pabloniaphoto

Water painting / Pintura de agua

2011-03-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

I love art, and have always wanted to paint, but I think I'm no good drawer, so I have tried to paint with my camera. Abstract photography, like abstract art, capturing shapes, textures, shades, colours, reflections, contrasts, nature's brush strokes. The air, and the water, closeups, let me do that. Here I am, an underwater Picasso playing with a waterproof camera, excited like a child for the pictures that might come, a frogman with my snorkel, the surprised gaze of my grandmother watching as I squeeze mosaics from the water, the light, some objects, some shit!!!

03/11 Bajo el agua serie HR.

A poem from Jose Gorostiza comes to mind (Dead without end):

Lleno de mí, sitiado en mi epidermis por un dios inasible que me ahoga, mentido acaso por su radiante atmósfera de luces que oculta mi conciencia derramada, mis alas rotas en esquirlas de aire, mi torpe andar a tientas por el lodo; lleno de mí —ahíto— me descubro en la imagen atónita del agua, que tan sólo es un tumbo inmarcesible, un desplome de ángeles caídos a la delicia intacta de su peso, que nada tiene sino la cara en blanco hundida a medias ya, como una risa agónica…

When horses run on wheels! /Cuando los caballos corran sobre ruedas

2011-03-27T21:10:00.000-07:00

In this serie I went with my photographer friend Marichelo Alzati www.maphotos.com to a Train Park in Mexico, for a contest in Spain about trains called Roads of Iron. The title I put is part of a prophesy from the Buddha about the buddhist teachings: 'When the iron bird flies, and the horses run on wheels, the Dharma will arrive to the west'. In the last century, the century of trains and airplanes, when the chinese invaded Tibet, Tibetans had to flee and scatter all around the world, thus the buddhas teachings came into the west. As sad as it is, their suffering brought us some unvaluable wisdom. 08/10 Ferrovalle serie HR

Travel through the past south of Mexico / Viaje a través del sur pasado de México

2011-01-24T22:26:00.000-08:00

Long time no published. One gets busy living life, hopefully enjoying it rather than writing about it. This post is about a trip I made as a tourist guide with some friends from Colombia, last Dec. Didn't keep me from taking photos. We went through the states of Puebla, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Campeche and Yucatán, around 4,000 km. We visited mostly archeological sites from the native prespanish cultures of Mexico. So much we saw and much more we didn't. Enough to do in one life for a thousand years.

Monte Albán, Mitla (2) and Yagul (2) from the mixeca and zapoteca prehispanic cultures, Oaxaca, Mexico. Church in the city of Puebla, Puebla.

The cathedral of Oaxaca city, Oaxaca and the Sumidero Canyon near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas.

A sober church in San Cristobal de las Casas. Toniná archeological site, mayan culture, Chiapas.

Toniná, Chiapas.

Toniná and the Agua Azul waterfalls, Chiapas.

Palenque, mayan historic city. The palace with its tower.

Palenque, the pyramid of king Pakal, and the palace.

Edzná, Campeche, by the mayas.

Kabáh and Uxmal, Yucatán. Mayan heritage.

Uxmal, the nunnery and the fortune teller pyramid.

On the way back, the Golf of Mexico's sea at Campeche.

Cheers!

12/10 Sur de Mexico, Puebla series. H R

Small voyage to the land of eternal snows/ Pequeña expedición a la tierra de la nieves eternas

