Shall I bore you again? Nicaragua 2013/14

Maggie Terlecki · Dec 10, 2013

Robert Watcher said:
TODAY'S CHILDREN - 2 KINDS OF POOR

I headed out to an nearby mountain, where ruins of the infamous "del Fortin" military post and location of brutality and torture for dissidents and prisoners during the Somosa reign - - - overlooks the city of Leon.

Nearby the fort is a huge garbage dump where homes and families reside on top of the trash. The road leading up the hill, is lined with shanty houses made from sticks for corner posts and plastic, cardboard or wood pallets for the covering.

In many of the tourist guides, it is recommended to be very careful travelling this road as it is common to be stopped and robbed along the way - so they mention not bringing cameras or valuables with you. There appeared to be no threat of that today.

After visiting del Fortin and getting my shots, I noticed certain impressive volcanic backdrops to the city on the way down the hill. At one point I stopped to take a unique view of Leon and 3 children started screaming from their home behind me. The word I recognized was "foto". After getting my shot, I turned to the children - pointed my camera - and started firing away. They gave me a different smiling pose for each of the 5 frames that I took. (The top shot - #77)

This evening while Anne and I were walking from the Centre to our home, this boy was standing in his doorway. I told Anne not to move so that I could change to my long lens and fire from behind her. I didn't want to disturb his attention and end up with a contrived pose. Equally poor, but slightly nicer home in a better neighbourhood. (Bottom shot - #79)

Image #77 - © 2013 Robert Watcher

Image #78 - © 2013 Robert Watcher

Image #79 - © 2013 Robert Watcher

Wow, I've missed so many of these. I'm just bogged down a bit with stuff, but I'm glad to see these and I will eventually catch up. Love the commercial tie shots too. Really shows the diversity of your work between that and the people of Nicaragua especially the lovely children shots, like this last one of the little boy which I think is adorable!

Maggie

Asher Kelman · Dec 10, 2013

Robert Watcher said:
TODAY'S CHILDREN - 2 KINDS OF POOR

After visiting del Fortin and getting my shots, I noticed certain impressive volcanic backdrops to the city on the way down the hill. At one point I stopped to take a unique view of Leon and 3 children started screaming from their home behind me. The word I recognized was "foto". After getting my shot, I turned to the children - pointed my camera - and started firing away. They gave me a different smiling pose for each of the 5 frames that I took. (The top shot - #77)

This evening while Anne and I were walking from the Centre to our home, this boy was standing in his doorway. I told Anne not to move so that I could change to my long lens and fire from behind her. I didn't want to disturb his attention and end up with a contrived pose. Equally poor, but slightly nicer home in a better neighbourhood. (Bottom shot - #79)

Robert and Anne,

I am so impressed with this body of work. You do seem to have a great respect for the folk you capture. It's tough being an American tourist with so much wealth compared to these folk. But these kids are such lively human beings. One can look past poverty when one sees a child's smile. however, the bottom line is that they likely as not, have almost no opportunity to reach their potentials given the body of knowledge, power and capabilities that man has acquired.

Of course, I'd not want them to NEED iphones and Xboxes or nike shoes, but we'd like to them get a sound education and options in life more diverse than their parents and less bound to subsistence living.

On that note, I wonder what proportion of Western Society is really on subsistence living? After all, students and minorities, the under and unemployed and even those employed can be living barely managing, scraping together a living working day to day to month to month with never any reserves.

Asher

Robert Watcher · Dec 12, 2013

JUANMARCOS BOWTIE COMPANY

Yesterday I got a call from the young couple from Sweden who are manufacturing Bow Ties in Nicaragua. They had 6 or 7 ties completed and wanted me to come to their place to do some product shots on white background.

Having a fair bit of experience shooting small products in my studio years ago - - - I knew that this what to them was a seemingly easy task, would be a big challenge - - - particularly being that I had no gear with me other than my camera. My normal bevy of studio lights, softboxes, light stands, reflectors and gobos and tripods - are all at home in Canada.

