“Uniformity Stretched Green”

“Yellow Hell”

“Don’t Step On The Foam”

“Fire Sky”

“Flower Hole”

Machu Picchu!  April, 2007 as photographed with a 1958 Kodak Retinette (and processed by local print development shops).

I got there at about 7am and it rained for half the day.

…did my best to keep tourists (like myself) out of these pics.

The view from the cliff above.

The view from the cliff above, too.

You can see the Inca trail on the left cutting right down the mountain.

That’s the cliff from where I took “the pic from above” and “the pic from above, too”

I’d love to see an artist’s rendition of what Machu Picchu looked like in its heyday.

I’m sure you can imagine but just to confirm: these stones are HUGE.

This is Don Cucho.  He was my Incan/Marxist/Trotskyist tour guide.  This photo shows him preparing some San Pedro for our consumption. …I’ll leave it to the reader to look up San Pedro for her/himself.

After the rain the air was crisp and cool.

There was no way for me to capture how surreal and blue the sky looked.

Don Cucho taught me that Machu Picchu was reserved for a nobility consisting of intellectuals and scientists.  Much of the site was constructed with steps like these for gardening purposes.  Basically: the crops on the lower steps benefited from the runoff nutrients of the crops above and yielded a higher quality crop as a result.

This stone was carved to mimic the shape of the mountain in the background.

Don Cucho chillin’ on San Pedro.  By this point I was chillin’ on San Pedro too.  : )

Like I said: it rained for half the day.  The task was to bust out the camera quick enough so that the lens wouldn’t get water drops on it.  I’m incredibly thankful these pics came out alright.

The view from one of the steps.

Just a shot from another angle.

The stones have shifted with time.  Many have also been subject to erosion.

A quick shot in the rain.

I took this one early on in the day to show how high up we were.

What the structures looked like with roofs.

See the guy on the right? That’s Sam. On the left is his beautiful fiance Jeannie. …and of course, that’s me in the center standing behind the lens.

Sam is my website designer. More importantly, he has been my dear friend since day one at Rutgers University (fourteen years ago). He’s the person who I will forever credit for making me an exponentially better photographer. Let the record show that: in just one conversation he gave me the critique I needed to shift gears from being an enthusiastic hobbyist to becoming a professional photographer.

Amongst other lessons, Sam taught me to: get it right the first time (so as to reduce labor/time on editing), don’t blow out the colors, implement rule of thirds, shoot in manual and RAW/jpg, carry tons of batteries, have a backup camera, create a workspace/work flow, don’t over saturate, etc.

This in turn inspired the purchase and thorough reading of a couple of dozen books on photography and the maintenance of standards I once thought were unachievable.

Sam, I’ve told you this over the phone, by email, and in person.

I now had to testify in public. : )

Love, me.

p.s.  I’m more than happy to forward Sam’s contact information for anyone who needs a website designed.

Well, well, well, well, well…the looong awaited photos from my trip to South America in 2007.  These photos have taken me three years to dust off. They were taken with a 1958 Kodak Retinette II that I purchased in a Peruvian flea market after I had my digital camera stolen during my trip to South Amorica.

You can see that the water is still running in this fountain.

Every single shot you see in this blog entry was a bit of a guess on my part.  I didn’t have the benefit of a light meter and the age of the camera alone was slightly intimidating.  …but this is what I love about photography: there’s a science to it.  As long as you can figure out some basic stuff (e.g. ISO, shutter speed, aperture) you’re golden.

I fell in love with the Andes, man!  They’ve actually become my happy place. When the world kicks me in the ribs I often think of just taking off and living a simple life in a small house tucked away in the mountains.

I went to so many Incan sites in Peru that honestly: I couldn’t tell you which is which.

…or where I was for many of these.

The fact that I’m posting these pics three years after my trip to South America speaks to how long it has taken me to get over the fact that I had three cameras stolen from me that year.  I later had this camera stolen from me as well (upon arriving in Bolivia).  …at least they let me keep the pics.

About a month and a half ago I showed these pics to my friend Cristina who gave me the thumbs up on these and got me excited about showing them. When I was a kid I remember my mom telling me about the Incan ruins whose blocks were fitted so perfectly that you couldn’t fit a credit card between them.

My mom was right. But actually, I distinctly remember thinking that you couldn’t even fit a needle in there.

Up next: photos from Machu Picchu!!!

See that bus cruisin’ around downtown Denver? The photo of the bus was taken by my good friend, Scott Kwasny. The photo on the side of the bus was taken by me! : )

If you go downtown any time soon you can those ads on a bunch of buses.

Here’s a close up. The photo is part of the Welcoming Colorado campaign (organized by the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition). This project gave me the opportunity to photograph immigrant workers in Colorado. The instructions for photographing my subjects were fairly simple: rule of thirds and convey dignity.

On our way to Denver International Airport (DIA) for the official shoot. Pretty handsome subject, huh?