2010-04-14T14:36:00.000-07:00

You advance 50 meters in half an hour, your breath is not enough, you have to rest every ten steps, your blood tries to burst out of you, pounding on your ears. You feel like you cannot walk anymore, that simple movement taken for granted in our daily lives, not one step. But you are so close. You catch your breath and continue. How can you not reach the summit?! Your legs hurt like you've run a marathon; you should rest but there is no time. Light is of uttermost importance. You make it! You reach the peak. Exhausted, you still have to go down, and go up again to go down. You cannot believe you can do it, and that you are doing it, but failure is not an option, you cannot stay here, or you might die. The whiteness surrounds you like a purifying blanket, and you pray. Not everybody made it to the top, but for that they are fresher, and have gone down already. You have to make an effort, concentrate where you put your feet, you cannot afford to loose your footing and brake an ankle...
This is how it felt climbing the mountain, El nevado de Toluca (The snowed of Toluca) Xinantécatl, with a height of almost 5,000 meters. The experience gave me a grown confidence in what I can do, and an iron will and resistance (of mind-body). It was much covered in snow as it rarely is, the lake on the crater was frozen, and we walked on it, all in the colour of blinding snow. It made me feel like I was in Tibet, the land of eternal snows, and the buddhas shined like a thousand suns. Karmapa chenno, karmapa chenno, karmapa chenno! 03/10 Nevado de Toluca serie. H R

The multiplication of Pakal/ La multiplicación de Pakal

2010-03-19T19:46:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from prehispanic mexican keychains www.llaverosdemexico.blogspot.com. Pakal II (K'inich J'anaab Pakal) was an important Mayan king from the city of Palenque, Chiapas. He is the most renowned of the lords of Palenque, for the levels of splendor and sophistication B’aakal reached during his reign, as well as for his tomb (where this figure was found), discovered on the bottom of the Temple of the Inscriptions, in a secret crypt which remained intact for over twelve centuries, considered one of the most important archaeological discoveries of Mesoamerica. The piece shows classic features of the Mayan nobility, culture that reached the highest levels in art, science and civilization of the prehispanic world. The Mayas deformed their skulls and elongated their nose line as can be seen in the reproduction.

The other picture featuresTeotihuacan human masks.

02/2010 Keychains serie. H R

Iron Fish / Peces de Hierro

2009-07-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

This is the photo with which I recently won the National Photography Contest 2009 "Towards the Centennial of the Mexican Aviation". The title is "Metal Shark", and is from a serie I took of the P-47 Thunderbolt combat airplane of the II WW, which the mexican squadron 201 flew to fight against the Japaneese in the Filipines, towards the end of the war. It remains altive, on a pedestal in Santa Lucia AFB, Mexico. I went there to take pictures of it for an article that didn't come out. After the P-51 Mustang, it is probably the best american combat aircraft of the war.

A few others from the serie. The last one is titled "To the ground!", as if the plane is just flying over you. 10/08, P-47 serie H R

Dream Labirinth/ Sueño Laberinto

2009-05-03T21:18:00.000-07:00

During the Encuentro Hispanoamericano de Poesía 2008 http://floricanto.blogspot.com/, at La casa del Poeta (the poet's house), we had a guided visit of the house of Ramón López Velarde, a very important mexican poet, and we went through a kind of labirinth with a multitude of objects which are a metaphor of his life. It looks like a dream. I took some photographs that evoque such labirinth-dream. Thinking on heightening that perception I choose a photo and did some digital effects. The result was around 80 different images, all comming from the same. To the last one, I added verses from the poets that can be seen in the picture. Clockwise starting from the left: María Paz Moreno (Spain), Rei Berroa (Dominican Republic), Antonio Barbagallo (Italy-Spain), César Rodríguez Diez (Mexico), & Obediah Smith (Bahamas) http://www.periodicodepoesia.unam.mx/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=966&Itemid=80. 10/08 EHP, Sueño-Laberinto serie H R, D E

The Poet afraid to loose his blackness/ El Poeta con miedo de perder su negrura

2009-05-03T14:39:00.001-07:00

Long time no publish. I was busy. Unemployed now.

This photos feature Obediah Smith, a poet friend from Bahamas whom I met last year at an international poetry festival http://floricanto.blogspot.com/. He is such a character. Everybody liked him. In the pictures where he holds the coffee, it looks like he is drinking many cups, as if afraid to loose his blackness...! The other pictures are related to the poem , and they tell a story. 10/08 EHP series. H R

Nostalgia

Obediah and I we have the same skin.

He has gone,

and I remain with a knot in the heart,

tears in the eyes.

His huge monkey smile.

His black women from the Hilton,

one on each hand,

writing, anywhere,

untiringly,

on his notebook, with no order,

from right to left, up down,

in the restroom, on the hand paper.

