Burros

I don't know why people like burros but everytime I put up a photograph of one of these little guys on Flickr, I get a lot of views and comments. But I have to admit, I think these two guys are cute too.

City Limit Style

Austin City Limit.......move over. San Miguel City Limit has made a smashing debut.

Imagine a circus size tent rocking with Texas music here in San Miguel. That is what we had last Sunday. The tent quickly filled up with tight jeans, boots, straw cowboy hats, flippy skirts and tanktops. You could buy T-shirts, barbeque, pizza and beer. Sit in the tent or under the trees outside. This was laid back Texas style.

The program started at 3:00 PM with Darin Murphy. Darin was okay but he was winging his ballads solo and it would have been better with a back up band. Following him was Patricia Vonne with music that was a cross between Austin, Texas music and country with a strong splash of Spanish castanets thrown in. The place started dancing in place or down in front of the bandstand. And even if you didn't actually stand up to dance, no one could stop their boots from tapping or their shoulders from rocking. Gary P. Nunn was the headliner and did two sets.

I want to tell you that the "ex-pats" whatever their age know the Texas two-step and Texas swing. Whether you were a'dancin or a'watchin, it was a great event.

Beginning of Easter Observance

The procession from Atotonilco carrying El Senor de la Columna as well as the Apostle John and the Virgen de Dolores arrived early Sunday morning. They leave Atotonilco at midnight and walk 12 kilometers carrying the three statutes carefully covered with silk scarves for protection. The statutes are on heavy wooden biers decorated with flowers. The procession is silent and the way is lit only by lanterns and torches. They are bringing the statutes to reside in the San Juan de Dios church until after Easter and then they will be taken back to Atotonilco and placed carefully in their glass cases in the church.

From about 4:00 AM until they reach the city, rockets are periodically fired from the edge of the town. At the top of Avenida Independencia the roadway is decorated with flowers, balloons, candles, banners and sidewalk art.

I rolled out of bed a little before 6:00 AM to go see the procession and once again try to photograph it. The light at dawn may be wonderful for many landscapes but it is difficult for catching the procession. As I left the house with the camera, it was still chilly but the sky was beginning to lighten just a bit.

There were several families walking along my street toward Avenida Independencia and the number grew as we walked along. Many people walk all the way to the top of Avenida Independencia and join in with the procession but people also find a seat along the road and wait for the procession to pass. And the families along the Avenida have decorated their houses, some very elaborately with purple and and white and others have tied a couple of palm branches to either side of their door.
Food stands have been set up all along the way, tamales, atole, empanadas, gorditas and who knows what else. Balloons vendors never miss a chance to find a kid. Still there is a hush over the crowd and the scent of the flowers and herbs that carpet the path of the procession hang in the air. The procession winds its way to the San Juan de Dios church where there is a huge outdoor Mass.

Once again, I made "tourist" pictures but that isn't the only reason that I go anyway. I have come to love the religious devotion and pageantry of Easter in San Miguel.

Colorful Kitchens

Here I am doing it again today, re-blogging, but I can't help myself. Many of you commented on my new kitchen

So I wanted to share another kitchen I found on Your Daily Art Blog
Now this is a colorful kitchen.

This kitchen is the work of Liza Lou. The piece took five years to complete and is made with glass beads.

Color Photographs

I don't usually re-blog but this hit me because of my blog yesterday about Black and White photographs. I just found this on Christian Patterson's blog. It is a quote from Stephen Shore's book, The Nature of Photographs and seems to give a reason for the seductiveness of the color image.

"Color expands a photograph’s palette and adds a new level of descriptive information and transparency to the image. It is more transparent because one is stopped less by the surface–color is more like how we see. It has added description because it shows the color of light and the colors of a culture or an age."

Shore's book......another on my Amazon wish list. It is getting longer and longer.

Black and White Photographs

Every exhibition I've read about recently has been color images. Some of them huge color images like Jeff Wall's wall-size back-lit images currently at the MOMA. And there seems to be several recent blog threads about what is happening with contemporary black and white images here at Tim Atherton's blog and here at Colin Jago's blog as well as Charlotte Cotton's essay titled "The New Color: The Return of Black and White." Although she comes to the conclusion that Black and White images are beginning to have a resurgence, she initially writes:

"But it is definitely more hit-and-miss for a photographer working in black-and-white to anticipate whether or not their full meaning and contemporary relevance will be understood in light of color art photography's dominance. At the beginning of this millennium, I found it difficult to keep my confidence that photography's monochrome history continued to exert a strong influence on the way we see. At least that you could no longer take as a given that black-and-white was necessarily influential in art school discourses or read by exhibition-goers as anything more than an historic and once-important art form. "

Recently on Gloria in Africa blog, Gloria mentioned that she is surprised at her positive feelings about the digital color photographs she took in Africa because her work has been Black and White. This leaves me wondering if I'm going to be seeing some of her work in color. Who else among my photographer friends whose work has basically been in Black and White are beginning to see the possibility of doing some of their work in color like I've been doing for the last three or so years....since owning a DSLR.

