Restaurant Guide

The Tico Times puts out a restaurant guide every two years , sent to subscribers and sold at select stores. I'm so pleased to have been a part of the photo and design. This year they wanted a cover full of color, featuring a savory dish in the front with lots of greenery behind. After a few tries, this is the image that was chosen. The dessert is Coconut and Maracuya Mousse prepared by Chef Verena Orosco, from Restaurant Corteza Amarilla. It's a double layer mousse in a honey waffle cone basket, topped with strawberries and sorbet -- but for the shoot the two dolops of sorbet were actually substituted with butter and polenta!

Chilean and Panamanian Presidential Visits

Chilean Presidenta Michele Bachelet joins Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at a press conference on Oct. 28th. They signed an agreement addressing socio-politico issues. Bachelet eloquently lead the conference, putting emphasis on the cultural affinities between the 2 countries and reflecting on the nature of female leadership.

Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and Costa Rican President Oscar Arias at the signing of a free-trade agreement between the two countries, which Arias defended as a measure to combat market fluctuations, at the Casa Presidencial in Zapote, in southeastern San José, on Oct. 24th.

Japanese Week: Part 1

Saki Ito, 22, of Tokyo, performs a traditional Japanese dance.

San José celebrated its 6th Annual Japanese Week, from Sept. 29th - Oct. 19th. The Japanese Embassy sponsored the event, welcoming people to learn more about Japan's culture through complimentary movies, concerts, and conferences. A weekend-long grand finale ended the event with Saturday's Japanese Pop Culture Festival followed by Sunday with a Traditional Cultural Festival. Photographically, it was sensational to shoot martial arts performances, ikebana, origami, anime, calligraphy, karaoke and cosplay competitions, which took visitors of all ages on a sensational virtual tour of Japan.

Cajitas de origami.

Aki Akama, 33, of Tokyo, and Mayumi Minagawa, 28, of Niigata, write name's in calligraphy.

Maricio Roque, 23, of San Rafael de Cartago, wow's the crowd dressed up as the anime character Menos Grande, a haunting Japanese version of the Grim Reaper.

Dressed as a mythical characters from Japanese anime, Gerardo Castro, 27, of Heredia, left, pretends to punch Samurai Maurilio Marin, 20, of Escazu.

Orchids: just because...

Cartago Ox Cart Parade

Raúl Soto Viquez, 25, from Tierra Blanca, walks his cows down Central Avenue from the basilica to the main square in Cartago. The parade kicked off a week long fiesta in honor of Día Mundial de la Alimentación, World Nutrition Day, commemorated every Oct. 16th. The UN's Orgnization for Agriculture and Nutrition along with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock prepared this upcoming week with cultural activities, festivals, educational events, and expositions to strengthen the solidarity in the fight against hunger and poverty.

José Miguel Garbanzo, 13, from Desemparados.

Michael Canocho Villalobos, 15, from Guadelupe.

Juan Daniel Montero, 5, from San Isidro de El Guarco.

Bright and beautiful.

Marco Tulio Montenegro, 68, of San Rafael de Oreamuno.

Ice cream man with his modern day ox cart.

Cultural Day at San Sebastian Prison

Costumed dancers, guitarists and other performers entertained San Sebastian Penitentiary inmates for a Culture Day celebration ahead of the official day, October 12th. Originally Día de la Raza (Day of Race) coincided with Columbus Day, but the holiday was renamed to Día de las Culturas to take the focus away from how the Spaniards conquered the Americas.

Inmates enjoyed the chance to spend the day outside of their cells.

It was awkward to enter the male prison at first, but as soon as I took out my camera, a few guys would approach me to ask which paper I was shooting for and volunteer to have their portraits taken. I ended up spending a little time with Jesus Brown Picado, 27, who was quite open about what life was like in the jail. He told me that there are about 700 men serving time here and prisoners slept 25 to a room. They rarely get to go out of their cells unless you count spending time in a tiny outdoor patio once in a while. Besides that, the men appreciate days like this when visitors come to entertain and share good food. Jesus has 1.5 more years to serve in the San Sebastian Penitentiary. His family doesn't visit him although, ¨It would make the time go faster having that support,¨ he admitted. When asked what he misses most about being incarcerated, he didn´t hesitate to say, ¨my freedom.¨

Jesus with some of the other inmates.

What the Duck?

Aaron Johnson! Your photo humor is spot on. Click on the image to see more.

The Young and the Breastless

María Elena Solano, cancer-free for 5 years, celebrates during a breast cancer awareness march in downtown San José. Behind her is fellow cancer survivor, Sandra Torres Hernández, who beat cancer almost 7 years ago.

To commemorate October being International Breast Cancer Awereness month, cancer survivors marched in downtown San José on Sat., Oct. 4th along with their loved ones, hospital workers, and female police officers dressed in their finest, complete with a little pink ribbon. The march was a 2 hour affair ending up in La Sabana Park where there was live entertainment, snacks, a photography exhibit and information booths that passed out pamphlets encouraging women to practice the best form of prevention -- catching lumps early by conducting self-breast exams.

María Isabel Jimenez, 46, marches with her fellow comrades in an effort to show her solidarity against breast cancer.

Gerry Rogers at the Oct. 2nd showing of her movie ¨My Left Breast.¨

In accordance with breast cancer awareness month, Canadian filmmaker Gerry Rogers came to Costa Rica this month to share her endearing documentary ¨My Left Breast.¨ Rogers and her partner Peggy Norman confronted Rogers' breast cancer straight on by filming the struggles, the medicines, and all the side effects with personal camera equipment. Rogers used what she calls ¨state of the heart¨ technology to describe such intimate low budget filming techniques. The movie provides an intimate glimpse of fighting cancer from the chemo to the battle scars and from marijuana to what bra to wear after you've had a mastectomy. Since the film was made, Rogers has had another mastectomy, as did her mom, sister, and three aunts, but it doesn't get the best of them. They refer to themselves as ¨The Young and the Breastless.¨

Back to the Basics

Lately I've been trying to hone my news photographer skills, asking myself questions like, ¨Is this photo newsworthy? Is it interesting? Is it full of information? Are the subjects intriguing and involved in what they're doing? Do I have strong horizontal's, vertical's, wide angle's, and close up's? Did I jot down relevant caption info? Am I covering all my bases?¨

Then I was asked to illustrate some articles for the Special Edition, and everything got turned upside down. This extra section, which the paper puts out every 2 months, focused on home and gardening and I was assigned 4 simple tasks: to shoot appliances, stained glass, cactus, and patio furniture.

They weren't particularly difficult pictures to take. Some were just frustratingly impossible to find! Appliances, no problem. Stained glass, not so bad. But, Cactus. It should have been a no-brainer, but at the time it was nowhere to be found. And who knew that tracking down outdoor furniture to shoot would be such a production? Despite going to pool & patio stores, waking around town, and even checking property listings online, it just wasn't as easy as it sounds.

In the end, we met the deadline and I took away a lot of lessons. It all goes back to the basics. Be quick, resourceful, and ingenious. Oh, and stained glass photographs really nicely.