I don´t want him to leave,

and is already gone.

I miss him competing with me for Maria,

writing her verses, driving her nuts,

writing to everything,

while he listens to others reading,

saying poetry,

not understanding: feeling,

writes and writes, inexhaustible,

poet all day and night,

everything inspires him,

me, me inspired by him.

>It’s that there’s a very thin skin between myself

and life<, he told me.

The last on everything,

enjoys each moment, wrapped on the present.

I never met someone who was more out of

this world than myself,

exchanging books with everyone, and,

even though he doesn’t speak Spanish,

reading them,

writing the hour, minutes and seconds when

he finishes a poem.

I miss Obediah,

I miss my poets with the heart on their skin!

P.R. 10/08

http://www.bestwordsmith.blogspot.com/

>Sambhogakaya

2008-08-13T16:56:00.000-07:00

I took home with me a small glass bottle of Coca Cola because I liked it. I saw that the light was interestingly disseminated on the inside and started playing with it. Among other things, it occurred to me to put images of Buddhas at the bottom, and then photographed them from the top. The Buddha's energy, their illuminated power fields manifested. These are some of the pictures. 03/08 Buddhas & Boddhisatvas serie. L R

>Buddhas in the sky / Budas en el cielo

2008-08-11T17:54:00.000-07:00

I love the sky. Ever changing. I like it when the sun is behind the clouds and beams of light glow in all directions. When I saw the first photo, with all the light shinning from the cloud, and its round pattern, I thought: Wow, looks like a Buddha could be appearing there. And then I thought: Why not? So I took the previous pictures from the CC bottle series, and added them to it. 07/08 Buddhas in the sky serie. H R, D E

*My element / Mi elemento

2008-08-05T13:11:00.000-07:00

Yo nací de cabeza.
¿Por qué tengo que pasar la vida adherido al suelo?
Mi naturaleza volante agita las alas y no me elevo.
Arriba estaba. No lo recuerdo, lo siento.
Un día caí y quedé pegado al suelo.
El aire me envuelve, alienta,
susurra mejores momentos,
me conquista.
Cuando me acuesto y miro al cielo
sé que es mi elemento.
No vuelo, no caigo.
El cielo no es arriba, es abajo: un precipicio.
Estoy fijo a un techo que me detiene, succiona,
me esclaviza.
Miro el espacio; los edificios, árboles
como raíces aéreas no yacen: cuelgan,
las nubes ligeras, el infinito
con gravedad, como imanes, me atraen

y quiero lanzarme, dejarme caer como un águila,
¡saltar a la libertad!
"Mi elemento", PR 11/05

The sky is my element. I was born upside down. Up there I was. I don't remember, I feel it. One day I fell here. The ground is a prison that holds me. The sky is not up, it's down; the clouds, the infinite pulls me. I look at the space; the buildings, the trees, like aerial roots they don't lie: they hang. I want to let go. 04/07 Ags & others serie. L R

>High Flight / Vuelo Alto

2008-07-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

The high sky, another world, another beautifull world. So distant, so close. "Up there in the distance sat beauty, too distant to touch, too close to comprehend." High Flight is the name of one of the best poems ever witten about flying, made by John Gillespie Maguee Jr. during the II WW. "...and, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod the high unsurpassed sanctity of space, put out my hand, and touched the face of God." Various series L & H R

>Attractive Chaos / Caos atractivo

2008-07-19T16:05:00.000-07:00

When you walk through a city with your camera, you feel like a Columbus. Everything is set up for discovery. Mexico City, one of the three biggest cities in the planet. Chaotic moments have also their attraction. The man walks as he talks on the phone, close to the wall trying to get away from the noise. People walk by a puddle were some throw their trash, indifferent to it, barely seeing it, enough to go around it. A man stands outside a miscellaneous store, parked beside a Do not Park sign, eating what he has just bought, maybe his only meal of the day; next to the Coca Cola and Pepsi signs there is a discrete, in contrast, AA sign (Alcoholic Anonymous). A street closed to the Market, where the seller of a stand wears a plastic bag all over his head, what is he thinking? does he want to die, is he asphyxiating? A bus stop: a man looks into the road, in a hurry to catch the bus; a young man passes by carrying his worries; an old man pushing his ice cream cart, selling a treat the same way he used to do 50 or more years ago, the cars zooming by his side; a skinny man just in front, next to an advertisement portraying a delicious, perfect cheese, looks into the ice cream man completely indifferent, like he has seen that image so many times. A sidewalk full of illegal, ambulant, non taxpaying stands with pirate movies, cds, software, were at times there are so many people that one can barely walk through; the road packed with cars that don't move. Photography emphasizes and lets you dwell in the contrasts and ironies of life. 11/03 Ciudad de Mexico serie. L R

