¡Feliz cumpleaños, Marta!

Day three had us location scouting with the video crew pretty much all day. After lunch we went back to the Zócalo for more location scouting.



Here, we go to the Gran Hotel Ciudad De Mexico. It plays the part of the “El Presidente Hotel” in the JAMES BOND film "License to Kill". The hotel has an enormous Tiffany stained glass ceiling from 1908.


Gran Hotel - Images by Don Couch

Also, it has a great view of the Zócalo. We went back into the Metropolitan Cathedral. One interesting thing inside the cathedral is a giant pendulum hanging from the ceiling marking the shift of the buildings foundation.


cathedral day three - Images by Don Couch

The pendulum in the center of the church has markings beneath it which show how the building has moved over the years. Being built on a lakebed, the cathedral, along with the rest of the Mexico City, has been sinking into the lakebed from the day it was built. Restoration and foundation repair began in the 1990s to stabilize the massive structure. We stopped by the The National Palace Or Palacio Nacional to photograph the Diego Rivera Murals there. Very amazing work!


Diego Rivera Murals - Images by Don Couch

Today is also Marta's birthday (¡Feliz cumpleaños, Marta!). We celebrated with a cake at the studio and went to Los Mariachis de la Plaza Garibaldi - Plaza of the Mariachis.

Marta's Birthday - Images by Don Couch

¡Exprésate! - Day two

Day two in Mexico City. I remember I met Marta for breakfast. I had no idea what the menu said! At this point I really didn't know any Spanish and I really didn't know Marta either. I do remember getting coffee and off we went to the the Zócalo, the main plaza or square in the heart of the historic center of Mexico City, one of the largest city squares in the world. It was the first time I saw the Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary. I remember when I walked in and stood the in this magnificent structure, it brought tears to my eyes. I remember thinking what amazing monuments man will build to honor his god. Little did I know I was to see many more monuments to many gods during this project.



The trip to the Zócalo was a location scout. From there, we headed to the largest market I had ever seen, La Merced Market, Mexico City. Located east of the Zocalo, La Merced is a traditional public market located in the eastern edge of the historic center of Mexico City and is the largest retail traditional food market in the entire city. This place was a photographers dream. Hundreds of stalls full of food flowers clothes - colors, textures, and the most amazing faces. But the light. The light was a terrible mix of daylight and tungsten. It was difficult at best but with some fill flash I made it through. I was shooting with a Fuji S2 Pro. They had just come out. It proved itself to be a workhorse of a camera but it loved to eat AA batteries. So much so I couldn't get thirty shots off on set of four. It was embarrassing! Later, I bought a Quantum Turbo 2x2 battery for the rest of the project. But that's another story.


Market - Images by Don Couch

I remember downloading the cards, my 256mb CF and the three 1 gig CF cards and being so excited with this days work. The market photos were my favorite. One tech note here. My client wanted a camera that would produce in camera TIFF files. They did not want to convert RAW to TIFF in the field. Remember, this was ten years ago. I only wish I had LIGHTROOM back them. At best it was the FUJI software or PhotoMechanic. My choice for a camera was either the Nikon D1 for $5000.00 and was six megapixel or the just released twelve megapixel Fuji S2 Pro for $2500.00. My contract stipulated I had to have a backup camera so two Fuji S2's it was. As fate would have it, Fuji turned out to be a great camera as well as a good career choice for me as well. My use of Fuji introduced me to more great people like Joe Cullen and Kayce Baker and years later brought my dear friend Alfred Gordon back into my life.

¡Exprésate! - Ten years ago today

Ten years ago today, I began the assignment that would change my life forever. It started me down a path of travels and adventures I had only dreamed of. Traveling to some of the most mystical and magical places in the world, being paid to do what I love most, make photographs. This one project would take me to eight countries for almost six months. I thought I would post a photo a day from each days shoot or maybe a series of images and the story that goes with it. So much of this project is seared into my memory. It seems like yesterday. I met some amazing people along the way, many of them are still close friends to this day. Next to my lovely wife Brenda, I would have to thank Cindy Verheyden the most. She gave me my first break at Holt Rinehart and Winston and we formed a close friendship ever since. Next of course would be my partners in this epic journey, Marta Kimble and Paul Provence. We went through a hell of a lot together. From Marta's bout with "Degngue" fever, Paul's endless on again off again Atkin's diet to my stolen laptop are but a few of the many funny/tragic stories I will try to remember here. The project was ¡Exprésate!, A Spanish Language Textbook with an accompanying video. In all I made somewhere over fifty thousand images for this project. It will be fun to relive each day and see what I remember. I have an archive set of CDs of the entire project. All great journeys begin with a single step. Here is the first image I made on day one of the Mexico leg of the project. I am proud to say they did use this image.

