Trinity and Poverty

A beggar sits in front of a representation of the holy trinity in church grounds, Copacabana, Bolivia. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: 1/320 second @ f6.3 ISO 1000.

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I arrived in Copacabana to discover yet another multi-day fiesta was about to begin. This time on a scale far larger than anything I’d experienced in the small villages of Sorata and San Pedro. Though here I had a day to explore town and the shores of Lake Titicaca before events kicked off. I took this picture in front of the Basilica in front of the main plaza in town. I felt the scene presented the powerful contrast between the wealth and grandeur of the Catholic Church and the poverty found in so many parts of Latin America. The scene is backlight by a quite strong early afternoon light, but filled in with reflected light from the much larger Basilica that is out of the frame to the left. These conditions gave the scene a kind of lightness (in terms of weight) despite the heavy pillars and crosses towering over the humble beggar asking for loose change.

Looking at this stage like Bolivian Fiesta month might have to run in December, will keep you posted.

Cam.

Bolivian Character

Diptych of Bolivian musician during a fiesta in San Pedro. Photographs taken on a Canon 5D Mark II camera and Sigma 50mm f1.4 EX DG HSM lens. Exposure Details: Left - 1/125 second @ f2.5 ISO 6400. Right: 1/160 second @ f2.8 ISO 5000.

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In late April this year I was travelling through western Bolivia on my way to Peru. After seeing a photo in a coffee table photo-book I made an impulse detour to visit a place called Sorata. The photograph showed a town clinging to a mountainside above an apparently bottomless valley. Above rose fully cultivated hillsides of impossible incline and glacier capped mountains. The vertical scale in the photograph reminded me of Nepal and after months of summer in Brazil I was ready for some more temperate mountain air.

I arrived just as the town became engulfed in fiesta. For the next three days I was swept away in an endless deafening parade of marching brass bands, elaboarte costume dances and free flowing beer and chicha (a maize-based drink). There were many great moments and despite my generally inebriated state I managed to capture a nice collection of images from the festivities. I’ll be sharing them over the course of the next month beginning today with this Diptych of a trumpet player I hung out with for some beers during a break in the marching.

More to come soon =D

And don’t forget you can click on the image to see it in an enlargened size.

Happy Halloween / Feliz día de los Muertos

Cam.

Help!! I’m stuck in a Tourist Trap!

Steaphan Paton stuck in a classic tourist trap, Christ the Redeemer, Rio de Janeiro. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/200 seconds @ f4 ISO 200.

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Ever felt like a sweaty head of cattle herded into an overcrowded corral full of stressed, thirsty animals with no way out and little to do but consume the feed provided and take out your frustration on other unfortunate beasts in the same predicament?

If you answered yes then likely you too have fallen straight into a classic tourist trap. The parallels are undeniable, once you pass through the entry gate you are herded down a chute directing you to consume the food, drink, souvenirs and indeed the attraction itself in a predefined way.

I recently fell into a particularly massively huge tourist trap by the name of Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. So huge is this trap that it has recently been named one of the ‘new seven wonders of the world’. From the moment you start queueing for a ticket up the mountain you might as well start referring to yourself as ‘criação’ (livestock in Portuguese). You shuffle from queue to queue, paying intermittently at seemingly pointless check points and wind your way through cheesy souvenir shops and overpriced cafes until you arrive at a freaking escalator that takes you to the top, or rather the foot of the 39.6m/130ft tall art deco statue version of the very late Jesus Christ.

Of course the view on top is absolutely spectacular, worth all the inconvenience and pain endured. Though is the experience pleasant? Not really. I took this shot of my friend Steaphan Paton (an awesome Australian indigenous artist, check him out on tumblr) who’s suitably irritated expression sums up the experience beautifully. He stands burning in the shadeless platform as tourists stumble into each other’s photos all around him and a joyflight helicopter buzzes by in the background adding to the disquiet chaos. If you’re in Rio you have to go, but don’t expect the peace and tranquility that the big JC has upstairs, you’d need to be up at his level to attain it.

