Grasses at Dusk

Canes and Canines

For the Family

These photo albums are long overdue a "timely" blog post. Click the photos to view the full slide shows, which you can pause and control manually if you choose.

Adventures with Lisa and Mike:



El Mercado y Mi Tierra con mis padres:



Dogs, Easter, Mother's Day, and more:



Austin visit:


Wimberly Visit, May 2009:



Dad's Birthday, July 28th:

Nature's Latest

It is a goal of mine to become a photojournalist who specializes in nature photography. I always feel motivated to get out and capture nature at work, more than anything else it seems. It's always there, always changing, and it's my job to capture it.




Lightning 8/21

Canada

I took a fourteen-day, four thousand-mile road trip across North America to Canada, with my buddies Matt Hect and Nathan Pugh, staying a night at Matt's uncle's house in Chicago on the way. We ate excessively while in Chicago; Matt's uncle Chuck is a chef who knows how to make a five-star biscuits & gravy. We crossed the border and drove about ten hours to Matt's granddad's house on the lake in Perth, Canada, about an hour's drive from Ottawa. We stayed the night and drove to Matt's aunt's cabin on the lake in Carleton Place, fishing and catching Bass for two nights before going to Ottawa, where we stayed at the Backpacker's Inn Hostel for three nights. Highlights from Ottawa include a ridiculous amount of beautiful women, meeting really cool people from all over the world, staying up all night talking, zip-lining on a forest obstacle course, and listening/jamming with a Hungarian band! From Ottawa we decided to return to Carleton Place for free meals and beds, driving to Montreal on the French side (Quebec) that next day. Montreal deserved more than a two night stay, although we saw beautiful sights in Notre Dame and of the city from Mont Royal, a little mountain we literally scaled before coming back to the hostel for a night out with the Ausies. We left Montreal, stayed in Carleton Place one last night, Perth another night, and on our way back 30 hours straight to San Antonio that morning. Best trip of my lifetime thus far!


Click the photo to view the slide-show

Shadowing Billy Calzada

They have to be focused on the action, while anticipating reaction or those unplanned events in the back of their head, ready at moments notice. As famous photographer William Albert Allard once said, photojournalists "seek out what is there,yet often find something finer, something closer to the center, that no amount of research or preparation could have led them to."

Photojournalists use a variety of techniques while covering their assignments, but there is one technique that I believe is the most essential and cannot be learned, only felt. It is the ability to feel compassionately towards your subject with a loving gratefulness that they are here, here to share their stories with the people around them whose perception of the community- perhaps unawaringly- is determined by what they couldn't see themselves and what only photographs can bring them. That desire to share all things truthful and real is, I believe, the greatest determinant in one's ability to work as a photojournalist, as compared to other fields of photography.

I was able to see this essential method of a photojournalist in action last Thursday evening, while observing Express-News photojournalist Billy Calzada on assignment at the home of Maria Altamira, or "Tweety." I was in the Express newsroom checking the Photo Request Form when I heard about the assignment, the summary reads:

"Everyone calls Maria Altamira "Tweety." She has scores of the stuffed cartoon bird outside her home [given by friends, family, locals], which is called the "the Tweety House" by locals. She picked up the nickname at a local bar, where a man named Sergio (i.e. "Sylvester") used to chase her around and throw water on her. Tweety has had a rough life - her son is in prison and the father of her 5-year-old daughter was deported, among other travails. The Tweety symbol reminds her to be strong and happy."

Photo-editor's notes: "Billy, looking for a multimedia piece from this. Audio slideshow or video. It should get some nice love on line. -- William ["the super pro" Luther]"

Billy Calzada is the guy photo-editors assign these stories to - he has the lovable personality that people take to, his professionalism and ability to create a multimedia piece in mere minutes unimpeded by cracking jokes, laughing, and having fun in the process (when appropriatte) - not to mention, he's bilingual! He has worked at the Express for almost ten years, and has only recently in his career taken up video/multimedia production, yet he works the medium with the same dedication for professional quality as with his stills.

It was a very good learning experience for me to observe the way Billy accomplished the assignment. He meets the family with a greeting known best by the family-of-a-hispanic-community in San Antonio- "Como Estan?!" - followed by introducing the camera to his subject and calmly asking them questions. This family was really nervous before Billy arrived, they came outside and asked me what was going to happen and I reassured them that he would "just ask a few questions and take some video." Sure, Billy did ask some questions and take video, but he did so in a way that made the shy children talk (who wouldn't speak to me), put the family at ease and be in their comfortably natural state, and he received his subjects in the way of a freind who isn't there with any lack of interest or passion to tell their stories. He was shooting photos of the family in a natural state before I could even pick up my camera, and they noticed the lens by the time I did. He was instinctive and the whole process looked completely natural to me - something I'm still working to acquire, of course.

I look forward to speaking with Billy again next week, and learning from all the professionals at the San Antonio Express-News. Thank you again Billy and all for inspiring students and reminding me why I love this "job" with all my being - it's more like a lifestyle of preserving history and sharing the stories of others and our own experiences with the community, our world that relies on the photograph not just to be informed, but to feel the curious and inspired emotion as a witness to this life and the times - the same feeling one must have to really be a photojournalist.


