Day 15 (Thrs., Sept. 15)

Watching the Hemingway show last night was very inspiring. It made me think more about the small things. The beauty in everything around me. I felt artistic, I felt like being more creative. So, when I headed out to the library this morning to shoot photos of an immigration workshop. The workshop was pretty boring as there were just a bunch of talking faces. It's part of the job. You gotta come up w/ something creative. Or come up w/ a photo that describes the key moment of the workshop. This is what I shot there:

It's a plain photo about a plain event. It was hard to be artistic w/ it. I'm sure there was a way, but I missed it. Yesterday I said I succeeded. Today, I feel otherwise. Well, at least about that assignment.

As I left the library, something caught the corner of my eye. This is what it was:

This photo means so much more than it shows. Yeah, it's just a photo of some architecture. But look closely, there is a "pair" feeling to it. A pair of arcs, a pair of palm trees, and even a pair of palms that stick out on each side of the frame. Kinda cool, ain't it? I remember being in my beginning photography class at Los Angeles Pierce College where my professors tried to teach me about symmetry. I didn't quite understand what they meant back then. A few years later, I can now say I understand. If you split the photo in half from top to bottom, you can see that it has some sort of "mirror" look to it. Almost everything on one side has something that reflects it. Cool! I realized I learned about symmetry as I was shooting this.

Next, I headed out to Hollywood. No, not California. Just like last week, I ended driving down the highway a few miles to Hollywood, Florida. This time I was away from the beach. I was on Hollywood Boulevard. Man! How confusing is that? -- I guess this is what symmetry is all about the west and east coasts have a Hollywood Boulevard on a city named Hollywood. Now, if that ain't symmetry, I don't know what is.

I went to Hollywood to make photos of the owner of a thrift store. Since I was still in the creative mode from this morning, I decided to keep on working w/ my new knowledge of lighting. And since the lady does a million things at the store, I figured putting her under many hats as in "she has many hats to fill". Corny? Yeah! But, how can you make a store photo look attractive? I was lucky I to take photos of a person willing to try this. It made my job easier.

Those were my two assignments of the day. Earlier this week I enterprised a story idea and my editors let me run away w/ it. Tonight was the eve of Independence Day in Mexico. So, I figured there was going to be a large group of people gathered to enjoy the event.

So, after a little research and a few phone calls earlier this week, I had an event to shoot. I felt good for taking the initiative to do an assignment. I also feel good that I have the support from my editors to allow me to do such things. One of them, Rolando Otero, suggested I'd take an audio recorder to get sound of the event. The photos would eventually end up on our web site in a slideshow presentation that included sound clips. That was fun. But the thing that was the most fun of the night was the feeling of rush during deadline. The event was slated to start at 6 p.m., w/ the key moment being the "Call for Independence" by the Mexican consulate in Miami at 8 p.m. My deadline was 9:30, so it all seems like a normal day of work. Of course, whenever there is an event w/ performers and a large crowd, things seem to change. The main event did not happen until 8:45 p.m. By the time they were done, I had to rush down to Borders two blocks north of Miami-Dade College, where the event was held. I literally had 15 minutes to shoot the main event and file my photo to the newspaper. Luckily, I was able to file it on time and no harm was done. Whew!

Tonight was so much fun. It's been a while since I had that feeling of urgency. I love the stress that comes along w/ deadline. This past summer, I was spoiled as I did not have to do too many events on deadline. I did some minor league arena football and a Fourth of July celebration on deadline, but it was in San Angelo, Texas -- a place where you can drive across town in eight minutes. That's not possible in Ft. Lauderdale. So, it made me rush. I broke a sweat and I felt awesome once it was all done. I filed the above photo and it should run in tomorrow's local section.

I shot a variety of photos for the www.sun-sentinel.com. And w/ a lot of people gathered in one place, it was very easy to find different things to shoot.

And as LaKeith Kennedy, my editor in San Angelo, once told me: "kid's are easy (to shoot)". So, I kept it simple as I covered the basics.

The event featured dancers from the state of Michoacan. It was cool. They had all kinds of dancers, including the "viejitos" or "old men" dance (above).

One of the coolest things about covering this event was that I got to see a lot of my "paisanos" (fellow Mexicans). It was cool how about nine out of 10 people who I talked to were from Mexico City or Mexico DF as it's better known to Mexicanos. I was born in Mexico City some 26-plus years ago. It was cool to see so many people from my neck of the woods. I usually don't get to see too many "chilangos" (a slang word/nickname for those from Mexico DF). While living in Los Angeles, I met a lot of people from Zacatecas or Jalisco. In Dallas I saw a lot of people from Guanajuato and Monterrey. So, I guess the place of preference for "chilangos" is Miami. I heard there's a large group of them in Chicago. So, I guess I better go to Illinois soon.

Overall, today was just a plain fun day. I enjoyed being creative. My work day started at 10 a.m. and I did not log off my computer at work until 12:30 a.m. I worked a lot. So much that I forgot to eat a meal. But I had a heck of a lot of fun. This is why I am here in Florida, after all... To work and make an attempt at making usable photography.

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