So with all these thoughts swirling around in my head I've been looking at my older work in Black and White as well as experimenting with making monochrome prints from digital files and trying to sort out my own place in all of this.

Back in the 80's, for a while I thought I could carry two cameras, one loaded with color film and the other with monochrome film. I wasn't capable of seeing both ways at the same time. I stopped carrying the color film. While the image in the viewfinder was in color, when I had monochrome film in the camera, I saw or previsualized the image as a monochrome image. But now with the digital camera, knowing that the image will appear in color on my monitor, I see or previsualize the image as a color image. Converting it to a monochrome image seems to be a manipulation. Somehow the word manipulation carries a negative connotation in my head....I know, I know....I manipulated the monochrome image in the darkroom but a photoshop manipulation....I'll just have to get over it! But nevertheless the color image is seductive. It is hard to put out of mind when I look at one of my finished monochrome prints and I'm considered a pretty good monochrome printer.

Another reason why I haven't converted many digital files to monochrome is because I haven't been satisfied with Black and White digital prints....not just mine but Black and White digital prints in general. Two things are going on here. First, the inkjet printers were developed for color images and they have had problems with producing good monochrome prints. Between advances with the inks, papers, software and hardware, these problems are pretty much solved. Secondly, some Black and White prints that I see have been overly manipulated and sharpened. To me they look more like illustrations than a photographic print.

And there is another thing, like the galleries and buying public, I've really been seduced by color images. For the first time I'm able to truly have control over the final product, the color print. But maybe now the honeymoon is over and I can get back to making Black and White images............not all the time, but some of the time. Is this rethinking the Black and White image a "nostalgia for a historic process?" Or will the new tools allow me new ways to interpret the Black and White print? I don't have a clue but it seems to be the thing to do with my work at this time.

First and Second Grade

Can you get the days of the week in Spanish lined up correctly? These first and second graders in a rural school near San Miguel can line them up in English. There is a lot enthusiasm.....learning English is fun!
But sometimes it is a little overwhelming.

Ex-pat Orchids

Last July I wrote about my orchid smuggling days. While these blooms are not as numerous or as glorious as this orchid in its fertilized prime from Costco, it is still pretty beautiful. Both of the ex-pat orchids are blooming which I think is amazing in this dry climate.

Spring Blooms

It is getting warm, well hot in the middle of the day. We've put away the warming blanket and the little heater for our bathroom. The windows are open and the fan is on most nights now although it can still get cool and breezy like it did on Friday night. Some people are complaining about their pollen allergies.

The Jacarandas are blooming so today I went looking for a tree to photograph because the color of the blossoms against the San Miguel blue skies is just amazing. I wanted to photograph a whole tree but everywhere I could find a whole tree that I was able to photograph, it wasn't yet in full bloom. The ones that are a mass of lavender/purple were all behind walls in some one's garden but I did get a picture of the blooms against the sky. When you look out from our terrace across the city you see splotches of purple all across the landscape.
In our little patio we have a bed of clivia that is blooming. Again, another intense color especially against the dark green foliage. Clivia is a Kafir lily and is drought resistant and does well in bright diffused light. Perfect for my patio.

This geranium was in a little four-inch pot last year on the patio. Carmela, our housekeeper, decided it needed to be on the terrace so she put it in an empty pot and it is a very happy geranium. It stays covered in blooms.
The bird of paradise usually has one or two blooms on it. This is Ned's favorite plant. He checks it every few days to see if it is getting a new leaf or bloom stalk. Very exotic flower.

I cut the two pots of Mexican sage back to nubs a month or two ago and it is coming around and starting to make lavender velvet blossoms.

Spring has sprung!

Old Attitudes

Back in the late 70's, I was Personnel Manager in a manufacturing plant. We needed some additional office help....just a few hours a day....so I decided to tap into the local high school work/study program. The student went to school part of the day and worked part of the day in a job that also provided them some educational opportunities as well as a paycheck.

I met with the counselor for the program and outlined the job responsibilities which was basically answering the phone, receptionist, some filing and some typing. She told me about the people she had in the program who might be able to fill the job. There was a senior, a girl, who she really wanted to have the job but she wasn't sure she could talk the father into letting the girl take it. I'll call the student, Mary. Mary's family was from Mexico and Mary was the first child in the family to go to high school and now she was about to graduate in the top 10% of her class. All of her teachers saw so much potential in her and were urging her to go to college but her father said that she couldn't go. It was time for her to get married and settle down with a family so as soon as she graduated she was scheduled to get married.

