Semana Santa Bonfire

Last night, the Catholic Church in Nosara town had a service around a bonfire by the river for Easter. So here is the image that stuck with me from the night.

Semana Santa Parade

Here is a shot from the Semana Santa walk in Nosara town yesterday. Here soldiers were preparing Jesus to be crucified. Toward the end ofthe program Jesus character actually passed out due to hanging off the cross and heat.

Raspa

Here is another plant that you can commonly see just walking around in this area. It is called raspa. Apparently, its leaves can be used to clean the dishes. The older the plant is the better the sponge effect it has. Next time, you see one of these, give it a touch. The texture of the leaves feels really rough, which explains how durable it is to clean dishes.

Pachamama/The Mother Earth

Since I have started visiting Nosara back in 2010, I had been hearing about the Pachamama community in San Juanillo. This year I finally got to cover a festival, La Familia there. I have to admit it was quite an experience for me, being completely new to the scene.

According to their own website, Pachamama means the mother earth in an indigenous language. 

I made this picture at the end of the festival during the closing concert by Sonambulo, a Costa Rican pscyhotropical band. Marissa Bradley dances to the tunes of this interesting band right in front of the stage.

You can see more pictures from the event here. 

Typical dance from Nicoya

I made this picture totally out of some confusion. I was in Nicoya to photograph something about the new plaza being passed on to the municipality.

I thought this dance show was organized to celebrate what was happening. While shooting the show, I noticed there was no one around from the municipality. After a quick investigation, I figured out that the plaza story was happening quietly happening next door and this show was organized to raise funds for education institutions in the city.

Regardless of this confusion, I enjoyed the show and love this image i got to capture because of its color and form dynamic. Hope you enjoy it, too.

Rainbow Organic Market

Made it to the Rainbow Organic market around noon today. This was what was left. I am gonna have to wait for a week to get the delicious good i was hoping to get.

Kevin Montiel In Detail

As a photographer, I love looking for and shooting details. I think they add to the intimacy of the visual stories.

This shot is from the final leg of Triple Crown Surf Contest. Local talent Kevin Montiel was cleaning the wax off of his board after surfing the junior category early in the day. Being able to see the texture this up close makes it feel more tangible for me.

Garza marathon

Shot this photo during Garza Fiestas marathon for a possible assignment but it never got published. As you may know Garza Fiestas got heavily affected by the winds and had to be delayed for a about a week.

Thankfully the run was organized before the winds swept everything up. This run was important and unusual, since a sports related acivity is not necessarily associated with fiestas around here. It was cool to see how the community came together for a good cause while exercising collectively.

You can see more photos from the fiestas itself here. 

Tiger Brenda

Most of you might knowher. This is Tiger Brenda. She used to be a world class boxer. today she is runninga gyma and a hostel, called Enchanted Forest in Playa Guiones. She started getting the tiger tattoos when she wasn't awarded teh titles that she won. She has a pretty interesting story. Next time you see her around, maybe you can ask herlsef and get more details on this story.

Never gets old

I don't have much to say about this picture besides I really appreciated this moment quite a bit. Some beauties never get old and I feel grateful when I get to experience them in person.

Nude Indian

Next time you are on your way to Nicoya, take a look around and you will see plenty of Naked Indian tree/Indio Denudo. Because it grows fast and embraces stuff like barbed wire, it is commonly used as the live fenceposts in the area.

Funeral In Nicoya

I travel to nearby towns quite often for my assignments. I was in Nicoya this past Saturday. While walking around, I heard some marching band from afar.  When I walked towards it, I noticed it was a funeral. People in the parade certainly didn't look happy but the whole scene looked more like a festivity parade than a funeral one with all the colorful clothings, flowers, horseback riders and the marching band.  The funeral tradition here seems to be in the  complete opposite end of the spectrum compared to my culture, which is a Islamic.

It is always fascinating to see all these small and big differences and similarities between cultures.


Thanks for looking!

Camera obscura

As the first post of Nosara Daily Photo blog, I wanted to go back in the history of photography a little bit. This is a camera obscura image. The camera obscura is the phrase for darkened room in Latin. It is essentially an optical trick/device that projects an image of its surroundings on a screen and was one of the inventions that planted the seeds of today's photography and cameras.

The room is my office. I basically covered all the windows with black trash bags and closed any doorsills that let the outside light leak in. After fully darkening the room I put a hole on one of the black bags to let some light in. This hole basically acts like the aperture rings in today's cameras. After the image outside of my window formed upside down on the opposite wall, I made a picture of this scene. This is the resultant photograph. It is sort of image of an image.

I had to use the bulb setting of my camera to make this photograph. At about 60 seconds of exposure time, i got the best result.

I have been wanting to give this technique for a long time. It is a lengthy process and needs to be done right. But when you finally start to see the world outside of your window being relfected and essentially happening on your wall, it is a priceless experience.

You can see the first recorded photograph in the history by using this tecnique here. The image was called View from the Window at Le Gra. It was made by the French inventor Nicéphore Niépce.  

Thanks for looking!