Bryan beware.
I’m going to talk a bunch about photography in this post.
Amateurs beware.
It’s going to be a lot of ranting about photography and you won’t learn much because I’m just an okay photographer.
Alright. Let’s get to it.
Bam!
Album starts with pictures of food.
There is a reason for that. I’m posting pictures of food, beers, and tours on the Tijuana Adventure Instagram page to get it more active and get more tours. No more pictures of food, beers, etc on my regular Instagram page.
Is there a reason for this?! Not really. There is no reason to living. You should all go kill yourselves.
Okay. Yeah. The reason is more likes. More followers. More tours. More money.
I mean… in theory.
The rest of the pictures… just shooting around Tijuana with Housewrecker.
Who is Housewrecker?!
My girlfriend calls him my “Instagram boyfriend.”
This is his Instagram. He takes great pictures and gets to travel around the world.
And yes. We met each other through Instagram a few months ago.
Lol. Pinche Paco just blasted me publicly on Facebook for the way I over edit. “Easy on the Photoshop bruh!” he says.
So my rant is going to be more ranty now because I’m pissy.
There are three types of Instagrammers. Or at least there are three fucking types for me. Other people might follow other types. Other people follow stupid shit. Who cares.
These are the following three types.
- Food (and drink) posts.
- Photographers that actually try to take great pictures and have a large following and make it their career (or attempt to do so).
- Titties and ass.
All of them have sub categories and there is more than just that.
People who post text on Instagram. Stop.
Just fucking stop.
As far as food goes, I follow a bunch of people that do food in Tijuana and San Diego and the surrounding area. That’s what my TijuanaAdventure account will focus on. And to promote food and beers in the area. So yep. I have a dedicated account just for food.
As far as ass goes. Follow this page. The Booty Supreme.
Or follow who the fuck you want. There is so much ass on Instagram. I recommend The Booty Supreme because the dude is a great shooter. I used to work with that dude. I remember him telling me that his dream was to make money taking pictures of ass. And fuck. The dude fucking made it. He runs a magazine that is all about ass and seriously gets some amazing ass pictures.
I also remember hanging out with a dude that was a porn photographer (he stayed in my LA apartment for two weeks years ago). And I remember him crying because his pornstar girlfriend broke up with him and he had a hard drive full of her nude and sex pictures. This was porn. Raw porn. Not your “I look cute in my bra” nude pictures that dominate Instagram.
That dude told me never to date a pornstar.
And so I’ve shot with a wide margin of people and hung out with photo guys and talked about photography and shooting and everyone has their own style and their type of shooting and preference and what not. So everyone has their own shitty opinions. I just happen to write my shitty opinions on a shitty blog every day.
What I shoot right now. I’m obsessed with the wide angle Tokina 11-16mm/2.8f.
Wide angles are stupid. But as a kid, I always loved wide angle photography. So I’m playing a lot with that one. The lens is great for astrophotography which I need to get way better at. That’s one big group of Instragrammers I follow that are all about astrophotography and light painting. I need to get me some light painting brushes as well….
The other lens I use is the 28-70mm/2.8f shitty Tokina lens that has gear malfunctions. But it’s the only versatile lens I have. I would carry the 70-200mm/2.8f monster if I had it.
The other lens I have is the 80mm/1.8f Canon, but I didn’t carry that one yesterday. There is no much need to carry that one though is small and nifty, 80mm is just way too tight on a crop sensor.
None of the lenses I mention, I own. Which is fucking pathetically sad. Which means I need to make more money so I can own some lenses. And in the future, a mirrorless body with even more lenses. (and a car at some point… )
I’m shooting RAW now. Which I’m a dumbass for not doing before.
I got Lightroom to work again. And it’s a joy to process through that.
Then I Dropbox the pics to my phone and edit yet again with Snapseed before posting. And with Snapseed is where I get edit happy and I start doing the over edit shit that gives my subjects a glow and it makes it all look like shitty HDR.
I’m FUCKING aware of it. And that’s how I fucking like it!
Now back to yesterday.
