Maintaining your digital rights

This is an article from the folks who build FotoQuote and FotoBiz.

Last roll of Kodachrome

I shot a little Kodachrome and a lot of Ektachrome when I started out as a pro photographer in the 80's. This is a nice piece by a shooter I've always admired but have never met, Robert Cohen. He was leaving South Florida when I was starting out as a Miami Herald intern there.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/vmix_4e9f782a-aca0-11df-806f-00127992bc8b.html

After Charo and Mike’s Old San Juan wedding…a beer and some jazz

The Island Wedding Fotos Puerto Rico team of Jose Jimenez, Isaida Ortiz and myself (Angel Valentin) shot Charo and Mike’s awsome wedding in Old San Juan last weekend. It was a hot hot Puerto Rico summer day. Destinations weddings in Puerto Rico in the summer are beautiful and fun, but HOOOOTTTTT. I changed shirt 3 times !

After the reception ended Isaida and I decided to grab a beer @ the Old Harbor Brewery (http://oldharborbrewery.com/) less than a block from the venue. Traffic out of San Juan was brutal and we were tired. To our delight Old Harbor had a jazz sextet jamming away next to the bar which is where we sat. Had a good hour or so of R & R with nice music, cold beers and some appetizers.

Here’s a snap I shot with a 5D Mark II and a 50mm 1.4 @ 2000 ISO.

Zmo in bikini, Miami

Was in Miami recently and was recruited to shoot a promo campaign for a bathing suit designer. The model, Zmo is a good friend. This was fun and easy to do. The only problem was the underwater housing started leaking water in the middle of the pool shoot but the camera wasn’t damaged, I don’t think.

My Review of Flashpoint Vertical Battery Grip for the Canon 5D Mark II

Originally submitted at Adorama

Flashpoint Vertical Battery Grip for the Canon 5D Mark II

Flashpoint Vertical Battery Grip for the Canon 5D Mark II

Great (for the price...)

By Fotorican from San Juan, Puerto Rico on 5/3/2010

 

3out of 5

Pros: PracticalCheap

Cons: You get what you pay for

Best Uses: Portrait Photography, Digital Photography, Travel

Describe Yourself: Pro Photographer

I never buy 3rd party items. I only got this grip after a colleague's highest recommendation. I bought 3 of them, 2 for 5D2 and one for a 7D. Out of the 3 I only got 1 bad one. It sometimes fails to operate and when on disables the top dial on the body. This is frustrating when it happens in the middle of a wedding or news event. I called Adorama and was told to return it, no questions asked. I wish I'd had the money to buy the Canon brand ones but I didn't and I have to say that the other two I got work perfectly. I love the option to use the grips and to take it off when I do some jobs. I just noticed the price dropped. Nice.

(legalese)

Jobos Beach, Isabela

I overnighted with some friends in their rental apartment last night. This morning I got up early, as usual, and drove around the beach and spotted this fisherman getting his “yola” wood motorboat ready to go out and check on traps left overnight to catch fish. Shot a few frames with my Canon S90 point and shoot but got the best frame with my iPhone. Go figure.

Federico y Kiki

In the middle of a marathonic imaging session as I imaged photos for my upgraded wedding photojournalism website I decided to take a 15 minute break to shoot pictures of my min poodle Federico frolicking on the grass with my neighbor's weiner dog Kiki. I also used the opporunity to finally test my new 7D, a camera I know will only see limited action as I concentrate more and more on the wedding side of photojournalism.

Camera performed flawlessly and Federico caught up with the speedy Kiki. Good times !

La Vuelta de los 9 Faros, Puerto Rico, 2010

I was recently hired by Bicycling Magazine to photograph a three day bike ride around the island of Puerto Rico where I live. The event, called La Vuelta de los 9 Faros, is a grueling 375 mile ride. Over 400 riders participated this year. I didn’t realize I would end up so tired. Each day started @ 6AM and would end around 5 or 6PM. The 1st two days I followed the different groups in my car and would stop to shoot the things they’d see along the way. The last day was the worst. I decided to ditch the car and jump on a chase truck to shoot the riders. I alternated between the truck and a couple of motorbikes that were ferrying photographers. I shot over 2600 photos. Edited down to 170 and now I’m waiting for the magazine’s picture editor to select her favorites so I can tone and transmit them. The article runs in the summer.

Here the riders are seen leaving Ponce @ 6AM to begin the second leg of their journey.

Haiti fundraiser, La Respuesta, Puerto Rico

La Respuesta, without a doubt Puerto Rico's coolest spot to see live music, art and pretty people, held a two day fundraiser for victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Last night, Isaida and I went to see friends and enjoy the vibe.Our friends Tere and Xavier were there. We heart them both tremendously.

I shot a couple of snaps. This is a couple getting cozy lit by street lights.

(Shot on Canon S90 @ 800 ISO)

More Miami reaction to Haiti earthquake

Sunday I went back to Notre Dame D'Haiti Catholic Church in Miami's Little Haiti neighborhood. Hundreds came to pray and pay their respects to the many victims of the natural disaster. Church in the Haitian community is always a moving and energetic experience. This Sunday's services had a very intense tone to it.

Miami Haitian's reaction to earthquake

In Miami for a wedding and personal time when the 7.0 magnitude earthquake devastated Haiti a couple of days ago. I normally travel with my passport. I didn't this time. I was actually called by an agency and asked to fly to Haiti for them but I had to turn that request down.
Getty Images's news picture desk hired me for a couple of days to shoot South Florida's reaction to the catastrophe. I went to several regular places looking for visuals. Veye-Yo is a Little Haiti gathering place for Haitians to discuss social and political issues. There were only two women present. A tv crew had just left. I figured I could make some general images with some of the flags and posters on the walls. A few minutes later one of the ladies who was sitting behind me, started singing a Christian Spiritual song. The lady in the photo started crying, screaming uncontrollably. I recorded a 2 min audio piece of the event. Real moving and emotional.

