Taking the time...

It's been a while since I last blogged... a lot has been going on I suppose... working on "projects," traveling with folks, and a little bit of this and that.

It's May 1st tomorrow. The beginning of a new month. I remember around this time last year, I was preparing to come back home from the Philippines. Now, I'm preparing to leave home... I've been having doubts...not quite sure if I should stay or if I should go, but I think its just me going through that phase where I weigh out my options. And there's something that is just pulling me over there... my thirst for growth...

When there's a countdown, everything around you is just magnified. Everything you wanted to do, but just didn't have time to do, seems to gain priority on the list of things to do.

I love San Francisco and I love rediscovering its treasures.

My first time...

So I can finally take a breath and re-focus. For the past couple of weeks, I've been in San Jose just preparing for the SJSU Inauguration photo show... We had our opening reception this past Wednesday, March 11 and the photos will be up until April 11 on the fifth floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library. The photo exhibit will then move to the Joyce Gordon Gallery in Oakland on May 1.

Although it took a lot of time cutting, laminating, and mounting these prints-- it was a good experience. I learned a lot from the amount of work that goes behind an exhibit to the importance of the attention to detail. At the end, (and we're not at the end just yet)it was definitely a rewarding experience to see the end product. And it was really nice to see one of my prints blown up huge for the first time!

In between projects....

I have basically been juggling projects for the past month...in between the inauguration post-production book and show, to my documentary, to wedding and event photos, to TRYING to get my website together--- my life has been in front of this computer screen for WEEKS!!!

I just finished editing through the more than 1000 photos of the Golden Anniversary Wedding I photographed in early January.





I did have the time to take a break and go to the Andy Warhol Art Show at the DeYoung Museum. I had my preconceptions before going....but I'm glad I went. NOWHERE is NOW HERE.










And here is the one piece I did for SJSU's Inauguration trip. Come to the photo show at San Jose's MLK Library on March 11, 5th floor!!!:


44 years to the 44th President from dee dee on Vimeo.

Here and there...in between Oakland and San Jose. Teaching multi-media to sixth and seventh graders... shooting. editing. living. loving....and drinking lots of tea.

"What is LOVE to you?"

I watched Frida today.... it reminded me of how much I miss Mexico. But it also reminded me of Frida and Diego's crazy love story.

''I don't believe in marriage. I really don't! Let me be clear about that,'' Ashley Judd says in the movie at Frida's and Diego's wedding,''I think at worst it's a hostile political act. A way for small-minded men to keep women in the house and out of the way, wrapped up in the guise of tradition and conservative, religious nonsense. At best it's a happy delusion. It's two people who truly love each other and have no idea how truly miserable they're about to make each other.'' She pauses. ''But when two people know all of that and decide, with eyes wide open, to face each other and get married anyway, well, then, I don't think it's conservative or delusional. I think it's radical. And courageous. And very romantic.'' She lifts her glass. ''To Diego and Frida.''

Legacy of a Genocide

It may be hard to listen to their stories, but they deserve to be heard.

"During the 1994 genocide, Rwandan women were subjected to massive sexual violence, perpetrated by members of the infamous Hutu militia groups known as the Interahamwe. Among the survivors, those who are most isolated are the women who have borne children as a result of being raped. Their families have rejected both them and their children, compounding their already unimaginable emotional distress.

An estimated 20,000 children were conceived during the genocide in Rwanda, and many of their mothers contracted HIV during the same encounters that left them pregnant. They feel they have lost their dignity, are alone and utterly powerless.

Intended Consequences chronicles the lives of these women. Their narratives are embodied in portrait photographs, interviews and oral reflections."

I &hearts my new lense...

I have a lot of photos to sort through, but as I do, I will be posting photos here and there from the East Coast / Inauguration trip.

I started shooting with a new lens that I am absolutlely in love with. I always shot with my 16-35 2.8... but I am not too fond of the distortion of my images or how huge it is. So if anyone is interested in buying it, let me know.... but I'm quite involved with the canon 28 1.8.... its not the greatest lens, but its ideal for me right now. Oh camera talk....gotta love it.

So here are a couple of shots with my new lens.

New York Subway...





Portraits of Friends...









Photos, like music, have a power to sway your emotions and invoke memories... Thoughts like this cross my mind especially when I'm looking through photos while listening to music.

Gosh, I got a bunch of stuff to do, but I distract myself by blogging... haha...

Patience

So one of the things that I constantly hear from photographers that look at my work is: be more patient. As my friend Christian said, "Find a scene with characters you like and work it to death, trying everything you can think of." I need to pound those wise words into my head...

One morning, while waiting for my friend April, I stood at a corner for about 10 minutes, just watching people walk by. I didn't exactly work it to death, but I observed with patience. Which photo do you like best?







While waiting for a seat at Cafe Habana (AMAZING CUBAN FOOD!!!!!!), I stood at a corner and took these photos. Which one do you like?







Patience is a virtue. Not just in photography, but applying patience to everyday life.

After being on the road for the past three weeks, I'm back at home. Once again, digesting and reflecting. I got a bunch of things to catch up on and work on, and decisions to make that sometimes--in my own mind--- can get overwhelming.

A timeless book that I recommend to everybody is called, "The Prophet," by a philosopher and poet, Khalil Gibran. I have the book buried somewhere under all my other books, but it came upon my hands today while wandering in San Jose. The book is divided into different chapters like "Love" "Work" "Joy and Sorrow," and I found the one I was looking for "Reason and Passion."

And the priestess spoke again and said: "Speak to us of Reason and Passion."

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against passion and your appetite. .......

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or our rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.

.......
rest in reason and move in passion.


There's a lot more to that quote, but I recommend you picking up the book.

2009....it has been an eventful year already... There is more to come, it's all about being patient.