Without studio lights, we would have to depend on natural light. To have strong enough light to shoot at least at f11 for some type of depth of field, we would be shooting outdoors. To simulate an overhead softbox, Marcus would have to look around the city for something like ripstop nylon to soften the overhead sunlight. For a white sweep of some sort, he would have to search for some thicker product like a bristol board - but my instructions were that it be at least 30x40 inches.

On my arrival today at 11:00AM, a table was set up outside. All he could find for diffusion were sheets of rice paper used for packaging. He managed to find a thinker piece of cardboard with one side painted white. As well he had purchased a 2'x4' piece of 1/2 styrofoam.

Anne and moved the table under an overhang so that there would be no direct overhead and frontal light from the sun. Our biggest problem ended up being the heavy cloud cover that moved in and out - - - meaning that some shots would be taken at slower shutter speeds of 1/60'th second at f8 and other shots would be as high as 1/1,000'th second at f11 - - - shooting at 100 ISO.

Depth of field at f11 was no where near enough shooting at around 90mm setting on my lens. Without a shift and tilt lens though, that would be our limit. For the web images they are after, this should not be a problem.

My wife Anne took these first 2 shots with her iPad Mini, to show the setup we were using. I snuck in a shot from the other side while I was taking one of the product shots.

Robert Watcher · Dec 12, 2013

With the initial setup, the owners looked at the bowtie sitting in place on the white paper, and it seemed perfectly fine without any light control or reflectors. Shadows under the tie weren't heavy and there was lots of color and detail in the tie - - - to their eyes that is.

To my experienced eyes, it was obvious that there would be little detail in the fabric, the shadows would be very dark, and specular highlights would be disturbing. The only way that I could show them that their eyes were fooling them - was to take a picture without any lighting modifications. The first image in this set, shows the result of that photograph.

I then had everyone move in to place and finely adjusted the overhead diffusion paper and white reflectors as best as we could under the circumstances - took the shot and compared the two on the back of the camera. The difference was remarkable. We ended up shooting 4 different looks with each of the ties that they are ready to get online and sell.

Robert Watcher · Dec 17, 2013

LOUIS ARMSTRONG??? - - - TALENT IN POVERTY

Walking along a rural road where there is a settlement of shacks made of sticks and plastic - - - 3 men sat on white plastic chairs outside the barb wire fence, with small bottles of clear liquid at their sides (local moonshine).

I struck up a conversation and one of the men (a very shy one) responded to the others mentioning that he was a musician - - - and went into his home and came out with a trumpet. I insisted that he play something for me.

He was quite impressive actually, facing the trumpet into the breeze and belting out song after song. WHile taking this closeup from the front - I called him "Louis Armstrong" - - - he responded with a wonderful smile and carried on. After taking the closeups, I framed him with his house in the background (final shot below).

It made his day when I showed him his photographs on the back of the camera. I promised that I would return with photographs for him once I return from Canada in 2 weeks.

Robert Watcher · Dec 27, 2013

TWO WEEK VACATION IN CANADA

Anne and I headed home to Canada for two weeks to have a break from our long stay in Nicaragua - and enjoy some time with our family and children while they are on vacation from work and school.

We wanted to return with some unique items from Nicaragua - - - and found that in hand-made Baseball Gloves from a local artisan who supplies members of the National Baseball Teams, to give to our sons, son-in-law and grandsons - - - as well as Trompos (spinning tops used in the streets of Nicaragua) for our six grandchildren.

I made sure that I took a photograph of each, so that I can return and provide a print to the glove maker William - as well as a print for the family next door to where we live, who offered to go to the central market and purchase the six trompos for us.

Robert Watcher · Jan 1, 2014

DETROIT AIRPORT: JANUARY 1'ST, 2014

Ground crews getting our plane ready to leave in the cold and snow. Should be boarding to head to Nicaragua (via Miami) in 1/2 hour. We were one of the first to go through security in an empty airport this morning at 3:30 - - - it was a breeze.

