We got there at 5 PM MDT to start setting up the equipment and just sitting outside for a while. We all had welders masks and my crazy filter set up on my lens.

• Soligor 8x Neutral Density Filter
• Minolta UV Haze filter
• Polaroid roll film 4x ND filter
• Hoya Circular Polarizer
• Minolta 70-210mm f4-5.6
• Sakar 2x Teleconverter
• Sony Alpha 900 shot in Raw.

Here’s the quick time lapse video I made of the pictures.

Here’s the link to the full size photos I took.

2012 Annular Solar Eclipse on Flickr

I hope you enjoy those, I am leaving for Fanime this week, and I’ll be back with some more photos!

See you later! 

These photos don’t show what I remembered and experienced, as there was a wooden bridge in the back of the park covered in trees, the restrooms and water fountains, the benches next to the gazebo and the many other little details that I seen that were no longer there. It’s sad to see that so much had changed for the worse and that the summer programs that I had so much fun as a toddler all the way up to 6th grade was gone.

Some of my best memories were here and I’ll show you a little on what I had found and seen.

This is pretty much where the main entrance was, there were pretty mice trees on the sides and some form of edges on the sidewalks. This is where you walk into the gazebo and plaza area.

Below is the former restroom, water fountain and utility room. There was a fountain in the shaded area that pretty much never worked and the sides lead to the potable restrooms, and had walls that said, “Men” and “Women” on each side. The walls were torn down, leaving a hollow where it looks like a representation on the rest of the park.

Below is where I remembered the first time I went to the summer programs that Rio Communities used to hold every summer till 1997 or so. My mom and my aunt took me there when I was like 3-4 years old and I was running back to them, never understanding why they did. Only to know years later that I knew how important it was for me and for them. I still remember each summer since 1989 or so at this park. There used to be trees and grass here, only today a foreign desert is in its place.

To the left of this image of the squash courts is the hill that many of us kids had fun with a water slide. There was a place get water from and we all went down. Now that hill is no longer covered in grass and nor is it a nice slope for a slide.

This used be one of the best swings I ever been on, and this was towards the back of the park. Used to do crazy stuff here, good times.

This where the wooden bridge used to be, there was a lot of trees here, giving a great shelter from the New Mexico heat. It was a great place to hang out or to hide. I used to ride my bike through here many times, over and under the bridge. I still remember the sounds of the bike through there and the coolness of the trees.

This is looking out from the gazebo towards the north and looking upon in the distance of my elementary school, La Merced. It used to be a great tree covering the plaza area with shade. As you can see, it’s just s stump where people left messages. No community bulletin board here no more, only this stump.

There used to be a great sign made of timber and concrete. Saying this was Timan Park, of the Valley Improvement Association. I think about it now, the prime time of this park was from the 1980′s to about 1995, before more efforts were placed on the newer Las Maravillas subdivision and about the time the VIA Community center closed the ponds there and pretty much the center as a whole. I’ll go there some day, now, it’s just Timan.

For the final photo, is looking east from where there was a fire truck that would come by and shower us kinds with water. There is a article in the News Bulletin from the late 80′s that featured my brother and a local kid on the front page. This part still shows some of the good things that this park had, now it’s a magnet for transients and other loose ends.

This is a part of a larger essay on the community I grew up in, and how it had changed. I have done photos of another park, and will do more of Rio Communities. This I hope will show the world how this place once was a nice place for families, now it’s just another lost subdivision in this modern world.

In my opinion, while the West Side exploded, people forgot places like Rio Communities. The local towns, Belen and Los Lunas, pretty much left this are in ruins. I think this area still has hope, but not without some involvement of the people here and from Albuquerque. As the public transportation expands, I think this is a great place to live outside of ABQ, and it’s a short drive to the station from here.

If most of my readers could only experience what I had here, they would have loved it too.

More photos of Timan Park on Flickr

Enjoy!

Here’s the Set to the rest of the Fanime 2009 photos, I’ll scan more in the future, and I will post them before Fanime 2012!

Fanime 2012 Set

This photo is from the summer of 2007, using my XE-7 and a nice wide lens using Fuji Velvia 100. I have a lot more, and most are as nice as this before my digital era.

