April 3 2009 Page 3

A week of parties as another fabulous season of sun, fun and great times winds down.

Below Thursday blow out beach party at Val and Chris's

Mateja's Appreciation Day goes wild and hairy

More Pictures click here

March Book Recommendations from Mexico Book Club
Ed Hutmacher - MexicoBookClub.com

Spring is upon us, the season of renewal, which makes this a great time to refresh or satisfy your interest in Mexico and its people. Below are three good reads from our March book recommendations that we think you’ll enjoy.

Pancho Villa and Black Jack Pershing: The Punitive Expedition in Mexico by James W. Hurst (2007/Greenwood Publishing Group/Non-fiction) — In the early morning hours of March 9, 1916, some five hundred paramilitary forces under the command of revolutionary leader Francisco "Pancho" Villa raided the U.S. border town of Columbus, New Mexico. The nearby Army garrison was attacked, homes and stores were looted, the downtown business district was torched and eighteen U.S. civilians and soldiers were killed before Villa retreated across the border into Mexico. An outraged President Wilson dispatched a U.S. Army expedition commanded by General John "Black Jack" Pershing to pursue the marauding Villistas. Because Pancho Villa and his main force evaded Pershing's cavalry, the one-year "punitive expedition" has typically been described as a bumbling fiasco — popular history portrays Villa a wily and glamorous Mexican patriot and ridicules Pershing's "failed" excursion. Hurst presents a far different picture, however, arguing that Pershing's forces were experienced in counter-guerilla warfare, which in fact led to the capture of many Villistas. Furthermore, Hurst makes the point that Pershing largely succeeded in his primary mission of breaking up and neutralizing Villa's forces. It's been said that truth is the first casualty of war. But with the passage of time, scholars like Hurst are increasingly presenting a more accurate, if contrarian, record of this celebrated historical event.

Tequila Oil: Getting Lost in Mexico by Hugh Thomson (2009/Weidenfeld & Nicolson/Non-fiction) — Perhaps best known for his research expeditions to Peru and award-winning film documentaries, British explorer Hugh Thomson is also a first-rate travel writer. It was in 1979 at the reckless age of 18 that Thomson first traveled through Mexico in a beaten-up Oldsmobile 98 he hoped to sell for a profit in Central America, despite having no license and not knowing how to drive. He eventually took his driving test in Mexico City where the instructor, at first offended by Thomson's blue eyes and foreign accent, passed him after a brief chat about the weather and the offer of a cigarette: "Amigo, it doesn't matter. No one in Mexico knows how to drive anyway." Thomson fell in love with the rowdy beauty of Mexico, "so moral when you needed help, so amoral when you wanted wildness." Tequila Oil reveals a more dangerous side of Mexico than that seen by packaged-holiday vacationers, taking the reader from the badlands of Chihuahua, to the wild capital of Mexico City and the mysterious jungles of the Yucatan. Thomson’s border-to-border Mexican Odyssey is funny, informative, thoughtful and an unashamedly personal story of adventure.

Zorro: The Novel by Isabel Allende (2006/Harper Perennial/Fiction) — Chilean-born author Isabel Allende is one of the most successful women novelists in Latin America. Her books, which sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realism" tradition, are especially popular in Mexico and consistently dominate the top-ten lists. She was initially reluctant to take on the swashbuckling do-gooder crusader Zorro, thinking the character timeworn and beneath her status as a serious writer. But good literary sense intervened when Allende recognized an untold back-story to Diego de la Vega's personality and the epic journey of how he became El Zorro ("The Fox"). Thanks to a handful of popular movies and Disney's long-running TV episodes, we know that Zorro is, by day, the dandy Don Diego, son of a Spanish landowner near provincial Los Angeles in the tumultuous days of the early 19th century when the dusty village was part of Spain's New World kingdom under the administration of Mexico City's vice royalty. By night, he dons his black mask and cape and fights for the poor and oppressed, leaving behind the saber-carved sign of the Z to mark his good deeds. In Allende's retelling, Don Diego is much more the complicated male figure that women readers today easily recognize: he is at once compassionate, ruthless, thoughtful, reckless, attention seeking, secretive, romantic, sexually provocative and possessed with at least a split or possibly multiple personalities. In the real world, you'd lock him up and throw away the key. In Allende’s novel, he’s absolutely irresistible.

Ed Hutmacher is Editor in Chief of Mexico Book Club. For more information on books with Mexico-related themes, please visit the website at MexicoBookClub.com.
 

Vallarta Jewish Community Passover Seder
Mel Bornstein - PVNN


If you plan to attend RSVP to Mel Bornstein at (322) 221-5659 or barmelsouth(at)pvnet.com.mx.

The Passover Seder is a special Jewish ritual that takes place on the first evening of the Jewish holiday of Passover in Israel, and on the first and second evenings of Passover in the Jewish diaspora.

In 2009, it begins sundown on Wednesday, April 08 and ends Thursday, April 16. The 2009 Seders fall on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Incorporating the holiday meal, the Seder relives the enslavement and subsequent Exodus of the Children of Israel from Ancient Egypt through the words of the Haggadah, the drinking of Four Cups of Wine, the eating of matzot, and the eating of and reference to symbolic foods placed on the Passover Seder Plate.

Unlike other public holiday observances that are traditionally held in the synagogue, the Seder is specifically designed to be conducted by a family at home, or by any group of people, including synagogue members, hotel guests and travelers at a "Public Seder."

