Almost there…

Ya casi!! Ya casi!!!!!

Vuelvo en unos cuantos días…

Guys, guys, guys!! Check this out...

I decided to resurface some of the pictures that I had taken many years ago, probably past 2005 up to 2007. They are some very significant photographs that I took without any consideration of artistic implementation of photographic techniques and "rules". I knew nothing about photography, not even of the intricate details of the making of each of my pictures. Yet, those pictures have such bizarre beauty, it just seems unreal. It is so amazing for me to see how my photographic-taking-appreciating ability has changed throughout the years.

These pictures were taken back in my home state in Mexico, oh so long ago.

Enjoy my friends :)


















Hasta pronto

Ahora, ¿a dónde me dirijo?

Ya casi termino el bachillerato. Voy a extrañar muchísimo a mis amigos y el hecho de que voy a tener un motivo pragmático para salir de la cama en las mañanas. Después del 4 de noviembre, terminaré mis exámenes finales y estaré completamente libre, iniciando mi vida adulta tal cual y como los dioses mandan (y por dioses me refiero a mis padres).

Creo que el haber decidido terminar el bachillerato acá en Sydney ha cambiado completamente mi vida. No sólo estoy terminando mis estudios para progresar a la universidad, pero también estoy cambiando internamente. El yo de México ya no existe, ahora el yo presente es una combinación híbrida de la cultura mexicana y norteamericana con el ser libre australiano. Es extraño para mí pensar en cómo yo sería si no me hubiese venido acá. ¿Qué habría sido de mí?

Les dejo a ustedes con este pensamiento mío, muy muy mío…

Sé que con el pasar silencioso de un momento se pueden construir miles de memorias.

Sé que con el presente se puede jugar a la ruleta rusa con el destino; que aquello puede ser peligroso, uno nunca sabe qué podría pasar.

Pero creo que en cualquier preciso momento del ahora, todos somos capaces de cambiar quiénes somos y el camino que nos queda por delante en la vida.

Y quiero esforzarme en el presente para que en el futuro pueda decir “aquellos días fueron estupendos”.

 

Hasta pronto.

Dial-up is my death

Our family has gone beyond our bandwidth download limit… and we are back to good old 90’s internet surfing style.

I am actually amazed by how slow it takes to even load a page. At max. 30kbits/sec, any website that is filled with ads and flash banners are a killer to the loading time, it just takes ages to load. And images take a long time too.

Because I use Facebook quite a lot, even loading a page there is just disturbingly slow. Luckily there is a Lite version of the site, so I can still use Facebook with almost the same flexibility as the normal version. Of course, it does not load as fast so there is still some waiting time, albeit shorter.

But I’m still here, still blogging and all. And I should get cracking now with some chem.

On things ahead, photos, photos, photos

All right, I’m halfway through the HSC, 3 down, 3 to go. It’s going to be a very active weekend prior to those last tests, I’m really going to put my full effort into this. It is the last one, and as the last one I want to strike the jackpot at full blast and succeed. Two of those tests range in difficulty from hard to extremely hard, but are clearly doable. The other one is not as hard, rather moderate. I just hope everything that I do in the following days really takes effect and makes a difference.

I have not been to the city in quite a long time. I miss taking a train from my lovely Chatswood to Wynyard or Town Hall, for whatever reason. I know that there are heaps of complaints towards the city’s train transport system, and although not totally perfect, I think it is rather fair and good. I’m happy as long as it takes me back to my destination, that’s all that matters. I’m from overseas, so I can stand a bit of vandalism on the walls and windows or odd commuters next to me.

After the HSC is over, I would like to have other city-photoshoots. I’ve got better gear than ever to take pictures. I have a good camera, some filters, a cool camera bag and a decent tripod. Oh and some nice 35mm Ricoh SLR cameras. :3

Although I have already explored the city, there are some areas I have yet to discover. For example, I have never been really deep into the Botanical Gardens… I have always wondered if that SEX + DEATH sign near a glass-pyramid that comes up on Google Maps really exists. Weird stuff.

And just recently I’ve been playing around with Google Earth, trying to find new routes to explore and photoshoot opportunities. After browsing through the internet for interesting places in Sydney, I’ve expanded my possibilities for new adventures.. so to say. Sydney is such a beautiful city, and it seems to me that large companies and corporations are in some way trying to lead the city to total boredom. Why not allow more displays of art in Sydney, just like Melbourne? Why not let shops and other stores keep their doors open for nightly shopping sprees on a Tuesday afternoon, or any other weekday, just like every other country outside Australia? (I mean, seriously, why close everything at 5 when there are still people standing right outside your store, and have money in their wallets??) And why do people complain so much about the government spending taxpayer’s money on an unusual Sunday morning outing on the bridge for some lucky folks? I reckon it’s something that needed to happen, spring here can be so boring, specially if you have the HSC on. Ok, enough complaining.

I have this project in mind that I have thought about doing since a long time ago. I have always been interested in Sydney’s history, how it came about and thrived to become the modern metropolis it is today. And what really caught my attention is the fact that Sydney used to have a broad, huge tram (or light rail) system. It was the biggest in Australia, and most certainly the most complex in the world. But the advent of the motor vehicle and the prospects of everyone having one gave trams a bad image, that they were unreliable and prone to causing accidents with motor vehicles. Eventually the system was scrapped in the early 1960’s, and until the late 1990’s, Sydney remained tramless. Currently, there is only one tram line, run by a private company, serving part of the Inner West to Central Station. I have always admired trams. So I decided to have a massive photoshoot project throughout the whole tramline.