I'm ready to get back shooting in Nica. Unfortunately, a strange thing has happened to my 14-42 kit lens for my Olympus E-PL3. When I zoom in, the LCD screen goes black and displays this error message: "Please Check the Status of a Lens". A picture cannot then be taken. There is a hum in lens/camera

The wide end of the lens works properly. Must be something electronic that does not allow the lens to function properly. Fortunately, I do have another one for my E-PL1 in Nicaragua which I will be using - - - although it is the slower first generation model. Gotta make due.

Robert Watcher · Jan 5, 2014

BENITO, GUILLERMO, and HELENA

I don't think that I have yet spent the time (probably 5 minutes) with kids on the street as I did just now this morning.

I was shooting a street corner building and noticed some human activity way down the street. I took a shot with my 300mm lens. Gradually the three children approached to pass me. The little girl saw my camera and wanted to see photos. The oldest boy asked for a cordoba (Nica money).

They were eager to pose for me along the large wall on the shaded east side of the street. First an individual portrait of each one. They were so excited to see the images on the back of the camera. I got plenty of beautiful shots of them looking at me - both individually and as a group - - - but then got them to turn their eyes away from me as I captured more spontaneous sequences like this one.

Robert Watcher · Jan 5, 2014

Once I noticed the little girl Helena covering her eyes in a few of the shots at the end - - - I wanted a series with them all doing that.

This is one of the "looking at the camera portraits" that I took when they first arrived. When all was done, I asked their names and they gave them to me - - - but when asked about where they lived, were vague. Hopefully I will see them on the streets to pass on their printed photographs

Robert Watcher · Jan 7, 2014

PALM LEAF ROSE - THE END

I decided that I'd close off this thread with this image from the beach yesterday. I've been posting to the thread for almost four months now - - - and being that for the next months we will be sticking around the same location - - - there won't be a lot of original content.

Thanks to all who have followed. I will continue to post interesting stories as separate posts on the forum.

Cem_Usakligil · Jan 7, 2014

Robert Watcher said:
...Thanks to all who have followed. I will continue to post interesting stories as separate posts on the forum.

Thanks to YOU Robert. We have been your virtual guest all along and were actually privileged. Please continue posting, here or elsewhere.

Robert Watcher · Mar 3, 2014

I'M BACK IN SHOOTING MODE AND COULDN'T FIND A BETTER PLACE TO ADD THE CONTENT...
...so I guess I'll tack in on here:

A couple of Recent Colour Images

A couple of Recent Black and White Images

Robert Watcher · Mar 8, 2014

"Chicken on the Barbie"

Exposure was f5 @ 5 seconds @ 200ISO - stabilized by setting the camera on a cement ledge and using the 12 second timer.

There was total darkness except for the illumination from the barbecue. The huge ocean waves thundering in onto the beach, were reduced to surreal wavy motions - the chef who was holding a flashlight so that he could check the meat, continued working for a nicely lit blur motion. Only the barbecue and ground under his feet, remain static.

Robert Watcher · Mar 9, 2014

PROCESS OF A STREET PORTRAIT

In reality I was out shooting some walls on a late Sunday afternoon when there were few people around the normally packed and busy Terminal Market in Leon, Nicaragua.

I did notice a fellow with his large bags filled with plastic, walk in front of me as I was shooting this colourful wall - - - but didn't really pay attention to him, other than to include him in one of the shots.

As I moved on to the next section of orange wall that I planned on shooting, the man was settled on the stairs as I approached. I carried on shooting as before - pretending that I was interested in the wall - pointing my camera so that it wasn't directly at him.

Deciding to just walk past him onto the next wall, I looked at him and smiled and he responded with a smile and tip of his head. So I deliberately spun sideways and pointed the camera square at him, framing him evenly in the rails, and took my shot.

As I was taking the above shot and looking through my tilted up LCD screen, I asked him in Spanish what his name was, and after telling me it was Jose, I carried on talking to him as I moved in for a tighter shot. After taking the picture, I told him that I was from Canada and he said that it was nice to meet me and we parted.

Robert Watcher · Mar 10, 2014

A PHOTO OPP AT EVERY CORNER

My wife and I were walking home - after getting let off the bus - from the beach tonight. I didn't notice this corner as I was coming up to it. It was offset a little.