I met with Mary. She was slender and a bit shy but obviously very intelligent. We talked about the job and she said she wanted to do it. As the teacher feared, her father didn't want her to work in our plant. He didn't want the men in the plant making advances to his daughter and he didn't want her working for a man. The counselor convinced him that the Personnel Manager was a woman and that Mary would be in the office and the men in the plant couldn't come to that part of the office and that I would watch out for her. So Mary worked for us for about 3 months until she graduated.

This was always such a sad story for me. I've wondered so often about this young woman. What happened to her. Where is she now? Did she marry a good man? Did she ever find a way to get more education? Did she see that her children had more educational opportunities?

Because so many attitudes in the USA have changed during my lifetime about women and education and the jobs they can hold and because I've seen so many success stories about Hispanic women who got educations and excelled, that somehow I've put on the back burner that this attitude still exists. And not just for women but men too. Why would any parent not want their child to get more education, to go as far as they can go?

We have known of Mexican parents here in San Miguel who have moved to another city because the schools were better and everyday we see parents walking their children to school and participating in their education. So while many Mexicans are concerned about their children's education, I'm finding out that there are still parents who have the old attitudes and refuse to let their children continue their education after the sixth grade. Why?

The Two Year Anniversary

March 17, 2005....just 698 posts ago, I started writing Billieblog. Almost 700 posts. Almost a post a day over the last two years. Amazing.

When I signed up on Blogger, I had to give the blog a name. I had thought about blogging but when I came to the place where I had to put the name, I just stuck in Billieblog, thinking I would come up with a better name and go back and change it but here we are two years later and it is still Billieblog. I've jotted down new names but the blog is such a mixed bag, I haven't thought of something better. Do you have any ideas? I'd appreciate having your thoughts on what to call this blog.

People ask me, how much time do you spend on your blog. You know what, I really don't know. Some days a lot and others none. The amount of time I spend isn't as important to me as the satisfaction I've gotten from writing it or the really interesting people I've met via Billieblog. But I have to tell you it is still disorienting when I met someone and they comment on something I've written on the blog. For just a minute, I think....how did you know that? I haven't seen you in a week.

I've done some reading about how to make a blog more interesting and how to increase readership. There is a list of things I could do....like make the blog have a single focus. Living in Mexico or Photography. I could split the blog into two blogs. I could change the name of it to something more catchy that would get more hits from a search. I could become more aware of key words and tags. I could be better about commenting on other people's blogs. But.....that sounds like work. That sounds like competition. And I don't think that would make my blogging more satisfying.

Nevertheless, to all of you who for one reason or another read this blog from time to time, thank you for stopping by. I glad you find my ramblings interesting enough to come back.

Rural Education

On Tuesday I rode out in the campo with some of the women who volunteer with Feed the Hungry. We turned left off the highway onto a paved road for a short distance and then on to an unpaved road and as we made more zigs and zags onto other roads and across the dry river bed, the road became worse and worse until soon it was a road of small boulders and potholes through the village and up a hill to a small school perched in the open with just a small tree or two. The school yard was fenced and inside was a large paved area. The school had a deep portico across the front and some playground equipment on the side. This was one of the 27 schools where Feed the Hungry has built a kitchen and hired cooks from the surrounding area to prepare a nutritious meal for the children everyday. The focus of Feed the Hungry is mainly in the rural areas where children are not getting enough to eat.
I had the opportunity to be in a classroom and photograph some of the children. The children are beautiful and lively and they were very warm and loving to us gringas. But as I looked in the classrooms basically all I saw were desks and blackboards. No stacks of books to read, no children's artwork on the walls, no children's written papers on the walls, no baskets of crayons, no pots of tempera paints. It is a very basic school. It is a school with very dedicated teachers who have few materials to work with. I have to tell you that my mind has been heavy with the problems that these children and their families face.
On the one hand, Mexico has so much potential. Recently the Financial Times ran an article about Mexico's economy which quoted Mr. Carstens, the new Financial Minister, as saying that Mexico today was comparable with Spain or Ireland two decades ago, and it could undergo a similar transformation in the years to come. Could Mexico become a fully developed nation in the next 20 years? There is no question the potential is there.
Although there are many political and economic issues that Mexico has to deal with, in my opinion one of the keys is education, especially education out in these rural areas but the children can't learn when they are hungry, really hungry. Feed the Hungry is doing what they can but they get more and more requests for other villages that need a kitchen in the school so that a nutritious meal can be prepared each day for the children. I don't know how they stay focused on their goal of feeding as many children as they can when I can see myself becoming so overwhelmed with all the needs in just one school.

