Classic Cameras Friday! Asahi Pentax ME-F ~ 1981
No Place for hooligans!
Arabian Horses... without the Desert
Magic Place called Hope Hall Farm!
Hare Scramble Time... Teaser
One time is never good enough!
Bringing Film flavor to your digital workflow...
Seminole Faces
It's a Jeep Thing!
The wicked point of view of your super wide angle lens!
Back to Cars & Coffee...
Classics
Classic Cameras Friday! Olympus 35RC ~ 1970
... and a Happy Ending for the Sad Story!
... when Nature Calls!
Trying to score a Supermoon Field Goal
Going techy... tips for photographing the moon!
Classic Cameras Friday! Nikon Nikkormat FT - 1965
St. Petersburg FL, planning a return!
... at the Dali Museum for Art and Italian Superbikes
...just get it to the Green
... happiness not always prevail! 
...en la Bahia de Manzanillo!
Between rocks and trees.... time for Competition.Classic Cameras Friday! Topcon Auto 100 - 1964Welcome to the Dark Side...Using iPad for some bloggingClassic Cameras Friday! Revere Eye-Matic EE127 - 1959Walked the Red Carpet... At Mecum Auction, Kissimmee FLTime to Save my vacation time...From the last weekend, what a busy week uffff!, well, here is the last part of my weekend in Ocala, first stop of our tour (thanks to Karen for an amazing tour – Check FB Page here – ) this farm is called after his owner Hennessy Arabian Horses, a very nice place to spend the wekend for sure.
As part of the coverage of the SLKWorld meetup this time just horses, this beautiful animals took me away of the cars for a moment. Continue Reading
Past Saturday, after a short stop for some to do’s in the morning, traveled the the Ocala Area in Central Florida, was covering a meeting from riders of the SLKWorld.com Forum, after a few of talking we headed to the Horse Farms area, we stopped at two farms, the second one called Hope Hall Farm, I have to say, what a place, so peaceful yet full of great energy, hanoverian horses and great people, had a blast, look at this photo!
These amazing horses were in a demonstration when we arrived to the farm, the day was very hot, I was full geared, two cameras, in one the 70-200 VRII, but didn’t stop pressing the shutter, had a blast!!!, I did some flash portraits too with the cars, already sent to the guys from the SLKWorld Site. Continue Reading
Yesterday, hummm, what a day, a lot about this Supermoon, of course I don’t want to be alone at home watching Nat Geo Channel, so grabbed my gear and head out for photography. the Location, just a place close to home, over the neighbor city of St. Petersburg, when arriving to the place, just got amazed with the number of people were waiting for the Event!.
We waited for about 25 mins, and then the Moon, so majestic and red/orange over the horizon, I started shooting, the shootout lasted for around 2 hours, mosquitoes were killing me but after all, you just prevail there for a good photo.
I am very happy with this photo, the blue hour and the warm color of the Moon make the perfect combination, another point to mention, I did plan this shoot in advanced, deciding what location and knowing the time and azimuth where the moon going to rise. Continue Reading
A week ago I went to Hardrock Cycle Parck over Ocala, FL, Florida Trial Association had an event over and decide to covered it, together with Steve Loveridge spent a great day of competition.
Took my cousin with me, he never saw before this king of competition, so we had a great drive to the location, and found great people, this is Jeff from Buffalo, NY, Steve rival, very cool guy he is Noah dad, look at the photo in gallery below, running on GasGas a very hard opponent indeed.
Weather is getting pretty good, actually the weekend gonna be really nice, actually I didn’t try to get Paul Dellegatto out of business hehehee, I just repeating what he said…. well get back to photo talk, this time wanna talk about a nice event that happened to me in my last trip to Paradise Lost.
Result that as usual you reserve your vacation in advance, just put away the days you wanna be in vacation, right? I did reserve just the two weeks I allowed to leave from my office, very happy indeed when I communicate with family. The usual 4 and a half drive to Miami is now OK for me, so after a day of decompressing over Sin City, I was ready to hit the road, I mean hit the air, on a plane, flying… to Cuba.
But wait the fairy tale history doesn’t end there, when boarding/checking the lady from the Agency told me that my TWO WEEKS were wrong, only ONE WEEK!!!!!, I was upset, really? c’mon… well, at that time you can not argue with nobody over there, but for one reason, my trip start with the wrong foot.
Well, to make the story short, when already in Cuba, I have to go back to Camaguey, actually have to return twice, so you have two days already gone. Finally got my ticket fixed, leaved a 20 USD tip to the attendant, then a little bit of time for photos.
When going back to the car, stopped at the El Gallo Square, very different when back in the 80′s, now is closed, then you can DRIVE through Maceo St. just like that.
I am so happy I have so much media to share from my last trip to Cuba, I can say until now the best trip to Paradise Lost until now, exploring the east part this time, in special the City of Santiago de Cuba, nothing crazy cause I was with friends, nice place to sleep and a car, oh the car!!!, stupid chinesse manufactured car, seriously, I don’t know where this asian guys have their standards, ufff very cheap, crapy car!, will post on facebook some photos later.
Well, now back on track to the post. This one is about a place called La Gran Piedra (The Big Rock in english), in the middle of a mountain chain called Sierra Maestra, the rock is just huge, they have over a meteorological station (see the photo below).
The rock is 452 steps up hill, so be prepared to walk for a while, and have your water bottle ready too, this trail will keep you out of breath for almost 20 mins, is a very interesting trail, you can see many plants you can’t find in any other place, just amazing.
In my last visit to Paradise Lost, went into a east trip to Santiago De Cuba, a very hot part (I mean hot weather, hotter than the normal parts of the island), really wanna spend some good time with friend and girlfriend. Before getting to the city I decide to stop by a legendary place called Santuario del Cobre, is a Catholic Monastery with a big history within the Cuban country.
