Archive for the ‘panama’ Category

the history of digital cameras & other mind wanderings

January 4, 2011

The history of digital cameras

Thirty-five years ago—in December 1975—an engineer named Steven Sasson snapped a photo with the world’s first fully digital camera at a Kodak lab. It took 23 seconds to record a 100-by-100-pixel image to cassette tape. Not until the early 1990s, however, did digital photo technology take off, launching an attack that would conquer the consumer camera industry in less than a decade. In the slides ahead, let’s examine some highlights of digital camera history.

1st digital camera

if this interests you then you might want to go to Wikipedia’s ‘history of the camera’ web page for some pretty cool cameras and history. the article shows my first camera, the Kodak No 2 Brownie, actually it was my families camera that i decided to use on my own, always an interesting experience seeing grown ups reaction to what kids do.

but the article misses my first real camera purchase during my stay in Munich with the US Army. i couldn’t afford a Lieca so i got an Exakta made in the USSR Germany. it had a 1.8 zena lens on it, whoooo.

exackta IIa

i loved that camera and kept it for years. when i lived in Greenwich village i found a sign in Cambridge camera that said ‘We fix Exakta’s.’ that’s where i first met Norm who took care of my baby for years until it couldn’t be repaired anymore because of the film advance gears being stripped beyond repair.

he swapped it for a Canon AE1 and lenses. i went on to purchase an F1 and an AE1 programmable but now i had to get use to a right hand film advance. this was a turning point in my photography but i didn’t know enough then to realize what was going on, sometimes i wake up in the morning wondering what i know now as i stumble to the MR Coffee pot.

this morning, writing in my journal, about what to do this year i looked up at 8 shoe boxes of film i could begin scanning into computer and a shutter goes through my body. oh how i dread scanning film and slides into computer. but i know i’ve some lovely stuff in the boxes and in the chrome archive books. but the though crosses my mind maybe i’ll call the dentist and see about some root canal work instead.

i look on my book shelf and pull out my Exakta camera 1933-1978  book by Clement Aguila & Michel Rouah from years ago and flip through the pages looking for my IIa and Zena lenses. i love German lenses. that’s why i’ve a Contax Nx and a Hasselblad 503 but i have kept my Canon F1 just to shoot infrared film as the Nx is an film auto loader which won’t allow infrared film to be used it confuses the auto reader in the camera. it was a shame that Kyocera discontinued their Contax N Digital so soon after developing it. i was heart broken.

i guess i could buy on of those N mount adapters and put my Zeiss lenses on my 5D MII and see what happens. would it improve my photos? well since no one is buying them right now why bother?

some roman church statue

this is taken with a Canon 20D, so it’s not so much the camera that makes the picture more about time & place and vision.

the chore on hand right now for me is to gather my Diablo rojos notes, which i did yesterday and separate them in to categories. i also found on amazon a dvd video about them which i ordered. today i’ll do more research, which is right next to film scanning on the list, but discovery can be exciting. after all we need to put down a date for our next Panama trip, find housing and schedule interviews.

as always, i am waiting to hear back from people today. things could be worst with the boiler not working or no hot water, all the comforts of new york city living.

← Back

Thank you for your response. ✨






Posted in art, canon, Canon cameras, computers, contax nx, Diablos rojas, digital cameras, film cameras, Los Diablos rojos, panama, travel, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Panama City, panama, los diablos rojos reflections

September 23, 2010

today it’s been two weeks since i returned from panama city, where did the time go? here it is thursday and two nights ago i just finally burned the cards to dvds and today i researched the los diablos rojos. now if your looking to put yourself to sleep on siesta i suggest you research the web for information. now the world wide web is an excellent source of information  which can be overwhelming.

then as usual being alone in front of a computer screen with no other distractions, like walking a doggie, there comes pangs of hunger as the sun passes my window leaving me in a darkened room.oh i recognize that feeling gnawing at me…. hunger. so i make dinner and not do what i had on my days agenda for today. which is to write my blog.

look at that dusty book shelf it needs cleaning so on my way to make my salad i give it a wipe and notice another shelf, well they must all be dusty. yes you guessed it, i’ve got pretty clean shelves and nothing entered on the blog. now i’ve had dinner and the chocolate truffles in the fridge are talking to me, eat me.

