Mountain Ball

Copan Ruinas, Honduras - Soccer in the hills of Honduras must be like basketball in the hills of Kentucky:  remote and played with a passion.  What amazed me most about this day was the game itself and the field full of rocks and hard dirt.

100 Yards for Earth Day

San Salvador, El Salvador – Earth Day came and went.  As with most every year the day snuck up on me like a last second field goal to win the game.  Heartbreak.

To commemorate the day I created a photo project for myself called 100 Yards of Earth Day.  The idea was to find things at home or down the street that reminded me of conservation.

All photos were taken with a point-and-shoot digital camera.

 

Drying clothes on a laundry line reduces electrical use.

Eating foods that are grown locally reduces transportation fuels.

Watering houseplants late in the afternoon increases soil absorption efficiency.

Washing plates and forks in the sink, if done properly, reduces water consumption and electrical use.

Properly inflated tires increases gas mileage efficiency.

Throwing trash in a trashcan is a start: separating and recycling is the next step.

No need to bag yard clippings.  Compost.

School Dazed

Copan Ruinas, Honduras – These images are outtakes from my Little Indiana Jones post.  The pictures do not have anything to do with the archeology program but rather show life around a rural school.

Cobblestone Resurrection

Copan Ruinas, Honduras – These images were taken the Thursday evening before Easter Sunday.  Several city blocks were roped off for this wood shaving art ceremony.

The process of transforming these rocky streets was amazing to see:  taking cobblestone and making them look smooth as silk with colored wood dust.

One unique thing about Copan’s Easter street scene is that it incorporates Christian scenarios with Mayan hieroglyphs. 

Little Indiana Jones

Copan Ruinas, Honduras – La Pintada is little neighborhood nestled several kilometers from the famous ruins of Copan.  Many neighborhoods like this know very little about the exciting archeological discoveries that take place within their own back yards, not to mention the know-how or career path to these great adventures.

Archeologist Argi Diez, of Spain, and artist Carin Steen, of Holland, have created a curriculum of simulated digs and discoveries for school-aged children that help illustrate the technical know-how of becoming an archeologist and the cultural importance of preserving history.

These images are part of an ongoing story.

Carin, left, and Argi walk towards La Pintada carrying their archeological discoveries workshop.

While Argi leads a class discussion some students are still a little shy to enter the room.

Class begins with each student “unearthing” an archeological discovery.

One of the first steps upon a discovery is to carefully brush off any dirt.

Then one tags their discovery for proper identification.

Argi leads a class discussion.

Students pay attention to Argi’s explanations.

Carin laughs with a student as he turns in his archeological art project.

Argi and Carin with their students.  I am not sure all these children were part of the class but they wanted their picture taken anyway!

Wedding Bells

Atitlan, Guatemala – These images are from my first wedding assignment.  The bride was my cousin so that made the day that more special.  Then next best thing about the day was that I got to take Frida and my son to this magical and ecological wonder called Lago Atitlan.

The weekend was not all fun and giggles though for on the way home my computer crashed (I lost all the pre-wedding images) and some bandits tried to hold us up on the highway two hours from the El Salvadoran border – shooting pistols at us as we Indy 500 them.

 

Shaman

Copan Ruinas, Honduras – Aumrak, a shaman from Guatemala, needed a headshot for a website and other promotional work she is doing throughout Honduras.

One of the cool things about Aumrak is that she performed a Mayan fire ceremony for my wedding.  If you would like to see some of these amazing photos you can contact wedding photographer Joshua McCoy via Facebook or http://www.joshuamccoy.com

For this photo shoot all I did was stand her within a covered patio’s doorframe.

April 10, 2009