Basically it will be this:

Starting from Central Station, I grab a tram towards Haymarket (I know, I could have just walked over there but hey I want the experience). I’ve gone through there before and I know where I can get some cool shots of the trams passing by the Convention Center (yes, I will spell it that way). After that I will take a tram to the John St Square stop, walk around, take pictures and grab the tram again. Repeat for Rozelle Bay and Lilyfield stops. After all of that, return back to Central. I have some specific ideas of where to go in this trip, but I’m too sleepy to type them all down :P

Can I get any suggestions from you Sydney readers as to what cool places I could find in this area, particularly to the places close to the tramline? I’d like to expand my photographic repertoire (does that word even relate to photographic media?)

As a concluding note, I’m starting to use Windows Live Writer to blog!

I want this!!!!

A new album from Bibio!!! Yeeeah!

Chávez aparece haciendo el air-guitar ante la Asamblea General de las Naciones Unidas... simplemente fenomenal.

Chequen esto!!!!

Back to study!!! ENOUGH DISTRACTIONS!

Newtown in the Rain

Una de mis favoritas.


La tomé cerca de la estación de Newtown, una tarde lluviosa. Alguien había dejado su bicicleta anclada en el pavimento. Luego el sol apareció entre las nubes, y saqué mi cámara para fotografiar este momento.

The HSC

He entrado a una de mis etapas de mi vida más importantes y estresantes.
El HSC, el Certificado de Educación Preparatoria en español, es una serie de exámenes que culminan con la educación preparatoria con el propósito de preparar al estudiante para la universidad. Éstos sólo se realizan en el estado de New South Wales (Nueva Gales del Sur)y próximamente en el Australian Capital Territory (Territorio Australiano Capitalino). Son exámenes muy importantes, porque pueden hasta definir el futuro de uno. Hay muchos que se esfuerzan muchísimo en estos exámenes porque quieren estudiar algún curso universitario que tiene mucha demanda ya sea por parte de la industria o por la cantidad de estudiantes que quieren cursar aquellos cursos. Éstas carreras universitarias son por ejemplo Derecho, Diseño de Modas, Arquitectura, Política, Filosofía, etcétera.

Espero que todo me vaya bien, estoy algo ansioso y aterrado por estos exámenes. Son muy difíciles... pero siento que me irá bien como para estudiar la carrera universitaria que me gustaría estudiar en la Universidad de Nueva Gales del Sur.

Y como dice Luis, ¡A la Conquista!

New camera... and new musical discovery

Bueno?

Hola.
It's been quite a while.

Ciertamente. Algo nuevo que contarnos?

Sure. I got a new camera. My dad's leaving behind his camera collection, which is mostly composed of film SLR's and some lenses. Some of them are from the 90's, others from the early 80's. And there is this other camera he bought at a garage sell, a Leica IIIc camera from the early WW2 years. How incredible!!


I was actually surprised to see it, because I know how rare those things are nowadays, even though Leica still produces digital cameras with a similar body build. They are however not the same thing. Cameras back then were fully manual and involved a different method when taking photographs.


About that, I have absolutely no idea where on the camera I can tell whether my aperture-shutter settings are correct. Plus, loading the film is like hell, it's really hard ><

But I have yet to take pictures with it, it's going to be quite a unique experience. Just recently I have taken film photography up once again, I kind of find sending films to develop and seeing their outcomes a quite nostalgic thing to do. Quite nice. I have tried with disposable cameras, which are quite fun to use, but people make strange looks at you, going "what the f@ck? is that a camera? how poor are you?" and I'm like "no, it's a disposable camera and no i'm not poor, it's a photography project", "ah, a project, i see" and they quiet down and look away, as if nothing had happened. No, that really doesn't happen, I just get strange looks when people hear the camera ticking as I slide the film everytime I take a picture.

Some examples of my disposable camera shots...




And just recently, I came across this really unique music act based in Seattle WA called The Sight Below. TSB's main focus is on ambient music, more specifically shoegaze (a particular way of making music through the manipulation of sounds from an electric guitar).
There are quite a lot of bands like that, but TSB is different. Say, a song of his may start with slow streams of guitar-made sounds that extend into space, they may have a particular melody or be composed of drones or noises. But then, gradually, a techno beat ascends from the shoegaze haze, sometimes accompanied by a minor percussion or a sound effect. The techno beat keeps the whole songs in one piece, rather than just being mindless repetitions of the same tune with minimalistic tendencies. The songs then seem to have a trance-like taste, say they may have a similar effect as very good soulful trance songs have; of course without the same rush and blast. TSB's work is quite reminiscent of other similar shoegaze movements, although I am yet to confirm that as I keep discovering the underground techno-ambient scene.

Check The Sight Below at his Myspace:http://www.myspace.com/thesightbelow or at Ghostly International Label:http://ghostly.com/artists/the-sight-below. His first album, a digital release, is free so have a taste of his work. Additionally, buy some of his albums, they are quite unique works of music.

As an example of one of TSB's songs, which is one of my faves, here is a video:

Countdown

Ok, only two weeks from the beginning of my HSC tests, and I frickin' need to start practicing papers!! Uuugh, i cannot find the inspiration nor the drive to do this.
But I will!! I know I will, I don't know when though.

I guess this is all up to me then.
I'm just afraid of the stuff that is ahead of me.
Ok, it's just going to be a few weeks, then it will all finish.

Let's do this.

And then I'll be back, it's been a while since I last posted here.
Good night internet.