but slowly, very slowly i am moving forward with errant fingers and keystrokes. i know what i need………. music so i look thought the cds and i don’t have any real spanish music but i do have some tapes. well anything to help me concentrate on the task at hand so i pick Los Flamers su  historica muscal and some Tito Puente. i know not panamian at all but desperate times call for desperate measures.

now that the truffles are sort of drowned out for a time…. altho i can hear them during pauses in the music. i now have the proper setting to remember panama city although i am missing the smell of diesel fumes, i’d rather have chocolate myself but i won’t get up again and get distracted.

so i land at Tocumen International via Continental Airlines at 9:38pm and go to turista desk to ask about the cost of a taxi into the city $28.00 bucks. gone up since four years ago by $12.00 an dreading my lonely planet book. hotel marabella which nobody understands so i pull out the brochure i got the last time there, wisened traveler i am and off we go, but first a stop by the turista polica to see where i am from. Nueva York and off we go in my white turista taxi. regular taxis are yellow now , wonder where they got that idea from? but traveling through the night as lights pass by and dark shapes in the background wizz us towards Plaza Concordia and the marabella, which isn’t on the plaza but a seedy street behind. we found this hotel from a travel agent who recommended it us as an inexpensive alternate panama city hotel when we stayed in bocas de toro four years ago at the la veranda.

calle 55, panama city panama

no this isn’t where i stayed but around the corner. on the right side of picture is where i ate a few meals. arriving that late at night i was hungry so i knew about the place and headed there to get something to tide me over until morning. mixed fruit salad, pineapple, banana, papaya….. how i’d forgotten what fresh fruit tasted like.$2.66

manolo's

where the elite meet. but i really couldn’t wait being so excited  until i when down to the plaza concordia to see los diablos rojos. after all that’s why i spent money i couldn’t really afford but then again i couldn’t pass up an invitation like this. how many times are we asked to dance before the offers stop?

los diablos rojos panama city panama

los diablos rojos panama city panama

there she is…….my grey whale…….. only different…… waiting for passengers . now i could go to bed a get some sleep so i could begin this great adventure. as i laid my head down on my pillow i already missed mary but it would only be a week away from her, but a week can be a long time, we had scheduled our vow ceremony nine days later from my return and so much more left to do. was this crazy….maybe but so life can be at times.

the next morning before picking up the hertz car, good idea to be here early sunday morning at Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Church of our Lady of Mount Caramel) as the people arrived for mass, i didn’t think it was right to go inside and take pictures then. i wandered around getting the lay of the land

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Church of our Lady of Mount Caramel)

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Church of our Lady of Mount Caramel)

This  church  is the only Gothic architectural style building in the country. This structure was built by the congregation of the Carmelites which have been in Panama since 1940.

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Church of our Lady of Mount Caramel)

Iglesia de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Church of our Lady of Mount Caramel)

but here is my quest, at least my first attempt to tell a story about these creatures and my associations with them.

los diablos rojos, panama city, panama

los diablos rojos, panama city, panama

but my distractions are many, did i mention chocolate truffles? oh and the mercury  xr7 comes out of the body shop tomorrow so i can put it back together, i guess in my spare time.

1970 mercury xr7 cougar convertible

1970 mercury xr7 cougar convertible

our own diablos rojo. well i’ll say good night now, i’ve got a date with a truffle,

jene

Posted in Canon cameras, Diablos rojos, Los Diablos rojos, mercury cougars, panama, Panama city, Photography, travel, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

The Breezes Panama, not my kind of place, but the Los Diablos Rojos

September 11, 2010

i was invited down by a friend who said they were considering in looking to maybe buy a place in panama. my first reaction was then why are you going here? JP said come on down ,we’ll have some fun enjoy ourselves as this place is an all inclusive vacation spa. i had to think about it for a few days.