See more of my pictures of the children here
Look here if you want to know more about Feed the Hungry
Read another point of view of the problems faced by children in the rural areas, Life Can Be So Hard.

The President in Merida

For a insiders look at President Bush's visit to Merida, take a look at this entry in Yucatan Living.

Brian Lesteberg

Last year I wrote a blog entry about some comments with photographer friends on the work of Brian Lesteberg. Now I see that he has been choosen by PDN as one of 2007's 30 new and emerging photographers to watch. Ha! I was already watching him!

Slow Down

I've been reading The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer. I've been reading it in bed but it is one of those books that you need to read sitting at a table or desk where you can highlight parts of it or write notes in the margin or on a pad because it has given me lots to think about. I'll probably be writing other posts from ideas that came to mind while I was reading it. But today I want to talk about a footnote in the book.

In 1972 when Stephen Shore (then aged twenty-five) set out on the road-trip that would result in American Surfaces he found his Rollei 35 so easy to use that he also became snap-happy. 'I was photographing every meal I ate, every person I met, every waiter or waitress who served me, every bed I slept in, every toilet I used.' On subsequent trips Shore swapped to an 8x10 view camera in order, partly, to slow down both his methods and results (as seen in Uncommon Places). Joel Sternfeld made a similar move to the large format camera for the work eventually published in American Prospects.

This made me think of myself when I first got a DSLR. I was snap-happy. I, too, was photographing everything that past by. I was trying out the camera but I was also trying to photograph things I had never photographed before. In a way this was good. I found that not only did I like to cook which I already knew but I found that I liked to photograph food and play with the depth of field. But most of the other stuff I photographed was just a digital file.

My friend, Stephen DiRado, started out using a 4x5 view camera but changed to an 8x10 view camera because in part, it slowed him down and let him think through and "frame" his exposures.

Another friend, Steve Williams, who is a photographer and likes to ride a scooter, just won the Best Motorcycle or Scooter's Blog of the year from the Motorcycle Bloggers International, recently wrote a post, The Person Who is Looking for Something Doesn't Travel Very Fast . You might want to check out his blog. While it is about riding a Vespa, it is also about how you live your life and it is about photography.

Just because a DSLR can pop off 10 frames per second, doesn't mean that I must use my camera like that. This footnote in Dyer's book reminded me that when I slow down, when I take the time to be 'in the place', when I am really looking, that is when I find 'my' images.

Archive #6 - Izamal

Izamal is known as the yellow city. It is a day trip from Merida but we usually stopped there when we went from Quintana Roo to Yucatan. The Monastery was built on Mayan ruins and has a large enclosed courtyard....all painted yellow. One time when I was photographing in the church we talked with a man who we thought was a caretaker of the Monastery. I asked if I could take his picture, he mumbled something and quickly walked away. We thought that we had offended him but in just a few minutes he returned in his brown robe to pose for me at the door of the chapel.

From the Weekend

We've had a lovely weekend. Friday evening we planned to hit several gallery openings but didn't make it very far. The first two galleries were at the Instituto just a few blocks from our house. At YAM there were some 3-dimensional wall pieces by Luisa Restrepo. Luisa is originally from Columbia but currently living in Oaxaca. Very wonderful pieces of glass and iron on gilted board. Also at the Instituto was jewelry in the La Boveda Gallery. We saw the work and visited with friends, then decided to walk to the far side of the Instituto to see how the Parroquia looked at night with all of the new lighting.

That was as far as we made it into the Centro. The Parroquia was so gorgeous, like a jewel in the dark sky and the food at Le Invito smelled so delicious that we decided this was as far as we needed to go. We sat at a table so we could keep an eye on the beautiful Parroquia while we ate. A little wine, a little dinner and talk. Very nice evening.

Saturday I was up early and met Meg for breakfast at Masion del Bosque. They have a special price breakfast and I don't know why I haven't been there before. There are long tables and everyone just sits together. It was a good breakfast and afterward Meg and I walked back to her place. She has moved into the Casita and the rest of the house is still under construction but getting to the point where you can put in cabinets, tiles and doors. It is so peaceful and quiet where she is building. We had a wonderful time talking about ideas for decorating.

