Will Work for Film

Lexy's Birthday!

2011-11-16T16:22:00.004-05:00

11.11.11 - Pretty soon you're going to think that I only shoot birthday parties. This was special though. A Freep reunion of sorts in Pilsen. Lexy invited us to the Skylark, a spectacular dive bar with great food (or heaven as I like to call it). The key though was that it had a photo booth (or at least it did until it broke while we were using it) and we were supposed to give her photo booth photos as presents. That didn't quite work out, but we still had fun hanging out.

-Will

Jenny's Birthday

2011-11-16T16:14:00.005-05:00

11.06.11 - Chicago, Illinois - First night in town and I'm invited to a birthday party! I know, I know. I'm extremely popular. Ok, so maybe this was in the works for a while, but still. A good time.

Jenny invited us to her birthday party at The Flower Flat in Lakeview. Dinner was great, highlighted by a pear tart and merlot-chocolate chip ice cream. We mixed and mingled.

-Will

Just. So. Symbolic.
Jenny, Carla and their group performed a couple of songs after dinner.

The birthday girl.

Kira.

Moving on up (to the North Side)

2011-11-16T16:02:00.005-05:00

11.05.11 - Somewhere, USA - Well we packed up and moved out of the house in Fayetteville taking the better part of the upstairs with us. I followed my dad (seen below driving the Budget truck) all the way up to Chicago from Atlanta and grabbed some shots along the way. We drove through Tennessee and part of the Smokey Mountains or at least some lovely foliage. We crashed in Horse Cave, Kentucky for the night which is in the Central Time Zone. We woke up to frozen windshields and cruised up through Louisville and Indiana (in the Eastern Time Zone, interestingly enough) and landed in Chicago around 3.

Overall roadtrip rating (on a scale of 1 to 10) - 6.9

-Will

P.S. - Don't worry; the car was on autopilot when I was shooting.

Winston was not helping.
North Georgia.
Tennessee.
Outside Nashville at dusk.
Entering Kentucky.
Horse Cave, Kentucky.
Icy morning for the Escape.
Alighting into the morning sunshine.
Crossing a bridge in Louisville.
Entering Indiana.
Indiana.
First sign of Chicago.
Just past 95th street on I-90.

Halloween

2011-11-16T15:47:00.004-05:00

10.29.11 - Atlanta, Georgia - Readers meet Drunken Debauchery, adult Halloween's favorite bedfellow. It's cousin, Spectacularly Irreverent also made an appearance (see: dead Quaddafi costumes that beg equal parts applause and the question, "too soon?").

Anyway, I went out to shoot a Halloween party for Spiral Entertainment at the Park Tavern just east of Midtown. The building quickly filled up, packed with people competing for the $1000 top costume prize. The music was hoping and the booz was flowing.

Below are the highlights.

-Will

Dancing sumo.
Peeping Tom and James Van der Beek?
I believe my exact words were, "Bite her! It'll be great!"
Yep.

Chicago

2011-10-29T12:59:00.006-04:00

10.25.11 - Chicago, Illinois - If you haven't heard it yet, Eunice and I are moving to Chicago. We went up apartment hunting last week and even managed to see a few sights (read: Millennium Park, the Marilyn Monroe Statue and the John Hancock Tower). We had a couple of great meals in Logan Square at Lula Cafe and Longman and Eagle.

We'll be moving up in a few days, so more on that as it develops.

-Will

That beany thing in Millennium Park.
Antique shop in Andersonville.
Dad at Longman and Eagle. I had the chicken and waffles.
Careful out there kids.
Thought this was a better view. Haha.
A bit o' Lake Michigan.
L stop in Logan Square.
Dog in Andersonville.

Coming out of the L downtown.

Savannah

2011-10-29T12:50:00.004-04:00

10.17.11 - Savannah, Georgia - We rode down to Savannah for a weekend of merriment along the river. It's always one of my favorite places because of the historic homes, art scene, good food and incredible walkability. We spent most of the weekend strolling around town and popping into very cool shops like the Savannah Bee Company. On Sunday we watched football with Leah and Seth (die hard Bills fans) and chowed down on some turkey burgers.

-Will

Girl Scouts on a break outside the Juliette Gordon Lowe house.
Nighttime along Drayton. PBR sign belongs to the infamous Pinkie Masters.

Marty, guard dog extraordinaire.

Tallahassee

2011-10-11T11:11:00.002-04:00

10.11.11 - Tallahassee, Florida - Eunice and I went down to Tallahassee for the weekend to see our friend Tia and hang out during Florida A&M's homecoming. We had a great time and went to the football game on Saturday, highlighted by $5 conch fritters and the Marching 100.

-Will

Eunice, Tia and Trinity hanging out on the observation deck of the Florida State Capitol Building. That's Doak Campbell Stadium in the background.
The cars were out at FAMU.
Tia during the halftime show.

Old State Capitol dome.
Red velvet cake.
Souse.
Tailgating 101.

Maryland, etc.

2011-10-05T11:23:00.007-04:00

10.5.11 - Odenton, Maryland - Eunice and I went up to Maryland to visit her family. We drove up and stopped in Poquoson to see people. As you might imagined, not much had changed, which I suppose is nice. On Monday we went into D.C. to see the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial along the Tidal Basin. It was cool, though as my friend Matt pointed out later he "kind of looks like Han Solo frozen in carbonite." Anyway, it was a good trip and these are the photos.

-Will

I made Eunice stop in Lexington, N.C. at Lexington Barbecue for lunch. Pretty good chopped pork.
Sweet tea.
We saw the Baughmans in Poquoson and Bruce gave us a tour of his new school bus/rv.
We saw Diane in Hampton and got to catch up with her and the cats. The cats, somewhat willingly...
...somewhat unwillingly, posed for portraits. Thanks, Leroy.
Lunch in Fredericksburg.
MLK, Jr. Memorial.

Madrid - One last hoorah

2011-09-20T12:38:00.006-04:00

09.10.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice and I strolled around Madrid on our last day in Spain. We hit all the favorite spots, starting with Mercado de la Reina along the Gran Via. I finally got to try their hamburger and let's just say it was a life changing experience. Highly recommended. We hit Zara and Mercado San Miguel on the other side of Plaza Mayor, took a siesta and then met Eunice's friend Arantza in Lavapíes at El Fin del Mundo for a nightcap.

It was a great day and a perfect send off.

-Will

An artsy ceiling fan in Mercado de la Reina.
The Hamburger, caramalized onion, mustard, tomato, lettuce, and ground beef from Madrid cooked to perfection with parsley and mushrooms. AMAZING.
Puerta del Sol
Plaza Mayor.
Zara.
Mercado San Miguel.
All-packed.
Along the Gran Via.
El Fin del Mundo.
Eunice and Arantza.