Panama yes there is something i want to do down there i thought. something i hadn’t really had a chance to do my last trip and one doesn’t get offers like this all the time. all i had to do is pay my way down and everything else would be taken care of. so after much consideration i booked my flight.

i was to rent a hertz car in panama city and drive the 2 hours or so down to playa santa clara, playa meaning beach of, but the breeze isn’t actually in santa clara just a little before it. driving in panama city is interesting especially when the GPS goes blank and i’ve never driven there before. but that’s another story.

breeze hotel & spa

spanish speaking armed guards at entrance, reservaction? well because i am a cute american i did get to the hotel even though the guard and i never understood each other, this isn’t esalen just a hotel spa in panama. i didn’t look like a desperado on the outside.

well i’ve been to these types of places before but then i was working a venue like a fashion show that would but the place out for the week or so but i’d never book something like this for myself. i am too much of an individualist to fit in with this type, yes they are a type and i won’t say anything more about them. it’s i have different values and tastes than people who go to these places do.

lovely place,constantly painted  brand new opened october 2009.

breezes back & pool

breezes back & pool

hotel along with a condo tower and smaller residences

condo tower

golf course where one can play a round alone being the olny one on the course, lots of wadding pools for the kiddies and this one fairly large pool for the adults but no olympic size pool although they do have an ocean behind me but panama is a growing country and sewage disposal is a new term to the infrastructure, why else would they have a big ocean right at their doorstep.  shit and plastic are growing problems everywhere especially here.

breeze drainage stream

not sure where sewer treatment plant is but this is a drainage for streets and glof course. as someone said on trip advisor after walking the ocean front at low tide and seeing the debris in the sand they had second thoughts about swimming there again. but this may not be the case here, i really don’t know. this drainage does drain right into the swimming beach.

view from the room

breeze pools day

breeze pools nite

lovely to look at but no night swimming or hanky panky. rooms are nicely decorated with flat screen tvs but  have paper thin walls which i don’t understand because concrete is the building material of choice in panama. this is a family resort with canadians, colombians, costa ricans and panamanians in attendance.

guests

Breeze does have a hertz office but they only speak spanish. driving in panama is pretty easy so renting a car and exploring can be fun.

wine and liquor flow freely but since i only taste wine my experience is limited but i found the wine rough. the dinning room is large

dinning room breeze

something quirky about the banquettes being close to 9″ lower than the chairs at the tables, convient for just pushing food from your plate into ones mouth. but if your short and you companion is tall you’ll  be looking up their nostril all evening. the coffee is good panamian coffee, the kind starbucks wish they made instead of the burnt beans they use in their shops. the food is mediocre i call is middle class swill. plenty of it though and many were going back for their favs.

i did get jp up to el valle to the artisan flea market, we all bought some stuff, i a nice fiber bowl which goes into my collection of bowls. but i was itching to get on with our adventure once on the road.

unfortunately things happened by beyond my control and the very next day we began the unplanned portion of the trip. i did get my chances to take some final pictures of panamain Los Diablos Rojos that roam the streets of panama city  acting like buses. but the night is old and my body is tired so i’ll leave that leg of the trip for another post.

these and the people who work on then are my subjects

panamaian diabloes rojos

panamaian los diabloes rojos

so with this i’ll say good night

jene

Posted in Diablos rojos, panama, travel | 7 Comments »

panama’s diablo’s rojos

September 7, 2010

well dear readers i haven’t found anywhere to load some jpegs up nor a computer or photo store to get a card reader. sorry about that, the weather is nice but hot, i don’t have to go in the steam room because after a few hours my clothes are soaked.

the project of shooting the diablos rojos as they are called is working out pretty good would be better if i knew what i was going but the drivers and their, i don’t know what to call them as each bues has a fellow riding with it who calls out where the bus is going to the awaiting passengers.

each buse is painted by different artist any way they see fit, of course allowing each owner there due. some of them have extensive lighting on them for night driving.

the buses were left here by the us army when they left the canal, sold i guess or maybe given away and are pretty solid but how they’ve been maintained isn’t the greatest. so are even yellow school buses but they are boring.

the helpers or callers for want of a better word sometimes pose in front of the buses and most of them seem to love seeing their pictures. their age groups differ from the old guys to just kids. i was thinking while waiting for a new batch of buses who has ever cared for them? they are just disposable workers who are lucky to have jobs.

at some point these diesel smog spewing diablos are going the way of the doo bird and be replaced by bright shinny new ones. maybe even air-conditioned and bigger so more people can fit in, don’t know how they do it now. but will the city give these buses to these old drivers and clean uniforms?

what do you think? my bets on keeping the new buses  clean along with new drivers. the city has added traffic lights a first along with sewerage treatment plants. this place is coming along.

 to see the amount of new building and renovations i s unbelievable, money is just pouring into this place along with cars and people oh did i mention traffic jams?

i can’t wait to share this new project with everybody.

Posted in art, Artist, panama, Photography, public art | 4 Comments »