1. What is your first name: Gerardo
2. What city are you from: Trinidad
3. What country are you from: Cuba
4. What do you do: Painter for the last 10 years
5. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why: Travel to Brazil to watch a soccer game there and to get with some Brazilian women (who he thinks they are hot!).
6. What’s your dream and why: Wish to one day display my art work in a large gallery, so that I could sell more paintings.

FOGG Notes: I met Gerardo while interviewing a lady on the street next to his shop.  At first he walked up and tried to sell me and a friend a painting but quickly stopped when he saw we were focussed with the interview with the lady.  He stepped back to his shop and watched us very intently while we were with the lady and never took his eyes off us.  When we wrapped up the quick interview we turned to walk up the street by and seen him smiling at us.  So I figured the least thing I could do was stop and see what he had to offer.  I was really surprised by his art work as it was actually quite good!  We talked for several minutes and finally I asked if it would be ok to shoot a few photos and ask him a few questions.  At first he didn’t want to do it but I told him it would be a way to display his art on the internet.  Then it was a 180 degree change of mind and I began to ask him the standard questions.

I remember at one point though when I asked him what his dream was he just looked at me with a really weird look and thought about it for a minute.  Then he said “You are asking some really hard questions you know!”  I couldn’t help but smile but told him to take his time and think it over, as there was no rush.

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I went out a few Saturdays ago to eat out.  The price for this meal was a little high by Ecuadorian standards but it’s good to splurge every once in a while.  At the end of the meal I asked for the check and the total was $29.96.  I put two $20s in the bill holder and waited for the waitress to come back with the change.

In Ecuador there really isn’t a need to tip because all bills will have government tax (10%) and service (12%) included in the cost.  That being said I still leave a tip most times when dinning out and have no reason to other than I’m gringo and it’s in our nature to do so.  It’s how we were raised you know.

The waitress finally brings back my change and when I opened it to make sure all was good all I see was this $10 bill.  Do the math for a second ($40-$29.96 = $10) and tell me how that adds up?

So now I’m in this situation of do I ask for my $0.04 that they owe me or do I let it slide?  For me personally, it’s like stealing and the principle of this gets me going to no end.  If I ever get worked up fast over something it usually involves money.  Ask me sometime about getting punched in the nose by a Thai Taxi driver over a penny (alcohol was involved in this case which didn’t help).

Now this isn’t the first time this has happened to me in Ecuador, in fact I can recall at least 4x this has happened and it’s not always in Mom & Pops places either.  The time before this it happened to me at KFC and the girl didn’t bother to give me back my nickel.  When I asked her about it she just shrugged and said she didn’t have the change.  Told her that wasn’t my problem and that she owed money and should pay what is due.  She handed me my food and said if I went and sat down that she would get the change and find where I was sitting to give it to me.  I never seen her again and didn’t bother pushing the issue.

So the real question is:

1. Do Ecuadorians not know how to do math?
2. Is it a cultural thing and people think it’s no big deal?

I believe it’s #2 and is typical Ecuadorian.  They just don’t think it’s a big deal as it’s only a few cents.  Me being gringo I’m sure makes it worse but my gringo ass will stop and pick a penny up off the street.  A penny is a big deal to me and feel if you said something was “this” price, then it should be “this” price when I give you good money.  Then again I’m not in America anymore and this is TIE land.

TIE: This Is Ecuador

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Wedding flowers in Quito, Ecuador

This photo was taken at a wedding in Quito, Ecuador.  I wasn’t the official photographer for it but did try and get some good photos of the event to give back to the bride and groom later.  To see more photos of my first “non-official” wedding event click on the links below:

• Mathias and Maria Fernanda Baekbo: The Wedding Day
• Mathias and Maria Fernanda Baekbo: The Wedding Day II
• Mathias and Maria Fernanda Baekbo: The Wedding Day III

FOGG Odyssey: Before & After Post-Edit

This photo wasn’t Photoshopped and used Adobe Lightroom only to edit it.  I used the adjustment brush (my favorite tool in Lightroom) to highlight all the area around the flowers.  Then I turned down the saturation all the way to give it the Black & White feel, leaving only the flowers in color.  This is a very simple way to add a different perspective to your work and people really like this style.  It can be a little hard depending on the photo you take, as this one took a little more time as I had to zoom in around the flowers to clean it up.

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After I got everything desaturated that I wanted, I then highlighted again around the flowers to add more clarity and contrast to give the background more depth.  In total this took me about 15 minutes of editing, most  of which was spent on zooming in around the flowers.  If you have tried this technique and have a photo you want to share, please leave a comment with a link to show us.  Would be great to see what others have done.

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1. What is your first name: Silvia
2. What city are you from: Trinidad
3. What country are you from: Cuba
4. What do you do: House wife (although she is single)
5. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why: Travel to Mexico because I like Mexican men (and she was dead serious when she said that!).
6. What’s your dream and why: To take care of her children and support them.

FOGG Notes: I was interviewing her when Gerardo was trying to sell me a painting.  She was the only person in Cuba that approached us versus us approaching them.  We had circled the streets of Trinidad about three times looking for someone interesting and willing to do an interview with.  As we walked by her on the street she saw my camera and stopped us.  I didn’t know what she was saying at first but she had a big smile on her face and just seemed genuine.  She was a real bubbly person and when I asked if I could photograph her she was very excited about it and even more when we asked her the interview questions. She seemed like the kind of person who had a wild younger life but now that she is older she still longs for those days.  The sheer aspect of telling us without a flinch that she loved Mexican men pretty much summed it up… she was and still is a wild women.  Grandma’s Gone Wild comes to mind!

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After we took the bikers around Quito the night before, they decided they wanted to see Quilotoa the next day and finish the day in Banos.  This would ultimately change 10x before the day was over, as we never made it to Banos and instead we stayed in Ambato.

The ride out of Quito was quick and fun.  I somehow lost the cover to my iPod Nano while riding on the back of the bike doing 90 mph on the Panamerican Highway.  I was praying it wouldn’t rain that day and thank God it didn’t but it came close at one point with a slight drizzle when we were leaving out of Quilotoa.  Other than the wind burn on my face and red eyes from not wearing any goggles the ride was pretty comfortable.

When we got to Quilotoa, the bikers walked up to the edge of the crater and looked around for about 10 minutes.  Then turned around and said “Lets eat!’ and that was that.  We were gone in 30 minutes heading to Ambato.

The only time we stopped that day was when we would go through the military check points along the highway.  Either they would wave us through or make us pull over just because we were a bunch of bikers.  When they did make us pull over for a check, the cops never checked anything and instead just wanted to talk with us.  They asked where we were going, from and had been.  Pretty much they were bored and wanted someone to talk with, which cracked me up.  Also, we got a lot of people who would honk at us when we passed them on the highway.  We never got flashed but I guess everyone digs bikers in large groups no matter where you’re at in the world.

View from the back of the bike. This is the country side of Ecuador and you can never get tired of seeing it.

Just before Quilotoa there was a dirt road you had to take. I changed up the white-balance on this picture to give it that dirty feel of the road.

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Group shot in front of the crater lake in Quilotoa, Ecuador.

Edgar entering the town of Quilotoa, Ecuador

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