In front of the lens in Bolivia

Myself (Cam Cope) trying on a 'morenada' dance costume with new friends at a fiesta in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: 1/400 second @ f2.5 ISO 640.

Myself (Cam Cope) trying on a 'morenada' dance costume at a fiesta in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: 1/400 second @ f2.5 ISO 640.

Diptych of myself (Cam Cope) trying on a 'morenada' dance costume at a fiesta in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure details for both images: 1/400 second @ f2.5 ISO 640.

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Standing out at a Bolivian fiesta is unavoidable when you’re a six-foot gringo running around with a beefy camera. Not that standing out is something I wanted to avoid. In fact I’ve found through the years that rather than trying to hide behind the camera, it is far better to use it as a tool to meet and interact with people. When you approach people openly either before or after taking a photo, and share what you are doing with them, suspicion evaporates 99% of the time. At events like festivals, where people are essentially engaged in visual performance, you have a very strong social license to photograph people you don’t know (yet). And so it was that in the San Pedro fiesta that not only did I meet many people through my photography, but I was warmly welcomed and even invited to participate in a ‘morenada‘ dance (after being invited to more than a few beers I might add). I couldn’t resist the chance to try on one of the elaborate costumes that had been on display all day, and after having gotten to know a group of dancers, I could trust them with my camera while I danced.

So after 58 posts on this humble blog, some photographs of myself have finally turned up. They may not be all fine examples of photography but I think they convey a good sense of the fun going on that day. Enjoy them while they last, they’re a rare sight.

Cam.

I tilt my hat to you

Dancer portrait during a fiesta in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/1250 seconds @ f4 ISO 200.

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Drawing a feeble link between the content of this post’s photo and today’s date,  remembrance day, I tilt my hat to the veterans. Though I will also point out that WWI was an imperialist war that in my opinion served Australia in no way. We got slaughtered for king and country, a country not even our own. Over ten per cent of Australians served and the casualty rate was 65%, the highest for any country involved in the war. Why exactly? Well partly because that’s what war does, it kills people, but also because of poor management in high command. And what exactly did we get to show for it? Not much, although there is this curious photo of a kangaroo in Cairo (with the pyramids in the background and everything), where the Australian 9th and 10th battalions trained before being sent to Gallipoli.

I’d also like to point out that today we will see the most useless but beautiful of numerical alignments. In fact I’ve scheduled this post to publish precisely at that moment… sort of, in Turkey anyway, where it seemed most appropriate (and convenient for me). That time is of course 11:11.11 on the date of 11/11/11. Marvel at the wonder, and never mind that when it passed here in Australia I was out surfing.

Moving back to Bolivia’s fiestas.

At risk of a dancer portrait overload, here is yet another from the San Pedro festival I attended in Bolivia in April this year. I’d have stopped photographing them by now if they weren’t so damn photogenic. The bowler hat she is wearing is all the rage for women to wear in Bolivia. Supposedly it was adopted from the British somehow, but now they are ‘traditional’ I suppose and different styles can indicate marital status… or so someone told me.

More variety to come, I promise, we still have most of this month to flesh the theme out.

Cam.

Mirror Mirror

Mirror-like pose of two dancers during a fiesta in San Pedro, La Paz province, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/1000 seconds @ f3.5 ISO 400.

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Here’s another dancer portrait from the San Pedro fiesta in Bolivia I attended in April this year. I think the colours and light in this shot are great. You can see a lot of beautiful diffuse light being reflected into the face of the main subject from the shiny dress of the dancer in the foreground. The sequins in the dress have also reflected several points of intense light on the main subject’s face which creates a kind of intrigue for me. With all this reflection going on I thought it was also interesting that the dress and pose of the two women create the illusion that you are looking into a reflected image of the woman in the foreground looking into a mirror. The expression on the main subject’s face adds a kind of drama/intensity which works well for me too.

Hope you are enjoying this month’s Bolivian Fiesta theme.

More to come soon.

Diptych-ular Dancers

Bolivian dancers in costume at the San Pedro fiesta. Photographs taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details, left: 1/2000 seconds @ f3.5 ISO 250, right: 1/1600 seconds @ f3.5 ISO 250.

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Rolling on with this month’s Fiesta Bolivia theme is another diptych from a fiesta I attended in San Pedro earlier this year, in La Paz province. In the frame on the left are three dancers during a break in the performances. In the background is the church that holds the saint that the fiesta was held in honour of. The photo on the right is a portrait I captured of a younger dancer from the same group while performing.

Thanks for checking out the photos, why not also check out my Facebook page and click that fancy little like button? Everybody’s doing it!

Cam.

Mark of excellence award received

Local carioca boy (local from Rio de Janeiro) cruises past the bat and ball nets on Copacabana beach. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/800 seconds @ f3.2 ISO 1250.

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Occassionally I make a few forays into the shady world of online photography competitions. Often they appear to be thinly veiled money making schemes or fronts by companies to cheaply acquire imagery for marketing purposes. However, would I complain if I were to win a few thousand dollars in cash as a result of entering? …mmmm, no. This competition seems to run on a decent model where the money paid by entrants jackpots the prize, kind of like how the amount you win at poker depends on how much money is lost on the table by the other players. Here I lost my $10 entry fee, but I did receive this mark of excellence award. Was it worth it? Was I duped into parting with my money as a result of a wildly inflated self belief in my photography? You be the judge.