Saturday night, a dinner party with Barbara. We had never been to Barbara's place before. She overlooks the Presa and has a great view of the town. I loved her place. The minute you walk in you are surrounded by color, plants and comfort. We met Fred and Ron, a couple who moved to San Miguel recently, and our friend Joseph who lives just around the corner was there. The food was good, the conversation was lively but suddenly during dinner we heard some rumbles. We all looked at each other and said, "Is that thunder?" Thunder in March? But just then I saw lighting flash through the window. Joseph had to run back to his house to put up things from the patio. You just don't expect rain in March and especially since the sky had not looked menacing two hours ago. Before the rain had stopped and the evening was over, we found out that we have two different sets of friends that Ron and Fred also know. In San Miguel, it is a small world.

Tom and Dianne were our hosts on Sunday night. Tom and Linda and their house guests were also there. We sat in the patio before dinner talking. I loved the birds that were singing all around us on the patio. Dianne prepared a wonderful Mexican of dinner of Enchiladas, beans and rice. And she served it on her new Gorky Gonzales plates. Actually they are a new design by Gorky's son Gogo. The food was beautifully presented on these gorgeous plates. The evening just flew by as we talked about trips to Cuba, living in Portugal, the work that Dianne does with Feed the Hungry, the work Tom does with Casa, Tom K's work at refurbishing old computers to place them in schools with educational software and we found connections in places we had all lived.

Some of you may wonder why I don't have pictures from the weekend. I have to admit. Lazy. I didn't want to carry the "big" camera then walk home with it late at night. I don't have a point and shoot because I want to be able to capture images in RAW format rather than jpg. If you don't know what RAW is, don't worry. You probably don't even want to know. But most of the point and shoots don't capture digital files in RAW. A new point and shoot camera has been announced, the Sigma DP1 which captures files in jpg and RAW. This may be "My pocketbook" camera if it doesn't have too much noise at 800 ISO and if I can justify the cost. But for now, you'll just have to use your imagination for my weekend social calendar pictures.

Here it is!

The new kitchen and dining room are more or less complete. Still a few touches like the lights on the tracks and still tweaking where I'm putting things.

And putting stuff away has been a revelation. I had so little room for storage before the renovation that I was always standing on my head for this or that under the countertops. I thought with all the space I was adding I would have extra space and I was thinking that I would bring my Uriarte plates that I have stored in Houston to San Miguel. And the Gorky rimmed bowls that I call my enchilada dishes....they'd come too. But I'd have to do some rearranging to get them in. I really think that stuff just breeds during the night to fill up any storage space available. But actually, the storage space is wonderful and everything is very easy to reach. The storage space in the dining room worked out very well too. I have a narrow counter that I can set up as a bar or use for a buffet. And in the lower cabinets, I have a pantry, appliance storage, liquor cabinet and storage for large serving pieces.

It took a lot of thought and planning and a big chunk of time but I'm very happy with the way it all turned it.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering about the colors......I didn't loose my mind.....just remember that this kitchen is in Mexico!

Next project? Redoing the patio.......stay tuned.

Sweet Dreams, Maxwell

Maxwell's seventh birthday is today. Watching his Dad try to ease him into sleep seven years ago seems like yesterday. Now seven years later, Maxwell is still keeping his parents up.....tonight is a birthday party and sleep over for his friends. He is growing up so fast. New teeth, taller, more independent. When he was little, it was Thomas the train, now anything StarWars. He loves to build all the lego StarWars battleships, watch the videos and, trust me, you don't want to play any of the StarWars video games with him. You won't win!

Happy Birthday, Maxwell.

Who Determines the Meaning in a Photograph?

In the last week or so there have been lots of posts on the meaning in a photograph. Can the photographer control the meaning? Can just the image convey the photographer's meaning? Or does it also need words? Does the each viewer find their own meaning in the photograph? It is an interesting discussion between the entries and the commentaries and most of the time I'm left feeling that it is semantics but if you want to read some of the thoughts on the subject....
Paul Butzi's blog, Photo Musings: here, here and here.
Mark Hobson's blog, The Landscapist: here, here and here.

I think if you were to ask Dave Anderson, who recently published a book of photographs he made in Vidor, Texas, he would tell you that the photographer has no control over the meaning attached to images by viewers. The book is called Rough Beauty.

In an article titled The Town Shows Its Face, If Not Its Reputation published in the New York Times, Anderson says, the photographs in the book, came out of the affection he developed for the small town; he considers them largely sympathetic portrayals of the beauty he sees in life “close to the bone,” as he put it.

That is not the way the town sees the images or the book and they have contacted the Houston Gallery where the images were recently shown as well as Anderson with threats. They don't view the images as sympathetic portrayals at all.

Personally, I think we, the photographers, can do our work and try to put in the meaning but we have no control after the work is finished. To paraphrase an old saying, The meaning is in the eye (and mind) of the beholder.

Postscript: I hope you'll read the article. It is a pretty interesting story about how Anderson came to photography and to his first book of photography.

