Monday, March 22, 2010

¡sí se puede!





This weekend I went to Washington DC and back again in about 25 hours. Here are some things that I learned through my trip. 1.) My Spanish isn’t as good as I thought it was 2.) Always bring a pillow and blanket for long bus rides 3.) The massive expanses of lawn in front of the capital building is called the mall 4.) Calling undocumented persons illegal immigrants is a huge faux paus 5.) You can never pack too light when out shooting a protest march
So as you may or may not have guessed my reasons for traveling to Washington DC was to photograph. I shot a March for Immigration Reform and Economic Justice. In short there were over 200,000 people, Fox News reported 500,000 trying to have immigration laws be changed. I’ve never seen so many people in one area, it was very overwhelming at first. I arrived at “the mall” around 10 am and first I noticed the rows and rows of port-a-potties that lined both sides of the mall. At this point there weren’t many people there but around 11 or 12 massive quantities of people poured in. It’s a good thing that I’m not claustrophobic because in some areas it was almost impossible to move without bumping into people. Once I got used to my surrounds I began walk around and talk to people. I was confident up to the point of where I wanted to ask more and couldn’t think of how to put it into Spanish. I could ask their name, where they were from, how old they were, then after that I hit a wall. Just blanked. Luckily most of the families had children that could speak English and that was really helpful. I couldn’t imagine having that responsibility as a child, because many of the children that translated for their parents were younger than 15. As the day progressed the energy seemed to intensify. More shouting and dancing was happening. I however was very tired and had to take some moments to take off my backpack and eat something. You almost forget how to take care of some basic things like eating when all of this excitement is happening around you. Then the march began and this was at the end of the day. I was tired, sore, and thirsty but the walk was nice, I was completely silently the whole time and just got to watch and listen, everywhere people were shouting ¡sí se puede! or ¡obama escucha! The lack of sleep wasn’t fun but I would do this again in heartbeat, here’s hoping that immigration reform will happen and that I will be able to keep shooting this kinds of events.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Trampolines and train rides


I'm back at school again ready to start the ten week sprint to the end of the year. Over my spring break I got to relax with family and friends. The first part of the week was spent driving home, driving to white plains, and then taking a train into NYC. Lots of traveling which was fun but what I really couldn't wait for was being home and doing nothing, or at least planning nothing. Then once the weather started to warm up my three younger siblings and I went outside to jump. None of us are very graceful but we enjoyed spending an hour or two jumping. To me the free falling and the soaring feeling that you get from being on a trampoline or roller coaster is unlike anything else, I only wish it would last longer.

Part of me is ready to be back at school and start the work up again but another part is still struggling with the desire to be home. I'm not sure I'm ready for this ten week sprint of classes, there's always going to be something to do with very little down time. It never seems like there are enough hours in the day to get everything accomplished, here's hoping I can be better at time management!

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Building a Celestial Family


Just read an article in National Geographic about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and it always amazing me how huge these families become. Stephanie Sinclair has been photographing the FLDS colonies for almost a year, here's hoping that I can do that some day.

first post


Here's my first post, ever. Finals week has ended and I've had the chance to unwind and do photo related things without taking any photographs. Sending off more portfolios to various internships, here's hoping that I get one.