Mallorca

2011-09-20T12:28:00.004-04:00

09.09.11 - Puerto de Pollensa, Mallorca, Spain - Eunice and I took our post camp vacation in Mallorca (island off the coast of Spain for those of you searching through Google for a map). It's a well known tourist stop, especially if you have a propensity to get sunburned and are either British or German. We spent the first night in the surprisingly pretty and fun capital (Palma) and then went out to Puerto de Pollensa in the northeast. We cycled to some nearby capes and generally relaxed.

Highlights: blues bar in Palma, cathedral in Palma and the beach at Formentor.

Cheers,

Will

Beach at Formentor. Beautiful.
Someone designed the main stained glass in the cathedral in Palma to be at the right height so the sun shines through it at 11am on Sunday morning. Or maybe it just seems that way.
Vespa in Palma.

A beer in Palma.

Magic Village Video

2011-09-20T12:15:00.003-04:00

09.06.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - For my last trick, I will be submitting the Magic Village video (no pun intended). It is in a beautiful spot in the Sierra de Grazalema at the bottom of a little town called Benaocaz. Campers learn English through media by playing the Wii and watching the Simpsons and speak only English most of the day. It works as a feeder camp for Little Village.

There I followed Lyan, who was great and spoke excellent English. Highlights were watching (didn't have my camera, long story) the dragon on the zip line, Mr. Muscle cross dressing and seeing them win Intercamp.

Let me know what you think.

-Will

Here it is:

Winning Intercamp.
Mr. Muscle. Rory, SMH man, SMH.

Get to know your monitor.

Star Camp Video

2011-09-20T12:03:00.007-04:00

09.05.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - This is the video for Star Camp, where TECS runs a "Guided Independence" program for older (13-18 year old) campers. It's famous for for being in a four star hotel in Sotogrande and offers campers off-site activities taught in English. I hung out with Javi from Madrid who learned padel his first week of camp.

It was one of the more difficult videos simply because the kids have a lot of free time and independence outside of the class. "Independence" is a difficult concept to visualize. However, difficult the filming, the hotel room and buffet made up for it. If I close my eyes, I can almost smell the breakfast spread. . . .

Let me know what you think.

-Will

Here it is:

Javi in class.
Padel practice.

An evening fashion show.

Little Village Video

2011-09-14T17:07:00.004-04:00

09.04.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - Little Village is TECS's Total English camp where the campers come and only speak English for two weeks. The camp sits on a pretty site just on top of the white-washed town of Grazalema in the mountains of Cadiz. TECS converts the campsite into it's own slice of the UK (or America) where everything is done in English. Campers work a lot on conversation and speaking English as their native speaking monitors and teachers do.

Here I profiled Amalia (yes the same name as the girl from Go Camp) who in addition to having excellent English, participated in the camp exchanges, worked as a monitor for a day, was on the debate team for intercamp and generally worked at being awesome. Kudos to Amalia.

For anyone who has ever taught English abroad, and especially in Spain, I can tell you that it actually works and is an amazing camp environment.

Let me know what you think.

-Will

Here's the video:

Amalia.
Nacho, who sadly didn't get to make a cameo in the video (Sorry Nacho). He definitely provided some laughs over the two weeks, especially with his routine as the Australian painter who was raised with an Italian accent so he could be more artistic.
Yoga. That's right. They do yoga at Little Village. And it's awesome.

Amalia, as part of the monitor for a day exchange.

Go Camp Video

2011-09-14T16:56:00.005-04:00

09.03.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - Go Camp is TECS's camp for first time campers. They focus a great deal on the welfare of the campers and exposing them to adventure activities for the first time. It's in a very typical Andalusian farm in central Cadiz and it comes complete with donkeys and other various forms of livestock. I profiled Amalia here, who at eight years old, is the youngest camper I worked with.

-Will

Here's the video:

We had a beach day out and I took some great photos that I wound up not using for this. I thought this one summed it up though.
Adam during Cluedo (Clue for Americans). He recorded several of the songs for these videos. If I had to choose, this would be his first album solo cover

Didn't get to use this but it remains one of my favorites from the summer. Very Go Camp.

Family Camp Gredos Video

2011-09-14T16:47:00.003-04:00

09.02.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - This is the Family Camp Gredos video I produced for TECS. The camp runs a similar program to Family Camp in El Puerto, but in the center of the country, specifically the Sierra de Gredos about an hour and a half west of Madrid. It's a beautiful area and I focused on projecting that and the wide range of activities the campers can do in that environment. If you ever get a chance to get over that way, I recommend it. It is truly spectacular.

Let me know what you think.

-Will

Luis and Ali sharing a laugh.
Golf.

By far one of my favorite images from the summer. Just says it all.

Family Camp Video

2011-09-14T16:38:00.002-04:00

09.01.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - This is the Family Camp video which was the most extensive of the seven projects. I profiled four campers: Valentina, Pablo, Luis and Salma. I tried to focus on the Big Brother mentoring program and tried to give the sense of campers being in the largest TECS camp in downtown El Puerto.

Let me know what you think.

-Will

Here's the video:

Luis.
Valentina and Salma in the Big Brother program.
It's a Knockout, an Evening Entertainment

TECS Summer Recap

2011-09-14T16:26:00.004-04:00

08.27.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - I finished my TECS Summer Redux project and over the next few posts I'll post the videos and a few snapshots from each camp. To start, I thought it best to go with the general trailer/short/advert for TECS. It covers the best of all the camps and is a good intro for the whole project.

I want to say thanks again to everyone involved from the subjects and their families to TECS who put it all together to the drivers who got me from A to B. It was truly an awesome summer.

FYI, this one is the Spanish version, but I doubt you'll notice given that there is only one 3 second quote in Spanish. The rest of the videos will be the English version.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Will

TECS Redux

2011-07-17T06:42:00.003-04:00

07.17.11 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - Don't worry, your RSS feed isn't broken. I haven't been updating the blog recently because I started another summer working for TECS Summer Camps. This year, I'm producing a video project documenting their 6 summer camps. It keeps me busy enough (and far enough from wifi), that keeping this blog going is proving more difficult than merely overcoming my procrastination. Fear not dear readers! I will hopefully have some good updates in August on how the project is going. I know you're all waiting with baited breath.

Until then,

Will

Final Show

2011-07-17T06:32:00.002-04:00

06.22.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We finished the school year at CEIP Nuestra Señora de la Navahonda with a morning of performances from each of the grade levels. The pre-schoolers of course stole the show with a version of Beauty and the Beast.

-Will

15-M in Madrid

2011-07-17T06:24:00.003-04:00

06.19.11 - Madrid, Spain - On the way back from Toledo, we caught the end a big 15-M organized march on the city. People entered from four or five directions and converged on the Plaza Neptuno, right across from the Prado. People were strewn all over the Paseo del Prado and the area around the parliament building eating packed lunches and napping with their signs and dogs (there are always dogs) in the shade. Per usual everything seemed incredibly peaceful and well organized.

