A change in my photographic approach...

This week I began to ponder more what I could do to continue improving in this craft.

Being in Brazil, its not generally considered safe to take your camera out at night and during the day, I am without transportation - so I am forced to be more resourceful.

This week I began thinking more of my need to 'setup' the shot. Up until now, for the most part, my photography has been fluid, raw and unplanned. I wanted to capture images in their natural environment and find beautiful or intriguing images as they are and not as I have made them to be.

Now I am going to start planning out my shots a lot more and pushing myself to be more creative as in creating the scene.

So, this entry is a little bit of that. I worked with one rusty chain on different surfaces in the house. Nothing significant, but again - more planning than I have been doing in recent months.





















I also did break away from the set up and take other pictures.






I did set this up, but it didn't come out how I wanted it to. I guess sometimes you try something and it doesn't quite work.

Sunday lunch in the favela..

We traveled to the Villa (a local favela or slum).



I liked this guy's hat..and the fact that he was the most south American person I've seen since I've been here. He kind of fits the mold of what Americans think of when they think of South Americans (or at least to me). But he cooked our meats on the rotisserie grill.



We were inside the property walls of one of the people who work for my wife's family. The inside and the outside of the house itself looks exactly like the brick wall here. Naked bricks with no stucco or plaster.



Just like in expensive Brazilian steakhouses served directly to your table and carved for you. There was actually more food that was around to eat, but it was basically rice, beans and some salads. Did you want to see THOSE pictures?











The boy next door was curious what was going on.




When we got back, I noticed that the mango tree was starting to bloom.

Around the House...

Where I live. Avenida Alzira Pedrosa. Not even paved, but we are INSIDE the city. In the distance you can see an apartment building.



The front gates. The walking entrance the car entrance, a little further.







Along the walk away that goes around the house between the house and the wall.



The entire house exterior except for a very small area is tiled like this.



At a fair last night, there was a band. Not very good. No one was even dancing and THIS is Brazil. I think the singer tried to be a little more eccentric because I was the only one taking pictures of him.





Feel free to join my facebook Fansite. It's a separate page other than my personal profile. There are many more photos available there than on this site.

Self-portraits...and boredom don't mix...

So, I didn't take my camera anywhere this past week. I got a little bored, and since it's not generally safe or a good idea to go out at night, alone, with an expensive camera - I decided to play around at the house.



In my bathroom, I noticed this ant. This dead ant, an ant I had killed earlier but didn't clean up, was being carried by 4 of his smaller buddies.



Palm tree at night - in the backyard.




The dogs food bowl. While exposing the image, I zoomed in and out for that effect. It didn't come out great, but it was okay.

And then....really bored - I resorted to self-photography.

Brazilian BBQ day - on July 4

Any brazilians who read this blog might find some of the pictures boring.

But exotic birds and animals crawling in your backyard is awesome blog material!

I woke up late on Saturday - about 11:30 local...about 9:30 back at home. I remind myself of Arkansas time so as not to feel so lazy. This is what I woke up to.





Plenty of visitors came by. Not human visitors, but animals. Like this chameleon. About 2 and half feet long. It moves VERY slowly.







The dog watched his every step hoping that its tail would hang over just a bit so he could jump up and grab it.

And this bird...I don't know how exotic it is..or its name.









I borrowed the below image, but I learned of and fought off one of these little insects. They call this "Poto". You have to be very careful with this little guy. If you try to swat him, and he releases his 'venom'...you'll get burned. He secretes an acid that burns your skin and it allegedly hurts pretty bad.




I was at a fair tonight with rides, etc and was on one of the rides with my daughter. One of these landed on my arm - and they're not very serious..i just flicked him away...but since I've never heard of this guy before or have ever seen him before, I thought he'd be interesting.

Festival in the Sitio Filipana

Ok, so I don't have the names or explications for all of the following, but here are some things I did last weekend.



First, this enormous lizard was crawling along the property wall from Lia's house to the neighbor's property. The picture doesn't show the size of this beast, but I would say it was probably around 3 and a half feet. The picture quality is awful because when I saw it, I ran to get my camera which had been used the night before for the previous blog and I didn't take time to adjust it because the lizard was moving too fast...so I just stood on my toes so I could see and took the picture. I had to make photoshop adjustments to be able have something this good.




This is the dance of the bull from the party we went to. Festas Juninas are kind of a country-style party but other than that, no one really explained to me the purpose of the bull's dance or even why we were celebrating.



I was taken on a tour of the farm - which is supposed to have cashews, but that is only at a different time of the year. The above fruit is a Tamarind..used to make juices. I am not sure if they exist in the U.S., but they are kind of good eating them raw.



Here is a fruit that I DON'T know the name of.


and for you bird lovers..



Here's a small nest of birds that we came up on during my 'tour'.