The monastery is in a town called El Cobre, (Copper) this name is because the copper mines that for years were in production of this mineral, here is a link ===> (click to Google El Cobre Santiago de Cuba). The place is literally in the middle of the mountains, just a few kilometers before the City.
For this time of the year, the whole church building was under construction, many workers were inside putting everything together to get to the deadline on time, other people were outside trying to squeeze every penny out your pocket, I have to say, I don’t know if I ever comeback to that place, all the artisan sellers outside the monastery are like vultures trying to eat a defenseless bambi, I was in shock, still have bad memories of what happened that afternoon.
Is a day off for me today, Christmas is around the corner and because of that. Merry Christmas to all of you, hope your Christmas wishes are underneath the tree, your camera gear wish list had been listen but somebody and Sunday morning when you open your boxes you can find there your dreamed lens, or maybe your new camera! so I understand how you feel, but hold tight there, two more days and is a GO!.
This time wanna share a few photos of an old locomotive I found in my way to Santiago de Cuba, in my last trip to Paradise Lost, take a look:
I didn’t hesitate to stop and get some photos of this beauty, the BW idea was in my mind the millisecond after I press that shutter, getting this set to the lab for printing, gonna be my own Christmas Present.
This is a kind of techy post, really don’t like to much to do this, but always you are in the middle of a technicality, we are talking about vantage points, for many years millions of photographs are taken from the same vantage point, about 6 to 8 feet above ground, this is the regular height of a human body, varying your vantage point is very easy and effective to your photography, if you have the tools necessary for this you will have great results, even if you don’t, you can improvise, trust me it will work.
After my trip to Cuba, want to share a little compilation of portraits I did during my time over, let’s start now:
This dude was in Santiago de Cuba, I was buying some water in this store when found the guy, of course didn’t hesitate in asking for a photo, pretty awesome to see a Hasselblad in Cuba.
This is an old man, he wanted to get photographed together with my friend’s wife, had to cut the frame!
Happy Independence Day!, is Monday 4th of July and just got back from a superb hot and sweaty weekend. Everglades National Park Project with a nature photographer friend Juan Carlos. We left the headquarter about 4:30AM, fuel the FJ and head to Everglades Nat’l Park. nice morning, temperature was nice, NO RAIN!, after driving for about 45 min we hit the ground and landed over the source of the project!, The Big Swamp!, first stop, a little lake just getting in the Glades.
We started taking some night photos, of course always you forget something, well, this time I did forgot my remote, had to do all the shooting with my hand in the shutter button, pretty sad indeed. Continue Reading
I have to say that Travel Photography is ONE of my favorite way to express my photographic needs, is so rich in so many aspects that you just can’t stop shooting when traveling. In order for me to tell the history, yes you have to tell the history behind your trip!, I putted together a little list, exactly 10 Point check list!, to wrap everything and return back home with better travel photos, let me show you:
Here some examples:
Well guys, hope you enjoy my little system, now apply to your next trip and let me know how it was!
Cesar Out!
Note: Photos taken with Nikon D300/D700 using Sigma Lenses on Lexar UDMA Professional Digital Film
Is day 3 in my quest to conquer the Smokies, hahahaha, the Third Day, I was feeling more “IN HOUSE” when riding my bike, so tension and stress were that bad. That day we went through the area of the Tornadoes, a lot of damages in houses and trees, this day was Saturday and many people all over the area were working in cleaning and getting everything dangerous away, I saw houses in the lake, trees over houses, a very shocking moment, went we stopped in this area, everybody was taking pictures with their phones. I tried to capture the most I can for you to take a look:
The same saturday we did a Ducati Event, The Superbikes in The Smokies event, this is a view of the Ducatisti Group:
Now with the second day of adventure, I have to say this day was more photography oriented, we stopped more times and I, of course, took more photos.
We started the day with a guest, Fred, he rode his bike (the one in the picture above) a 1980 Duc, he rode his bike from Sarasota to Helen, GA, for me is a great ride, this bike has no electric start, so in the morning you have to kick, pretty cool though.
Been a little bit out of context with my blog, last week I went to Georgia, especially Helen, to spend some quality time riding motorcycles and doing some photography.
We left last Wednesday early in the morning, traveling to Helen wasn’t a problem, we created a convoy of 6 cars all loaded with motorcycles and bikes related stuff, the trip was really fun, we were using walkie talkies, with no profanity on air, RULE #1, Public Safety agents can listen this frequencies and you can get in trouble.
We Started here, in Our Headquarters:
Classic Cameras Friday! Asahi Pentax ME-F ~ 1981No Place for hooligans!Arabian Horses... without the DesertMagic Place called Hope Hall Farm!Hare Scramble Time... TeaserOne time is never good enough!Bringing Film flavor to your digital workflow...Seminole FacesIt's a Jeep Thing!The wicked point of view of your super wide angle lens!Back to Cars & Coffee...ClassicsClassic Cameras Friday! Olympus 35RC ~ 1970... and a Happy Ending for the Sad Story!... when Nature Calls!Trying to score a Supermoon Field GoalGoing techy... tips for photographing the moon!Classic Cameras Friday! Nikon Nikkormat FT - 1965St. Petersburg FL, planning a return!... at the Dali Museum for Art and Italian Superbikes...just get it to the Green... happiness not always prevail! ...en la Bahia de Manzanillo!Between rocks and trees.... time for Competition.Classic Cameras Friday! Topcon Auto 100 - 1964Welcome to the Dark Side...Using iPad for some bloggingClassic Cameras Friday! Revere Eye-Matic EE127 - 1959Walked the Red Carpet... At Mecum Auction, Kissimmee FLTime to Save my vacation time...