Views of Mexico City / Vistas de la Ciudad de Mexico

2008-07-19T15:39:00.000-07:00

The first two photos are from the National Palace; below, the National Auditorium; hotels in Polanco, close to the Auditorium (you can see the orange metro/subway sign); the angel of independence in Reforma-centro; and a hotel close by. 11/03 Ciudad de Mexico serie. L R

> Metropolitan Cathedral / Catedral Metropolitana

2008-07-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

The Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City is at the Zocalo, the central square, a huge space occupied by history, people and movement. You can have a spiritual cleansing made by an Aztec shaman dancer, who is saving money to buy a golden Rolex watch, or just dreaming about it. You can also find people sitting outside the cathedral fence, with a written add before them looking for a job, doing nothing as they wait; and who says you need much to start a business: have a delicious grilled corncob with mayonnaise and pepper, made on a supermarket cart. Here you are promised to leave awed, not without an impression. 11/03 Catedral Metropolitana serie. L R

> Helmut Newton and a friend / Helmut Newton y un amigo

2008-07-18T23:50:00.000-07:00

I love picturing mirrors. It's as if things look different seen through them, always as if things changed color, or place. Even looking into the rear view mirror while driving, or stopped at a traffic light, it all seems more interesting, in a different light, as if seen through a video camera, like a movie. This pictures are Helmut Newton like, taken with another subject, my friend M. He is the subject, I am the observer, my camera is the witness. Or he is the object, the camera the subject, and I the action. All framed by a real frame: a painting, art. Watch the first photo below, in it at the bottom to the right, looks like there is a small moustached man in black appearing like a ghost in the picture. It is not. 10/03 Casa M. serie. L R

> Wedding / Boda

2008-07-18T23:30:00.000-07:00

A wedding is all about celebrating. Here the bride shows no worries in doing it. All that euphoria, alcohol and dancing come to a degree that makes you see all blurry, like in these pictures, also the ceiling, the chandelier vibrate, full of electricity. 01/03 Boda A. serie. L R

>Wet dream / Sueño humedo

2008-06-22T16:22:00.000-07:00

Photography often reflects our state of being, the way we feel. The photographs can be full with brightness or dark like a deep forest, black or white, or black and white. Sometimes it looks like the camera also has states of mind. When you don't worry to control everything, and leave it at random, one picture comes out in a light, and the next comes out different. What was my camera thinking? The way we choose to see the world is the way our camera pictures it... Which is the real color? We live in a common space but in different universes and they are all real. 07/03 Alberca serie. L R

>Non solid surreal window out of the Matrix/ Ventana no solida y surreal hacia fuera de la Matrix

2008-06-10T19:49:00.000-07:00

How many times do we look through a window, and we see our reflection, the window has become a mirror. How many times a painting becomes a window, and we feel like we are sneaking into someone's room, a vast nature landscape, or into another place & time. How many times a mirror becomes a painting, a window to the outside, or into ourselves. It folds reality. Through windows reality becomes multifaceted. What do we see when we look into a mirror? It's just a reflection, an idea of the images in our mind, or our thoughts becoming the image of ourselves. We are not solid, nothing is solid, 'reality' is a projection of what there is in the mind...
You can put your hand through the mirror into the other room. See how the corner folds, trying to show us the non solidity of reality, to crash our program. If we brake our matrix, our mental veils, our dream... what not we could do? Everything is possible... I would fly. 10/03 Espejo en AGS serie. L R

