Hiking the mountains around "La Mitad del Mundo".

"A man can be himself only as long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free." - Arthur Schopenhauer

Self portrait while I was hiking the mountains around "La Mitad del Mundo" alone.  La Mitad del Mundo or the middle of the word, is located just north of of Quito, Ecuador and this is where the Equator pass.         

Rob and Kaylee's rainy wedding portraits in downtown Providence

 

     Rob is a friend and fellow photographer, which has assisted me on shoots in the past (yoga photo shoot/fashion photo shoot).  So I felt very honored when he asked me photographer his wedding portraits.  Rob and Kaylee wanted a city setting for their portraits so we decided to do them right in downtown Providence.  This worked out great because the ceremony was held right in downtown.  

     The week leading to the wedding we got a little nervous because it was going to rain, but after some planning we realized this would be a good opportunity to crate very unique images; and that is what we got.  Congratulations Rob and Kaylee on your marriage, wish you the best, and thank you for letting me be a part of it.    

Weekend rock climbing trip to the Blue Mountains in Australia

           Before heading off to Australia I did a good amount of reach search about rock climbing in the Blue Mountains; I knew there was no way I would miss the opportunity of climbing in such a beautiful landscape.  In the reach search I did I found and joined a Blue Mountains Rock Climbing Facebook group.  There I posted the dates I wanted to climb and if there was any one that would be interested in getting together.  I got lucky and Damien replied to my post letting me know that his buddy Nick was visiting for those same dates on a weekend climbing trip and I could tag along with them.  So knowing I had some climbing partners I booked a hostel in Katoomba and headed off to meet up with them.
         

         After a two hour train ride from Sydney to Katoomba I went straight to my hostel where after I checked in and dropped off my bags headed out because I was to met with Damien and Nick at restaurant to get to know each others and have an idea what were the plans for the weekend.  We had a good meal and I headed back to my hostel to get some rest for the next day.
          While in the lobby of the hostel I noticed a girl was on her Mac using Lightroom.  Her images were really nice and the more I payed attention I could tell she knew what she was doing, so I decided to talk to her.  I found out her name was Melissandre, she was from France, worked as a graphic designer, was taking some time off to backpack around Australia, and her photography was beautiful (check out her work here: CelestialK).  I mentioned to Melissandre that earlier while checking in I saw a poster advertising a night time photo tour around The Three Sisters; one of the main attraction in the Blue Mountains.  The only thing the tour was the night before but we that was fine because we both had tripods and knew how to shoot at night, so we head off to The Three Sisters to play around with some night photography.

 

       At first we wanted to capture the Milk Way like the images on the poster I had seen, but it was too cloudy, so then we just started photographer anything.  Being a portrait guy I crated one of Melissandre using both our iPhones on the brightest setting as a key light to light her face.  

Back in Sydney and back to my big boy camera

      After "Instagramming" my way up and down the East cost of Australia, I arrived back to Sydney where I was to stay for a few days before heading off on a rock climbing trip to the Blue Mountains.  Since I was staying with my new friend Fabian I was able to use connect to wifi and chat with friends and family back home.  One of these friends was Hillary, my close friend from photo school, and it went a little like this:

Hillary - "Hi Diego! Hows your trip going? I've seen all those awesome shots you have been putting up on Instagram.  I bet you have been getting amazing stuff with your 5d"

Me - "Um........I haven't really been using the 5d much.........I'm really into this Instagram stuff; it's so liberating, I feel like I can really be in the moment, enjoy the experience, and yadi yadi yadi."

Hillary - "Listen Diego, don't take this the wrong way, but you need to stop being a hippy/hipster, and take out your big boy camera.  You're in one of the most beautiful place on the word and you using a phone, CUT THE CRAP!"

    That was it; she put me in my place.  After that conversation the next few days I waited for Fabian to get out of work so he could go show me around and I could use my "big boy camera".

Christmas time in Darling Harbor.

Fabian with the unlucky/lucky job of being the model. 

Ok this shot reminded me so much of a shot I took while in Sevilla, Spain.  A photographer friend and mentor, Aaron Usher, told me that you will capture images through out your life that will link up; and this is one of them.  Here's the link to the other image; it's half way down the posting.

Deja vu, summer in December.  

The rocks are so beautiful, I couldn't wait to go climbing.

    I have to end this posting by saying thank you to Hillary for getting me to go out and shoot with both my iPhone and DSLR.

Diego Correal Imagery

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My favorite blog posting from my backpacking trip through Central American with La Ruta Inka.

           In the past few days La Ruta Inka facebook page has been reposting some of my images.  I thought it would be cool to pick out my favorite blog postings and re share them with everyone.  So here they are; in order by date:

1. "First meeting with a tribe"

2. "The art of extracting balsamo"

3. "Age old festival in El Salvador"

4. "The Maya juego de la pelota or ballgame"

5. "Assimilation of Christianity and Mayan religion"

6. "Finally Tikal, Guatemala"

Diego Correal Imagery

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Clean Central Falls - 4th Annual "Taking Pride in Our City" Earth Day Event

         Earth day was 3 days ago and to celebrate it the City of Central Falls held their 4th Annual "Taking Pride in Our City" - Clean Central Falls Event on Saturday.  I have had the privilege to photograph 3 out of the 4 of these events the city has had and I'm always moved by how many people take time out of their personal lives to unit and help make Central Falls a cleaner place. 

         My favorite part of the event is at the end after everyone has finished cleaning, they all head back to the meeting point to return the gear; broom, rakes, gloves, etc, and as they return the items I have them step aside so I can crate a portrait of them.  Then I use the portraits to make a collage of the all participants.  This years collage is at the bottom of this posting and here is a link where you can see last years blog posting with the 2013 collage. 

This year there was over 150 volunteers.  

A lot of local businesses help donate the materials needed for the event; also the city and recreation department was awarded a $1,000 grant to help cover expenses.   

This is DJ Max Major's 4th year donating his time and equipment.  

Central Falls Park and Recreation Director, Joshua Giraldo. 

Central Falls Firefighter talk to the volunteers about staying safe while they clean.

City of Central Falls Mayor James A. Diossa thanks the crowd for their help. 

2014 volunteer collage.

Here is the 2011 volunteer collage and you can see that year's images here.

Diego Correal Imagery

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