A Photographers Life

Tommy needed a last minute location to do a photo shoot and reluctantly I agreed. I had a full work day scheduled, including a call with Super Dave but he pretty much begged and promised that this was a well-known important model here in Argentina. What could I say?

Tango & Cash

So I temporarily adopted a cat, for a week. I reluctantly agreed. His name is Tango and I’m Cash, just for the week. At six weeks old he’s already had it pretty rough. He was ‘rescued’ by a group of very kind and thoughtful (although at times I’m doubtful as to how thought-through they might be – I mean just head over to Parque Lezama down the street here in San Telmo and there are hundreds of cats, whether in need of rescue or not, how one knows I know not) friends and friends of friends. He’s only contagious to other cats, has ringworm – note to self, don’t put hand near face after petting little scrawny kitty - but is fine now. Isn’t he sooo cute? What could I say, especially after half an hour of saying no? OK, I finally said.

Tango likes chicken, but only gets a little bit each day. He’s also gained in strength and learned how to leap into my face while I’m lying on the couch on a cool-down break from the sweltering spring heat. He also figured out that he could jump through the small side windows that run from the ceiling to the floor next to the main door of my loft and out onto the upper balcony to begin exploring the outside world. Even though he’s still a bit skittish he relishes his bouts with the external world, on his way to being a young, healthy and confident Tabby cat and very deserving of a good home.

Tango improved so quickly that sadly, he didn’t even need to stay the week and has returned home to be with the other ‘rescued’ cats now that he is not contagious. Although I’m sorry to see him go, I just can’t make that commitment – to care for an animal - right now. I’m pretty much preoccupied on working on my ‘ole lonesome self. But I wanted to post a few pics of the little Tango for all the cat lovers out there.

Ojo for Ojo & Happy Holidays

Well, its been another year, almost. And its the holidays and its summer in the southern hemisphere, always a bit strange for North Americans. But I'm thankful this holiday season. Thanks to all your loyal blog readers from around the world. Thanks to all my friends and family here in BA and back home. Thanks to Ethan and Steele for keeping up on the DWF and I'm thankful to be able to say I've CAUGHT UP with my current photo workload. These pictures below we're all taken yesterday and have been through all sixteen steps on my new workflow check list. I might post that on my website or on another blog to help others with their photo nightmare's also. Or perhaps most people just use iPhoto and don't have a problem... I wonder.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Lightning, Ladies, Lomo & Ricardo

Have been at a loss for words of late with no real interesting photos to share either, at least not publicly. That would be for a real blog that as of now, I'm not prepared to keep. So I was going to briefly comment on yesterday - the third lightening storm we've had in almost a week, ripping through with torrential rains and the loudest of loud thunder - thunder that sounds more like a back lot sound studio re-creation than actual thunder, like how the timpani drum sounds so real during an orchestra performance, making one question the difference between actual real thunder and make believe or movie thunder in Dolby 5.1 surround.

The lomo (tenderloin steak) on the other hand - Oh My God - never ceases to amaze me. So rare, so juicy and just soo damn bloody good, are these steaks. I actually don't eat a ton of meat, or even a lot, but there comes a time when you get that hankerin' for a fat-boy piece of meat and man, they do not screw around with their steaks down here. Ethan got back from a month in Peru and we went out last night for his first real meal (not including Fanta) in the same time period. Man was it incredible, the lomos.

Most might know by now a thing or two about Argentine beef, but for those that don't, a few simple facts.

• Argentine beef comes from natural, range feed cattle on mostly organic diets of straight-up pampa grass.
• This means excellent flavor WITHOUT the fancy overnight marinades as there is simply no reason to mask the taste of the actual meat.
  
• An asado here, or BBQ, is really about the art of preparing, building and maintaining the fire in the grill. Just add salt and cook. That's it. No reason to ruin an already incredible steak.
• Al punto or jugoso? Cooked just right or bloody - those are your choices. But beware, al punto is still red, dripping and juicy, juicy, juicy!
  

Oh... the pictures. Yeah, made it to another 'hot model party', as Tommy pitched it last week. A year end bash for the girl in the white t-shirt. And that's Ricardo Piñero, owner of the top modeling agency here in Argentina. I spent the day at his cat compound last summer in Punta, broke and homeless. Speaking of broke, there's Broke Ass Stuart of SF/LP fame (above in cap).

And of course, least we forget about Tommy, the original porteño. Actually, also wanted to give a shout out to the eNano Peruano tuerto, pictured below, who is now alive, well-enough and kicking himself, screaming (at least he was in the back of the ambulance coming down the Andean mountains in Peru. Welcome back...

La Boca - Pura Vida

More random snaps, these from La Boca, home to the famous Boca Juniors futbol team and to Caminito, current home to street tango, weekend tourists and some of the best sites in BsAs.

Dominating the Chaos

A bunch of random photos from June of this year on a road trip to Ciudad del Este, Paraguay. A lawless region that borders on Brasil, Argentina and Paraguay, the Triple Fronteria zone is CRAZY!

On the digital workflow front, orgainizing thousands upon thousands of digital images can be daunting, not like the film days - there they are, right there in that binder. I see each one. And when working with very large (13MB) images, its even tougher. These images are low-res jpg previews coming out of iView Media Pro's virtual catalogs. Next step - CAPTIONS embedded into the metadata!!