-Will

Indeed.

The scene in Puerta del Sol.

Toledo

2011-07-17T06:14:00.004-04:00

06.18.11 - Toledo, Spain - Anti came to visit in our last week in San Lorenzo and we took a short roadtrip to Toledo. The city was festooned for the Corpus Christi festival and was packed with tourists ignoring the myriad of "por favor no toques" in all the gift shops. We dressed up and crashed the party for a bit, wandering around the cobbled streets of the old city.

Adios,

Will

Our new album cover.

Mom in el Cafe del Arte, a cathedral converted into an art space/cafe/disco.
Dad waiting.
Eunice watching a dance show.

Lunch

2011-07-17T06:01:00.003-04:00

06.17.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - For the second year, Eunice and I's last two weeks of work were filled with great lunches to say goodbye. We passed countless hours at the table swapping stories, laughing and eating great food.

We're fortunate to have made great friends and even more so, fortunate to have friends who like to eat as much as we do. The highlight was Maribel's melon salmorejo.

-Will

Carmen and Ana.
Melon salmorejo.
Carlos and Maribel.

Carol, Paco and Marivi.

Fiesta de San Bernabe

2011-07-17T05:51:00.003-04:00

06.10.11 - El Escorial, Spain - We went with my parents to the Fiesta de San Bernabe (town festival) of El Escorial. They had the typical row of stores with artesan products from around Spain and lights strung across the streets. On Saturday morning, we went down the hill for the free paella and found a group of men cooking a pan about 5 feet in diameter and a small band playing music beside them.

-Will

Waiting for drinks in El Escorial.
Paella 1.
Band.
Paella 2.

A concert in the park

2011-07-17T05:40:00.003-04:00

06.07.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - The music conservatory held its final concert in one of the small plazas in San Lorenzo. The finished with by playing the 1812 Overture which is a lot to bite off for 14-18 year olds. It wasn't like seeing the Pops, but still they did a great job and the conductor provided some great moments. Do you think he grew out his hair just for this moment?

-Will

Reflections 1.
Bum bum bum bummmm...

Keeping time.
Reflections 2.

Galicia Redux

2011-07-16T16:36:00.004-04:00

06.05.11 - A Coruña, Spain - My parents came to visit and Eunice and went with them up to Galicia the first weekend. We saw A Coruña and toured Santiago de Compostela on Sunday morning. We nearly got blown off the Tower of Hercules, but besides that we at well and took in some rays along the boardwalk.

Adios,

Will

Paseo Maritimo, A Coruña
Tower of Hercules
Pilgrim's Mass
Tapas in Santiago
Eunice on the trolley in A Coruña
Mom eating percebes (goose barnacles)

Cultural Week

2011-07-16T12:32:00.004-04:00

06.03.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We spent our Cultural Week at CEIP Nuestra Señora de la Navahonda studying film. It culminated in a version of "Bienvenidos, Mr. Marshall" or as they called it "Bienvenidos, Mr. Will." It is a famous Spanish film from the 50s about a small town in central Spain that converts itself to look like a whitewashed Andalucian town to impress the U.S. Government officials coming to give out money. At any rate, we converted our school in a similar fashion, all the girls wearing sevillanas dress and the boys in torero outfits waving American flags. I wore my best "American" tourist outfit -- a Hawaiian shirt, camera, baseball cap and cargo shorts.

Each class also performed a film (mine did Mary Poppins) and we recorded scenes to be shown on the last day of school. Below are some photos.

-Will

Zamora

2011-05-23T07:04:00.004-04:00

05.22.11 - Zamora, Spain - Eunice and I went back to visit friends in Zamora over the weekend. It's beautiful in the springtime. Mostly we just met people and talked over tapas. Can't complain too much. We went out Friday night and ate along the Duero River on Saturday with Esther and Francisco then met up with Fiona and Sara Sunday before heading back to El Escorial.

-Will

Eunice and Esther at lunch.
Tapas at El Rincon de Antonio. This was salmorejo.
"Bigote" or fried shrimp on a tosta with tomato marmalade.

Faunia

2011-05-23T06:54:00.004-04:00

05.19.11 - Madrid, Spain - We took the kids to Faunia, a nature park/zoo southeast of Madrid, on Thursday and got to see some cool stuff. The highlight was the venomous creatures pavilion (think vipers, black widows and giant tarantulas), but the best part for photos was the butterfly exhibit. Good light and pretty insect tend to be that way. We also saw some penguins, pelicans, manatees (I had never seen one before) and aardvarks (tampoco). It was a lot of fun and the seeing the kids' faces light up made it even better.

-Will

P.S. - Field trips never get old.

You can just make out the monarch butterfly in the top left corner.
Manatee attack!
Looking at insects.
Entering the venomous creature pavilion.

San Isidro

2011-05-23T06:13:00.003-04:00

05.15.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice and I went into Madrid on Sunday to check out the goings on for the San Isidro Festival. It was the last day of a weeklong celebration of the capital city's patron saint. Among the variety of cultural events, we went down to Lavapíes in the afternoon to see some circus-type street performances, then to the Plaza de España for a free concert and hopped over to the Manzanares River to see a fire display as the sun set.

People were out and about everywhere in traditional outfits (long colorful dresses for women and gray caps and vests for men) and it was a good time.

-Will

Along the Manzanares River.
Eunice.
Fire!
People watching the fire display be lit. It was a collection of floating metal sculptures, with hundreds of attached "citronella" candles that the company lit. Not a huge display, but cool nonetheless.
Two guys and a giant wheel in Lavapíes

Valencia

2011-05-04T16:18:00.001-04:00

05.02.11 - Valencia, Spain - Eunice and I went to Valencia to hang out with her friend Poppy. It's Spain's third largest city famous for nightlife, beaches, sailing and paella. It's a decent combination if you can put it together.

We toured it mostly on the city's excellent bike system, Valenbisi. It's definitely the only way to travel, especially since the town is built around a dried up riverbed that provides a perfect expressway between the Barrio Carmen center and the port.

Somehow we avoided killing ourselves on the bikes and got to see the amazing architecture (a Spanish city with great architecture...weird?) of the City of Arts and Sciences.

As a final note, paella on the beach is a must have, but you've got to reserve a table. We didn't, but it was still awesome.

-Will

City of Arts and Sciences.
Ringing the bells inside the cathedral.
Top of the cathedral.
Kite competition.
Paella at L'Estimat.Bridge over the City of Arts and Sciences.
Fans.

Breakfast at Horchateria El Siglo. The horchata was good, too.

Eunice 1

Eunice 2

Christmas Trip Redux - Durbuy

2011-04-25T13:59:00.004-04:00

01.06.11 - Durbuy, Belgium - On the way to Zell and Luxembourg we stopped for a night in the small Wallonian town of Durbuy. It was covered in snow and ice and had a nice Christmas market in the main square. I think the cobblestones were the only thing that kept me from falling on the icy streets. We managed to warm up with a bit of glüwein and some coq aux vin for dinner.