>Up or down or sideways / Arriba o abajo o de lado

2008-06-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

Which side is up, and which side is down? What is this, from what view are you seeing it, what is its real position? Is northern hemisphere really in the north? Maybe it is in the south or east? Maybe the southern hemisphere countries are less developed because they are upside down and their ideas fall out of their head? But which side is up, what is real, what do we believe in? 10/03 Club Campestre AGS serie. L R , D E on the two below

>Our lady of the forests church / Iglesia de nuestra señora de los bosques

2008-05-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

This pictures were taken in Aguascalientes, a clean and organized small city in the center-north of Mexico. I was driving to or from the school of some cousins when I went past it. I had to stop and go see it. Look at the sobriety plain concrete expresses, and the difference with other times' churches, like the Gothic. It also reminds me of the sobriety of Romanesque churches. The past returns to the future, fashion repeats itself. I love it that if not by the cross or religious symbols, you could know not that it is a church. From some angles, you have no idea what it is. It could be a structure from ancient Egypt, a II WW cannon fort, a building from the distant future, or from another world. 9/03 AGS INSDLB serie. L R

>Photographic painting / Pintura fotografica

2008-05-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

It is amazing to see how there is unlimited potential in every thing in life. Photography is no exception. You can stay for days picturing a place and there will be no similar pictures. The light changes, the angles change, the film-settings change, the objects-subjects in it change...your perception changes. And another variable is now digital effects. Wonderful. Another world. I admire though the photographers that have never used any effects. But who can say something is totally pure? What photographers do now with computers, the analog photographers did in the lab. This picture is of Epson company in Mexico City, and the same place in another world. 06/07 PS serie. H R , D E

>Reality / Realidad ( Past/ Pasado)

2008-05-11T21:04:00.000-07:00

What is real? Which is reality? How many realities are there? What is the difference between absolute reality and relative reality? Are you real? Are your thoughts real? Isn't dreaming the reality, and wake state a dream? Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. What is reality in the picture, and what is a reflection? I love it when things in or outside us create an effect, an illusion, a perception different than normal, that makes us wonder what is real...to tear our mental veils. And in photography, timing is everything! By shooting just when she looks behind her, the girl in the picture adds another element to it: to see what it is that I am picturing, is it her? Is she looking at her past?, or trying to see that which escapes the eye, what is there besides the obvious, checking out what is real, checking out her reality? 09/05 Venezia serie. L R

>My Office / Mi oficina

2008-05-09T20:20:00.000-07:00

I don't remember when i took this picture. It doesn't matter. I was up in the sky, the air, the Troposphere, somewhere around 35,000 feet high. My office. A place never the same, a place that never ceases to amaze me. I can never get enough of watching through the window. So beautiful, so infinite, so soothing, when its calm, and so powerful and dangerous when it isn't.
A place so far from life supporting conditions. At this altitude, there is oxygen and air pressure enough for just a minute or less of conscience; the temperature is around -45oC. The beauty and unhospitality of nature. Photography lets you dwell in these contradictions.
There is a high layer of altostratus clouds; in between the two layers we see two protuberances of cumulus, maybe cumulonimbus (storm clouds); the lower layer that covers the surface like a cotton field, are stratocumulus. (???) Cloud series. L R

>Le Village Saint Paul

2008-05-06T11:20:00.000-07:00

This was taken in the old cartier of Paris, Le Marais, the 4th arrondisement, where I used to live. Part of it is called Le Village Saint Paul, close to the Saint Paul et Saint Louis church, the Hotel de Sens, and the Bastille. I would go out in the evening and walk to the Louvre, see its illuminated inner square with its fountain, or even to the Place de la Concorde and come back by midnight. The first picture, the original, is composed of three scanned photos of two different streets, put together, with a few modifications, to make it less easy to see. The others, part of a larger serie, are the same picture with digital effects. When you enter this area, the streets call you, enchant you, pull you in a dream to follow their meandering paths and get surrounded by their talelike constructions! I love places that make you dream, where you feel like you are in another place, out of this world, or in both at the same time. 07/00 Paris B & W serie. M R, D E

