Category Archives: photography

photography, San Miguel de Allende

Adorable Aldama door: La Puerta de la Muerta Roja

The crew was just finishing up this door frame on the iconic street Aldama in Centro at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. They were replacing an older one that was all-silk red roses.

I think the skulls are a great touch. How about you?

It is that time of year when “framed art” takes on a special meaning. All over San Miguel doorframes, especially for commercial establishments, are going super-creative with floral arrangements, giant skeletons, woven baskets, dried flowers, geraniums …

… Just about anything artsy that you can think of will be garnishing a doorway somewhere.

This is my favorite, so far. It is simple and clean, yet striking. The blood-red flowers with a touch of orange over each skull just scream Dia de Muertos and Halloween. And the chromed skulls with black sunken eyes — ultra cool and scary too!

This is the handiwork of Pau Gómez Floral Design & Event Creator. And it isn’t every day that you get to see the creators of some of the many wonderful door decorations in action!

That’s Paulina Gómez in the center. With Julio Perez and Oscar Vega. They’ve decorated several doors around town this season. (Need some door art? You can reach them at dspaugomez@outlook.com)

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Chasing entrepreneurial dreams across dusty back roads of rural San Miguel de Allende

I just spent a half-day rambling around some dusty backroads in the regions around Antotonilco chasing hopes and dreams with a dozen other like-minded people.

Not our hopes and dreams.

No, we were in pursuit of the hopes and dreams of budding entrepreneurs – a beauty salon owner, the owner of a market stall in Antotonilco, the owner of a tiny produce and dry-goods tienda in an indigenous village, an Otomi women’s collective that makes herbal remedies and natural cosmetics, an Otomi embroidery business, and a woman who sells corn-on-the-cob at local football games on Sundays.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende

Happiest parade in San Miguel de Allende

You’re carrying a big and colorful star on a stick that you can wave and twirl to cheering crowds while surrounded by insanely peppy music and joyfully crafted mojigangas.

How can you NOT smile and laugh as you bounce up and down on the streets of San Miguel?

This is the Reseña de La Alborada de Estrellas — a preview to an even bigger and happier parade coming next weekend, at 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 30.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

An Independence Day parade to celebrate the best of Mexico

I think that of all the parades we have in San Miguel de Allende, this is my favorite.

This one, during the Mexican Independence festivities, celebrates the school children (our future), first responders (our safety), police and military (our security), and equestrians (our history). It has it all. All that makes Mexico a beautiful country in which to live.

The parade began on Cordo and turned onto the Ancha before marching up into Centro on yet another flawlessly beautiful September day.

One of the worst things you can do is over-write a parade. It is all visual and emotional. So I’m going to leave it right there and just fill this page with pictures of beautiful kids and adults in uniform — and some in costume.

Enjoy.

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Colonia San Antonio, photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Encore for the Queen

Some of the literature says that the cactus known as Queen of the Night (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) blooms only once or twice a year but if that is the case, we may need to rewrite the book.

Our Queen just does not want to leave center stage.

That is the endearing attraction of this ivory bloom: It opens up one night in a spectacular display and with the morning’s light, all that remains is a drooping shallow resemblance of its formerly glorious self.

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photography, Rants and raves, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Thinking about Jimmy Buffett and Paradise: ‘I am still me, it’s the island that got small’

In counseling the British writer Robert Graves on a possible move to Majorca, Gertrude Stein called it “a paradise – if you can stand it.”

And that is as good an explanation as any of the complicated relationship many people have with Jimmy Buffett. The man sold a brand of paradise. Millions bought at least some version of it – be it a beachy lifestyle, the music, a devotion to margaritas, Hawaiian shirts and sandals, sportfishing, sailing, and all the Margaritaville bars, retirement communities, casinos, resorts …

Buffett wasn’t the first to turn a lifestyle into a commodity but few seem to do it better. Maybe Donald Trump. These days you can be a cradle-to-grave Parrothead with apologies toward none. More than anything, we worship success and if a guy sells a million records or makes a million dollars, he will find no shortage of admirers.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Colorful cascade

This is the San Miguel de Allende version of “Surf’s Up!”

Bougainvillea soars skyward on spindly legs during the rainy season and bursts outward like technicolor mushroom clouds, surging over walls as their own weight and gravity pulls the blooms toward the ground.

This one is one of San Miguel’s best displays of a bougainvillea canopy.

As it is every year. (Mostly bougainvillea. The blue flowers are something else.)

Only this year, the bloom seems more vivacious than ever.

It is between the Villa Santa Monica property on Jose Guadalupe Mojica (Calle Baeza?) and Calle Santa Elena — right across from Parque Juarez and close to the Lavaderos del Chorro.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

The evolving physics of the Parroquia

Every time I think that I’ve photographed the Parroquia San Miguel de Arcangel from every conceivable angle during the past five years, something new comes along.

It’s like in physics. Scientists were pretty sure that the Standard Model that addresses all “of nature’s known particles and forces” was The Overall Encompassing Answer to Everything.

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photography, San Miguel de Allende

Bonus: Closing night fireworks (now, with stunning video!)

After two weeks of festivities ramping up to the Feast of Saint Anthony and the Convite de Locos on Sunday, the closing night fireworks were spectacular. Flashes, flames, arcs of brilliant light, cascades of incandescence, strobes of white heat, yellow flamethrowers, whistles, and booms all danced around the Parroquia San Antonio de Padua in Colonia San Antonio.

A stunning display of pyrotechnics set to beguiling classical music.

Crank up the volume!

Click on any image to enlarge:

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photography, Reviews, San Miguel de Allende, Writings

Maybe they’re not so loco after all … what a parade!

They did it. The Loco marched, danced, walked, twirled, teased, sweated, tossed candy and rubber balls, waved, smiled, and consumed copious amounts of water and electrolyte drinks on Sunday morning.

And the thousands lining both sides of many downtown San Miguel de Allende streets loved every hot and sticky, broiling, joyous moment of the Contvite de Locos.

What an incredible day.

The city estimates that 130,000 people were in San Miguel for the parade, of whom 5,300 were Locos marching in the parade. Only 43 people required medical attention for heat, falling, tripping, or other maladies. Four individuals were arrested during this very family-oriented festivity.

It is worth noting that the city staffed a number of “hydration stations” along the parade route for marchers and watchers.

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