Obstacles in the Road

If you have driven much in Mexico, I bet your first thought when you saw the title is that this post would be about the rocks that people use in the road to let you know that something is ahead....usually a broken down car or truck. But in San Miguel we have another kind of Road Obstacles.....Trees.

This tree sits at the bottom of our street and cars pass on either side of it....unless someone is parked so close to the bottom of the street that everyone has to go to the right of the tree.This is a two-way street and when it narrows down to one lane because of the tree the cars take turns coming and going.This one of the few wide and flat streets that we have in San Miguel so I think it was paved in recent history but there are these two trees that block one lane and they have been there for a while.

This is the saddest tree of all. Cars can pass on either side of it but I don't know how much longer it will survive. There are huge beds of ants at the bottom of the tree and the hole in the tree if filled with stones and sometimes garbage. It looks as if the garbage has been set on fire in the tree a few times because the hollow is charred charcoal. In the last year or so, some crew from public works has come out and mutilated this tree by "pruning" it so badly I felt like crying when I saw what had been done. There is no understanding of pruning or trimming a tree. Someone just climbs up in the tree with a saw or machete and starts hacking away until the limb rips off of the tree.

These have to be tenacious trees. They get no care. They manage to live in earth packed as hard a cement if not actually covered with cement. And who knows how many times they have been hit by a borracho driver. But the Mexicans don't complain about these obstacles in the road and the trees just go on from day to day doing their thing and casting a bit of shade.

Shopping

I went shopping this morning....as I do many mornings. And no this isn't a picture of me.....at least not yet. But I did come home loaded down with a shopping bag and a bouquet of Agapanthus.


Back in Houston shopping was just another chore. I'd drive to the grocery store, walk up and down the aisles, throw things in the cart, wait in line to check out, load up the car, drive home, unload the car and put the groceries away. I'm not much for making a grocery list. I just kind of had a list in my head. Occasionally I'd see something that I wasn't thinking about cooking that might change my mental list but most of the time, it was the same old, same old.

It isn't that way here in San Miguel. You might have a mental list but you have to be open to what looks good that day. Vegetables are fresh and somewhat seasonal. Tomorrow they won't look so good and the day after that they'll look worse and the day after that..... So you have to figure out which days different vendors get their produce. You also develop a relationship with them and they'll throw in an extra onion or an apple as a regalo for you. Or if you are looking at the cilantro with hesitation because it seems a bit wilted, they'll say, "No, no" and pull out some fresher cilantro for you from under the counter.

Today I walked into town hoping to find a filete de res because I want to invite friends for dinner in the next day or two. I also thought I might get a chicken breast to spice up a pasta sauce for dinner tonight. I was hoping to find vinegar....just plain vinegar. Surprisingly, I couldn't find any at the little grocery near us yesterday. They only had gourmet vinegars that were quite pricey. Proof that they do cater to us ex-pats. So I planned to look at Bonanza's as I walked to the market. They too had about six kinds of speciality vinegars but on a bottom shelf I found plain vinegar and I was very happy to find a brand that had a screw cap as opposed to the kind with a pop-off cap.

I found my filete at the meat store, my chicken at the chicken store and vegetables in the Ramirez Mercado. Fresh flowers come in on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning so all the flowers looked beautiful and I bought 12 stems of Agapanthus for 50 pesos. The Ramirez Mercado is on the other side of town but I was enjoying my adventure so I walked back with my bolsa in one hand and the flowers in the other.

I can't exactly explain how I feel about shopping here but I feel like I'm close to the earth, connected to the food chain in some special way that I don't feel in a super market in Houston. I feel like I'm a hunter/gatherer finding nourishment for my family. I feel creative because I'm planning new recipes around the freshest food available on this day. Shopping here isn't a chore for me even though I'm walking close to 2 miles to and from the Mercado. It is an adventure.

Update: After I returned to the house, I realized that I only had a partial package of pasta. I started to go back to get some pasta but then I started thinking what can I do with what I have. So the menu has changed. I cook up the chicken with onion, garlic, carrots and fresh green peas, and some chicken stock to make a bit of sauce and serve it with rice and we'll have a nice big salad!

Parking Space

Parking spaces are getting harder and harder to find in San Miguel. This one was in my neighborhood.

Looking for a Recipe for Pastel de Azteca

When we were talking to caterers about our 50th anniversary party, one of them mentioned the possibility of serving Pastel de Azteca. I had not heard of Pastel de Azteca so I've been searching for recipes. There seem to be many. In a way it is like a Mexican lasagna....there are lots of ways to make it. When I first started reading about it, I immediately thought of King Ranch Chicken....a recipe, maybe not this one but a version of it, that was a good old standby for groups while the children were growing up.

