed to do and of course I don’t know. Eventually he says that there should be a barcode. Mind you, we’ve been going back and forth for almost 10 minutes now. Finally I scroll through the email and towards the bottom is a link. Of course… the barcode.

Now, my phone has a cute little design on the screen. Something of a spiderweb from dropping it on the ground. So naturally, when he goes to scan the barcode, it doesn’t read. He’s trying and trying a few times when I decide to ask my brother for his phone so I can pull up the email on his smooth, unscathed screen. By this time, almost 20 minutes has gone by. Finally they were able to scan the barcode and I swipe my card… declined. Swipe again… declined again. Third time’s a charm right?… no, no it’s not. I go out to the car, defeated and thinking I have to pay even more by purchasing my ticket at the gate.

Knowing that I need to get up to SF, my brother offers to use his card. So we try again. Barcode scanned, card swiped…. decline. Try two more times of course and nope. Not a chance. Now he knows he has money in his account so he goes to the ATM and gets cash. I would have done the same but figured my card was declined due to a pending deposit so I didn’t try. Turns out that wasn’t the case. Anyway, he pulls out cash, barcode scanned, hand over cash… denied! What?!?! How is cash denied? Try again… I’m sure you can guess the result of that attempt. Time had expired and reservation lost. Feeling even more defeated than before, we set out to my cousins house.

On the car ride over I decide to call the bus stations 800# to see if I can just book over the phone. Damn my luck, the call center was closed. At this point, I don’t even want to think about it anymore. Deciding to check the website for the next departing bus when we got to our cousins house, I sat back and enjoyed the music.

My cousin doesn’t live that far away so we got there in about 15 minutes. Maybe a little longer because my brother forgot he had to take a certain freeway so we went in a circle. Either way, we arrived, I got on the computer and booked a seat for the 130am bus that would get me there an hour earlier had I just stuck with leaving in the morning. Nothing I could really do so I stopped worrying and chatted with the fam for a sec. After about 15 minutes, decided I’d like to go home and chill for a little bit and play with my new toys before heading out.  However, on the car ride to the house, my brain wouldn’t sit still.

It was 9:15 and I really wanted to get on that 10:15 bus. With that, if I wasn’t able to get on, i’d be stuck at the station until my 1:30 bus departed as my brother told me he wasn’t going to make two trips. Screw it… balls to the wall. Let’s try for the 10:15. It is a Wednesday after all. Who’s travelling by bus at this hour mid week? Luckily for me, I decided to pack my things as soon as I got off work, before we set out on the little journey to my cousins. We pull up to the house, I grab my things and we’re off… getting to the station just before 9:45. Perfect. A little time to spare. Or was it??

As I turn the corner to the ticket counter, there was a mother and son that seemed to have some complications. Great. How long is this gonna take? Oohhh about 10 minutes, til someone just came up to me and asked if they could help as the other two were being dealt with. 10 minutes is really not a lot of time when you think about it, but when you’re on a time crunch, it can be stressful. Not to mention, there was a bus loading so I was definitely panicking. Come to find out… all buses are delayed an hour. Without a working computer in front of him, he couldn’t really check to see if there were any seats available on the 10:15 either. Even better.

So finally, after a longer line was forming, the person helping the mother son duo took them to the side so the other guy could help everyone else. After all that was said and done… the 10:15 was full and the next bus out was at noon. Apparently a lot of people travel mid week during that hour. Luckily for me, I booked the 1:30am. Of course, I asked if there was a possibility to get on should anyone not show up or cancel at the very last minute. He said I’d have to ask the driver. Fair enough.

After I talked to the ticket counter guy and the security guy had searched my bags as I passed through the waiting section gates, I went to the driver of the bus that was loading and asked if that was the 1015. Nope, no it wasn’t. Why would it be? Buses are delayed. About 5 minutes later another bus pulled up loading all LA travelers. So I got up to ask again. I explained to the guy at the gate that i was transferring to an Oakland bound bus in LA and asked if this went to Oakland. He said no, but everyone transfers in LA. He looked at me for a sec and said, “I’ll do this for you” and opens the gate. Woohooo!!

So here I am, on the bus to LA, hoping I can get on an earlier bus to Oakland and not have to wait until 6am to board that one. Come oooon Lady Luck. Don’t disappear on me now. (11:29pm)

(2:09am)
And Lady Luck stood by =) Was able to get on the bus that gets me into Oakland at 10am complete with WiFi, outlets and comfortable seats. I won’t even complain about sitting all the way in the back in these non reclining seats next to the restroom. I’ll take it as the more evil karma letting me know that she has an eye on me and to continue on the path that I was intended for.

So, here’s to the journey of conquering my goals without worrying about what others are doing and just concentrating on myself. Oh, and to the event in SF! =) Not to mention, it’s pride weekend, DOMA was defeated and prop 8 was over-turned!! Which also means, more wedding/party photo opportunities =)

Living List

We all have those things we wish we could do, places we want to go, people we want to meet, etc… Some call it a bucket list, to-do list, or whatever else they name this list of things to accomplish. One day I was chatting with a friend and we were talking about this particular subject, but instead of Bucket List she called it Living List. Since then, it has been called just that. So here is my Living List for photography in no particular order!

-Shoot at least two weddings a month
-Travel through photography
-Have my photographs published in top magazines; particularly sports, fashion and National Geographic
-Own a specific building in SF which will include a photography studio
-Publish a book

This is just a start and will be updated regularly along with dates of completion next to each one that has been done. Let’s see how long it takes to accomplish these goals!

I understand that I’ll need to be diligent in pursuing my dreams and am no stranger to putting in work. There’s a saying out there that goes “Always a student” and that is what I believe. Always keep pushing to be better than the day before. Learn all I can. Never take for granted anything that comes my way. And keep doing.

Here’s to Living!