>Think Positive / Piensa positivo

2008-04-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

This is one of those shots that arrive when you don't expect it. I had brought my camera for something else. The manager of the Starbucks coffee, at that time friend Adrian Mena, was writing on a table. Outside was a customer with his back to us, his shirt saying something. The window in between. Then the image and the poetic message came to me: The thoughtful reflection of the person working on the table appeared like the painting of the thoughts of the guy talking on the mobile, complemented with the mantra 'Think Positive', as if he was repeating it to himself, not to loose his temper with the person he was talking with, or just as a positive thought while enjoying his coffee. 11/04 Starbucks series. L R

>Ile Saint Louis

2008-04-23T17:44:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of one of the first series I took on black and white. It was made at the end of my stay in Paris. It's on one of the islands on the river at the center of the city. Taken with my last 35mm camera, which i lost to debris blown into it by the exhaust blast from an FA-18 Hornet in an airshow. Many things I have done with this serie, scanned it and played all around. Look at it. Is it one photo, or three, or one photo put three times together? I have done just a bit of editing, to make this not too obvious. I love it. At the end of the street, there is a restaurant with chairs on the sidewalk, view to the river, and a street musician playing an acordeon to the memorable moments of a soothing evening. Ahhh Paris! 07/00 Paris B & W serie. M R, D E

>Hope / Esperanza

2008-04-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

So many things expressed by this photo. Grace, illumination, hope, friendship. From the same serie as Acuatic UFO. A friend put it in his Nutrition/Nutrition disorders practice, a very good place for it. I have an opposing photo, with the hand all contracted, tight, cramped, full of despair and hopelesness. I had the left hand inside the water, posing, and the right hand out the water, very carefull not to touch it, taking the picture. I was all alone in the pool, like at 10 pm , shooting and shooting. It was great. 07/03 Alberca serie. L R

*Everything goes back to you / Todo vuelve a ti

2008-04-17T17:06:00.000-07:00

Todo vuelve a ti
Tus imagines, el pensamiento de ti.
Yo me detengo, busco,
observo, admiro,
revoloteo con las mujeres,
¡todas se parecen a ti!
Me ocupo, trabajo, escribo, estudio,
me distraigo como mariposa a mediodía…
pero todo vuelve a ti.
Aunque mis fotos no lo digan.
"Todo vuelve a ti", PR 10/06

Can you guess how is this picture composed? It is not an effect, it's not manipulated.
I am standing on the street, in front of a fashion store, in Venezia. The woman is inside the store. I fall in love with her. She is a model, inside the display window. A poster. From were I stand, you can see her: inside, quiet, inquisitive, enticing, beautifull. Then the window, and on it you see my reflection in first plane, then the people passing behind me, on various planes, and then the building opposite the store on another plane. So many layers. For a moment I felt like a fashion photographer. First I took the picture just because I liked the girl. But it turned out full of meaning: It is a metaphor to express how women are part of our lives. Anytime, anywhere, whatever we are doing... there they appear, there they are, inevitably, inseparable, necessary, in our minds: like a paragon of attraction: distracting, seducing, outrageous, overwhelming, filling space with beauty. What a picture! P.S: A copy is resting on the headboard of poet José Cedeño.
09/05 Venezia serie. L R

>Plane Planes / Simples Aviones

2008-04-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

Artifacts to reach the sky, become free, inmortal, gods. Various series 05-07 L & H R

*Stone cleavage / Escote de piedra

2008-04-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Men have a sometimes unexplainable attraction towards breasts, those two delitious targets, two blinding suns, perfect havenly heavens.
This is a little lighted stone fountain. I was watching it close by and suddenly came to mind the image of a nice cleavage. 09/03 Fiesta Sangha serie. L R

Desde que mi madre me tomaba en sus brazos se entreveía.
Crecí admirando el mar abierto,
la marea de todos los días pasando frente a mi
las olas tormentosas de todos tamaños.
Y me preparé para ser un marino;
hasta el día de hoy, me dispongo
con mi uniforme de cielo y sol
y mis ojos que escrutinan los astros mirándome
listo a abordar el barco vivo
a navegar
a sucumbir
entre el oleaje inevitable
y la espumosa blancura de tus pechos.
'Marinero', PR 08/07

>The eye / El ojo

2008-04-03T22:19:00.000-07:00

When you see someone close by, you can see your reflection in their eyes. It also happens with pictures, you can see the photographer on the retina. This window looks like an eye, but you cannot see the photographer, but the witness, the nose, watching him, the owner of the nose. Who is she, or he? Who sees, who is seen? Which is the subject, which is the object, which is the action, where do these unite, or separate? 09/03 Fiesta Sangha serie. L R

>Catapult launch! / !Lanzamiento de catapulta!