At the bottom are two photos from the drive. We took some small roads and got lost a bit around the area of the Battle of the Bulge. The scenery was stark with about a foot of snow (perhaps more) covering everything. The trees popped against the white ground and gray sky.

-Will

Bikes in the snow, bikes in the snow.
Just in case you get lost.
Trees 1.
Trees 2.

Christmas Trip Redux - Brussels

2011-04-25T13:55:00.003-04:00

01.05.11 - Brussels, Belgium - We hit the road from Brugge and went for mussels in Brussels. We ate at a cave restaurant in the main square and walked around the center for an hour afterwards. The mussels were awesome. The chocolate's not bad either.

-Will

Mussels.
Stay classy, Belgium.

Christmas Trip Redux - Brugge

2011-04-25T13:47:00.003-04:00

01.04.11 - Brugge, Belgium - I lost some of these photos and then miraculously found them the other day. Most of them at least. At any rate we went to Brugge right after New Year's Day and stayed for a couple of nights. It was my second visit and is easily one of my favorite towns. You can't beat the beer, canals or fries.

-Will

Postcard view of the Belfry.
Frites in Markt Square.
Half Moon Brewery tour.
Inside the Belfry.
Mom and Dad at De Garre (pronounced: Duh Harrah)

Liverpool - Part 2 The Wirral

2011-04-24T07:28:00.003-04:00

04.21.11 - The Wirral, Liverpool, United Kingdom - Jenni took us around the Wirral on our last full day in Liverpool. It's the peninsula to the west of the city center and it changes dramatically as you drive across it. We stopped for ice cream and shrimp at Parkgate and for the beach and fish and chips at West Kirby.

-Will

The sailing club.
The marina.
The marina. There's a paved ring about 200 meters around the marina and on good days people walk out along it. From the shore it has a really surreal feel because it looks like the people are walking on water.

Nicholls ice cream in Parkgate is a good time.
Fish and chips.
Shrimps along the Dee river.
More ice cream.

Liverpool - Part 2 Chester

2011-04-24T07:18:00.005-04:00

04.20.11 - Chester, United Kingdom - On Wednesday Jenni took us to Chester a small town about a 30 minute ride from Liverpool. It's an old Roman town, complete with Amphitheater and sandstone city walls, a cathedral and a lovely river walk. There was pretty great shopping, too. The best place though was Hickory's, an American barbecue place where we had a rib lunch.

-Will

Main gate.
Riverwalk.
Hickory's and yes, that's a Brooklyn Lager on the table. Worth every pence (4.50 pounds).
Chester train station before we left.
Cathedral.
Eunice and Jenni in Queens Park.
Queens Park Bridge.
Gentrification.
Amphitheater.

Liverpool - Part 1

2011-04-24T07:05:00.005-04:00

04.19.11 - Liverpool, United Kingdom - Eunice and I went to visit our friend Jenni in Liverpool for part of our Spring Break. On Tuesday we went downtown and took the Merseyside Ferry and visited the Beatles Story Museum and the Albert Docks.

-Will

Downtown with the Liver building on the left.
Having tea and waiting for the ferry.
Jenni on the ferry.
Ferry terminal decorated.
Easter tree at Jenni's house.
The Beatles Story Museum.
John Lennon's glasses. Apparently, the lenses are made of 24 karat gold. Baller.
Remake of the Cavern in the museum.
Imagine remake.

Segovia (alt title: Eunice)

2011-04-18T04:50:00.003-04:00

04.16.11 - Segovia, Spain - We went on a day trip to Segovia Saturday to see the aqueduct and a proper Castilian cathedral (you know, one you have to pay for). We had lunch in the Judería and did a bit of shopping. I didn't get many great shots, but I did shoot a nice one of Eunice in the cloister of the cathedral. Apparently, you aren't supposed to take pictures, but you know how I am with reading signs.

Sorry,

Will

Eunice.

Semana Santa Redux

2011-04-18T04:42:00.005-04:00

04.15.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - We were able to catch one of the first processions of Semana Santa (Holy Week) on Friday night. The ones early in the week are pretty low key, but I did get some shots of cute kids with trumpets.

If this is your first look at photos from Spain's celebration don't be alarmed at the "klansmen." They invented the outfits before the KKK, so to be fair, they don't think anything of it.

-Will

I call this "Attention Span" or perhaps "Attention Spa[i]n".
"This hood wouldn't be so bad, if they just made these darn holes bigger."
Jesus making rounds.
The monastery on a clear night.
Trumpeter.

Hiking in San Lorenzo

2011-04-18T04:34:00.005-04:00

04.15.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - We went on a hike with Eunice's parents around Monte Abantos, just north of the monastery. It was only natural given how we've got nature coming coming out of our ears here.

-Will

Small stream (arroyo!).
The monastery and a nearby dam.
The view of Madrid (those four skyscrapers in the distance on the left).

Madrid

2011-04-18T04:25:00.006-04:00

04.11.11 - Madrid, Spain - Eunice's parents came to visit and we spent Saturday and Sunday tooling around Madrid. We went to el Rastro (Madrid's flea market) Sunday morning and had tapas along the way. The weather was perfect and the crowds were out.

-Will

El Retiro in the spring.
Mr. and Mrs. Woods having some padrons (green peppers) and calamares in La Latina.
The view from Plaza Mayor early Saturday morning.
El Rastro.

Shoes for sale.
Eunice in the Retiro.
Tapas during El Rastro.
Photographer meets English teacher. See if you can spot the slight grammatical error.

A bar in La Latina. Snails for sale.

Sevilla

2011-04-07T15:05:00.007-04:00

03.28.11 - Sevilla, Spain - Eunice and I went to Sevilla to visit Ella, Ali, Christina and the rest of the TECS crew. Can't beat it in the springtime. What else to say?

-Will

Album cover?
Eunice.
El Burladero plaza which was redone and should be finished now. Got a pretty great market below it and looks like yet another example of interesting architecture in Spain.
Full view. Kind of looks like a honeycomb to me.
Purple haze.
Plaza de la Alameda.
Giralda Tower.
Ella and Christina.

Cool bookstore near El Burladero.

Carnaval (Fat Tuesday)

2011-04-03T15:46:00.003-04:00

03.08.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Carnaval (Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and Carnival) at school today. The theme was the Middle Ages, so everyone dressed up as knights, kings, queens, etc. I dressed up as the Burger King, fitting, I thought, given it was probably America's only contribution to that time period (hehe), not counting Robin Hood Men in Tights or the Kennedy's "Camelot."

We were forced into the town's sports center because of rainshowers. Alas, one day, the winter will end.