We came to the corner "without" my camera in hand and I couldn't believe this scene in front of me. It was so symmetrical and perfect. I felt I would wreck the moment by pulling out my camera and so I initially was just going to forget taking the picture and move on.

But I couldn't resist - so turned around to walk back the way we had come, and tucked in behind my wife to pull out my little Olympus E-PL3 (I had to change the lens too) - - - walked up to the corner and fired off 2 shots. Then carried on talking to my wife as we passed them, as if nothing had taken place. The people just ignored us and kept on in their conversation.

Robert Watcher · Mar 12, 2014

Today we shot a story of a Nicaraguan Woodworking Shop.

Many of the shops like this one, are tucked into unassuming homes along back streets. We lined up this shoot a few weeks ago, and followed through on our appointment a couple of hours ago.

This shop is known for quality products - including rocking chairs and benches - that are shipped to Miami for resale. We arrived and walked through the front room of the home into, the large work area in the back part of the house. It was very very dark and dusty environment, where The owner and his wife as well as few employees, were cutting, planing and assembling some beds.

Here are 4 of the 178 shots that I took for our story:

Robert Watcher · Mar 19, 2014

MY REASON FOR MIRRORLESS CAMERAS

Small - Small - Small

My Olympus Pen cameras fit into a small pocket in any bag that I am carrying. That means my camera is always with me and can be effortlessly pulled out when needed.

Yes I have a camera, but I am less noticeable, or at the least not taken seriously.

Can you image the scenario that I was presented with yesterday - being shot with a big dslr and the necessary 300mm lens? All attention would be drawn to me and I probably would be hesitant to even pull my camera out and point it at someone.

So I was sitting on a packed bus, and 6 or 7 rows ahead I notice this cute little baby peeking over her mother's shoulder from time to time. I reached into the pocket of my shoulder bag for my Olympus E-PL3 - flipped the LCD screen out (so that I looked down at it to frame my shot) and set the camera on my leg - extended the miniscule (about 2" round by 3" long) 80-300mm equivalent zoom to near it longest setting - and fired off a shot here and there when the baby turned my way. Exposure was f5 @ 1/80'th second (rather slow shutter for use in a bouncing bus, moving baby and 250mm equivalent) at 1600 ISO.

Robert Watcher · Mar 20, 2014

BEACH PANO

I find myself taking more and more sequences of scenes - that can be stitched together later on. As an example, while walking along a secluded 2 mile stretch of beach in Nicaragua, we came across a section of homes (all vacant). A single shot would not do justice, and so I shot 8 different images as we walked along.

Later at home, I stitched them together to make this wide pano. A side benefit of shooting in such a way, is that very large prints can be made without image loss. An example is that this single frame can be printed at around 20 inches by over 10 feet long at a resolution of 150dpi - - - without resampling/upsizing.

Robert Watcher · Apr 1, 2014

ALONG THE STREETS

ON THE STREETS

Robert Watcher · Apr 1, 2014

SURFIN SAFARI

NAPPY TIME

Asher Kelman · Apr 1, 2014

Robert Watcher said:
BEACH PANO

I find myself taking more and more sequences of scenes - that can be stitched together later on. As an example, while walking along a secluded 2 mile stretch of beach in Nicaragua, we came across a section of homes (all vacant). A single shot would not do justice, and so I shot 8 different images as we walked along.
........

Robert,

An effective panorama! Thanks for sharing this interesting view back from the sand! When you stitched, did you use Autopano pro or Giga or what? The APG software has an option for "multiple viewpoints". so I'm wondering how you dealt with different shooting angles?

Asher

Asher Kelman · Apr 1, 2014

Robert Watcher said:
ALONG THE STREETS

??? Efficient parkng or a crash???

Asher

Asher Kelman · Apr 1, 2014

Robert Watcher said:
ALONG THE STREETS

Robert,

These are wonderfully natural scenes of ordinary people "living" their lives, but each picture is so full of personal detail of each separate individual and also their micro-commnunity or family.

