Summer Recap - Harpon Brewery Boston

  My last post was on Prohibition Pig in Vermont so staying in the theme of breweries this post is on a trip my buddies and I did to the Harpoon Brewery in Boston, MA.

           One of our favorite IPAs is Harpoon's, so natural I had to get one while we were in the brewery.  But we also wanted to try something new so we got a Leviathan IPA and we weren't disappointed.

"This Imperial IPA is brewed with loads of pale malt and just enough caramel malt to provide a sweet malt backbone to balance the hop intensity. We used a mix of our favorite American hops including Chinook, Centennial, Simcoe, and Amarillo to create a complex hop flavor and lingering bitterness. Harpoon’s proprietary yeast lends fruity esters, while dry-hopping at the rate of over one pound per barrel produces this beer’s massive aroma." - Harpoon

Diego Correal Imagery

(401)-855-3800

diego@dcorreal.com

www.diegocorrealimagery.com

YO SOY DEL BUS DOS, DEL BUS DOS, DEL BUS DOS!!!

     Threw out the whole trip with La Ruta Inka we spent about 80% of the time one a bus.  There was always 3 buses and the same people would always go on their same bus; bus uno, bus dos, bus tres.  So after some time a rivalry came about which bus was the best and that was bus dos(obviously the bus I was on).

No time? Just get it done. Shoot with Jennifer Esquilin.

                                 A few months ago, before it got cold out and started snowing, I did a photo shoot in the streets of East Side Providence with the beautiful Jennifer Esquilin. We had put about four hours aside for the shoot but at the end of wardrobe, scouting and getting to the location, hair, and makeup we were left with about 30 minutes to shoot. On top of not haveing that much time, the day wasn't that nice and it was really windy. But in the long run we got some great shots.

My portraits featured at Bannister Gallery

            A few of my portraits will be featured with Jonathan Sharlin's photography at the Bannister Gallery at Rhode Island College.  An opening reception will be held on Thursday, Feb. 3 from 5-8. Come show support.

Click on image to enlarge. http://www.jonathansharlin.com/

"tell em go home cause ima go hard ..go hard or ima go home"

It's 1pm on Frieday, Nov. 5th and Moi is sleeping. He had went to sleep at 6am earlier that day because of one of the two jobs he has is 3rd sift and doesn't get to sleep until around this time. The difference of this day to any another is that twelve hours after going to sleep Moi was going to get into a cage to fight. I was up with Moi till about 4am watching him eat all night long because he wasn't able to eat for 48 hours prior because he had to cut weight for his fight. The first thing Moi did once he woke up was wight him self, the night before he was at 138 pounds, now he was at 150 and he was still eating to get energy for his fight later that day.

Moi had his first amateur MMA fight vs Tom Benjamin in Randolph MA.

As soon as the fight started Benjamin swung at Moi a few times and missing. Moi had seen video of Benjamin and notice that he liked to take people to the ground and control them by being on top, so his plan was to get Benjamin in a clinch and control him.

Once Moi got the clinch on Benjamin he used his feet to take Benjamin in the ground and be on top of him.

After a few seconds of fighting in the ground Benjamin was getting Moi into a arm bar. Just as he locks the arm bar Moi used all his strength to lift Benjamin into the air and slam him into the ground. BANG!!!! Benjamin was nocked and and Moi jumped on him to finish the job. The referee jumped in and end the fight at a minute and twenty seven seconds.

After the fight Moi talked to his family and friend about the fight and thanked them for being there. Moi mentioned that he had executed plan to a t and had seen the fear in Benjamin's eyes as soon as he had steped into the cage and took advantage of it for the win.

Moi's big fight

This weekend I drove back up to Rhode Island because a very close friend, Moises Rodriguez or Moi as our group of friends call him, is fighting his first major mma(mixed martial arts) fight in Boston. I'm very close to Moi and we push each other very hard to succeed in what we love, for him mma and for me photography. I always telling him he should just keep on trying to take his fighting to the next level and he tells me the same. Once I realized I could start to tell Moi's story threw photographer I jump on the opportunity. About a year ago I was able to go see him fight, at this event he had to fight not only once but twice in the same day winning both of them. The image below I took after his fights when he was getting his hands unwrapped by one of his couches.

Moi has fought five fights before the one he has coming up and is undefeated. They have all been "underground" fights or fights that aren't at a national level, this fight is his amateur debut and that is why it is such a big part in his young career. Moi is fighting at the 135 pound weight class so by Thursday, Nov. 4th he had to be at that weight. I have been talking to Moi on a daily bases for about a week now just checking in on how he is doing on cutting weight. When I first talked to him he was at 152 and had to drop 17 pounds in a week, but this would not be an easy task because he works two full time jobs.

I drove up to Rhode Island on Wednesday, Nov. 3rd and the first place I went to when I got into the state was to the USA Karate MMA in Providence were Moi was training, he had lost 7 pounds and need 10 more. There he was hitting the bag, jump roping, as well as shadow boxing. Moi had not ate anything since the night before and couldn't till the next day after the weight in.

On Thursday, Nov 4th I picked up Moi to drive up to Qunicy MA. were his weight in was being held. Before picking him up Moi had me pick up a pack of gum because he was going to use it to crew on to be able to make more silva and spit it into a bottle. He was at 139 and had to drop to 135 by the time our hour ride up to Quincy ended.