-Will

Snow in March

2011-04-03T15:38:00.003-04:00

03.05.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - It snowed again. In March. And it snowed so much this time it actually stuck around for more than 5 hours. Per usual it did make for some pretty pictures.

-Will

Ominous clouds behind the monastery.
Passing along the monastery square in the snow.
Smile!
This was the next morning (Saturday) where a poor groomsman had to make a dash through the snow to get to his car to pick up his waiting partner (girlfriend? bride?) outside the Miranda-Suizo Hotel.
Snowmen!

Brindisi

2011-04-03T15:16:00.005-04:00

02.28.11 - Brindisi, Italy - Eunice and I went to visit our friends in Brindisi, in southeastern Italy. It's a quiet place even in the summer, and even more so in February. Unfortunately, we had bad weather as well most days. We did manage to have a great time anyway, eat well and visit tiny, hillside Ostuni and Mesagne.

-Will

Eunice and Anti in Mesagne.
The scene in Lecce.
Nandina cutting mushrooms for lunch.
Stormy seas along the Adriatic coast.
Ostuni.
Mesagne.
Mesagne.

Mesagne.

Peace Day

2011-04-03T15:07:00.003-04:00

02.04.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Peace Day at school today. Every class spent the week making posters and collecting money to donate to Save the Children in Haiti. On Friday we marched around the town square and officially gave the money to the officials at the town hall. It was a fun march and most all of the kids had a relative or two who came out to watch. Such is life in the pueblo.

-Will

Marching back to school.

The five year-olds doing their part.
Maria (girl with the hood) and Eva (teacher, pink) give the first grade donation to the town hall.
Rusland gets a participation sticker.

Pablo trying to dry the poster before we left.

Paris

2011-03-29T15:58:00.006-04:00

12.31.10 - Paris, France - The frozen tundra of Paris was a beautiful muse. I did a terrible thing and lost several of my photos. Guess I'll just have to go back.

These are the best of those that remain.

-Will

Peaton.

The bread shop near our apartment.
Les Invalides.
View from the Sacre Couer.
Venus de Milo in the Louvre.
Oscar Wilde's grave was a highlight.
Didn't quite work out like I wanted it to, but loved the idea.
More from the Montparnasse Cemetery.
Eunice in Montmartre.
The macaroons are good.

The Effiel Tower

2011-03-29T15:48:00.003-04:00

12.31.10 - Paris, France - We went to Paris for Christmas and (almost) froze to death. I like a good (or predictable) photographer took several photos of the Effiel Tower, at least in part because it was so cold there weren't many people milling around. The cold did make the sky clear and the tower was beautiful.

-Will

Thought this was a funny shot of a souvenir. I saw it in the gutter along the park and took a photo. Glad to see the observation skills still work.

Christmas Vacation

2011-03-25T11:07:00.003-04:00

12.22.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We had a small get together after the last before vacation at the hotel in town. The tapas were good. After two weeks of mystery and anticipation the Secret Santas were revealed and the gifts were aplenty.

-Will

Javi and Ana hug.
Ana (x2).
Paco, paco, paco.

Christmas is for the kidz

2011-03-25T10:54:00.003-04:00

12.22.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - The final days before Christmas break were a blitz to finish Christmas projects. The first graders made gold ornaments to take home. We also got a visit by the three wisemen (los Reyes Magos, in Spanish tradition, they deliver the presents, not jolly ol' what's his name), who gave every kid a small present. The kids had a good time and we (the teachers) were happy because we could leverage the visit in the weeks leading up to Christmas, which made for slightly easier lessons.

Ho, ho, ho,

Will

Patricia gets a gift from on of the wisemen. (Yes, that's blackface. It's not frowned upon here. In general, the Spanish aren't politically correct about anything and certainly don't think twice about painting their faces black because, well, Balthazar is black in the paintings, so you know, you've got to get these things right. Take the good with the bad sometimes.)

A letter to our Reyes.
Pensive looks.
Christmas balls (hehe).
Everything's a process in first grade.

Saturday

2011-03-25T09:44:00.003-04:00

12.11.10 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - We went to Vilalba for the afternoon and I brought my camera for no apparent reason. Here's a late fall shot of the park here and the vermouth I had while shopping. Try it some time. It's the ultimate drink around 1pm on Saturday.

-Will

The park.
Martini glass.

Bilbao and San Sebastian

2011-03-25T09:33:00.006-04:00

12.08.10 - Bilbao, Spain - Eunice and I went off to Bilbao and San Sebastian to eat pintxos and see the beach and of course, the Guggenheim. The museum is pretty, but I would say even better in the rain than the sun. That way it's a bit like the cathedral in Santiago. Fortunately, it rained most of the weekend, so I had a plenty of photos of it in the rain.

The pintxos are amazing and we stopped at a great place in the Plaza de Independencia in San Sebastian, where we had pistachio croquetas, frog legs and some killer guacamole. Definitely worth a visit if you get the opportunity.

-Will

The Guggenheim during the day.
Pintxos in San Sebastian.
The beach on Sunday.
Nighttime Guggenheim.
Who's the statue posing.
Along the bridge.
The ayuntamiento all dressed up for Christmas.

Snow - Part 1

2011-03-24T10:10:00.006-04:00

11.30.10 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - Anyone who tells you that it is always sunny and warm in Spain is a liar. In fact, it even snows sometimes, especially when you live in a mountainside village. Between the periodic snow this year and the daily Galician rain showers of last year, my vision of sunny Spain has successfully been skewed. The only good things I can say about it is: it's pretty; it makes even Spanish children creepily quiet; and it usually melts in a day.

Hoorah!

Will

You can just make out the monastery in the distance.
Train station in Robledo.

The view out of my window.

Thanksgiving

2011-03-24T09:59:00.004-04:00

11.25.11 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - Thanksgiving always makes me homesick given that combines my two favorite things in the world: good food and football. The last two years I've made an effort to impart the importance of Thanksgiving to Spaniards. In turn, they've nodded and smiled.

This year I set about brainwashing my students by teaching them the story of the first Thanksgiving and making them make hand turkeys. Most of them thought they were peacocks, so you probably have an idea of how successful I was. Be that as it may, we learned something dammit.

On Saturday (I know, I know, but they don't give you a day off in the middle of the week here), we celebrated with Americans and the ever present Eramus students. I think we horrified the French students with the amount of food, but the Spanish and Belgians seemed happy. At any rate the food was good (and the wine too!) and we left set for the Christmas season.

-Will

The making of a hand turkey.
We put them on the wall outside my class.
Libby carving the bird.
Mmmm, pie.

Yes, I have a photo of President Obama in my classroom. Yes, I dress him up for holidays. Got a problem with that?

TECS Review Weekend

2011-03-24T09:51:00.003-04:00

11.21.10 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - TECS invited me to come down for Camp Review Weekend at the end of November and be a part of their annual conference on how to improve camp. It was barely 36 hours in El Puerto and the weather was terrible (rain and 45 degrees F), but we had a good time anyway.

