Code|Beta Photography [http://www.codebeta.net]

Near my parent’s house there is a small home that has a metal workshop and he’s there every day even if there’s nothing to do. Honestly I don’t know what his real name is though his nickname is Paquico and everyone knows him by that name.

As a personal project I decided to take a couple of photos of his workshop because I find it quite interesting and the workshop has all of these dark spots that really come out well with the industrial and gritty side that it comes with the working on metal side.

I decided to go with B&W for this project as it would pull that same feeling I get when I go in there and because of this I went with Ilford HP5+ on my Kiev 88CM medium format camera and because this film isn’t found locally I had to order it online.

During the shoot I spoke with him about his life and also about photography. He is a person who is always interested in what it is that you do so he asks you anything that comes to his mind and that’s why we got into photography and talking about my Kiev 88CM, which by the way always generates conversation when I take it out, so I explained to him what was it that I was doing and why I took so much time taking one photo.

Beside talking about photography he likes to talk about his work and his life. He has been working with metal for a great part of his life since back when he finished 6th grade his parents didn’t have the resources to send him off to middle and high school, keeping in mind that in Costa Rica 6th grade is still part of elementary school, so instead his father taught him how to work with metal and all of the tools that he would need. Because of that he was able to work with several national companies for several years until he suffered a stroke which prevented him from continuing his work and that was complicated by the fact that he is diabetic.

Luckily he was able to recover a lot from that and he is now able to continue working on his passion.

It was common for workshops to have phone numbers written with chalk on the walls of the place and the owner would be able to recall who the phone number belong to even when there wasn’t a name written next to it and Paquico has kept this tradition and you can see a lot of numbers written on the walls with the only difference that names or last names can be seen next to some of the names.

One of the objects that he has on the shop that has pulled my attention more than anything are the drawers that he has where he just stores everything in there. The best part is that those drawers are not part of the work table.

The photo above is of Paquico himself sitting in the small chair where he sits everyday waiting for work or people to go by and start some conversation.

-LM

Code|Beta Photography [http://www.codebeta.net]

I was the leader for Costa Rica in the Scott Kelby’s World Wide Photowalk that happened on July 24th and I planned for this instance to visit the “Plaza de la Cultura” in San Jose. This boulevard is pretty much the heart of San Jose as it’s the one that sees the most people walking by any given day.

During the weekends and holidays there are street performers and clowns entertaining people as they walk by and daily you see a lot of people selling from cheap toys to pirated DVDs to leather belts and wallets to original audio CDs to paintings, most of which are done right there on the boulevard, and these are people that usually come from other countries to make a living out of selling these things because they can’t find other jobs.

The photo above was taken around the Melico Salazar theater and it’s the area where the most street performers gather.

The above artist uses different methods to paint and, in this case, he was using pastels for the painting that he was creating. I’ve seen him several times around this area so I can only assume that he is actually able to sell enough paintings to justify being there.

We can’t forget the homeless and beggars. Not all of them travel with their stuff on a trash bag, some of them just leave the stuff in one place and hope that it doesn’t get taken by the trash collectors or any other homeless person. The next photo is from an old woman that was sitting there just begging for money and not doing anything else

After the homeless on the next photo sat down to eat everyone moved away as he had a really bad and strong smell

The older generations just stand around and talk about whatever comes to mind

While most people just walk mindlessly through the sea of people that go through this boulevard under the watchful eye of big brother

The cameras were installed recently to better secure the area and there are a lot more cops around here than before so the crime rate has gone down slightly. The photo above is of a crossing where a street goes through the boulevard.

Next to the Melico Salazar theater there is a large plaza where a lot of pigeons gather because people throw corn around. I guess the pigeon on the photo below was a bit lost

There are some people who take advantage of this to take and sell photos to tourist and locals around this area. A bit of corn is placed on the hand of the person wanting the photo and when the pigeons come to get it a photo is taken.

An old man sitting outside the door to the kitchen of a restaurant eating lunch. One of the clowns approached me and told me that this was a good photo…well the idea anyways since it was shot on film :)

This area isn’t highly maintained and that can be seen clearly on certain areas

I really had fun on this photowalk and, despite the worries from the walkers because of the area, it was a successful walk and we didn’t run into any issues or get mugged. These are the photos I took of the boulevard and the photos from the other people that participated can be seen on the Flickr Group.

-LM

Code|Beta Photography [http://www.codebeta.net]

Markets are quite common in come areas of the world whereas others are just something you hear once in a while. In Costa Rica, for example, it’s quite common to have a market in every major city and they don’t just sell fruits and vegetables they also sell pots and pans, toys, meat, spices and a lot of other things.