I wonder what the temp and planning of your snaps are. Do you stop in an obvious way and frist greet the folk, as Fahim Mohamed seems to do, or are you stealthy. Do you even stop in your walking or are you, perhaps in your car, or a restaurant across the road with a long lens? to me, they show almost no evidence of their knowledge of you and your camera!!!

Asher

I could, of course check the EXIF of your images, if they are still there, to see you lens choice, but I'm not at my large computer.

Robert Watcher · Apr 1, 2014

Asher Kelman said:
Robert,

An effective panorama! Thanks for sharing this interesting view back from the sand! When you stitched, did you use Autopano pro or Giga or what? The APG software has an option for "multiple viewpoints". so I'm wondering how you dealt with different shooting angles?

Asher

I am using Autopano Giga 3 on my Macbook Air. I just played with the different Projection Settings until everything looked balanced. It may have been the Pannini setting that I ultimately used so that the white building on the end was not stretched and skewed, and everything relatively natural.

Although, probably a different Projection Setting would work better for the larger size that I uploaded to Demandar - that enhances the curvature: http://www.dermandar.com/p/dLPhUe/el-velero-mira-mar-nicaragua

Robert Watcher · Apr 1, 2014

Asher Kelman said:
Robert,

These are wonderfully natural scenes of ordinary people "living" their lives, but each picture is so full of personal detail of each separate individual and also their micro-commnunity or family.

I wonder what the temp and planning of your snaps are. Do you stop in an obvious way and frist greet the folk, as Fahim Mohamed seems to do, or are you stealthy. Do you even stop in your walking or are you, perhaps in your car, or a restaurant across the road with a long lens? to me, they show almost no evidence of their knowledge of you and your camera!!!

Asher

I could, of course check the EXIF of your images, if they are still there, to see you lens choice, but I'm not at my large computer.

Thank you Asher.

The first image was shot while I was standing kitty-corner across the street. The focal length was 210mm (in 35mm equivalent). They had no idea I shot it.

The second and third shots were taken as I was riding the bus in the city - - - I opened the window and set my camera on the small ledge and watched for interesting content coming up on me - and then fired (hopefully catching the right moment). The bus was moving quickly through the busy streets, and so I set the shutter speed and ISO high to minimize movement.

The second and third shots were both shot at a wide 28mm (in 35mm equivalent), with the subjects just feet from my window. This is the first time that I have shot this way (), and plan on doing more of it. As it was, I missed 2 wonderful opportunities before deciding to pull out my camera and give it a try.

* With the first image, I took 3 shots because someone would move just as I took the shot.

* For the second, all I saw was this woman bent over and women and children around her, and so as I approached I was ready. One shot only.

* The third image I saw the men sitting and the woman walking quickly approaching them. I waited until she was framed about 2/3 the way through (directly in front of my lens) - making sure she was not in front of anyone - and fired. One shot only was taken.

-------------------

My small cameras and lenses are discrete. But I do have different methods depending on what I want to accomplish and the situation I find myself in. Many times, I am interacting with the subject - and other times not. I do both.

One thing I dod not do, is spend much time composing or setting up or looking for a better shot. I am spontaneous in the way that I shoot and whether from my natural abilities or years of experience - - - I find scenes and composition come together effortlessly for me.

My wife says that when we are walking around, I am in another world and see things that she doesn't see, sometimes out of the corner of my eye or back of my head. So I am aware and also sense when something will fall together and get my camera ready for that to happen. Many times it does and sometimes not.

Robert Watcher · Apr 10, 2014

A FEW DAYS IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAIN TOWNS OF NICARAGUA

A lot of new and interesting content when I headed off to the north with just my small shoulder bag containing a basic change of clothes, along with my Olympus E-PL3 and 14-42 kit lens (first generation) and 40-150 lens. Ended up getting a contact that provided a story related to the coffee industry and shot some video as well.

The fellow in the last shot, is I believe the first person that I have given money to after taking the shot. I showed him his image on the back of my camera, and he put out his hand and asked for money. I pull out a 5 cordoba coin (worth about 20 cents USD) and he was more than happy.

Robert Watcher · Apr 10, 2014

Up Close and Personal, On the Streets

Robert Watcher · Apr 11, 2014

I guess that something we just have to accept when living in this part of the world, are strong earthquakes from time to time.