Billy Calzada interviews Maria Altamira, or "Grandma Tweety," outside her home at the 1700 block of San Fernando St. Thursday. Known as "the Tweety House" by locals, Altamira owns over 250 tweety birds, given to her by family, friends, and visitors.

Angelica Altamira laughs as Billy Calzada interviews her mom, Maria Altamira, or "Grandma Tweety."

A real Tweety adorns the home

Billy laughs with Amber Altamira, 4, at her "Grandma Tweety's" home.

Here is the video Billy produced. His slideshow of images can be viewed at mysa.com

From the Street

I don't take enough photos of this town, time to get on it. I'm going to document life here in San Antonio...more to come!




On the way to the top. Elevator at Wells Fargo building.

Spring Semester Portfolio

Finally! I've found a way to host my soundslide portfolios on the web for free!

Click the photo to view my portfolio of published and un-published images from the spring semester at San Antonio College

Final Exam Portraits - Griselda Lourdes

Alamo-Fiesta owner Griselda Lourdes poses with a skull sculpture Tuesday May 5. After her mother Consuelo Perez de Cortes died of a heart attack the same hour her brother Juan Luis Cortes was married, Lourdes left Mexico to help her oldest brother Gerardo Cortes through a depression. The skull symbolizes the Mexican holiday Dia de Los Muertes, a festive celebration that honors dead family members, reminding Lourdes of happier times as a child when her father Juan Cortes I would make candy on November 1 until he died when Lourdes was 23.

Griselda Lourdes talks with a customer on the phone at her shop Alamo-Fiesta on E. Ashby and N. Main Ave Tuesday, May 5. She and her son have owned the shop for seventeen years, which is inside a house built in 1905.

Spring 2009 - One to Remember

Spring 2009 will be one of my most memorable semesters at the j-school. I enjoyed all the laughs and experiences working with everyone at the Ranger and in News Photo I. Although I may not be joining those enrolled in News Photo II next semester, I will not allow myself to somehow be excluded from more good times to come. Hope everyone had as much fun as I have! See you next semester? count on it.











Here's some from the Source Awards:

First Softball Game

Tyler Cleveland/The Ranger

Education sophomore Tiffany Smith runs to third base after coach Sam Gallegos hit an outfielder during their softball game against Lonestar Coin 55, a team of players 55 years old and older, at Kroger Field Wednesday, April 8. The Rangers lost 19-9.

Tyler Cleveland/The Ranger

Business sophomore Juan Borrayo talks with public relations freshman Jennifer Flores and University of San Antonio freshman Jessica Flores in the dugout. Borrayo was upset because the players on the opposing team were talking trash.

Tyler Cleveland/The Ranger

Kinesiology freshman Mary Semerisky bats.

Tyler Cleveland/The Ranger

Psychology sophomore Candace Herrera cheers for her teammates during the 5th inning

Poems of Reflection

There lies a book on my small, overcrowded shelf, its binding tearing and decorations coming unglued further each time I wedge it out to read.

This book is a reflection of past ideas and thoughts which have stayed with me, of original and unoriginal poems collected from my sophomore year in high-school, cataloging the efforts of someone trying to find his place in the world. No matter how many new ventures taken or chapters in my life written, these poems read the same soul-inspiring way they always have.

Since taking up the challenge of becoming a photojournalist, I have been enriched by a lifestyle of constant interaction with everything intrinsic to life, of capturing history and emotion in a tangible form, although the future can sometimes appear too far away for me to grasp.

Throughout such moments of uncertainty or confusion, I have been reassured by my never fading confidence that no matter where I end up, I'll know that I worked my hardest and with the fullest of heart to get there (nobody said it would be easy). And I won't allow myself to be anything less than happy, loving, and grateful, too.

This book of poems reminds me of what I've always known, and reading through it helps remove any doubts or suspicions that my life will somehow be less fulfilled.

On looking back on what could have been:

Summer Storm

We stood on the rented patio
While the party went on inside.
You knew the groom from college.
I was a friend of the bride.

We hugged the brownstone wall behind us
To keep our dress clothes dry
And watched the sudden summer storm
Floodlit against the sky.

The rain was like a waterfall
Of brilliant beaded light,
Cool and silent as the stars
The storm hid from the night.

To my surprise, you took my arm–
A gesture you didn't explain–
And we spoke in whispers, as if we two
Might imitate the rain.

Then suddenly the storm receded
As swiftly as it came.
The doors behind us opened up.
The hostess called your name.

I watched you merge into the group,
Aloof and yet polite.
We didn't speak another word
Except to say goodnight.

Why does that evening's memory
Return with this night's storm–
A party twenty years ago,
Its disappointments warm?

There are so many might have beens,
What ifs that won't stay buried,
Other cities, other jobs,
Strangers we might have married.

And memory insists on pining
For places it never went,
As if life would be happier
Just by being different.

-- Dana Gioia



On the choices made and directions taken in life; my recent (past year) pursuit in becoming a professional photojournalist:

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-- Robert Frost