Mexican Adventures Part IV: Sorgal

First Episode: Mexican Adventures Part I: Introduction
Second Episode: Mexican Adventures Part II: Road Travel
Third Episode: Mexican Adventures Part III: Pazahol

See the other pictures from this trip at my Flickr site!

Day 11:
February 2, 2011

Sorgal is this bush area with hills, trees, and a watch tower.  It used to be for hunters, but now it's used pretty much exclusively for bird watching.  You can also get a nice view of the area and the horizon over the jungle.

Mexican Adventures Part III: Pazahol

First Episode: Mexican Adventures Part I: Introduction
Second Episode: Mexican Adventures Part II: Road Travel

See the other pictures from this trip at my Flickr site!

Day 5:
January 27, 2011

Angel gathering wood for the camp

After a patrol around the ranch, we headed in to the nearby village, Constitucion to get some more supplies.  The area attracts a lot of poachers and loggers, so they go around to make sure no bad guys are around.

Mexican Adventures Part II: Road Travel

This is a part of a photo journal series, documenting my travel and stay in Mexico.

I made a couple rules for my self at my stay there:

1. One lens swap per day (For photos.  For my actual filming I would switch lenses appropriately).  I wanted to minimize exposing the interior of the body to the humid atmosphere.

2. 24-36 pictures a day.  I can take as many pictures as I want at the moment, but I will only keep 24-36 pictures from each day.

See the previous entry and introduction here!

In the photos below I will state a description with the equipment used to take the photos (all were taken the with Canon 7D body). See the previous entry for the introduction and description of the gear.

Mexican Adventures Part I

Last month I headed out to the Jungles of southern Mexico to shoot a nature documentary for Cofarnat, a wildlife and natural resource conservation group based in Mexico.  It was in La Montaña in Constitucion, Campeche.  Some of the nearby areas visited were Sorgal (birdwatching in the tall grass), Pazahol (jungles and Spanish ruins), Calakmul (Mayan Pyramids), and Balam-ku(7 million bats).

Over the next few weeks, I will update with photos from each of these places, and descriptions of them.  (as I develop the photos)

The model in the photo is Tita.  She is a spider monkey.  One day she just walked in to the camp to live with the people working in La Montaña conservation.  She was leashed for my stay so she wouldn't steal any of my camera gear.  (monkeys love stealing camera gear from photographers).

In the camp, several other animals co-habit with the people working there.  I will introduce the rest in later posts.

Mexican Adventures

Howler Monkeys in La Montana

I am currently directing a film in the jungles of southern Mexico, but it gives me a lot of opportunities for taking pictures.  When I am back in office, I will update with an equipment list and pictures from my wilderness trip!

The above photo was taken with a Canon 7D, 70-200 f/2.8L IS USM II, and a 2x ef extender. ISO-3200, f/5.6, 1/320s at 400mm.

Black and White: T-Max 3200 Christmas.

I documented this Christmas party with a Voigtlander Bessamatic SLR loaded with T-Max 3200 film (see the full set at my flickr).  This thing is a beast, it's solid, heavy, tight, and completely mechanical.  That's right, no batteries or anything.  You load the film, wind it up and snap.

Completely off topic: Firetruck

My building has this issue of setting off the fire alarm every few weeks.  Usually early in the morning or laaate at night.  This time it was at 7am.  I just happened to be sitting around in my suit fiddling with my camera, so when the alarm went off, I got on my way out.

When I got out, I started taking some pictures of the firetruck.  I'm a people photographer, so I was trying to get some guy that was checking out the truck in the frame.  Then some guy came up to me and started talking to me about photography.  His name was Dave, and he told me if I want to get a good shot, I need to get up close and take a particular part of my subject (the car) to make it not obvious as to its nature.  I was taking in a full shot of the truck.  The idea was to take a small part with just enough bits to identify it, but not immediately.

For these photos, I used a Canon 7D and a Sigma 30mm 1.4.  The setting was ISO-100, f/1.4, 1/13s.