A little over a month ago (March 2, 2014) Anne and I were awaken from our sleep to our house walls and floors shaking to a 6.4 magnitude earthquake (same strength that levelled the capital city of Managua in 1972). That was a 50mile deep quake out in the ocean off the coast to the west of our home.

Just an hour ago a bit before 5:30PM (April 10, 2014), we experienced our second more powerful hit. Initially rated at 6.4 by Reuters, it was reduced to a 6.1 magnitude. However that didn't change the effect that it had on us and our home.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/61-magnitude-earthquake-shake-nicaragua-23283600

With the loud roar and extreme shaking of floors and walls, we ran outside only to see our 10 foot high reinforced retainer concrete wall, swaying backhand forth several inches - for some time after the quake subsided. Electricity and all communication by the internet, went out and we have just had it restored in the last 15 minutes (about an hour later).

This quake was a different beast, being inland, just about 29 miles from our home and at only depth of about 6 miles. A couple of strong aftershocks were felt shortly after. With all of the preparation you plan on doing when an earthquake strikes - - - funny thing is that it is over before you know it. Thankfully, these times everything stayed standing and other than a couple of homes that have collapsed in Nagarote (a small city we drive by often), all seems fine.

Robert Watcher · Apr 11, 2014

I know that many who live in California or other similar places experiencing regular earth tremors are thinking - yah - been there done that:

But heading out of our home this morning, for the first time since yesterdays earthquake - we found the country is in RED ALERT status. Mostly because of high risk and a recorded 400 aftershocks - 6 ranging between 4 and 5.5 on the Richter scale.

The government Friday raised the number of injured people from 23 to 266. It also said that a 23-year-old woman had died of an apparent heart attack directly related to the quake.

At least 19 homes were completely destroyed and another 1,500 damaged by the earthquake - about 800 damaged homes were in Nagarote (between Managua and Leon), as well 500 or so in the capital city of Managua, as well as Leon (where we live). Electrical and water outages were also being reported. Landslides were blocking two highways south of Managua.

Managua residents said the quake was one of the strongest they have felt in many years. Anne and I can attest to the power of it.

Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega put the region on red alert and canceled school for today in Managua and Leon. Apparently what Red Alert means is that everyone in situations at risk of harm from aftershocks must be evacuated.

We have felt constant rumbling and noises ever since the earthquake. We were wondering if the situation just made us aware of every sound and that we were just imagining things - but based on those numbers of aftershocks - - - I guess they were real.

We find it interesting that you think that you can prepare for these things - - - and when it happens, by the time you have figured out that it's an earthquake - it's over. Also hard to imagine that something so instant and short lived as maybe 20 or 30 seconds, can have the potential to cause devastating damage for some people.

-------

It looks like the hospital here in the city of Leon where we live - suffered damage to the plaster on the walls - resulting in patients being evacuated.

An updated report every 30 minutes is going on here:

http://earthquake-report.com/2014/04/10/strong-earthquake-nicaragua-on-april-10-2014/

------

OH MAN - AS I'M WRITING THIS, THE CHAIR I'M SITTING ON JUST GOT KNOCKED AROUND AND ANNE IS FREAKING OUT AS THE KITCHEN FLOOR IS MOVING - WENT OUTSIDE TO SEE THE CONCRETE WALL ROCKING BACK AND FORTH. I CAN SEE WHY WE ARE ON RED ALERT STILL - POTENTIAL DANGER YET.

This one that we just felt a few minutes ago, is another good sized one - an M 6.6 - happened south of us in Nicaragua. Looks like the activity isn't over just yet.

-------

Asher Kelman · Apr 11, 2014

Rob and Anne,

BE SAFE!

GET OUTSIDE!

We're a little more used to it and our home is buttressed with 0.5" plywood everywhere and bolted to the concrete slab under the house. hope everyone there is OK, but with homes that are made of clay bricks and mortar, earthquakes can give rise to real dangers to everyone inside. Turn off the gas at the mains!

Asher

Shall I bore you again? Nicaragua 2013/14

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