Great Depth of Field: Landscapes & Lifescapes in Guna Yala

Our family trip to Guna Yala (formally known as Kuna Yala & San Blas) this past weekend was not for the sole purpose of basking in the Caribbean sea. I knew that there was a story to tell of the Native people residing amongst these 365 islands. While there, I did take advantage of shooting some landscapes of palm trees, crystal clear water and white sand beaches. For wall art of course! To accomplish this, I knew that I wanted to shoot for "Great Depth of Field". This term in photography is generally used to describe a technique where all of the image is SHARP & IN FOCUS. The way to accomplish this is by using a smaller aperture than you might for say a portrait. Because there was a nice range of tones from the sea, mountains and sky, I was able to accomplish this very easily and didn't need to do ANY post correction using Photoshop or Lightroom.

For this image, I used my 17-55mm Nikon lens with an aperture of f8 to retain the detail in the fore and backgrounds almost equally.

For a complete guide on "Apertures" and other Camera Settings, pick up a copy of the Mamatography Photo Basics book!

Please excuse some of my personal, favorite family photos below ; ) 

Read on for a look at the Kuna culture!

Our view upon arrival to Isla Iguana from "La Launcha"

Digging with Daddy in the softest sand on earth! 

Lobster for lunch everyday? YES PLEASE!

Safi was just as curious about the nice nuns that arrived for lunch as I was.

Enjoying lobster and a snuggle with Daddy.

Who needs to wear a top when you're on a deserted island?!

Taking in the sunrise with my Boo Boo

As I mentioned above, the Caribbean itself was not the only reason for us to go to Guna Yala. I had been anticipating this trip from a Photographers perspective for years! So on our second day, we loaded up the "launcha" and held on for dear life as we bounced through sea chop over to the main village island where the Kunas reside.

Arrival at Carti Sugdub (Crab Island)

Another Kuna village across the way

Click the Pic to Enlarge

This image was the result of all my inspirations for this trip taken at the village of Crab Island (or Carti Sugdub in Kuna). I see these women in their colorful cloths and beads in the city everyday! My daughter's teacher is of their decent. My curiosity with the Kuna culture started on my first trip here to Panama CIty in 2009 with a shaded shot I caught of a weary Kuna woman staring at me from a phone booth. They come here to work, earning a living selling their popular Mola designs. They are HIGHLY protective of their culture greatly in part of the beauty of the landscape and risk of development form hoteliers. So much so, that in the 1920's their was a Kuna Revolution, in which they won. For me, visiting where they come from was a kind of closure. Because sadly, soon, we are leaving Panama. 

I imagine this lovely, elder women is on the Kuna Cocoa diet. The average Kuna drinks about 4 cups of organic, unrefined cocoa a day leading to long, healthy lives with a reduced risk of cancer and heart related deaths by an astonishing degree! 

Something to think about…

Safi & I getting our "Weenie" bracelets. I can't confirm the spelling, but that is in fact what they're called.

Below are Safi's little girlfriends, who followed us throughout the paths and allies, tickling her and calling for her with laughter. I wanted to wrap them up and take them home with us! We had bought these juices for them, it was a terribly hot day, that I'm sure they are very used to. But when the last sip was gone, to our horror, they chucked the plastic bottles straight over the sea wall and onto the rest of the garbage ON TOP of the buried sand line. WOW. HEARTBREAK.

 

Long before this trip, I had wanted to shoot a documentary on the Kuna way of life and create some kind of fundraiser scenario for the education of Kuna children. Mainly because I always saw their mothers working so hard selling their goods, just like the days when I went to work at the flea market with my mom. They are a symbol of independence and work ethic for women everywhere. To my delight, amongst the polluted village of the Crab, was this adorable little school boasting of brand new desks and learning materials. I especially enjoyed their bilingual alphabet and banners in both Kuna and Spanish. 

Now, from this experience, all I want to do is somehow educate them on how to contribute to the preservation of their BEAUTIFUL environment! All this granted, the government in Panama is not exactly resourceful in the way of environmental awareness. Steps are being taken in the Canal zone which is a very international area. But why not help the native people of Panama to be more aware too? They need to be taught to Reduce, Reuse & Recycle and be provided with a means to do so. These thoughts make me feel defeated at times, but if we start with simple education perhaps some books on the earth and our environment, maybe they'll tell their friends and their parents and MAYBE think before throwing that plastic bottle into the sea. 

I'll leave you on this note:

Snap some pictures. Share them and change the world!

Yours Truly, Vicky

Mother's Day Giveaway from Mamatography Photo Workshops & Print My Picture Online

Mother's Day is this Sunday, which means it's OUR week!