-Will

Inge.
David Navarro.
Douglas.
Hiking the Garganta Verde.
Ali, bejeweled.
RuthAnna
Doug and Patrick
Ella's cupcakes.

Halloween

2011-03-23T11:19:00.003-04:00

10.31.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - We celebrated Halloween at CEIP Nuestra Señora de La Navahonda today and had a great time playing pin the legs on Frankenstein's monster, making candy spiders and mummies. I don't think the children descended to far into witchcraft. And yes, I did scare a few of them.

-Will

Mateo the Mummy.
Eloisa instructing the first graders on the pumpkin dance.
Jose eating.
Pin the head on Frankenstein's monster.

Fifth graders doing a mash-up of Thriller and the Monster Mash with zombie make-up. A classic.

Segovia

2011-03-23T11:08:00.004-04:00

10.28.10 - Segovia, Spain - The fourth week of school I got to go with the fifth and sixth graders to Segovia. I know, my job is awesome. Stop.

I hadn't been, so it was a cool visit, though we didn't spend much time wandering the streets. I especially liked the aqueduct and the old Jewish quarter. We also made a stop at the Esteban Vicente Contemporary Art Museum (free entrance), which is worth a visit.

-Will

The kids posing in front of the aqueduct.
You can make out the cathedral and a photographer in the sunglasses. It was a great day.
Javi giving his best tour guide impression in front of the cathedral to open-mouthed fifth graders.
As I mentioned I found the Jewish quarter particularily interesting and plan to go back to try the sefardic food. This was a monument in the area.
We took a drawing lesson at the art museum. It was cool, but knowing the limits of my artistic abilities, I stuck to making photographs of kids drawing. So sue me.

Food Fair

2011-03-23T11:03:00.005-04:00

10.20.10 - Madrid, Spain - My first week of school I got to go on a field trip. We went to the "5 al Dia" (five fruits and veggies a day) fruit festival at the Madrid Food Fair. The kids had good time and met the stars of Lazytown and got to make fruit and vegetable kebabs.

Exciting,

Will

Sara
Joel and Antonio make kebabs.
Unai skeptically tries a kebab.
I think Luna (middle) was tired of all the fruit. Or perhaps overwhelmed.
Kevin.

Around San Lorenzo de El Escorial

2011-03-23T10:54:00.004-04:00

10.15.10 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial - As I said before, it's been a while since the last post because my computer was broken. In October, Eunice and I enjoyed the last few sunny days of fall in and around San Lorenzo de El Escorial. We went for hikes and our friend Jenni came to visit for a couple of days.

Check it out,

Will

Photo for Live Now
Jenni around town with her chocolate.
Eunice along a path in the woods.
You can just make out the monastery on the right side of the frame. It is the view from the Silla de Felipe II. They used to carry the old man out there so he could see his monastery being constructed. It's a nice place, but I doubt the people carrying him to and fro had the same thoughts.

Update: The Missing Photographer

2011-01-30T08:17:00.004-05:00

01.30.11 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain - I feel a need to post something here because I've been MIA these past few months. I actually didn't realize September was my last post, so it's worse than I expected. Apologizes. My computer went on the fritz in late November and I've been waiting on a CD to fix it. So this blog, my photo career and more and more my sanity is dependent on the Spanish postal service to deliver that CD and if you know anything about the post here, you'll know that's not a good thing.

Alas, to quell your baited breath for new posts, I'll direct you to a new publication of my TECS photos from last summer (most you probably haven't seen) online at: www.brightsparkspanish.com. TECS is starting a learn Spanish in Spain program and I provided promo shots of El Puerto and TECS for the web.

Until the benevolent mailman from above delivers to me so I can fix my evils,

Will

La Virgen de la Romería en San Lorenzo de El Escorial

2010-09-15T08:24:00.005-04:00

09.12.10 - San Lorenzo de El Escorial - In the action-packed weekend that was, Sunday was a fiesta in our town. Something called a Romería, which I still haven't pinned down a proper definition for yet, but seems to be when every gets dressed in traditional costumes, builds parade floats and walks down to the nearest park to barbecue in the morning and comes back late at night. Missed the barbecue part unfortunately, but we did see them coming back. Seemed like a good time.

-Will

Drummer boy.
Dancing queen.
Romero.
Guarding their trophy carefully.

A bit of motor oil and a bit of homemade tinto de verano are something to always keep on the back of the parade float. It's just a good idea.

Noche en Blanco

2010-09-15T08:05:00.008-04:00

09.11.10 - Madrid, Spain - This probably makes me the last of 10,000 photographers to post my photos from Noche en Blanco on Saturday night, but what can I say? The city of Madrid shut down the Gran Via (main boulevard) and filled it with art expos, thousands of people and lots of Chinese guys running around selling Mahou on the street. Really, not a whole lot different than any Saturday night in Madrid, only this time there was more family friendly activities.

The night was fun and we bar-hopped until they kicked us out of the last place open around 2:30am. Eunice and I spent the next couple hours debating the merits of the hot dogs at Chicago Hot Dogs in Chueca and then we headed back to El Escorial on the first train at 6:30am.

-Will

Ball fight in the Plaza Dos de Mayo.
Ball fight in the Plaza Dos de Mayo.
Lady dancing on a building in the Plaza de Santo Domingo.
Crowd.
Random people in Chueca.
Eunice.
George and Jenni in Sol.
Aforementioned Chicago Hot Dogs and a Bud, mmm. . .America

RENFE

2010-09-15T07:59:00.004-04:00

09.09.10 - Robledo de Chavela, Spain - Eunice and I went to Robledo to meet the teachers at the school I'll be teaching at this year. It's a nice little pueblo in a valley about an hour outside of Madrid. We took the train back two stops to San Lorenzo and I took a few shots of the train station in Robledo and El Escorial.

-Will

Beautiful sky around the station in El Escorial, if it weren't for the missing letters on the sign, it might be a good shot for ADIF.

The station in Robledo. Kind of has a wild west feel to it, just without the tumbleweeds.

Summer Camp Vol 4-8

2010-09-15T07:57:00.001-04:00

09.02.10 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - As you may or may not have noticed, my plan to post weekly photos of TECS Summer Camp on my blog failed in spectacular fashion somewhere between weeks three and four. It was probably a bit ambitious anyway. At any given moment I was juggling requests in all types of media, from downloading music for performance night, shooting daily photos, updating the website and trying desparately to keep everything organized.

Suffice to say, being a camp IT Specialist is not an easy job and doesn't lend itself well to updating personal blogs. Anyway, below is my Photoshelter gallery of the summer. I tried to keep a tight edit of 20 photos and give a little idea of the chronology (using "story" there would be a bit ambitious for what I accomplished). Flip through it when the inspiration strikes you.

