About Me

My photo
Hola! Hello! Bonjour! Szerbus! Ciao! My name is Catalina and I'm a freelance photogrher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hola! Me llamo Catalina y son una fotografa en Charlotte, Carolina del Norte. Although a straight-A student in high school, I loathed and somehow managed to skip Physics in order to print in the dark room. Now, with the passing of each day, I am more and more passionate about photography and the moments I can capture through my lens - abstract or otherwise. Enjoy!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Argentina Favorites

In earlier blog, I mentioned that to celebrate our 3-year wedding anniversary,
Juan and I hopped on a plane and went off to Argentina for a few days.
I have already posted my ABSOLUTE favorite photos (tango), but here are
a few other neat images I captured while in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

All I can I say is "I WANNA GO BACK!!"

I thought this shot was interesting. There's one uber modern hotel, right
next to - literally - a very very old residential building. I like the modern and
old contrast in this image, as well as the beautiful purple flowers on the tree.
These purple flowers were EVERYWHERE and in full bloom wherever we went.

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Juan is standing at a street called Avenida 9 de Julio.
Now I can safely say that I have traveled a good bit, but NEVER had I ever
seen a street that had TWENTY (20) lanes of traffic.

YES, TWENTY!

Juan is standing smack dab in the middle of the twenty lanes of traffic.
Behind him is the obelisk.

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While exploring, we made our way to Puerto Madero, which
- if you know Charlotte -
reminded us a lot of the South End District. This place underwent major
renovations back in the 80s, after being abandoned for several decades,
and there are 11 residential buildings, which used to store corn.

This is a very cool bridge in Puerto Madero.

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And how could I resist? The rest of these images are from our
trip down to La Boca, where we watched some incredible tango dancing.

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Chile Favorites, Part 2

Here are some more of my favorite photos from Chile.

This is a photo of the Pacific Coast - we continue our trip with Sandra and Renee up and down the coast, visiting many small towns,
including another one Pablo Neruda's homes.
These trees are something I've never seen before and seem very specific
to this part of the Chilean coast.
They're almost like perfectly drawn swirls and circles that one sees in graphic design work.

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As we continue down the coast, we found ourselves at Quintay, which is a small
village that lived off whaling. The kind where sailors caught whales,
killed them, processed them and sold much of their parts.
Fortunately, just a few decades years ago, whaling was banned and
this place became a museum, with photos throughout the area, showing
images of what this whaling plant used to look like in the 1800 and 1900s.

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I caught this awesome blue door on our way out, after having
explored the Quintay whaling museum.

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This colorful convenience store advertised french fries and rotisserie chicken

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One of the great things about visiting Chile (the Southern Hemisphere, for that matter)
is that we went during our winter, which is their summer.
That means that the sun didn't set until around 9pm, so we maximized
daylight hours down to the very last minute.
This is a sunset photographed from Sandra's house.
What amazing rich golden yellows and reds.

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Once back in Chile (after our Argentina getaway), we celebrated
Javiera - Sandra's youngest daughter's First Communion.
Sandra hired a chef to cook some incredible meat, and with
many family members, we celebrated Javiera's special day.

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Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Chile Favorites, Part 1

I am finally ready to share my favorite photos from our trip to Chile!


This is where it all began, waiting at the Charlotte Douglas International
Airport, for what would be a Charlotte - Dallas and Dallas-Santiago de Chile
trip. It was an overnight trip, thankfully, which meant we got *some* sleep
on the flight. We left Charlotte at 3pm on a Friday and arrived
at Santiago de Chile on Saturday morning, 9am.
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This is Herman, my brother-in-law, explaining the exchange rate
for Chilean Pesos versus American Dollars. I did my share of asking
Herman "y cuanto es esto en dolares" - so much so that he
actually had a dream in Chile where I was asking him the
same thing "so how much is this in US dollars?"!
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After we arrived at Sandra's house, and semi-unpacked our stuff,
it was already time for lunch, so off we went to a very
cool sushi place. I shot the table while we
were waiting for food.
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This is La Moneda, the Chilean equivalent the White House.

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I love the simplicity of this photograph.
We walked around Santiago one day and walked into one
of several churches. This particular church had a courtyard and
this nice arrangement of plants.
I get a sense of peace while looking at this image.
It's very Zen.
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Now this is one very cool leather couch. A very cool RED leather couch.
I shot this in what used to be a train station, and has now been
converted into an art gallery space and reception hall.

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This is Bella Vista, a section of Santiago de Chile that is very artsy.
There are a large number of walls that are painted as the one below.
In this district is one of the many homes of the amazing poet Pablo Neruda.
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Herman's guidebook for Chile.
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Ah yes. Sandra and Renee took us to the Chilean coast, where
we visited Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.
All day - we drove up and down the coast - and stopped for lunch
at this restaurant that's been in business since 1968.
They served some of THE BEST empanadas I have ever had.

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Did I mention they were HUGE?

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So there you go. Part 1 of my Chile trip highlights.
Hope you have enjoyed reading and seeing these images as
much as I have putting this entry together!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Happy 2009!

Hello and happy new year!!!

After being on vacation for 2 weeks, we are back and ready for 2009!

I am editing and will be posting more photos from our trip to Chile/Argentina, as well as photos from my trip home for Christmas, our trip to Ecuador for New Year's as well as last night's Ashley * Jonathan wedding (which was absolutely beautiful, by the way!).

So stay tuned, be sure to check back (and leave a comment or two!) and I'll leave you with one of my favorite photos I took in Argentina, which was taken at La Boca, the place were I shot some tango photos.

May 2009 bring you much love, health and joy!

-Catalina

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Images are not to be reproduced, downloaded or published without permission from Catalina Photography.

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You can check out more of my work at www.catalinaphotography.com
I am happy to answer any questions you might have and always appreciate your feedback via this blog or email me at
catalina@catalinaphotography.com