To kick things off, Mamatography Photo Workshops & Print My Picture Online have joined teams to present to you a PRINT YOUR PICS Mother's Day Giveaway.

{No time to read this post? Just scroll down to the Rafflecopter form below to enter this GIVEAWAY!}

I am a fan of Print My Picture Online because I've ordered from them in the past to output my family photos. For this series below, I had them print a series of my Instagram (Follow me here!) snapshots either done w/ my iPhone or iPad. I was super impressed with how they came out! Who would ever think that you could get such quality pieces to show off in your home w/ a smart device?

5x5 Canvases from Print My Picture Online

16x20 Canvas from Print My Picture Online 
Photo by Lisa Della Bella

I recently sat down via web conference with Erica Bean, founder of Print My Picture Online, and asked her where the inspiration for her business came from. AND if she had any tips to share with the Mamatography readers on how to output their photos on Canvas.

Here's what she had to say: 

When my children were small I wanted to save every moment in time. I knew it was all going to be over in the blink of an eye. I took pictures of EVERYTHING! My home was filled with albums and supplies for scrapbooking, but I still felt as though I was missing out. I had all these great “pages” but none of them were on display anywhere. I decided I wanted images on my walls instead of the oil paintings they were filled with. I ordered large prints from all the typical “labs” but hated how they never looked right. The low quality had me searching for professional labs. To my dismay, their services were not available to me because I was not a professional photographer. But why did I need to be a professional to get quality images printed? I was determined that my pictures were deserving enough of quality printing. That is when my mission began! I wanted to offer the availability to anyone for professional quality printing at an affordable price. The same goes for our new frame line, BEAN Framed. They are available to anyone who takes pictures at an affordable price!

Some tips for printing on Canvas: 

Personally I've always LOVED photos on canvas! It gives such dimension and adds interest to your wall art. Have you ever wondered why some have the image on the sides and others don’t? It is a simple explanation, however, getting this effect doesn’t happen without some planning and forethought. When you are submitting photos to be printed on canvas you need to plan for the image to have approx. 2 inches of “expendable” space on all 4 sides. It's helpful to have computer software like Photoshop or Elements to custom size and crop your photos. Enlarging your picture to be 2inches bigger is not the fix, because you are making the images larger, you are not creating more expendable space. Expendable space happens when you are editing, even taking the photo! Don’t crop it all the way to the edge. If you do crop all the way to the edge the result, when printed on canvas, would be 1 of 2 things:
1). Blank space on the sides or 2.) 2 inches of your image (on all 4 sides) wrapped on the edge with back. This can change the whole vision you had for your art! When we feel an image is going to be affected by the wrap, we let the customer know that opting for blank sides is a better way to go!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY EVERYONE!
xo Vicky

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Trip to the Village of Embera Puru :: Photojournalism Tips for Moms :: Mamatography Photo Workshops

Happy Earth Day : ) For this post I'd like to share my photos from last weekend's adventure to Embera Puru, a Native village here in the jungles of Panama. Home to some of the nicest people on EARTH!

Many months ago, I had a pleasant encounter with an Embera family on the banks of the Canal. I snapped a few pics of them, as they were happy to, but I knew that there was a greater, more colorful experience lying up river amongst their many villages. I've been making a vigorous effort to take advantage of my surroundings here and most of all, the people. The native culture amongst me is so greatly intertwined with the modern happenings in Panama. There are multiple native groups, the most prominent in my area of Panama City are the Embera, Kuna and  Ngöbe-Buglé peoples. My daughter's teacher is a lovely, Kuna lady who I adore, named Teacher Dady (a little confusing at first to my American daughter ; ) She is from a very popular group of islands called San Blas. These are amongst the most beautiful in all the Caribbean sea. I've yet to get there but it's next on my list!

What's so great about the Embera villages for me, is that they offer a unique photographic experience relatively close to home here in Panama City. A friend of mine recommended Embera Village Tours as they provide a very authentic version of a tourist's excursion. 

In the Mamatography Photo Sharing and Critique group, this week, I assigned "Natives" as our weekly shoot topic. I wanted to give this one my all!

The Journey to Embera Puru: Fredrico carried some supplies I wanted to donate. "Amor" was our captain.
When we arrived, what a welcome it was!

