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Let’s do an observation experiment. What things do you find interesting in the picture above?

If you want to do street photography you have to be quick and be ready at all times because you never know when and where the fleeting images will appear.

Case in point is the image above, captured on my way back home while taking an alternate route through San Miguel Escobar. As I was driving up the road, I was surprised to see a whole bunch of colorful clown running on the direction of the mobile PA system, a truck really with several speakers blasting cumbia music. Without really understanding what was going on, I grabbed my camera with a swift move and before I knew, I took just one shot from the car without lowering the windows or anything because that’s all the time I had before the colorful parade and motorcade moved away. Of course, I was not able to get the 30 or so clowns in the frame, but I was satisfied I got enough of them to be representative.

At first I thought it was a convite. Only after looking at the photograph on the computer I was able to see this was a very clever and colorful FUNdraising. I still don’t know what was the fundraising cause, but I am sure it was a success. After I tweaked the photo a little, contrast and sharpness, I realized how much I enjoy the rhythm in this image; it almost feels like everything came into place all at once. I especially like the fraction that entitled “Garrick” and I am showing as a thumbnail here.

What do you think of it? (more…)

Rich colors, patterns and textures are what one gets when buying a piece of Guatemalan textiles. A good example of this statement is the purse shown above, don’t you agree?

I remember that when I was a kid my friends and I made these kind of kites from scratch; barriletes we call them here. Kids nowadays have it easy, just buy them, but they don’t know that half of the fun was building your own since you have to take a field trip with your friends to find the baritas (sticks) and cook the engrudo (glue) from zero. Of course, when you build your own kites, you can make them anyway you please so long as them fly. Believe me, by the time we got to the nearest open space, we had already have had so much fun. I am pretty sure this still holds true for many kids living villages around Guatemala.

I have said it before, but I repeat it again here: Guatemalans can not make anything if it’s not bright and colourful, don’t you agree?

Here’s yet another photograph of a garden wall taken at Sabe Rico restaurant in Antigua Guatemala. As I have said in previous posts, there’s an appreciation for rustic and bared walls in La Antigua; what I have called the “new” aesthetic values of an old colonial town!

Would you like to have breakfast or brunch at table next to this wall? Here’s one of the breakfast possibilities and the table in front of the wall.

I am so looking forward to the end of the rainy season. I want blue skies and rich, saturated colors again.

Okay, so we agreed that the official blue color of the Guatemalan flag should brilliant blue or celestial blue code ISCC-NBS 177 according to Decreto 104-97 [PDF] and as noted for a second or third time in the archives of AntiguaDailyPhoto.

However, I’d say that the shade of blue really depends on what the flag men are selling and if they carry all shades of blue, then whatever you like. If you look at all the recent photos with flags in them and you’ll realize that none of the blue shades match.

As always, in Guatemala we have the laws and and what everybody does.

Here’a another entry for the Color Palette category. Make sure you wear sunglasses if you decide to follow the white rabbit. By the way, I created the Color Palette category nearly 100 days after the initial posts as a way to capture photographs that were a very good samples of the colors found in Guatemala; the first post in the Color palette category was: Antigua’s colors, post #100

As we have mentioned before, if you’re planning to travel to Guatemala, pack your sunglasses if you don’t want to be blinded by the rich, brilliant, saturated colors found everywhere in the land of the Eternal Spring. Especially so, if you plan to spend time in La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park which is the main hub for people watching and a guaranteed spot to enjoy the best of Guatemala.

Do you know why there are so many tecolotes (owls) around Antigua Guatemala? Come back here with the right answer and I will send you this colorful photograph as post card via Guatemala’s postal service with stamps and all.

As we have mentioned before, if you’re planning a visit to Guatemala, make sure you pack your sunglasses if you don’t want to be blinded by the rich saturated colors found everywhere in the land of the Eternal Spring. Especially so, if you plan to spend time in La Antigua Guatemala’s Central Park which is the main hub for people watching and a guaranteed spot to enjoy the best of Guatemala.

If you have spent time in Antigua’s main plaza (Parque Central), please, share with us your experiences!

These colorful Guatemalan cascarones [eggshells] filled with confetti are known as cascarones de carnaval [carnival] and they mark the arrival of carnaval and then Ash Wednesday (Miércoles de ceniza), which is the first day of Lent (Cuaresma). That’s right folks, on Wednesday we will begin the count down to The World Famous Holy Week in Antigua Guatemala, top city travel destination.

I believe the best way to explain cascarones, carnaval (carnival) and Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is to quote some of the AntiguaDailyPhoto readers.

Manolo:
Cascarones are literally egg shells. So, as some have said, weeks in advance every egg cooked at home is carefully cracked so that most of the shape of the egg is kept intact and left to dry. Then, before Carnival Tuesday (the day previous Ash Wednesday which is the first day of Lent) the empty egg shells are filled with confetti (mainly very little pieces of tissue paper, but sometimes metallic paper and in olden times flour), and then are sealed with a piece of tissue paper and glue. I guess it depends on each person, but the egg shells are decorated before or after being filled using watercolours or tempera (some sort of finger paint) or even markers. Not quite like Easter Eggs because they mark the beginning of Lent, not the end of it, and they have no actual egg inside.