-Will

Summer Camp Vol 3

2010-07-25T13:55:00.003-04:00

07.25.10 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - Volume 3 brings us week 1 of camp 2, sort of like a real life sequel, same gang back together again. The week was full of peaks and valleys and included a trip to four of the other camps.

-Will

Arrivals games
Class time
Kite surfing at Sports Camp
Working at the board in Star Camp
Magic Villagers debate possible UK superstitions during class
Wouldn't be camp without a bit of archery, now would it?
Learning articles
Junior performance night, Ghostbusters riff
Mr. Muscle competition for the seniors
Senior Disco Night

Summer Camp Vol 2.

2010-07-25T13:44:00.004-04:00

07.25.10 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - Week 2 of the first camp brought some new excitement. We had Intercamp competition (between the 6 camps of TECS), English Day (a day when kids are divided into countries and learn about their cultures, chant funny things like Lovely Jubbly and Howdy Partner), the Colour War victory dinner, casino night and departures. It was a lot and good times.

-Will

Heading home
Intercamp chanting competition
English Day, the Aussie team chants "Tie Your Kangaroo Down"; notice the face paint
Each camp one staff member is "gunked" during Casino Night (the last night of camp) and after being covered in a purplish slimy substance, runs around the park and tries to grab as many campers (all 206 of them) as possible. This time it was Pelayo and he managed to horrify several of the sophomores (aged 5-8).
Henry, the welfare coordinator and victor in sumo wrestling during Casino Night
Intercamp water polo
Class time
Sophomores in line for the haunted house

Summer Camp Vol. 1

2010-07-25T13:35:00.003-04:00

07.25.10 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - I've finally had a chance to catch my breath here in El Puerto since arriving five weeks ago. As I've mentioned to nearly everyone I know, I'm working as an IT Specialist at TECS Summer Camps until the end of August. My main job is camp photographer, a task I try not to take lightly. As a result I spend at least a couple hours a day shooting the kids in their various camp activities.

Days follow a similar path: breakfast, classes (it's an English camp, so school is part of it), lunch, sports, dinner and evening entertainments. I look for a variety of the goings on each week and things have turned out pretty well. As best as I can for the next five weeks I'm going to post a small selection of photos from each week of camp.

Thanks for following,

Will

Volleyball
Jump rope in the basketball courts
Rounders
Arrivals Day
Colour war dance competition. Colour war is a camp wide, 24/7 competition between the kids and the teams are divided into blue and white. After three weeks of having campers here I've found that nearly anything can be turned into a game, even handing out workbooks.

Spain wins!

2010-07-12T04:32:00.004-04:00

07.11.10 - El Puerto de Santa Maria, Spain - At long last the Spanish national team won the World Cup last night with a 1-0 victory over Holland. I'm a bit swamped with summer camp work at the moment but we did watch the game with the kids and afterwards, I shot some photos just outside the gate (we had to stay on site with work beginning, win or lose, at 8:30am Monday).

Enjoy,

Will

Yo soy español, español. . .
Guille doing his best torero impression.

The kids attack Dutch fan Lacklan.

David and the kids celebrate Spain hoisting the trophy.

Los Cañones

2010-05-29T14:25:00.004-04:00

05.27.10 - Ourense, Spain - I went with my Spanish class on a field trip to the canyons in south eastern Galicia. They are quite dramatic. We toured the countryside of the Ribeira Sacra all day stopping in various towns to see the sights.

-Will

The Canyons. We were traveling with some crazy Senegalese guys who liked to climb on things.
A Parador outside Ourense.
The first language is Galego, followed by Spanish and of course, English.
Countryside in Parada do Sil
More countryside.

Photos of Phriends

2010-05-29T14:18:00.003-04:00

05.22.10 - A Coruña - A couple of portraits of my friends here in A Coruña. We went out together on Saturday night, watched the sunset along the Paseo, ate dinner at Bania, the local veggie restaurant, and then toured a few bars.

-Will

Manuel, el lector de italiano.
Manuel and Roisin.
Anne, la lectora francesa.

The Beach

2010-05-29T14:05:00.003-04:00

05.22.10 - A Coruña, Spain - At the end of a sunny week, I went to the beach in search of some photos. Thinking like a photographer, I was after photos of people doing funny things and maybe some good culture photos. Only later did I realize that I looked like a pervert roving the beach with a camera.

C'est la vie,

Will

Playa Club runs along Riazor beach.
Along the paseo.
Pondering.

Happy Cinco de Mayo - ¡Olé!

2010-05-05T17:14:00.003-04:00

05.05.10 - In short, this is what happens when I get bored. Well, you know what? It was productive. Wanted to get something that said "Cinco de Mayo" and yes, I went with the beer (sorry Mexico). Anyway, wanted to give it a blue background, then I changed my mind and decided I wanted a red hue and highlight the "Sol with a light from the right.

¡Salud!

Will

Results.
Blue t-shirt, two speedlites, a red cover made out of the packaging of the two 12 packs of Mahou that are holding up the t-shirt.

More Black Towers Portraits

2010-05-05T10:13:00.004-04:00

05.05.10 - A Coruña, Spain - I've been finishing up the portraits from the football story at various practices this past week. Still learning light, but I like the ideas.

Not sure I've mentioned this, but the teams practice in two different places and play in a third, so the fields are quite different. Their "facility" is the dirt field in Santiago and on Tuesday nights the members from A Coruña practice on city soccer fields near the Tower of Hercules.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Will

David "Presi."
Pati. Superfly. Jeje.
Coach Ricardo.
David Siso.
Running sprints.
I know, I know. Two panning pictures in two weeks. But I've been to three straight wind sprints practices and its starting to feel like Spring Training. Also, this one is better than the one from the other day.

A break at practice in Santiago.

Black Towers Portraits

2010-04-29T07:28:00.003-04:00

04.27.10 - A Coruña, Spain - I'm working on some individual portraits of a few of the players. Kind of fun. Working with a couple of speedlites without any stands or anything. Trying to cast some shadows and give it a good football look.

-Will

Victor.
Raul.
It was one of those awful running practices, so I tried to pan a bit. This is another shot of Victor. The team is doing a bit of endurance training because the playoffs are more than a month off.

Percebes (Goose Barnacles)

2010-04-29T07:20:00.002-04:00

04.25.10 - A Coruña, Spain - Eunice was in town for the weekend and we bought some goose barnacles, a local delicacy (90€ a kilo in restaurants, I only bought 100 grams for 4.50 or something). We boiled them with some salt, olive oil and laurel. They were surprisingly large I thought and had a really interesting taste. Great with a crisp white wine on a hot day (both of which we had).

You kind of have to twist them and the meaty part comes out with a squirt of salt water.

Mmmm,

Will

The meaty part.
Eunice gettin' her twist on.

