"yes, sir you are allowed to take as many snappers as you wish"... - I had asked if I was allowed to take pictures of a temple and as always, India proved to be one of the most photo friendly places one might think off...

I'm used to expect some people to see me as a threat whenever I show up with my camera in hand... In India, people see me, but instead of fear they show the same level of interest on who I am, where I'm from and what I'm doing, that I have regarding everything I see...

From my interaction with people, and the explanations of some local friends, everyday I find out how different cultures and time evolutions can render basic instincts completely different... From my limited time here I see that the more I know, the more I understand that I'm not even close to figuring the real meaning of some of my images...

"tomorrow is a national holiday in India, we wont be coming to work, but you may come if you wish to"... - Guess what, my birthday is new year's day according to the Hindu Calendar!...

To be honest, I usually feel like disappearing on my birthday, so being out of home is almost the best option for pretending that this "one more" year just didn't pass... And actually, if I count this way I'll probably still be bellow thirty!!!...

Frustrating as it might seam, not even on a holiday I had the time to go out... I'm in my third day in Hyderabad's Hitech City and for the first time in India, if I just look at the hotel, and the office, it almost feels like I'm in the US... Heck!... What a good way to travel somewhere and not being there after all...

"you are not entitled to use a sit belt in here"... - It's probably the first time I travel on the front seat of a car in India, and here's another difference that just makes me think about the the distance between the several worlds I travel by...

Later in the same day, I hear something like: Surf or even going into the sea water is perceived as something dangerous here, most people will not even consider doing it... I never understood danger to be relative, but I come to the conclusion that just as we filter what we see we also filter through our perception of danger...

People here seam to be protected by some kind of special luck that prevents cars from bumping into each other and people being ran over when crossing the street... I never thought about this before but maybe this same luck also protects people in the rest of the world whenever they push their own limits... Whatever dangers there migth be...

"sorry sir, it's past 11 pm, we can't serve alcohol anymore"... - The waiter in the hotel restaurant let's me know that I can't have a beer with dinner...


Once again, I've been spending too much time around computers, cables and dark server rooms than standard health care principles should allow to any human being... I keep on seeing everything from the confort of cars air conditioning during trips to and from the office, and yes, I'm not creating the images I'd like to...

Still and even on the most casual situations I keep on finding my questions and doubts around matters I'll probably never have the time to understand about this country... It's like being reborn again and going back to the age when everything is a novelty, but this time I'm to ashamed to keep on asking why for every new piece of information, every minute...

"sorry to disturb you mister... please contact our ground staff regarding your luggage... we're affaid it's not on the plane"... - 15 minutes before landing the flight attendant let's me know that for some strange reason my bag stayed in Frankfurt...


Well... This sounds familiar... But still unusual, we are not on August 12'th and I didn't even do a transfer, so there must be some cosmical conspiracy that dictates something like this: me x India = lost luggage...

This time things go surprisingly well... All paperwork is done and waiting for me to sign on arrival... I'm given an indemnization w/o having to ask for it... I still had to go shopping, but ok everything looked to be ontrack... The bag was delivered to me in the hotel, w/o damage a little bit more than 24 hours after landing... at 5 a.m!!!...

And this brings me to one more thing that is impressive about this country: shedules... India does not stop over nigth... Some companies just follow US tizeones, others just don't stop... There's a mixture of efficiency and chaos in here that just troubles my mind...

“come back in one piece and don’t forget to update your blog”… - I’m back to my desk around 8 pm the day before departing to India, Cat has left me a goodbye message along with some project billing notes…

I was tired and the last thing I’d like to do for the rest of the day was to go home and pack… The flight would only be during the afternoon so I ended up leaving most things to be done during the moorning…

As usual, I’m faster packing my suitcase than my photo backpack… I know that whenever I forget something behind I end up discovering new ways of using my equipment, but still I try to avoid these situations and keep the kit as functional as possible… Once again I’m not bringing a tripod… I did not miss It the last time, will I miss it now?...

My mindset in these moments is difficult to describe… I’m usually distant, and not thinking about much… I guess that from the outside I even look sad… All in all, the fact that I’ll be sitting in airplanes for two days, keeps my adrenalin levels to the minimum… In fact having an idea on what’s going to happen in my life for the next two days has been quite uncommon during the last months, so it would probably be better to rest as much as possible and get ready for what’s to come…

Due to flight limitation in this time of the year, my trip will take two days… At night in the first day I’m having Thai soup, a French dish and Italian wine in Frankfurt… It should not feel right from the outside, but feels great…

"I've been reading your blog, it's amazing that by sitting next to you every day I can't have the faintest idea regarding what you're really feeling..." - Lisa is surprised that I usually don't show emotions as I do when writing...

Well... What can I say... I still have a long way to go, and I probably will never get there, but one of the biggest ambitions of most poets (image or writing does not matter) is to let others experience reality through their feelings...

Still the ground rules of society and responsibility also bound our ability to show emotions... Being impolite or simple frightening are only two of the risks I could face if I'd let the accumulated rage and stress of these days speak for themselves...

As an alternative I just look outside and figure that everything I'm experiencing is still too small to be important, and that a simple cloud reflecting the warm light of the end of a day is far greater than any problem grown up people can come up with...

Still, even when writing I undergo through different levels of honesty... As Blue Little Guy, I tend to be clear in my messages... But I also have those days when there's just something I want to say without saying and use words as hideouts...

If you usually come here for more than pictures, and where able to get to this paragraph, you'd probably deserve to know the other side of my writings... This is where I usually go whenever thoughts just pop out of my mind without any kind of control... And yes I'm sorry, but I can't do this in English...

"it's snowing in Sanabria..." - The teaser in Antonio's announcement for his workshop in an unknown region in the north of Spain shows up in my inbox, in the middle of thousand of emails regarding impossible missions, never ending procedure chains and clients on fire...

Although it's a fact that at the distance of two days it would be impossible to leave everything and just go... These sentences bring my image seeking instincts back to light...

In the last two weekends I was able to reestablish some shooting habits, and to visit some of my usual loved places... I always drive back home asking myself how can I live without it, and how small will my life time be in order to enjoy all of this... And... Aaarghhh!!!!... Today, I'm completely exhausted, looking at the moon rising as the sun disappears on the other side of the horizon... Offices with windows have this problem of showing us what we're loosing...

Well... I'll be traveling soon... that's a good thing...

"when are you flying to India?..." - my CEO, meets me at the coffee machine and surprises me with a strange and revealing question...


"well... I still don't know..." - my answer is vague enough not to show that I still don't know what he's talking about... But, if he said so...

Two weeks passed on and in the middle of the never ending and increasing level of stress I now know that I'll probably be traveling again... These last times have been completely devoid of image creation moments, and for some strange reasons I also stopped editing my work... Sometimes I feel like if the strange element that powered my will to succeed as a photographer just ran out...

"i'll be going now..." - Inha's wet eyes remind me this is her last day in the office, I'm just back from holydays and as usual the stress of coming back makes me forget what's really important...

Inha is not going to travel along the Pan-American Highway by bike nor hike the Himalayas in search of the perfect light... She is departing for love... This seams even harder than any other trip...

So here goes another brave person who decided to take hold of destiny... This time she's not just somebody I met in a remote location or someone I read about in a magazine, she's one of those real friends that will be hard to let go...

"remember, the world is too small nowadays, we'll be just around the corner..."