What do we do with cascarones? Well, young people (i.e. children and/or children at heart) smash them on the heads of unsuspected victims. Since there is usually a costume party involved with Carnival you don’t know who your victimizer is. The confetti gets inside the back of your shirt along with pieces of egg shell and your hair is also a mess (particularly if you have curly hair). Is the last day you are allowed to be a brat before the 40 days of behaving start.

Pues, I have learned something new since last year, “carnival Tuesday” is “Fat Tuesday”/”Mardi Gras”. Carnival comes from “Carne” (flesh/meat) and it is called that way because it is the last day you can eat meat before Lent.

Claudia:
Love carnaval. My mom would start saving eggshells weeks in advance and she would dry them out, we would usually decorate them ourselves in school. I used to get blisters on my fingers from the scissors since we tried to make our confetti as small and tiny as possible, to make it harder to wash out of your hair, of course.

Sompopo:
Head smashing fun.

Carmen:
Oh my! I’m getting flashbacks. We used to run after each other at school with these cascarones as ammunition. Of course, with all the commotion, we were also responsible for cleaning up afterward. I got such joy from smashing a cascaron on someone’s head. Heehee. The fun was not the same when someone smashed a cascaron on my head though. I remember some of the teachers got into the action as well.

Javier:
Wow!!!Memories!!!Cascarones haven’t seen those in 26 years. We use to make them ourselves as kids. And smash them on other kids heads. It was great.

Elvia:
I remember when I was a child, my mother, sisters and I would start saving the egg shells around 3 months in advance, we would wash them gently and let them dry. It was so much fun to paint each cascaron and put pica pica inside… I remember one of my best carnavales I was probably 7 and I was dressed as strawberry shortcake, it was just awesome my mother sew the costume for me. The carnival season is a very nice tradition in my country of origin, my linda Guatemala!

These plastic balls are the most popular and thus the most often seen balls in Guatemala. They are very inexpensive and very disposable, sometimes only lasting one chamusca game. Chamusca is the Guatemalan-Spanish word for an informal football match. Often, all you need is a few friends, a dirt field and a colorful fútbol ball to build life-long relationships. Of course, these plastic balls are very dear to us since they are part of what defines us; they are part of our treasured memories.

As a photographer I was very excited when I saw these colorful balls hanging from the ceiling a shop recently. You know how much a love color and repetition.

I also love ephemerides and this morning we had the opportunity to witness one ephemerides which only happen every 486 years. That’s is a full Moon eclipse during the Winter solstice, which makes the longest night of the year even darker during the duration of the eclipse. I took some photos of the eclipse, but I did not stay out for the duration of it. However, my dear friend Nelo did and he’s sharing his photos of the full Moon eclipse sequence as seen from La Antigua Guatemala.

So here I am sharing a slide show about another ball, a different kind of round ball, one we can all identify with: The Moon.
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I normally don’t like red, however, I make an exception for antigüeño red. In fact, I make an exception for any color in the color palette for La Antigua Guatemala. Of course, some of you know what’s my favorite antigüeño color is, right?

How about you, what’s your favorite antigüeño color?

August 1 marks the opportunity to participate in the theme day of the City Daily Photo community around the world and this month’s theme is Bright colours.

La Antigua Guatemala is painted with rich, bright colors so this could have been a simple click. However, I decided I was going to participate with a more challenging image; something that wasn’t so obvious but at the same time it there couldn’t be any doubt about its merits. After a visit to Casa Santo Domingo, Antigua Guatemala’s five-star hotel and museum, I narrowed my selection to two images: a Guacamaya’s Bright Colours, which I posted yesterday and today’s bright red rose petals.

The reason I chose the close-up of bright red rose petals over the macaws brilliant colors is simple; The slogan for La Antigua Guatemala is the City of the Perpetual Roses.

This image is also going to be part of my Antigua Abstracta series, which is my attempt to capture the essence of La Antigua Guatemala by just showing fragments, extreme close-up, and abstract imagery often found around town. If you have the time, please take a peak at the images and let me know what you think of Antigua Abstracta.

To see how others in the City Daily Photo community have interpreted today’s theme please click here to view thumbnails for all participants around the globe.

Tomorrow, August 1, the theme day for the City Daily Photo community will be Bright colours. I figured I get a head start with a bright coloured image of one of the guacamayas, macaws, found inside the patios and gardens of Casa Santo Domingo, which is, by the way, one of my favorites spots in La Antigua Guatemala. I love just walking around the gardens with all kinds of fountains and the hallways full with art.

Wait a minute, why don’t we take a little tour through the images we can find inside Casa Santo Domingo, a sort of mini series; do you want to come along?

In Guatemala everything has to be colorful. Life is good! Enough said.