I didn’t get enough sunsets in BA, but I tried to make the most of what I had!  This picturesque park was enormous.  And I mean enormous.  We walked for miles before finding our final destination, which we made it to just in the nick of time.  The parks of Buenos Aires were pretty much what I imagined… the Argentineans stroll around parks with a certain sense of style.  It’s hard to explain…but kinda cool.

Also, Jim Austin has written a nice article about HDR for Apogee Photo Magazine entitled “Symphony in a Moment: HDR Nature Photography from Eight Maestros”. Very nice of him to call me a maestro – not sure I deserve that! The photo he included (“A Razor to the Sky”) I have put below… of that amazing mountain range called Fitz Roy. The way to catch that orange-pink morning light was to hike up another mountain in pitch-black conditions. It was certainly worth it, traversing the icy crest, catching that glimpse of the sun coming over the horizon of the Andes.

We are getting ever-closer to the release of the new Stuck In Customs Textures tutorial. The video is now over 90-minutes long and it’s full of all sorts of examples and new techniques that I’ve figured out over the past few years. I’ll go ahead and post the results of one of the finished products. I recorded video live of all these things… didn’t know how they would turn out before I started. I kept it live and voiced aloud my “thinking process” around accomplishing these images.

Everyone who has bought a previous Textures Tutorial will get a coupon for either the same level of product or an upgrade to a new “Ultimate Package”. The coupons will be very fair because we want to take care of all previous buyers.

This shot below is another from the outdoor crypt area of Buenos Aires called La Ricoleta. The airlines lost my bags, so I did not have my tripod! I had to walk around this awesome place without a tripod. So I had to do everything I could to wedge myself against statues and scary-spikey-gargoyles to try to stay stable.

Here is another location from within that amazing city of crypts in Argentina. I took so many shots in there that my shutter almost joined the derelict remains of this rather haunting locale.

I probably could have stayed here another few hours. I wanted to peek inside every crypt and root around inside for all sorts of treasure or +1 daggers. Even though my time there was too short, I still managed to grab a wild variety of shots that I am still enjoying and reviewing many weeks later. I simply can’t wait to get back to this spot some day!

In Buenos Aires, there is a very artsy area called La Boca.  It’s filled with tiny little studios, restaurants, tango in the streets, and all kinds of life.  The colors are bright and vibrant, so, of course, I went crazy with my camera there.  While exploring, I found this cool artist’s studio on the second floor of an interior section.  I had on my 24-70mm, and I was admiring her studio at f2.4.  Then, by luck, she came to the window to peer out.  I grabbed a quick one.

This was edited with Nik Software which I am trying out, and I have put a bunch of new images inside of there…  Many of them are “in progress”, and might not show up in their final form on the blog for a few weeks.

I am still here in Argentina, although the photo below is from last week in Buenos Aires. If any of you watch Lost, then you will be familiar with my “flashback” and “flashforward” style of description. I know some of you were waiting to hear more about the backpacking adventure, but I’ll sprinkle that stuff in over the next six months or so, interlaced with other various plots (again, like Lost). Also, like Lost, many of my stories have no endings.

As for this one, the five Russians and I went to one of the oldest Tango dinner expositions in the city. Argentina is famous for the tango and swarthy Argentinian men who perform it. This is the famous dance hall of Homero Manzi, who is apparently some kind of a legend, according the little video they put up before the dance. The video was of very low quality, which made me think it was either very old or made by a college student.

The dinner consisted of a variety of meats and wines and tango dances and music. It was quite a show. The whole thing was scripted like an old 1960’s style dinner theater with all sorts of staged scenes and dramatic dances.

These sorts of things are always extremely difficult to photograph. It’s very dark. There’s a lot of movement, and it’s tough to figure out the ideal setup. I clambered up to where the supplies are stored and set up for this shot. You can actually see Yuri somewhere in this photo… I won’t say where. Although I can assure you he is not one of the swarthy Argentinian dancers. Furthermore, this was shot with a wide-angle lens, so objects such as Yuri may be larger than they appear.

This is one of the many dead city blocks in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. This place was filled with ornate mausoleums which ranged in style from the gothic to Victorian, each as macabre as the next.

The graveyard hosts some of the most famous people from Argentina, including Eva Perón. I spent about an hour walking down narrow alleys and broad boulevards of this eerie city. I could have spent many more hours, and I have an idea to sneak in one night after dark and bring my own lighting equipment. Any takers? Let’s do it… what’s the worst that can happen? (These kind of questions often get me in trouble).

In other news… I was taking a siesta today and in barged two Russians. One, my friend Dima, announced, “This is new roommate Yuri. He does not speak English.” Yuri is the size of a smallish Beluga and he is currently in his underwear.