Here in Puerto Vallarta, the PVJC will be hosting a Passover Seder dinner at The River Cafe on April 8th, starting at 6 pm.

A full course dinner of typical Seder food and kosher wine will be served for $500 pesos per adult, including tax and gratuities. Children's prices are determined by age. The PVJC will furnish the Haggadahs, and all may participate in the reading.

We are ALL looking forward to sharing this Holiday together. Reservation are necessary to insure that you will be included, especially if you have a group that wants to be seated together, so if you plan to attend, please send an email to me at barmelsouth(at)pvnet.com.mx, or call me on my U.S. cell at (847) 209-1448 or in Puerto Vallarta at (322) 221-5659.

Photo Tip of the Week: Photographing the Banderas Bay Sailing Regatta
Larry and Linda Bennett - PVNN

 

Larry and Linda Bennett - PVNN     Photo Tips of the Week are written by Larry Bennett, a professional p

Photo Tips of the Week are written by Larry Bennett, a professional photographer living in Puerto Vallarta. To view more of his work, visit LarryBennettPhotography.com.

Photographing the Sailing Regatta is one of my favorite weeks on the bay! Not only do I get to shoot images of my beloved humpback whales, but now I get to shoot images of the whales with sailboats in the background.

Each year Puerto Vallarta gets to host the Sailing Regatta. The racing lasts for almost the entire week and fills our beautiful bay with sailing boats of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

It's my understanding that a lot of these boats are from Southern California as well as some representation from the bay area and Mexico. It's very exciting to follow these boats and the crew as they compete. The splendor of colors observed as they go under full sail makes this photographer's camera go into overload.

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you some of the many things that I do to capture images of the men, women and vessels as they fly through the brilliant blue waters of Banderas Bay.

Shooting Images From a Boat or From the Shore

This particular topic will really depends on how involved you want to get. You can walk around and shoot some beautiful images of the boats from dock side or you can stand along the shores of Nuevo Vallarta and photograph the boats as they pull into the bay from the Marina.

However, keep in mind that once the race starts the boats are a distant memory while they get further and further away and suddenly become a very tiny spec out on the vast blue waters of the bay. If you want to have some fun, consider renting a boat.

In fact, the same boat that took you out to see the whales may also be available to take you out to see the Regatta. Just remember to keep a safe distance and follow as they start and run the course. Ask your captain to keep your boat at a steady and even pace, as this helps in making it easier for you to shoot.

The most fun is at the start of the race and when the boats make the turn in the course, the rest of the race is like a road race, but it's all fun. I have sent many emails to different members of the Vallarta Yacht Club inquiring about a photo boat or spectator boat for those fans that love sailing but can't afford to be on the water.

So far, I have only been able to get one person from the Yacht Club to return my emails and it was a fellow photographer, Jay Ailworth. Jay has taken some wonderful images of the Regatta over the years and I admire his work and talent. To the best of my knowledge, there are no photo or spectator boats available.

Let's Look at Our Equipment and Some Shooting Tips

If you are using a point and shoot and are limited to shooting from around the docks, you may be able to get some good images of the sailboats at the start and finish of the race.

If your point and shoot has a good optical zoom, you may capture some good images of the start of the race including images of the boats entering the bay. I would shoot all you can or want with the optical zoom because once you start using the digital zoom, your images are losing quality fast and will start to blur if your subject is moving too fast.

Shooting your images on high quality will allow you to crop your image a little, giving you a bigger picture. As a rule of thumb and my personal preference, I do not crop much over 50%. It's a pixel game when it comes to cropping your images, the more pixels - the nicer the crop.

If you're shooting a DSLR, it's a wide open game; what do you want to shoot? You can shoot the sailors, the whole boat, parts and pieces of the boat, or all the above.

I'm fortunate enough to get to shoot with multiple cameras so I will be shooting the Regatta with three cameras set side by side. I will shoot using one of my favorite lens (70-200mm /2.8), as well as an 18-105mm lens and a 10mm-20mm lens. I shoot a lot of images and shoot in bursts of 4-6 images and lots and lots of bursts.

The 70mm-200mm is perfect for shooting directly on the boat while gaining that human element, the crew working, running from side to side, pulling ropes, raising sails, and it's a fast moving circus and a whole lot of fun to shoot.

The 18mm-105mm is a fun lens for shooting pictures that tell the story of the big picture, you can usually get most of the boat and crew and usually a little ocean in your entire image.

The 10mm-20mm wide angle lens is very cool for some up close shooting, you can shoot and capture the entire boat while getting some of the other boats as well. If you're creative in using a wide angle lens, you can turn out some really unusual and fun images.

Regardless of what lens you're shooting, you need to shoot using fairly fast shutter speeds, 800 to 1000 are some pretty well rounded speeds. I would also try to keep my F stops close to about F8, that's the best range for color and good white balance.

Try keeping your ISO on the lower side as well. Keep the shutter speed as a priority, adjusting your F stop by adjusting your ISO and keep an eye on your histogram. Using your histogram is a fail safe way of keeping yourself and your images in check. If you have not used your histogram before or this is something new for you, please read, or re-read, your cameras owner's manual and start using your histogram.

To be continued next week.

Photo Tips of the week are written by Larry Bennett, a professional photographer living in Puerto Vallarta. These tips are to be just tips, refer to your cameras owner's manual for specifics on your camera. Readers are welcome to enjoy Larry's website at LarryBennettPhotography.com.