This trip took around 1 hour by van to a lush, green, hilly bank just east of the Panama Canal. Driving through the many towns north of the city is a pretty common site. It's hard to imagine what we would soon find on our journey. Suddenly, the earth just opened up! And there were these dug out canoes and colorful Embera men there to greet us. *A couple funny side notes: Our guide contacted them by cell phone which they can access by climbing the hills in the village to notify them to jump in the motorized canoes to meet the tourists at the shore "ramp". Knowing these things did not take away from the experience one bit! In fact, my bottom is utterly grateful that I only had to sit on that piece of ply wood in the canoe for an hour and a half compared to, if rowed, could've taken a full day or more!  

I brought just about ALL of my gear on this trip because I didn't have Safi with me, this time! It was important to me to really focus on capturing the essence of the experience and leaving the diapers and crankiness at home. I used both my camera bodies this day because on one I had my 17-55mm Wide angle, zoom lens for landscapes and on my new camera my 50mm normal/portrait lens to capture faces, details and HD video of the village. I put everything to use! Important to mention that I brought a large raincoat with me to throw over my gear on the boat trip. Luckily, I didn't need to use it as we're on the edge of dry to rainy season.

View from my canoe on Rio San Juan de Pequeni

This trip was a much needed escape from the awful realities that had been LITERALLY exploding back home and seeing it all here on CNN. When I stepped off that canoe and walked up the hill of musicians, my camera holding hands shook with joy! 

My eyes filled with tears as I marveled in the faces of chubby cheeked children and their bare breasted mothers. It was all just so beautiful, like I was meant to go there all this time.

I immediately locked eyes with little Leila. She's 1 of 3 daughters of my new friend, Silvania. Whom, greeted me in English. I was shocked! Most everyday people in Panama, even in the city, do not speak English. That's just the way it is. But here was this native girl, giving up on my bad Spanish, and communicating in MY language.

Silvania is a storybook in herself. She's just 20 years old, a mother of 3 and working towards going to college in the city to perfect her English to show visitors like me, where she lives. What was especially interesting about her, is that she is not actually an Embera. She is from the Ngöbe-Buglé culture generally located in the more Western side of Panama. She met her husband (I still have to get the scoop how) who is from the Embera tribe, and brought her to his village where they are raising their beautiful children together. The elder women, including her mother-in-law, help her care for her girls as well since her family is on the other side of the country. 

I gave Silvania the goods that I brought for little girls. I could laugh at my self because I brought them these fancy sandals from Nordstroms and all the kids were barefoot! Just the way kids should be. One little one got a kick out of a pair of sunglasses Safi never took to. 

She and all the Emberas were so warm and kind. Men and women alike. The little girls whom were big sisters, really amazed me. They were little mothers themselves, filled with affection for their baby siblings.

Another baby's treasure!

Leila being sneaky with the big girls.
The cloths shown hanging on the line and on the female Emberas, are designed by them. However modern technology has enabled them to sketch their designs and then deliver them to the city where they are then EMAILED to Japan, printed and shipped back for them to wear, sell and enjoy!

Beautiful goods, handmade by the Emberas

Silvania coiling a traditional basket made from hand died, palm fibers.

"Angelina"
as our guide Dave said, she's never seen a camera before ; )

Lunch! We were fed a fresh feast of Tilapia, which was caught in transit, with Patacones (fried Plantains)
in a leave sleeve. 

Mom splitting up a snack. Keeping the peace amongst little villagers! 

If you have the chance to take the simplest of excursions in which you can capture a native group, do it! Even if they too are adjusting to the modern world, they choose to stay removed from it. This makes for an intriguing VISUAL STORY in the style of "Photojournalism". Even in your day to day lives, when you're taking pictures, attempt to tell a story. Take more than one picture of the same thing or person on a particular day or at a special place. Remember every moment of a unique experience through multiple unique images.

On this day, I truly was a kid in a candy store. One just couldn't take a bad photo of these lovely people! I can't wait to return, next time with Safi. We're going to have a sleep over with Silvania and her girls. Should be intersting to see how Safi fares a day with out the iPad! Silvania says SHE can't wait to go to the city in July and catch up on TV. Though, her kids say to her "Mami, I don't like TV". Bless their little Embera hearts!

Happy Snapping, Vicky

Using Photoshop CS6: The "Content Aware" Feature

Recently, I had the pleasure of capturing some of my Panama Mama friends for my next book, the Mamatography™ Capture Calendar.

This colorful pic was just so full of life and joy! BUT WAIT! There's a pole in Olga's head : (

A common question that I get asked is "How do I remove a ________ from a photo?". How you ask? With the NIFTY Content Aware feature available in Photoshop CS6!

If you have just a little bit of know how about Photoshop (using it's tools, and specifically it's Selection Tools) then you can manage to remove an unwanted object by means of Content Aware deletion.