Itinerary.

• 4 PM  Arrive to location.
• 5 PM  Start taking photos with the 800 for the scene shot.
• 6-7 PM Start taking photos with the SRT for the narrow view.
• 7-8 PM Start taking photos with the 900 for large and detailed eclipse images.
• 8 PM Leave.

That I think should be it, below is the map of where I am planning to go to, weather permitting.

 

View Driving directions to 35.082066, -106.808808 in a larger map

I hope this will turn out great, since the next and last one would be on Oct, 14 2023 for a long time for Albuquerque, NM!

That’s one completed camera, I can’t wait to take this thing shooting!

PS, here’s a photo taken after the conversion using Fuji Film FP-100C. It’s a bit under exposed, but it works!

• It was synced only for flash bulbs, and no fill flash.
• The electronic shutter would stay open if the flash did not fire.
• No real close up stuff at all with it.
• It was not that cool looking.

I decided that for a whopping $20 I could convert my Model 800 for pack film and to have the flash synced for X sync. I had already done a conversion on a Model 900, since that does not have any way to infinity focus properly, I could not really use it and also the shutter was a little troublesome.  Other site show how they did the pack film conversion, but not the flash sync.

1. The first part is that the camera already has a X sync terminal, but you have to use the impossible to find 490 flash adapter and another ASA to PC flash adapter to use modern flashes. I opened up the shutter assembly and and found the X sync and M sync. The M sync in on the lower side next to a screw and the X sync is connected to the right side shutter bumper connected to the post on top.
2. Unsolder the M sync and X sync wires from the posts. I used a short thin insulated wire and connected the two wires. I routed the wire near the bottom so it won’t interfere with the shutter.
3. Once you have done that, your hot shoe is now X synced!

I decided to go on further, installing a ISO compatible hot shoe. Since the Polaroid one is non- standard and a regular flash just wobbles in there.

1. I removed the top cover to the rangefinder and removed the sync wire from the outer metal rim. I rerouted the wire from the right side to the left after I re-installed the cover.
2. Since the middle contact is the ground, I connected a short wire from the screw for the new ground from the hot shoe.
3. I connected the sync wire from the camera to the center terminal wire and the ground wire to the outer shoe.
4. Then I added some epoxy to secure the new X sync hot shoe to the old one.

While I had the top off, I removed some of the require parts to start the Packfilm conversion so I don’t have to do this again. Now here’s some photos of where it is now.

It’s looking good so far. Next time, the results after I installed the pack film back!

Well, I keep on doing new things to my photography, I dragged all of those people all over the place, and I had my remote flash and tripod. I think these are pretty good, and I can’t wait to really flex this photography to the limit at Fanime 2012!

The rest of the photos are on my Flickr page, as soon as their website cooperates.

March ’12 Photoshoot.

See ya next time!

I pretty much became a legitimate anime viewer. That means, I no longer watch US licensed anime through non legal sources. To the distress to some friends of mine, I fully support the Anime industry thorough various paid streaming internet services, using legally obtained material and the purchase, (rare) of anime and manga. Since these in the long run I believe is the future for all media, (really) and to have access to it pretty much anywhere, anytime and almost anything. So, you can find me on Crunchyroll, I have 12 48 hour full access guest passes for anyone’s use if they give me their email via my website’s address, and also via Funimation’s service as well and through the Anime Channel service as well.

I also still support the rights of author’s of original works, and that is why I only use my works or the works of other’s use with permission here. Also any works that are created for a non-profit purposes using the original author’s works. I also believe any form of censorship of any non-hate or any form of exploitation of those who don’t have a means of protection of themselves.

Now that is out of the way, I finally added the updated link to my archived (dead) blog on my first post of this new one, I know a lot of things no longer work, but it’s too much broken to fix and most of the posts is archived on Archive.org. I have links still on that page for historical purposes and I’ll add current links to this blog as time goes on. Also I added some more info, same old stuff, but now added to this page and I won’t link to my own stuff that I already have on the front page. It just looks tacky and very self-centered.

Thanks and have fun!