Game On! Six Squared

I'm not really that into my gear like I used to be. To me it's about a beautiful image. When I was first starting out in photography, I could tell you the specs of every Pentax camera made. Then, as the years passed and I moved to Nikon, it was either a F2 or F3. Then I got a F4s and that was about the time I started thinking more about images than camera specs. My transition into digital was much the same as in the Pentax days because I was pushed into digital so early on. Working with a Leaf DCB or LightPhase Phase One back or Carnival system I was introduced to Medium and Large Format Digital very early on. Next came the start of the DSLR days. I remember renting a Nikon D1 or a Fuji S1. By this time, it was still just a camera and my thoughts leaned to the image rather than mega pixels and camera features. I just wanted to now I could produce a great image. Well, last week my Nikon D800 arrived and I must say I am exciting about camera specs again! I went from six mega pixels (AKA twelve Fuji mega pixels) to thirty six mega pixels. And exponential leap in resolution.
D800 - Images by Don Couch - Here are a few images I made over my first weekend with the camera. They are all hand held. The image of the sock monkey is at 1/20th of a second at 200mm with VR turned on. 1/20th of a second hand held at 200mm. I cannot believe how sharp that is! For those who do not know, the rule says I should not be able to hand hold a 200mm lens at a shutter speed less than 1/250th of a second. I'm beginning to think the VR didn't work right with my Fuji S5. The Auto-Focus in 3D mode is sick! It locks on and tracks the subject around the frame. This thing does HD video in 1080p with stereo sounds. It's got live view with the push of a button, not buried two or three menus deep. I love that my 14mm is now a 14mm and not a 21mm thanks to the FX format. I love that all my lenses are now Macro lenses with all that resolution. OK OK not really but it is nice to be able to crop in and still be at a higher resolution than I started out with on my Fuji S5. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE(D) my Fuji cameras. All of them but this D800 really is a game changer.

The NEW

Time... I never have enough of that. That and air are the two things I need the most when I'm photographing underwater caves. Wits, that another thing I need, so three things I never seem to have all three at the same time in a cave. That's not entirely true, I have been calm and collected but I think I load myself up so much with "new" that I can't get it all together. I don't have that relaxed feeling underwater just yet. Maybe I never will. My instructor told me she was concerned my dive buddy maybe wasn't aware he SHOULD be a little nervous cave diving. That gave me a great comfort that she felt it was OK to be nervous, if not a requirement. I always said to the guys in Mexico, "I'm not worried, I'm concerned". I think that's more what she means.

As I write this, it's been almost two months since my last cave dives. I still think about how rattled I got, finding my self upside down on the ceiling of that cave. In fact, I think about it all the time time. To this day, I'm not even sure why it rattled my so hard. Hell, I had plenty of gas, I'd been in this cave before, had one of the best cave instructors in the world watching me flounder on the ceiling. So why so worried? I think it was the 'NEW".

Looking back, it is a comfort to see the professionalism in which she got me out of there. Golden Rule of diving, "ANY diver can call ANY dive at ANY time for ANY reason". I called the dive and she was like, "OK... Let's go!" She got my ass off the wall and calmed back down and brought me to my senses. Looking back, I was panicked. I broke MY golden rule which is "Stay calm and breathe... in that order". I did manage to keep breathing WHICH should have been a clue to me that all was well and so I only broke half of my golden rule.

What happened to put me ass-over-tea kettle, was I was diving a drysuit for the first time in my life, a "NEW". As well as diving side-mount, meaning my tanks are to my side and not on my back, again, another "NEW". I was slightly task loaded having to manage the gas in my drysuit as well as my BCD to maintain buoyancy while monitoring the gas I was breathing. Swapping regulators as needed to keep both tanks somewhat equal in the amount of gas they had. And as my instructor told me later, there is a reason there is a class in this. It ain't easy. So, all this plus I want to drag a camera and five strobes underwater deep into a black hole and make magic!

It's a constant fight

Yesterday, I was diving on Manchones Reef, just off Isla Mujers, Mexico. Along with me were six beginner divers, really tourists, who were doing their first dive. I was amazed at how careless they were on the reef. One was stung by fire coral right away. In some ways, I guess fire coral is a good thing.



One of the stops along this dive was to view two of Jason Taylor's amazing underwater sculptures. These sculptures purpose is to relive the traffic on the natural reef by becoming an artificial reef. In doing so, the tourists can visit the sculptures and the natural reef can repair itself, hopefully. One problem I saw, the instant one of the beginner divers saw the first sculpture, she swam over to it and wrapped her arms around it, posing for a photo. And in doing so, cleaned off a few months of algae/coral growth.
It made me realize the constant fight the marine life here has with us. I guess in some ways it is good that we "set aside" areas in Manchones for tourists to view (and destroy) and we also try to make a reef out of art for the tourists to view. There must be a balance. Individuals can make a difference. Every individual that thinks their one little kick, touch or break of coral doesn't make a difference doesn't understand the power of an individual.

Back to Work

Today I am back in Cancun, Mexico following up on a couple of projects I have been working on here in the Yucatan. First, I had a chance to visit Jason de Caires Taylor's studio today. So much has changed in the two months I have been away.
In the morning, I plan to revisited the sculptures that were placed in the water in early December. I want to photograph how much marine life has attached itself to the sculptures in the two months they have been underwater.




It was so nice to see Jason as well as all his staff. They have been very busy working on the second phase of the project. About eighty statues have been produced so far. In all there will be four hundred life size statues placed in the waters off Cancun.



It is exciting to see the progress Jason is making on the epic project. When complete, it will be the world's largest underwater sculpture museum.