2008-03-30T19:50:00.000-07:00

" Even now I close my eyes and hear the clickety-clack of the shuttle, as it moves aft for the next launch. The exhaust from the powerful and reliable F-110 engines fills my nostrils until we drop the canopy and bring our jet to life. Air roars through the ECS. Systems power up. Soon we're parked behind the cat, waiting our turn. I roger the weight board -68,000 pounds! Grasp that if you can! The jet blast deflector comes down and we taxi into place, my pilot deftly splitting the cat track with the twin nose tires. And then -even after decades of doing the same thing- the adrenaline starts to flow as we start into the deck ballet unique to the Tomcat. The nose strut compresses, giving the fighter the look of a rail dragster. The launch bar drops down. Wings motor forward. Flaps lower. Outboard spoiler module circuit breaker is engaged -an old RIO gotcha. Our four hands go up as the ordies arm the missiles, bombs and gun. The cat officer's arm is raised. My pilot puts the throttles to mil power and wipes the controls -stick forward, aft, left, right, rudder left, rudder right. "Mooch, you ready?" he asks. I run the fingers of my right hand across the top of the lower ejection handle -just for orientation purposes, of course- and answer: "Ready." He trades right-handed salutes with the cat officer. We both lean forward slightly into the straps -no self respecting Tomcatter would take a cat shot with his melon against the headrest, a good way to get the old bell rung because of the way the airplane surges down before it jerks forward. A couple of potatoes* and we're off. Airborne."

Ward “Mooch” Carroll
F-14 Tomcat RIO for 17 years, author of the Tomcat trilogy starting with 'Punks War'. www.wardcarroll.com
(permission by him to reproduce previous text, from Tomcat Bye-Bye, Baby...! by Parsons/Hall/Lawson, Zenith Press 2006, p. 6)

*potatoes: word used to count seconds: one potato...two potatoes...three potatoes…

07-06 T.Roosevelt/F-14 series H R

An F/A-18C about to be launched.

>Bye Bye Baby! Last Tomcat Take Off / Último despegue del Tomcat

2008-03-30T18:58:00.000-07:00

On July 28th 06, the last 8 Tomcats in service, made their historic last landings and take offs from the USS Theodore Roosevelt. After the last operation, the Tomcats took off to land on NAS Oceana, in Virginia Beach VA. Before that, there was a flight demonstration between a Tomcat & a Hornet, a Tomcat's transonic pass and a goodbye diamond flight formation of 4 Tomcats surrounded by 12 Hornets. The F/A-18 Hornet had been taking the place of the Tomcat and would substitute it definitely.
"Everything looks normal. Pilot and RIO of F-14 Tomcat no. 112 of Fighter Squadron VF-31 “Tomcatters” make the final control checks on catapult no. 3 on the waist of aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, at 4:42 pm of the 28th of July 06. It is not. Tension is in the air. The plane and crew are about to do their last catapult launch aboard an F-14 ever, for it will be relieved from service. They surely feel nostalgic after flying that powerful and beautiful plane. Seven shooters instead of one move stylishly, giving the catapult operator the signal to release the plane, as a way of saluting the aircraft goodbye. In three seconds it is shot and in the air.
This favorite plane of many is being retired after 33 years of service because the cost/time of maintenance is four times higher than the F-18 Hornet’s. The F-14 crews will move on to fly this plane. Its last combat operation was in February with VF-213 “Blacklions” and VF-31 “Tomcatters” in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today, the last squadron remaining on a carrier, the distinguished VF-31, will fly to NAS Oceana until its retirement in September.
For years I dreamt of watching the Tomcat on a carrier, and today I am here in the very last chance to witness its last operations in service! I am the only Spanish speaking journalist. Dreams, at least most of them, are realizable: after a hundred letters, emails and calls, the confidence of this fills me. Here I am, overjoyed, photographing the Tomcat.
The Tomcat was made for the cold war and yet it could well continue to serve. It has the most powerful radar ever used by a fighter, the long range Phoenix missile, only usable with this radar, it is faster and has more weapons load capacity and more range than the Hornet, and with its variable geometry wings it is highly maneuverable.
Pilot Lieutenant Justin “Jugs” Halligan puts it this way:
(…) the Hornet is not an excellent plane, it is just good, it does the job, and for the way combat happens nowadays, you don’t need more…but for flying, I’d rather get in the Tomcat and hit the afterburners!!!"

