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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www.diegocorrealimagery.com

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"Instagramming" my way up and down the East cost of Australia

       Through out my road trip up and down the East cost of Australia I did not to much shooting with my DSLR; I was in another state of mind and didn't want to worry about dealing with a heavy camera and other gear.  So I stuck with using my iPhone 4 and the Instagram app to document my experience.  This was very liberating because all I needed was my phone, that fit in my pocket, I didn't need to worry about all the settings on my big camera, and I got back to the basics: light, composition, and story telling.  Also using the Instagram app was perfect because it allows you to control your exposure, crate a fake depth of field, and the filters it offers makes the post-processing fast and instant.  Unlike with a DSLR where you have to download the files from a memory card, upload them to Lightroom, hours of messing around with the image, export them, and then finally upload to the web to share.    

       

       This posting over laps with my prior posting and then keeps going through the rest of my road trip; so to keep track of what was going on make sure you check out the other post.  Just click here.  

       Over all on this road trip I drove around 3180 miles in 9 days.  The amount of road I covered is equivalent of driving from Boston to Key West and back.    

           

Driving through the outback.

Big Sky Country, reminded me of Big Sky Country Montana, USA.

There was an overwhelming amount of kangaroo road kill every where.

Sunrise in the outback after sleeping in my rental in a super market parking lot.

How beautiful is this super market parking lot out in the middle of the outback?!

Got into the outback of the movies; dry, dusty, and 100 degrees.

After one of the best showers I have ever taken; mind you it was in a public shower  at a truck stop in the middle of the outback.

Sun setting behind palms in Townsville, while I waited for the ferry to go to Magnetic Island. 

My "mobile home" aka rental car.

View as I laid on the beach; mean while there was a blizzard back in Rhode Island, where I live.

Feeding the Wallabies.

The hidden Wallaman Falls; which is the highest free falling waterfall in Australia.

Saya and I stuck in traffic on our way to Cairns.

Suba diving and snorkeling the Grate Barer Reef. 

Quick dip in the Cairns Lagoon.

Camira, my sailing vesal to get from Airlie Beach to the Whitsundays.

When there's nice light you have to take a "selfie".

The sand in the Whitsundays is so amazing!!!

           After my trip to the Whitsundays and a night in Airlie Beach, I headed off to Byron Bay where I spent a night, and then went back to Sydney.  Over all I gave up on DSLR to shoot with my iPhone and I'm really happy with what I got.  None of the images are portfolio pieces but they are amazing snap shots what I will cherish for the rest of my life.  Something else that occurred by using Instagram over my real camera; was I appreciate the moment a lot more.  When I have my DSLR out I'm in work mood, I'm trying to crate commercial images to use in my portfolio.  Because of the freedom I had, I now realized that it shouldn't be like that, I can use my DSLR and record my experience even if it's just for me.  Which should be the important part.