Back in the old days people would visit these places a lot more often than nowadays because a lot of the things found in the markets can be easily found in the supermarkets and people would rather go there than to a dark and dirty market. Recently I paid a visit to the market that’s located in Heredia and even though I don’t really like eating there, I’ve done this once, I like to visit it and walk around because there are a lot of different smells and sounds coming out of every corner.

A barber shop can be found in one of the many entrances that this market has and right next to a fruits and vegetables stand.

The last time I went into the market I took the chance to walk around and take photos of the sights found in there with my trusty Nikon FM10 and a roll of Ilford HP5+.

Prices have a tendency to be lower in here than other places and are often only beaten by the farmer’s market that occurs during the weekends in most cities around Costa Rica. During the weekdays it becomes a bit difficult to move around the halls of this place as is often crowded and during the weekends they open late so there’s a chance in the morning where there is a smaller amount of people walking by

Besides everything you can buy here to stock up the fridge there are several “sodas” where you can buy lunch or, depending at the time of day or your schedule, breakfast and it does have quite a menu to choose from. Whether you only want to grab a coffee and a sandwich or a full lunch or “casado” as they call it here.

Another option is the famous “pupusas” which are freshly made every day in several of the “sodas” around

Each little “soda” is known for it’s distinct style, for example one of them has mostly women working and when you order something the waiter yells your order to the person who cooks what you’ve ordered.

The guy sitting on the stairs in the photo above was looking outside and not paying one bit of attention to what was happening inside and when I got down to take the photo some people from the stands called him because they thought I was a foreigner so he looked at me before I was able to press the shutter button, oh well, still got a good shot and a great story…I guess :)

This actually tends to happen quite a lot, where people think that I’m a tourist taking photos and they always stop what they’re doing and look at the camera smiling or saying hi and I guess it’s common to see that around here. I really want to visit the market again and also visit others before they become extinct.

-LM

Code|Beta Photography [http://www.codebeta.net]

I’ve been terrible at blogging lately and have yet to blog 2 sessions I did during the month of June; but just as a preview of those sessions I’ll post these photos which were taken on film. These photos are black and white because they were shot with Ilford Delta and HP5 film.

The photo above is from the Bet-Shalom concert that took place in San Jose and you can read more about it here. I took the chance to shoot a couple of frames from their concert on my trusty Nikon FM10 using the excellent Ilford HP5 film, which I must say that it’s my favorite film to shoot with and I’ll be definitely using it a lot more.

The band was still setting up when I took these photos and it was still raining.

They also take this time to make sure that everything is working as it should before they start the concert.

I’ve never been in a stage of a concert like this and I was really happy to have had this opportunity, this next photo is from one of the amplifiers…or is that a speaker…I don’t know, in all honestly I’m not all that good when it comes to music instruments

Changing sessions, this next photo is from a session I have yet to blog and it was taken on Ilford Delta 120 film with my Kiev 88CM. I didn’t shoot a lot with this camera during this session mostly because I don’t have a light meter and it becomes quite difficult to guess the settings but overall I’m still excited about the results I got with this camera.

I’ll definitely invest in a light meter next so that I get to shoot more with this camera during portrait sessions. Finally this next photo is also from another session I have yet to blog

I’ll be getting my Kodak Portra 160NC roll soon from the lab so I’ll be posting those and other photos I took with my Nikon FM10 and the Kiev 88CM this week.

-LM

Code|Beta Photography [http://www.codebeta.net]

Recently I had the opportunity to meet up with Bet-Shalom, which is a Costa Rican reggae roots band, and attend one of their concerts that took place in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, as part of the “Fiesta de la Musica” that was organized and included several concerts throughout the big cities in Costa Rica.

Earlier that day we had a portrait session for the whole group and I also took the chance to take photos of them during the concert they had that day. Despite the great amount of rain that fell that afternoon there was quite a crowd that came to the concert.

Armed with umbrellas, the crowd listened to each of the songs the band played and also sang to the tune of some of the songs from the band

I had a blast listening to their music and also taking photos of the band during the event. The band is composed of 10 great artists which bring their own part to creating the sounds that make their music.

Three out of the four band members that play the air instruments are shown in the shot above. All of them are in the shot below.

At the battery we have José

Juan is the only band member that has the most instruments in the band, not only he has percussion but also maracas and other interesting instruments.

Adrian is the lead singer of the band. Also pictured below is Diego with the guitar and Juan with the base.

Diego is excellent with the guitar, as this next shot shows one of the tricks he brings to the music of the band

Oscar is at the keyboard

I really like this next shot of Oscar

I did shoot some film during this concert but still haven’t taken it to the lab to get it developed and as soon as I get it developed I’ll post photos from that roll. This isn’t the first concert I’ve shot and I hope this isn’t the last one. The group has a Facebook page which can be seen here and they have all of the photos taken at the concert posted there as well.

-LM