Tonight I tried one called Pastel Moctezuma. It is the second recipe in this article in the Herald Mexico. It turned out just so-so. If I were to make it again, I'd double the poblano chilies, make the mixture of the sour cream with cilantro, garlic, and onion like from Zarela's cookbook which I can't find at the moment and I'd double the mole. I used the Oaxaca cheese but the next time I'd try the panela cheese or maybe another cheese altogether like a cheddar cheese. One thing we have noticed is that the Asadero and Oaxaca cheeses seem to be smoother and saltier in the USA than we find here in Mexico.

Diane Kennedy has a recipe for a Budin Azteca or Moctezuma Pie that is similar but with Cheddar cheese. She says it is "A rich casserole of layers of tortillas, chilies, chicken, cheese, and cream, this makes a very substantial main course and is best served simply with a green salad." Another casserole in Diane's book, The Cuisines of Mexico, is Pastel de Tamal which uses tamales instead of tortillas.

I'm going to keep trying and adapting Pastel de Azteca recipes until I get my very own Mexican casserole/lasagna. I'll keep you posted but if you have one that you like, please send it my way.

Home Repair

People often ask about living expenses in Mexico. San Miguel is probably more expensive than many places in Mexico but at the same time we also have some pretty good repair people who have worked in the USA. Just this last week, Ned was standing in line at Don Pedro for some hardware/electrical repair items and a man handed him a business card that said Journeyman Electrician.

We have been finishing up our kitchen renovation and have called in several craftsman to help with small projects so let me give you a run down on what it cost.

Cutting window glass for eight doors for the kitchen cabinets. First they came and measured each door, then they went back to the shop and called us with the cost of the glass and installation including putting the molding back into the doors. Remember this is two trips to our house. $300 pesos/$27 dollars.

Moving an electrical contact which meant chipping plaster, moving the contact and then plastering it back in place. Checking out the new kitchen faucet for pressure. Repairing the washing machine. The part for the washing machine cost about $450 pesos. Total cost was $700 pesos/$63 dollars.

Installing 5 track lighting fixtures, rerouting the wiring so it was hidden under beams, rewiring one fixture so that it would have a separate switch and installing a new switch box. Did not include the cost of the lighting fixtures. Total cost $700 pesos/$63 dollars.

No house call charges, no travel time. Amazing, isn't it?

Interview with Daniel Grant

When Dianne and Tom saw some of my Holga work, Dianne said, "I think someone we know is also using a Holga." Later she confirmed they did know Daniel Grant and that Daniel was using a Holga for some of his work and had work in several shows. I googled for his web site and saw several wonderful portfolios. I sent him an email. So that is how I met Daniel Grant. Six degrees of separation......Ha! With the Internet, Two degrees of separation! At any rate I've had several email conversations with Daniel and thought that you might be interested in getting to know him and his work too. Daniel's day job is as a Landscape Architect but his passion is photography.

Billie: How did you initially get interested in photography and when did you start working with the Diana and Holga?

Daniel: In my early years of college, I had a crush on a girl that was taking an Intro to Photography class, so I politely stalked her and added the class. I was not serious about photography, but our first field trip was to a gallery to review and critique an up and coming new photographer, Keith Carter. When we entered the gallery, I was immediately drawn to his images.

We are obviously a very visual society, bombarded with images in magazines, on billboards and on TV and the computer. This was the first time I took the time to view the art of photography and witness a storyline, a history and the depth of an images vocabulary.

I have always been into art, and taken many drawing classes. this was a new and different way to be creative. Being in the darkroom and witnessing your image emerge while in the developer is a magical thing that is addicting.

On my first trip to Europe, a close friend gave me a this piece of black plastic called a "holga" and a handful of film and told me to document my trip. It was ridiculously light and easy to travel with, but I had no idea of the camera's f-stops, aperture, focal lengths....it was a mystery. I came back with the film and I believe eight images were salvageable. But those eight had a huge impact on my photography. The images were incredibly unique, different than images you are used to viewing. They related incredibly well to the histories of European architecture and the square format reminded me of many of my family's turn of the century images.

Billie: In your statement on your website you say that the toy cameras seem like the best ways to express yourself because of their soft focus, childlike naivete + ageless qualities. Would you expand on that some more?

Daniel: The cameras plastic lens has a unique voice and mood, uncomplicated and a bit blurry, as a memory of the past or a recent dream. This is one of the main reasons I use these cameras. I try to take images without anything that can date them, such as automobiles or someone wearing fashion that would set them in this era. My purpose of using these cameras is to create a mood or a feeling that is familiar, but unclear. I find this expression to be very satisfying and compelling.