Night soccer on Copacabana beach

Night soccer on Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/320 seconds @ f2.8 ISO 4000.

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Quite possibly one of my favourite things about Rio de Janeiro is the awesome beach culture. From dawn till dusk the beaches are positively alive with action. Hawkers roam, beach bars abound, volleyball and soccer nuts send sand flying while swimmers, runners, bladers, boarders and surfers all also find their space.

Am I forgetting anything? Oh yes, ridiculously bootylicious babes are absolutely everywhere, and for the ladies a sculpted odonnis struts on every spare patch of beach. The vibe was like Sydney on steroids. But the action doesn’t stop when night falls, they just switch the lights on and a new crowd takes over the beach for nightly organised soccer and volleyball matches. The temperature is balmy and a beautiful sea breeze mingles with the frenetic street band music.

Though it is low light, photo opportunities still abound, just open up the aperture, crank the ISO and smash some action shots that turn nicely into gritty urban night sport scenes, case in point? See above.

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.

Taxi in Paradise

A local 'taxi driver' delivers food for a restaurant on car-less Morro de Sao Paulo island in Bahia, Brazil. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/640 seconds @ f9 ISO 200

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Hi guys here’s another quick post from Bahia in northern Brazil.

Though I took this photo in classic urban street photography style it is actually from a small tropical island about 2-hours by boat from Salvador. In fact so non-urban is Morro de Sao Paulo that cars are not allowed on the island. This man is actually a ‘taxi driver’ as they call themselves, or perhaps more of a courier driver as he is transporting what appears to be food to a restaraunt. I took this photo on the main street of town, camping out by a colourful backdrop as the tropical late-afternoon sun was throwing some really dramatic warmth and contrast onto the local foot-traffic. It was just a matter of watching and waiting.

More to come soon!

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.

Hiking into Chile’s secret valley

French hiking addict Romain Martin takes in the view of Mt Trinidad over the Cochamó river in Chile's fabled Cochamó valley. Canon 5D Mark II camera and Canon 24-105mm f4L IS USM lens. Exposure Details: 1/60 seconds @ f9 ISO 500

This post comes to you from a fabled valley hidden deep in Chile’s Northern Patagonia.

After a five-hour slog through dense temperate rainforest, contending with eight-foot mud trenches and precarious river crossings, my friend Romain and I arrived at an awe-inspiring Garden of Eden: Cochamó Valley. No car has ever penetrated this valley, no road has ever been built and the forests have never been felled. By a river of pure sapphire that splits the valley sits a sleepy mountain refuge and camp-ground. Flanked on all sides by thousands of metres of hulking granite mountains and ancient forests (gigantic patagonian cypress up to 4000 years old dominate the valley walls) it is a paradise for climbers, hikers and horseman alike. It is also a place where for 150 years local arrieros have moved their cattle on a small scale and maintained a unique tradition of horsemanship. However as we soon discovered it is a paradise under threat and for a decade an inspiring battle to save the valley from road building, forestry and hydro-electric development has been waged by a small but growing team of locals and expat climbers. Banding together they have formed Conservacion Cochamó, a non profit organisation dedicated to preserving the valley’s natural and cultural heritage and promoting sustainable tourism.

Muchas gracias for reading, if you enjoyed the photo why not leave a comment? On that note I’m also thinking that today is the perfect day for you to throw me a like on my facebook page if you feel so inclined.

Cheers,

Cam.

Travel Article Published!

'The Faraway Tree' just published in issue 28 of Get Lost Travel Magazine in Australia.

Hi guys, just a quick announcement that I’ve just had my first travel article published in Get Lost Magazine. It’s a 3 page piece on a place I stayed in Vanuatu near Mt Yasur Volcano on Tanna Island. To read the article just click on the picture and it will load in another page at higher resolution where you should be able to zoom in on the words.

Cheers and more posts from South America coming soon!

Cam.