Galicia Black Towers v. Oporto Lumberjacks

2010-04-25T18:09:00.004-04:00

04.25.10 - Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Continuing with my photo story, I went to see the Black Towers play the Oporto Lumberjacks last week at home. The guys played well and won, 34-19, clinching a playoff berth in their first season. It was a lot of fun and I went out for lunch with them afterwards.

Below are the photos,

Will

Mexi stiff arms a Lumberjack.
Diego talks with the defense during a break in the action.
Celebrating the win.
After a few post game meals the churasceria put up a team photo. It was passed around, much like the ribs.
Tackle.
Victor.
Setting up.
A plane landing at Coruña's airport. I guess the cloud of volcanic ash wasn't effecting the airports here.

Ourense

2010-04-14T08:07:00.003-04:00

04.11.10 - Ourense, Spain - Another trip? I know, I know. It was a big week. We went to Ourense on the weekend and tried some of the Ribeiro and Albariño.

Good times,

Will

Santiago de Compostela (Again)

2010-04-14T08:02:00.003-04:00

04.07.10 - Santiago de Compostela, Spain - Eunice and I went for the afternoon to visit Santiago, eat some tarta de Santiago, see the Pilgrim's mass and watch the pilgrim's arrive. Not necessarily in that order of course. In fact, the complete other way around.

-Will

Again the cathedral.

Along the streets.

Betanzos

2010-04-14T07:55:00.004-04:00

04.05.10 - Betanzos, Spain - Eunice and I went to the nearby valley town of Betanzos to see the sights and check it out.

-Will

Two shots along the River Mandeo.

Women's Basketball Caja Rural Valbusenda vs. Pio XII

2010-04-14T07:27:00.004-04:00

04.01.10 - Zamora, Spain - I went to see Eunice's friend Nicki Louden, who plays for Zamora's women's basketball team, Caja Rural Valbusenda (orange), play against Pio XII (blue). They killed them, winning 68-59 but they were up by more than 20 at the half and were it not for a few threes at the end, Pio would have lost by a lot more than 11.

I grabbed a couple of shots just sitting in the stands. It always amazes me how physical women's sports can be. Almost always good loose ball photos.

-Will

Semana Santa (Easter Week) - The Outtakes

2010-04-14T06:57:00.004-04:00

04.01.10 - Zamora, Spain - And these are the outtakes. If you are confused because you haven't read the other post on Semana Santa, then read that and come back to this.

-Will

It was raining and they were calling for a ride.
You know, from the story of Easter, "The Two Plumbing Klansmen."
A little bit of Blackberry action after a procession.

Marching to a parade.
This was the procession at 5am on Friday morning. It's aptly nicknamed the "drunk procession" because it occurs after a citywide botellón.
Mei and John watch the 5am procession. They give out candy as well during it and Mei is enjoying a lollipop.

Semana Santa (Easter Week) - The Processions

2010-04-14T06:13:00.007-04:00

04.01.10 - Zamora, Spain - "To process or not to process" would have indeed been the question posed by Hamlet in his most vulnerable moment if the play had taken place in Zamora during Semana Santa. He most certainly would have been half dressed holding his hood outstretched in his hand, while standing barefoot in the cold rain in Zamora as the other brothers put the 300 year-old Jesus statue in a clear plastic garbage bag to prevent the rain from causing the paint to run.

I spent our Semana Santa holiday in Zamora visiting Eunice and taking in some of the most famous Easter processions in all of Spain. The weather left much to be desired, but at least it was raining in everywhere else in Spain, too. The photos were numerous and in the next couple blogs I'll add the outtakes. To start, I've got some general photos of the processions.

What is a procession?

Good question. Basically, the brotherhoods of the various churches (think your local Rotary or Kiwanis) has one procession during the week. They go to the church and get dressed in long robes and hods (yes, they look like klansmen) and start to pray or chant or be really quiet (most of the processions are silent) and then they walk out two by two along the streets of the city. At the end of the procession is a particular statue, generally of Jesus on a crucifix or on his way to be crucified or after crucifixion. Sometimes there is a band with the statue. Afterwards, everyone goes to a bar.

-Will

This was the children's procession on Sunday afternoon. Best weather all week. I like this photo because Jesus bears a striking resemblance to a Bee-Gee (thanks Cormac) crowd surfing.
Give a child a palm, and they will destroy it.

This is one of my favorites.
This was a silent midnight procession where the men wore all brown and carried lanterns. It was also about 30 degrees outside and we had been waiting for almost an hour for it to arrive at that point. I would have paid a lot of money for a souvenir cloak or at least a hot chocolate.

This is the other view of the first photo from this procession. They had to lower the statue to fit it through the old city wall.

We came upon this procession earlier that night.
The children's procession with the Ayuntamiento in the background. Notice the different flags of the brotherhoods draped below the windows.
Many people walk barefoot in the processions either as a sacrifice or because they lost a bet a year before (I was told this by more than one Spanish person).
Most though, wear shoes. This is a group carry a large statue on their shoulders. This procession lasted 7-8 hours.
There were drums.

Trip to Asturias

2010-03-25T10:11:00.004-04:00

03.21.10 - Asturias, Spain - I took a weekend trip all around Asturias (the neighboring region to Galicia) with some friends. Apparently, Friday was Spanish Father's Day so we had an extra day to go exploring, which was excellent. We headed off to Oviedo, Gijón, Salinas, Cudillero and Avilés and fun was had by all. Drank lots of cider and enjoyed the first few days of Spring.

Highly recommended,

Will

Gijón. Very similar in appearance to A Coruña.
The beach in Salinas. I thought it made a nice frame. There's a strange rock formation with a statue on the left, but the boats and the birds are nice.
Cudillero is a tiny hill town about 30 minutes west from Avilés. We got a great off season deal on an apartment for six there and spent the night. In the morning we walked up and down the winding streets and found this perch for a photo. Behind the girls is the main square which you can see just between the green plant and Claudia. Just barely.
Spanish wedding in the morning in Gijón. I thought these dresses were ridiculous (in a spectacular way of course). There were like 20 people like this. We didn't see the bride, but I can't imagine what she did to top them.

The Galicia Black Towers play the Lisbon Navigators

2010-03-25T09:58:00.004-04:00

03.14.10 - Santiago de Compostela, Spain - It's been a slow few weeks for me photographically, but I did shoot another football game of the Galicia Black Towers as part of the photo story I'm working on. It was another tough loss to the Lisbon Navigators, 79-0. It was suggested to me that I try to attend a game against a different team (I saw their first game against Lisbon as well, a 50-6 affair) and I think I'll take them up on it.

Anyway, it was fun to see the prep work on the field in Santiago and afterwards I went out with them to a nearby Churrascaria in a much needed attempt at feeding out blood. I think all the wounds were erased when the licor cafe came out.

Exciting,

Will

QB David Siso is hit by a Navigator.
Pregame speech.
Learning how to run the sticks.
Makeshift goal posts.
Licor cafe makes everything better.