…again, on our way to the airport. i’ve yet to meet a single person who likes that very evil blue horse with the red eyes in front of DIA.

So here’s how it went…our immigrant worker/cab driver/model took us right to the DIA “departures” section. The traffic cop agreed to let us do a five minute photo session in front of the airport. This beautiful photo was taken under such pressure.

No time for light meters, clothing changes, traffic consideration, or careful scrutiny of the images on the LCD screen of my camera. We needed amazing pics and had five (or less) minutes to take care of it. Of the few posing directions I gave to our subject that day was: “Okay, now look like you’re proud of the work you do.” His response: “That will be easy. I’m very proud.” …and then we took this pic. : )

This project will undoubtedly open many doors for more non-profit and social justice-related projects. Special thanks to the amazing Chandra Russo of CIRC for helping to put all of this together.

All photos: Ric Urrutia, www.behindthelens.net

downtown Denver.

somewhere in Grand Junction, CO there is an office with a big green nose strategically positioned to make an entire wall look like a face. it had to be photographed.

on the way back from Grand Junction.

Approaching the market in Jucuapa, El Salvador, depto de Usulutan. Jucuapa is the small town I grew up in from when I was 2 months old until four years old. It’s about 30 minutes from San Miguel, the second largest city in El Salvador.

Inside the market. I won’t front. I was like a homing pigeon returning to its nest in this pic. As a kid I always loved the light, colors and structure inside the main building so I had to capture it as an adult. I think if you put Jucuapa’s market next to any Whole Foods it would put Whole Foods out of business in a heart beat. The food in Jucuapa’s market is just as fresh, just as tasty (and usually tastier), within the economic means of most of the community, and it’s the spot for gossip on your neighbors. In short: it carries a feeling of community you can’t put a price on.

This is the house I grew up in until I was four. It’s less than three blocks from the market.

For those of you who didn’t know, my mom and Ken got engaged recently! : ) Here they are, both looking lovely in my studio. Their love is very youthful and romantic and I love seeing them together.

Sooo…last night was Super Bowl Sunday.

and…i found myself in a situation where i met a couple of the Denver Broncos cheerleaders.

they kept begging me and begging me to take a picture with them.

…but i was like “look, really, i can’t. i’m Behind the Lens…and i’m on the job right now.”

…and so we worked something out. …where both they and i could be happy.

they signed this poster for me. correctly. like: ric with no k cuz it’s short for ricardo. how sweet?

cat caught in a clear plastic death box.

the art work of Jolt, a local graffiti muralist and artist. you can see more of his work by clicking here.  you could also see more of his work by just walking/driving through Denver.  Jolt’s a big fan of Debajo and we’re a big fan of him.  We performed at the opening of his art gallery.  you can check the first song of the night by clicking here.

i heard this was supposed to be good luck. my dad did this to my mom’s shoes when i was a kid and we were walking through Elizabeth, NJ. i wonder if they’re still hanging there.

Rebelle is a hot little shop.

Some of my favorite people in the world work there.  They take care of you.  They take care of me. 

They tell me stuff like: “Time to get a hair cut, Ric.”  or “Whoa Ric, your hair looks hot.”  One time they even got me to sit and get a mini mani (after insisting I drink a glowing blue cocktail)…keep me looking presentable!  hell yeah!  …don’t wanna go out there looking like i’m falling apart knawmsayin’?

This weekend they had a men’s fashion show.

Roar!

clothes came off.

…just a little bit, right? enough to keep things interesting.

…and then a burlesque show!

…and i really like this shot.

a local celebrity.

More pics from the fashion show available at: http://gallery.behindthelens.net/fashion/rebelle

Click here for the Rebelle website.

‘Merica! The stock show was in Denver last week.

tractors rolled through downtown.

I think the red tractor is by far more gangsta than the green tractor.

PONY! If I was out jogging I’d also wanna jog next to cute cowgirls on cute ponies, hell yeah. PONY!

More partners.

howdy city slicker.

this is now a very common sight in Denver. Dispensaries are all over the place. the Westword, Denver’s alternative weekly, has literally 12 (TWELVE!!!) pages filled with advertising for medicinal marijuana. it’s out, it’s official. the people in Denver have voted time and again to ease restrictions on marijuana and now the government has acknowledged its medicinal value. crazy world. …what next?

next we’ll discover that the coca leaf has every vitamin under the sun along with the calories that could help ease famine. i can tell you from experience: chewing a wad of coca leaves is comparable to the amount of energy you’d get from having one cup of coffee per hour MINUS all the nasty side effects of caffeine. it’s quite the perfect plant. it’s problem? it’s eradication is justified by the fact that it takes massive quantities of coca leaves to make cocaine.

…and then someone will discover that one acre of hemp produces as much paper as four acres of old growth forest.

me.

PLEASE! HAS ANYONE SEEN THIS DUCK?!

A thing grows in Denver.

metal.

steel.