Once we got to the location which was a bar, he had to fill out some paper work, pay sum dues, and then was able to weight in. Moi took of all his clothing off but his boxers and stepped up on scale, he was still at 139 and a half.

So now the organizers of the fight had to call Moi's opponent and see what he wanted to do. They offered Moi to lose one pound in a hour, he had to weight in again the next day before the fight and could not weight more then 140. Moi called his trainer explained what had happened and his trainer told him to denied that offer because that would mean he could not be able to eat again for a whole day and would not be able to fight at a hundred percent. So his last option was to try to go find a place we he could do some exercise to lose the extra pounds and then come back to the bar to weight in again.

The first place were we went to was a YMCA in Quincy but they lady at the front desk was really rude and would not let us use the facilities even if Moi signed up for a membership. So we left the YMCA and did not know were to go, I noticed the high school was across the street and I thought to my self they have to have a gym and training room there so I told Moi to fallow me. We walked in and asked some of the students were the gym was on our way there we talk to a teacher, explained what was going on and if he knew to who we would have to talk to. He was very friendly and took us to the gym and even talked to the football couches that were having practice inside because of the rain. They told us it was okay and Moi began to run laps around the gym for the 30 min that we had left till we had to be back to get weighted again. Moi ran about a mile and a half and did some shadow boxing.

When we got back to the the bar he had to go straight the scale. After the hour he had only dropped a pound and a half, the organizers had to call Moi's opponent again and try to work something out. At the end they said the fight would still go on the next the day but Moi had to give up his share of money for selling four tickets he had sold to people coming to see the fight, Moi agreed and there will be a fight.

After all that running around Moi and I met up with a friend were we are spending the night so we wont have to drive down to Rhode Island. Moi took a shower, and we went to eat at The Olive Garden. This was the first thing Moi was going to eat after 48 of starving him self.

Tomorrow, Nov. 5th is Moi's fight and I will be there by his side, out side that ring doing what I love most as he does what he loves most, cheering him on. Decanting a hundred percent of my attion to show how grate of a fighter, person, and friend he is. Keep an eye out for the images from the fight and to a great fighter.

Wish you the best of luck Moi, mad love Diego.

Getting to know the great people of Nicaragua

The second day in Nicaragua the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua(INTUR) picked us up to go see the historical center of Granada. Once we arrived to the main plaza we only had about an hour there; 30 minutes to hear historical facts about the sites and another 30 minutes to walk around on our own and shop.

After the hour we were ready to leave but we couldn't because there was people from the group missing. We ended up having to wait about an hour and a half because people would leave to make phone calls or get drinks as we waited for the ones missing to show and then we would have to wait for them to get back. La Ruta had set rules at the start of the trip in case something like this would happened, the rule was that we would wait for ten to fifteen minutes, then would leave and the person left behind would have to find their own way to meet up with La Ruta. This rule was in place because we have a very tight schedule and if we start running late we would miss things we had to see and that is just what happened in this situation, we wasn't able to see two stops. To add to the delays when we were all now really ready to leave there was something wrong with the bus and had to wait another few minutes till it got fixed.

We didn't get to stop at the Lake of Nicaragua because of the delays but at lest we were able to look at as we drove by. The Lake of Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America and is home to the Bull Shark which is the only shark that is able to live in fresh water.

The next stop was a little town that had a large part to do with Nicaragua's revoultion over their old government. Here we was once more greeted with great typical food, drinks, music, and dances. There was a point were even some of our members joined in the dancing.

Just before all the great activities were done I went out side and walk around a little. I noticed that the people in this town had a great intrust in us, there was tons of people sitting out side or on their door steps as well as sticking their heads out the window to take a look at us. I think that as I attempted to capture them trying to get an glimpse of us is when I really realized that people from other places are just as interested in you as you are about them, I would love to studying that in depth in the future.

After a great time at our last stop and getting to know the great people of Nicaragua, we went to an arts and crafts market were we met a group of young Nicaraguans that explained to us about their history and then was as able to go shopping.

After we had learning so much about the Nicaraguan culture, INTUR took us to eat at a restaurant were we ate the same typical dish we had eaten the at our first diner in Nicaragua. This typical dish consist of yuca(a vegetable that's a root like the potato), meat, and on top there is a salad thats like coleslaw but without mayonnaise.
Once we had eaten we left to Managua which is the capital of Nicaragua. In Managua the first place we went to was the bulding were the revolution had started, there they explained to us how the rebels went about entering and taking over the government at the time. This building now has been turned into a museum and were able to walk around and learn a lot more about their culture.

One of the things that I learned this day was that Nicaragua is left winged and a lot of the people really look up to El Che. As soon as I found this out it all made sense to me why I thought I knew about Granada, I had heard about it on some Che documentaries I had watch before. Back in high school some of my friends were Che fans but I really did not know who he was and didn't understand why he was so important. So I did some research on him to find out I like him in his youth but really didn't like the way he went about getting things done late in his life. Because of the fact tones of people in the US like him but he fought agents the US really interested me on why people love him so much in the states. Now in days in the US El Che is just a hip icon and most people that wear something with his face on it do not even know who he is so when I realized I was in a country were he was a extremely important and is a hero to them I just had to take the time and talk to the people and get their point of view.