Reconnecting with an old friend

             About a month ago a very close friend of mine Johan, asked me to do a maternity shoot of his girlfriend.  Johan and I have been really close to each other since middle school but due to school and life we haven't really seen each other in about two years.  So when he asked me to do this shoot I was realy exicted for two reason; I would get to see my good friend and I would get to photographer the start of the life that hopefuly I will be a part of for the rest of my life.  

                
           After about a month of planing with Johan we finaly did the shoot, this was two weeks ago.  Lucky for me my other great friend from Hallmark, Hillary Dubie had came to Rhode Island to vistit me and was there to help me with the shoot.  Johan's girlfriend wanted the shoot to be low key which was great because I love low key and had an idea of what I wanted to do.  On the shot of her by her self I used two grid spots on ether side of her, because I knew I wanted to rim light her to show her body.  I also used a strip box angeled down for her face and so the rest of the light from it to fall off and fill in the rest of her body.

               They wanted to do the classic shot of the hands on the belly making a heart so I just used the same lighting.  I straighten the strip box out and brought it in closer to light the belly and hands and moved the two grid spots more to the front for separation.  The last shot was of them together, so I had her stand and Johan sit to work the frame space better.  As for lighting, I pointed a grid spot straight on to the front of Johans face, angled the strip box down again for her face and the fall off to land on Johans back, and a grid spot on the background for more separation.

            I'm really happy with what I got and they are too, but the most important thing is that Johan picked me to take these images of his child before she's born and that there are images for her to look at for the rest of her life.

Photo shoot of Prince Royce With Kareem Black

            Back in October I assisted Kareem Black on a photo shoot at MTV, were we photographed an up in coming Bachata-pop artist named Prince Royce.  MTV used the first image on there MTV Buzzworthy Blog and Kareem used the second for his portfolio and website.

Image by Kareem Black

Image by Kareem Black

Photo shoot of Morley Safer with David Goldman

A few weeks ago I was emailed by David Goldman to go assist him at the 60 Minutes to shoot Morley Safer. To find out more about the shoot and see more of the images from the shoot checkout David's blog "A man of his word".

Image by David Goldman

"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.

Staff from shoot of Amanda Lepore with Kareem Black

A few weeks ago I assisted on a job with Kareem Black were he was shooting Amanda Lepore for a Norwegian magazine, this was the whole staff on the shoot. The shoots have not been publish yet but when they do I'll see if I can post them up.

Diego's prints at Pawtucket Arts Collaborative

So I came up to Rhode Island, were I'm from to drop off some prints for a gallary show at Pawtucket Arts Collaborative that is from Nov. 1st, 2010 to Jan. 7th, 2011. I have three prints up from my backpacking trip with La Ruta Inka threw Central America. The opening reception and beginning of sale is Thursday, Nov. 11th 5:30-7pm and the prints are all running for $150, there will also be a lecture by Ten 31 Productions at 7pm. Ten 31 uses the human body as a canvas and living art installations for special events, wedding, public festivals, and corporate functions. Here are the three images I have up.

The Future of a Country

The night before the Ministry of Tourism of Nicaragua(INTUR) took us to a dinner at a hotel were we sat pool side. Just a few minuets after we had arrived the power went out and we had to wait for a couple hours to be able to eat. As we waited the guys of the group went about trowing each other into the pool with their clothing on, I just strip down to my boxers and jumped in so I wouldn't give them the joy. After we ate a youth group dance typical dances for us and then they played music so we all could dance together.

The next day INTUR took us to a few more museums were we saw more archaeological artifacts. The problem with these museums is that they are just a building with a few artifacts in them and that's all, in my opinion if they gathered all the artifacts that each museum has and make a few large national museum it would help to get more tourism and would be easier for to tourist to get more out of their visit. After the museums we were taken to a few elementary schools.

At the school the children dance typical dances for us and we had time to interact with them. I think it's great that there is a goal to teach the youth about their past and customs, maybe they can help this wonderful country be more know in the world.

Once we had finished talking to the children we were taken to a bakery were the make roscones, roscones are small round baked good made from corn some times filled with caramel or cheese. They have workers roll the dough by hand into circles and the place on a large plate to place into ovens that work by burning wood.

While we was at the bakery there was a child there, I'm guessing related to the owners or someone that works there. I was happy to see him there because it means he is learned how to make roscones and he will keep the costume going. I tried to get a good shot of him for a while until he stepped into open shade and the sun was bouncing of the cement in from of him giving me a nice fill as well as crating these wonderful long catch lights. I just had to get this shot.