Billie: Do you have a preference between the Diana and the Holga?

Daniel: I really enjoy the diana over the holga for a few reasons. I am able to get 16 images instead of 12 from the holga. With the diana both the sharpness and depth of field are enhanced. The edges of the images seem to be a bit crisper or sharper with the diana.

Billie: Most of your work is in B&W. Do you do all your own development and printing?

Daniel: I went to an amazing grad school that allowed me access to fantastic darkroom. I was able to experiment in the darkroom endlessly, burning through paper and chemicals. Then I was introduced to a real job and the real world. Here in this world there are budgets, deadlines, paychecks and bills. There isn't much time or access to a darkroom.

What I have done is have my negs developed at a pro-shop. I have a small darkroom where I make my own contact sheets. I then scan my images on a film scanner and clean them up with Photoshop, and have the pro-shop print the images on Epson UltraSmooth Archival paper. I am such a purist with photography, and I never saw myself working with a DRY DARKROOM.

Billie: Have you tried other holga-like digital methods such as the Lensbaby or a holga lens cap on a DSLR or even using Photoshop to give a holga look to your images?

Daniel: I was able to go to the Santa Fe Workshops a couple of years back and took a workshop with the photographer that changed my life back in college, Keith Carter. In his class everyone else had thousands of dollars worth of top of the line digital cameras and gear. After the first few days everyone purchased the lensbabies to have the Keith Carter effect on their images with some o.k. results. I'm not a big fan of the lensbabies or the holga lens caps. In my opinion they are a bit like cheating. There is no guessing, no light leaks, no wasted film, what you see is what you get. Maybe I'm a bit bitter that I spent the last 6 years understanding my toy cameras, and now there are these adaptors that save time and frustration...
With Photoshop, all I do is clean the dust off the images. They are pretty true to the original negs.

Billie: What is your favorite film for the toy cameras?

Daniel: Ilford HP5+ is my favorite at the moment. I am able to get some great contrast and the film is middle of the road for speeds.

Billie: What size do you like to print your images?

Daniel: I have been producing editions of 50 at 10"x10" and editions of 35 at 16"x16".
I see you have done some color work. How does working in color with the Holga or Diana differ from working in B&W? Light is your enemy with color film, and I have had little success in getting exposures correct. I'm still experimenting with chromes and offspeed color films though, I'm not giving up just yet.

Billie: Since I am printing my own work with an Epson printer, I can't really see much difference except getting the color balance right which means not necessarily truly balanced is a bit tricky. I agree that the exposure/ISO is a bit more difficult with color over B&W film. Do you modify your toy cameras?

Daniel: Typically, people tend to use black tape to cover the lightleaks on the cameras, but after traveling to the grand canyon on vacation, I found the sticky mess needed an upgrade. I have since modified all of my cameras with velcro.

Billie: How many do you have and tell me about your favorite toy camera.

Daniel: I have purchased 4 holgas and 3 dianas, one of which broke after I purchased it. I tend to carry a messenger bag with me often and I carry both dianas, one with b+w and the other with color. There are subtle differences with them, but both have a mind of their own.

Billie: Tell me about some of your projects? Are you currently working on one in particular?

Daniel: I have been working on one recently: Surf Culture. I grew up at the beach and have been surfing for most of my life. There is a unique bond that people have with the ocean, and its not just in Southern California. I've been fortunate to have lived in some amazing places such as Santa Barbara, San Diego, San Francisco, Maui, Wrightsville Beach in North Carolina, and San Sebastian, Spain. In all of these places there is a "stoke" for the ocean that goes well beyond geographical location or language. I am attempting to document and identify this unique culture.

Daniel's work is getting recognition in competitions:
If you are in NYC this weekend you should look for him at the Soho Photo Gallery at 15 White Street. He has work in the show and is planning to be there for the opening of the Krappy Kamera 9 Competition on March 6.

More of his work can be seen in the 2007 International Juried Photography Competition at The Coastal Art League of Half Moon Bay, California. Through a Lens - Life in Motion opening March 17.

And at the opening on April 14, at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, Daniel will have work in the Texas National Art Competition.

Archive #5 - San Bernardino de Sisal

Another church from the Yucatan. This one photographed in 1994 is also from Valladolid just a few blocks from the central plaza. San Bernardino de Sisal is a rambling 16th century monastery. I had been photographing in the main chapel and wandered out the side of the church to find the circular well house. When I came back through the cloister I saw this "modern mess" of ice chest, coke bottles, light switches and plastic sacks of garbage. Finding these "scenes" of how these places of worship have adapted over 400+ years was a part of my facination with the old churches in Mexico.