Here’s my ALA 2011 Youtube Video of some of the guys from AX Live and the Touhou Cosplayers!

There are two main experiences with Cosplay Photography, and that’s at Anime Conventions,  or with local Cosplay gatherings.

I talked about those who were like almost unknown then became pretty much famous soon afterwards, this happened at Fanime 2009. After some serious personal experiences in the months before May 2009. I met some great people there, and I had some great experiences with them. Also just ran into a person on a street corner and a took two photos of her. She became pretty famous pretty much right after that, as Saber from Fate/Stay Night. After that, I decided that I would love to do this as test of my skills as a person and as a photographer. (If I had known how crazy this all became 2 years later, I would have more distant.)  For some, this con was a focal point of the right things, and for many, it was the first taste of personal accomplishment and wanted more.

After a summer of trying to get those slides processed, I went to a local con where I met a lot of great people that I hang out with, even after all of there years. This con no longer meets, but the nice memories still linger and sometimes, just for a second, I could be there all over again. I had found out that there is quite a bit anime fans and cosplayers in the area. I just needed to stay where the action is and I did after my biggest upgrade, a DSLR.

The first con I went to with my 900 in September 2009, I realized on how much fun I can have yet, have so much time just being flat out bored. It took quite a bit of learning on how to pace the photography and myself. This was a great boon to me and met some people there I would later get to know better at the UNM Anime Club, for better or worse.

Then 2010 was a year of high expectations, I got some photos under belt with the 900 and decided to go to ALA 2010. I never knew how much fun a road trip was if people actually took care of themselves like adults.  I still had a lot to learn about myself and I really feel bad about the things I did. But those photos are still popular and I still feel like an idiot. Soon after that, I went to Famine 2010 and I had tried to get a shoot set, but that fell through, I know I am still turning the screws on it, 2 years later, but that was my only regret from then. Also I met Ejen from “Cosplay In America.” That is when I really started to think of myself not just one guy with a camera, but as a guy who is part of many who like to do this and that is what I took from that.

The end of 2010 was like a I learned a lot from others and I hoped that others learned from me. The SCAARE Con was a bust, some personal things whimpered out, and I became very conserved. That was a strange time, I did a wedding, (thanks!) try to start a con and I became wiser, but still a fool in one part.

2011, well, Went to ALA 2011, met some cool people again and had a hit there with some puppets and the crew of AX Live.  The next week I went to a local comic con and met some more local cosplayers and they are still a great group, even if they do post some strange things. I had started to become a volunteer photographer for a High School friend and I met a guy who was starting a new local Comic Convention, Albuquerque Comic Expo. I became a volunteer for the con and that was I think the best fan experience I had since 2009.  I met a lot of great people, including some really famous people and also met Toxie.

2012, ALA 2012 was pretty much like the came, but get to know the photographers better, since we all seem to be at the same place at the same time and just had a great time. Also I brought my Polaroid and decided to wing it and I thought it was great. Check out my Polaroids on my Flickr page, look.

Local cosplay gatherings were always a experience in itself. Since you did not really know what’s going on.  I have seen that some of these people, well, don’t act at all like professionals, but why would I? This is the part where I have learned the most. I started not to expect everything to be set 100% of the time. I just had to be with the flow and just gave up on my thoughts that if I was serious, I could make it big. This is not something like police work or being int he military where this focus is a must, but this just a bunch of fans running around and a guy with $5000 worth of camera gear tries to keep up.

I got this truck on Monday after a long year or so with my old Chevy HHR. I feel somewhat conflicted about it, but in the end I got my truck back after 3 years not having one and the issues that would have caused a premature failure has been averted.

The 48 hours I have had this truck, I have driven 130 miles and loved every minute of it.

It’s a 2007 Toyota Tacoma PreRunner Double Cab SR5 V6 TRD package. A lot say, but it can hold 5 people and tow 6500 lbs. It’s a great diversion from this week of home renovations without warning and constant smell of varnish. I get out into my truck as much as I can.

See you guys in a bit, I’d love to show my truck to the UNM Anime club, but it’s Spring Break and they would like to ride it. Oh well.