Salvador Beach Boys

Local boy battles his way out of the fierce shorebreak in Porto da Barra, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: 1/1250 second @ f3.5 ISO 100.

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Hey guys here’s another post coming to you from Bahia in Northern Brazil. I took this photo down on the beach at Porto de Barra in Salvador. It is a seriously hectic urban beach on a Sunday, packed with families kicking back drinking beer, eating moqueca, listening to music through old school ghetto blasters and playing soccer. Meanwhile the kids hurl themselves fearlessly into an epic shorebreak (big waves that dump only on the shoreline) that rolls through in sets every few minutes.

Getting the camera out here was at first a bit intimidating because it was such a different scene from anything else I’d been around in South America. I honestly felt like I was in Africa there were so few Europeans on the beach! Also not being a Portuguese speaker I felt a little less secure about myself than in Spanish speaking countries where I can speak to people freely. But after a few minutes I recalled my own saying that I never brought my camera to keep it hidden away in security lockers. In anycase as usual people were super friendly and as it also often does, having my camera out turned out to be a great way to meet people and interact with these kids.

Don’t forget to check out my photography on Facebook, and stay tuned for more coming soon from way down in Rio de Janeiro =D

Cam.

Dancing in the street!

Local professional dancer from Boipeba, Izalice, spontaneously dances traditional 'Forro' in the street. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/400 seconds @ f4 ISO 800.

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Hi guys here’s a quick post again from Boipeba in Brazil. My friend Izalice (who features in the right portrait in the diptych from my last post) is a talented professional dancer. While giving me a last minute tour of Boipeba, Iza spontaneously broke out into some ‘Forró’ (a traditional northeastern Brazilian dance influenced by African, Indigenous and European music styles) right on the street.

The culture of music and dance in Brazil is definitely one of my favourite things about the country so I was stoked to capture a moment that shows a small piece of it. You should definitely check out some Forró music if you feel so inclined, some classics are Luiz Gonzaga and Dominguinhos or for something a little more electro-pop-contemporary check out Garota Safada.

More coming soon!

Cam.

Babes from Boipeba!

Diptych of local girls from Boipeba, Bahia, Brazil. Both shots taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details, left: 1/125 seconds @ f4 ISO 1250, right: 1/250 seconds @ f4 ISO 640.

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Today I’m posting my first diptych (two separate images presented together) on my blog. I took these two portraits in Boipeba of local girls Maria and Izalice on my last day on the island. I think these shots match nicely because they share the same dominant colours, white and blue. The dominant white in one contrasts nicely with the dominant blue of the other while the warm skin tones of the girls are complimentary to the blue. That I took them in the same lighting in front of the same building also adds a consistency.

But enough boring analysis, let’s face it, these girls make the photos. Their classic Brazilian exuberance leaps off the page. Maria and Izalice were actually giving me a bit of a last minute tour before I had to run off to catch a boat back to the mainland. While cruising around town I noticed some nice light reflecting into this picturesque house-front so I asked if the girls wanted to have their portraits taken. Given the good mood we were all in I had to do little more than suggest a few set ups as they ribbed each other over being models for a day. This provoked some really genuine laughter despite the semi-orchestrated nature of the shoot and was the key ingredient in making these shots feel natural.

Let me know what you think. Plenty more gems from Brazil on the way.

Cheers.

Cam.

A new year in Valparaíso

Camila Barreau celebrates the 2011 near year on the beach in Valparaíso, Chile. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: 1/3200 second @ f3.5 ISO 320.

Hi guys here’s a quick summer fun snap I took on new year’s day 2011.

This is of a friend of a friend, Camila, playing that weird seemingly pointless bat and ball game that Europeans and South Americans are crazy about. I’m sorry but how is it a game if nobody can win? …please someone explain to me, is the point just meant to be ‘have fun’? If so it just doesn’t qualify as a sport!

It was a beautiful afternoon, great lighting and a great moment with the shorebreak sending a flash of water up the steep beach just as Camila struck the ball in my direction with a big smile. Click. It also gave off a vibe to me of some distant nostalgic summer memory so I put a light split tone through the image warming the highlights and cooling the shadows, creating the slight vintage effect of the image. Being a square crop also added to this effect.

Let me know if you enjoy, more to come soon.

Cam.

‘NiVan in the Grass’ selected for exhibition

I thought this was worth a mention: my portrait ‘NiVan in the Grass’ (as seen in the Vanuatu Smile gallery on my website) was selected for exhibition for the ‘Bang Your Drum Competition’ held by the Australian Commercial Media Photographers association. The exhibition was held on the weekend at the ‘DigiLife Expo’ at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre. It’s my first success in some recent forays into photography competitions, all of which (excluding this one) have yet to be judged, so fingers crossed there’ll be some more news to report on the competition front.

It’s been a hectic few months for me, have been a little short on blog posts as I’m working on a few different things at the moment and am about to move up to Jindabyne for a ski season. Hence upcoming posts are likely to feature snow and mountains in many varieties, but I think we’ll be waiting a few weeks yet.

Also news is that the ‘Friends of CAM COPE Photography‘ facebook group is now up and I’d be stoked if you go ahead and join it.

Cheers,

Cam.