Of course, I didn’t fucking work. I went out shooting as if it was my job (sometimes it is!)
I really should work soon….
I met up with Joey (Housewrecker) at 3:45 pm outside of Mamut. He joined me on the quest to find some pepper spray for my girlfriend. That shit took a while to find. Before meeting him, I had already tried three different stores with no luck. It felt like buying some illegal shit. Actually… pepper spray is not regulated in Mexico. So it was like buying some illegal shit. I had to go to a head shop to get it.
All I know though, is that I feel better with my girlfriend carrying that in her bag instead of nothing. I don’t think it will do much good. In case anything happens, I feel like she will freak out and forget to use it. But it just makes me feel better. Fucking pepper spray might not even work. But she has one.
We then went to Mamut for a couple of beers.
I was meeting my girlfriend after work nearby. Went to go get her. And more beers.
Her first day of work was fine. She’s basically training this week. Which means the 5 am schedule hasn’t started. She likes the people she has met so far. And the building seems to be active 24/7.
She made fun of me for buying her pepper spray. Is not the most “hey I have a gift for you” a dude can give his girlfriend. So I feel like I should buy her another gift. But then I don’t want her to getting used to everyday gifts!… I’ll just continue buying her beer and food. That’s where most my money goes anyway…
After beers, we were going to Colectivo 9, but it was closed because Monday.
So we walked again to Teléfonica. (cue the Teléfonica dance).
Overcast and with nothing to shoot. We shot nothing. Until…
Food!
If I carry my fucking camera and there’s food. I’m going to take mother fucking pictures of food.
That’s how it started.
Then more walking around still with not much to shoot and weather super overcast that taking environment/landscape pictures would have been really dumb.
More beer at the bar in the corner.
That was more colorful.
That was Tijuana. Which is fucking bizarre.
To the left two homeless sat on a bench drinking a bottle of Mezcalita which is a shitty $1 bottle of “mezcal” that researchers found wasn’t even mezcal but it’s more like paint thinner flavored tequila (sources, look them up, I don’t have time for that shit).
To the right, a cross-dresser sat on the bench that is actually a giant ad. She was smoking a cigarette that never seemed to end, held the pack in her other hand, and ramble randomly to himself. He was clearly on a different planet (And yes, I played with the pronouns he and she because it’s both and I don’t know what he/she prefers and using that stupid “x” like “xe xim/xer” is fucking stupid).
A two-liter pitcher of ok beer for 120 pesos. That’s $7.
And then, mariachis started to serenade us (and people in the bar).
There.
Finally, something to shoot.
I posted the picture of the crossdresser and some stranger on my Instagram commented: “It’s easier to take a picture than to help.”
No fucking shit. What am I supposed to do?! Help the countless homeless that surround my everyday. In a sick twisted way, the picture does help. It’s reality. It’s crude. I like it.
And then I obviously ruin it by over saturating the fuck out of it.
This was my favorite shot of the day:
My reasoning.
I like setting my subjects off-center.
That was my first boss who taught me that. He was a dick 92% of the time and nice 8% of the time. A dick or not, he taught me a bunch of photography in my first job ever at 21 years of age. That seems forever ago.
If I didn’t shoot a couple of frames with the celebrity off-center he would lose his shit and yell at me on the phone. Many of the times were the editor’s fault for leaving it out of the edit.
Reason to shoot off-center wasn’t for art or any shit like that. It’s because it’s a better sale on a magazine. If a celebrity is off-center and there is a lot of space, magazines buy the bigger picture and write text on the empty space. So it was a way to sell more.
And now I just do it.
The shoot yesterday wasn’t by any means great. Or barely good. The weather is shit again today. It wasn’t even 6 pm and I had the ISO at 1600 already.
Housewrecker went back to San Diego.
We came back home.
That was my Instagram date.
Girlfriend was tired early because now she works early. It was an early bed for her.
I stayed up with the roommate and played Mario Kart all night while drinking caguamas.
Life is good. My girlfriend is great. My cat is fat.
But I seriously need to do some work.
Matingas 