Please Help Haiti. You can make a quick $10 donation from your cell phone.
Faster than you can complain about some trivial crap today you can make a $10
donation to the Red Cross Intl Response Fund for Haiti. Simply text 90999 and write Haiti in the subject line. The amount will be added to your phone bill.
Also http://yele.org/, which is the Wyclef Jean organization, is a solid group.

Do it, please.

Happy New Year !

I managed to make one decent picture to send off 2009. This is Isaida, my wife, texting away from inside her car in my brother's driveway in South Florida.

Have a great 2010 !

Franklyn (Frank) Georges

I hit gold when I finally got a hold of my last subject, Mr. Franklin Georges. Frank, as everyone calls him, was amazing and basically saved the trip for me. He volunteered to pick me up at the airport, which is an hour away from the main town. On the way to town Frank asked me what I planned to do to move around town and I really had no plan other than to ask him to suggest a driver. To my surprise, Frank volunteered to do the job. This was crucial. I probably would’ve had to spend my own money for this
Frank was a mayor of a town in England where he spent well over 40 years after leaving Dominica as a young man to make a better life for himself. He had bought a parcel of land from a relative in Dominica and like many before him, decided to live out his retirement years back home. That’s what the story The Guardian hired me for was about, returnees.
After he picked me up @ the airport with his wife Veronica we took the hour long trip in his Land Rover, nicknamed “The Lady”. The hills were a challenge for the diesel powered SUV. A few days before my arrival her tank was filled with gasoline instead of diesel which I think would’ve messed up any regular car. Somehow she survived and according to Frank seems to be doing fine. Getting parts like a fuel filter for that car is a hassle in Dominica. Most goods have to imported from abroad and take much longer to arrive.
I shot Frank’s portrait the day I arrived to his house high up on a hill. When we were on the road down below he pointed to the house and said, that’s my house. I laughed ‘cus I thought he was kidding me. The place is huge and looks like a hotel ! He made it a point to tell everyone we met the story. My bad.
This portrait of Frank ran spread across two pages of The Guardian’s magazine.

Dominica assignment

The Guardian newspaper from England hired me to shoot a piece for their Sunday magazine in the neighboring island of Dominica. This assignment required a lot of phone calls and emails to the subjects I had to photograph. I had never been to Dominica and was at a loss for resources in terms of logistics. It took me three days to get this done but I wished I’d had at least an entire week to spend there.

I was blown away by the beauty and chaos of this small island. Dominica is the greenest island in the Caribbean. It’s a real dream for those who love hiking. There is a small Carib (indigenous people) population. There really isn’t much road infrastructure. About 3/4 of the island is mountainous. There’re no highways. The roads are narrow and treacherous. Traveling to Dominica is expensive. It cost me about $500 r/t from Puerto Rico, a little over an hour away.

The light in Dominica is magical. No real development means great penetration of light throughout the island. I managed to make a few photos in the afternoon light a couple of times. The people of Dominica are friendly and welcoming generally speaking. Beer is found everywhere and the food is awsome.

More to come.

More digi IR

I've been busy, which is a very good thing. I've also had a bad last 7 days with cancelled assignments and a bad xperience w/a client but it's all good 'cus I'm learning about the business of photography. That part of making a living with photos can only be learned through experiences. I'm actually pretty happy about the things that are happening to me.

I went out for a ride yesterday to this awesome road I travel regularly but the weather has been stormy the last few days. I took a side road to a local fishermen association building near a river I didn't know was there. Stopped along the way and made a few frames before it got too dark.

Talk shop, G10 w/red filter and small (broken) Manfrotto tripod.

Ugly ass Cuban sato

Cuba has some of the ugliest stray dogs (satos) I've seen in my travels. These things are all over the island. No hair and a cool mohawk. They remind me of Gremlins, the bad ones not the cute friendly kind.

Here's one I spotted napping in Vedado the other day.

Poetry Slam

I went to a poetry slam in Davie's Nova Southeastern University a couple of weeks back. Isaida is on the board of the Write Side Poets, a group that helps kids write and express their feelings and life experienses through poetry.

I watched this kid, Gabriel de los Reyes perform a piece about a man who underwent electroshock therapy. It was very powerful. Gabriel received a scholarship from the University of Wisconsin which apparently has the only program in the country for poets.
I'm still feeling this performance by Gabriel.

The two poets in are watching him perform.

Shot with a Canon G10

Nice kid in Old San Juan, not

I was recruited by a couple of friends to do some tour guiding in Old San Juan after the NAHJ convention a couple of weeks ago. We were walking along that fountain next to the Ballaja Cuartel and shot some pics of the children playing in the water. I was just shooting silhouettes when I spotted this kid who upon spotting me turned around to say hola in the best way a 3 year old can, by flashing me his middle finger and sticking his tongue out. HE did this several times. Nice huh ?

Out of sync iPhone

Last week's NAHJ convention in San Juan started off with the tradidional Noche de San Juan on the beach outside the Caribe Hilton hotel. According to tradition folks are supposed to fall back into the water a few times and then something magical happens, sorry but that's as far as I know.

Since I only took my iPhone I decided to piggy back on a friend's flash to get some decent pics. I don't even know the speed @ which the iPhone shoots but it's definitely too fast thus all the pics were out of sync. However, I think some of the pics are interesting.

Tech: iPhone3G and a Canon strobe on my friend's camera.

San Juan snaps

I spent some time walking around Old San Juan and Puerta de Tierra the last few days.

Hera are a couple of frames I made.

Tech: Canon G10