P.R. 07/06 (Article published in 'Entrelineas, la pasión de volar', magazine(bilingual), year 5 #26, Sept-Oct 2006). http://www.youtube.com/PabloRomay , http://www.news.navy.mil/search/display.asp?story_id=24913 http://www.grupogw.com/ 07-06 T.Roosevelt/F-14 series. H R

>Walk, walk, walk / Camina, camina, camina

2008-03-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

Venezia, Verona, Mama mia una cosa per non dimenticare!, two very romantic places. Their colors have the habit of climbing to your skin, and you let them guide you to no destination, only the road, the streets, the meandering paths to discover your own colors. Walk. In the end you know you'll find the way back. 09/05 Venezia, Verona series. L R

>Cartoon putting hat and winking / Caricatura poniendose sombrero y giñando

2008-03-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Est-ce que c'est incroyable, n'est ce pas!? One of the masterpieces of Le Corbusier: Notre Dame du Haut, chapell at Ronchamp, France. I spent the day there and would discover different faces of it as the light changed. It is alive, like it's moving. One of those perceptions is a cartoon face (big photo), putting its hat on and winking, with its mouth to the side. The hat is the roof, the hand the frontal end of the western wall, the eye the clean area witout window at the upper right side of the eastern wall, and the mouth is the altar. 07/00 Ronchamp serie. L R

>Acuatic UFO / OVNI Acuatico

2008-03-27T00:09:00.000-07:00

On vacation, at night, in the water. Alone in the water, floating, playing, looking. A different element. The light, the bubbles, my feet and suddenly my eyes. They see an ovni comming towards me through the water, pulling me with its beam of light. And then, my camera, shot until no more pictures, no more 'trisssc', no more battery... 07/03 Alberca serie. L R

*Destiny / Destino

2008-03-24T23:07:00.000-07:00

Entrañas de fuego
nostalgia de vida
suspiro de noches obscuras y días lunares
cabello largo y corto y ausente
fuga de todos los vientos
suave tacto que me ablanda
silueta imaginada que aparece en sueños
y dice cosas que he pensado
coincidencia exacta de tiempos
conspiración de dioses, espíritus, animales, hombres
plan bendito del universo del que no podemos escapar
destino que nos logrará aunque no lo logremos.
"Nosotros", PR 10/05

Ceci c'est l'Hotel de Sens, in the heart of Paris 4eme. It is a gothic building in the middle of a modern city. I used to sit and watch it as if it was part of another era, lost in time. A gate to another dimention. I doubled it to show the paths of life: the options and decisions we take, or decide not to take, or the karma that defines our experiences, or that our experience defines. Two sides, two paths, two people, same building, same buildings, same life, lives, different karma, different views and decisions. And to top it, on black and white. 07/00 Paris B & W serie. H R, D E

Window to another dimension / Ventana a otra dimension

2008-03-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

I have always been attracted to things that change my perception. Nothing is solid. Everything we know has been taught to us by others; let's discover our own world, our own free, spontaneous, version of things, let's see the way things are, exist & relate.
Here we can see a portal, in my garden, that connects to another universe. This is how I get all my superpowers. The window is just a metal pitcher that mirrors everything around.
09/03 Reflejo Esfera serie. L R