So first off, open up your picture file and duplicate the original layer by dragging it to the little page icon on the bottom right of the layers pallet. ALWAYS DO THIS! With any project.

Next, I used the Polygonal lasso tool to make a general selection of the pole behind her head. You will see "Marching Ants" where you have made your selection.

I prefer to add a bit of "feathering" to my selection areas for a more natural result. I feathered my selection by a radius of 20 pixels. Click OK.

With the area selected, simply click delete and the below option will appear. Click OK.

See the "Marching Ants" in the image below.

Next, it's time to perfect your retouching skills by adding some reality to the deleted area.

What I noticed about my background is that it had a TON of bokeh (that lit, circular effect that is a result of shallow depth of field by using a WIDE aperture on your lens).

This was going to make my life SOMEWHAT easy. To start, I decided to brush the remaining outline area w/ the colors making up the area around it.

For this, I used my "Go To" retouching tools, the Eyedropper and the Brush.

So I brushed in the green areas and then proceeded to FAKE the bokeh sampling different yellow, green, blue and red areas of the background.

I adjusted the hardness of my brush where it was needed as I went along.

Once the general background was complete, I repeated all of these steps for the area underneath and between them where the poll remained. Minor adjustment was due to how much I feathered the selection.

And that 's the gist of Content Aware Fill (and deletion).

If you enjoyed this tutorial but NEED to learn more, leave a comment below or sign up for a  webinar with me! The full menu of classes can me found here on the Mamatography site: http://store.mamatographylessons.com/

Happy Snapping, Vicky

Sweet Valentine's, it's Been Two Months | Journey to Sandy Hook

Photo Bracelet by Made for Memories

Driving into the fog just at the boarder of Connecticut, I was instantly stirred with sadness. The days leading up to my trip to Newtown & Sandy Hook included a DUMPING snow storm that affected the entire Northeast. I'd been staying with family in New York, a short drive to the edge of where tragedy struck just 2 months ago today.

In January, I worked together with Mamatography students and beyond to raise funds for a project that at times felt, frankly, trivial. 

But what inspired it was anything but. The violent loss of 20 elementary school children did (and should) make any person, mother, father, HUMAN want to get off their ass and say or do SOMETHING.

Clicking through my Facebook newsfeed after the holidays, a pretty little photo charm bracelet popped up from Made for Memories Photo Jewelry. 

(I don't wear much jewelry, but the softness of this piece made by the talented Clarissa Hickman was something to take notice of.)

Bracelets in production

Sleeping on some thoughts of what was happening post 12/14/12, that bracelet kept coming to mind….

"What if the moms of the children lost in Sandy Hook had one of these with a memory of their child attached to them when they felt they needed it?"

But with that came so many additional questions...

1. If I were that mom on the receiving end, the mom who's child was now painfully absent from my life, could I bare to be reminded?

2. How would they get into the right hands?

3. How to pay for them all?

Finished bracelets delivered in a plush box. The quality of the stone was just incredible. I cried.

 Not long after I woke up one Monday morning, emails were bouncing back and forth, these questions being answered. First, Clarissa telling me she was game to contribute her time to make these stunning artifacts and then that same day, a reply from a member of the (Olivia) Engle family. He thought that Olivia's mom would in fact find joy in having one of these bracelets. So we carried on!

The plan was to raise $500 in one week and quickly get the ball rolling on production of the bracelets. I'd be staying this month in NY with family and thought, why not hand deliver the bracelets instead of mailing them. And, I'd bring Safi with me to tell her what she'd been apart of one day.

Soon I would hear from a lovely resident of Sandy Hook, Rebekah. She offered to meet me in Newtown, pick up the bracelets, and distribute them to the moms at hand. Rebekah helped organize the My Sandy Hook Family Fund in the days following the shooting. In meeting with her this week, I was enlightened to find that her fund has raised over $1 Million dollars and counting for the victim's families. She told me that the goal is 2.6 Million so that EVERY family would receive $100,000 to cover long term expenses while being out of work and all that comes with coping with such a mindless event. 

If you would like to contribute to the My Sandy Hook Family Fund, you may do so HERE.

I didn't know the geography of Newtown, CT and thought that Sandy Hook was just the name of the school. As it seems, Newtown is the larger town where the village (and schools) of Sandy Hook reside on the map. There are multiple elementary schools in the area, that I imagine the spared children now attend. 

If I were to paint a picture of a classical town in America that I would want to live, THIS town would be it. A sleepy village where kids can ride their bikes to the toy store or throw a fishing line in the stream during the summer. A place to enjoy and be amongst neighbors.

After my insightful and emotional meeting with Rebekah and her lovely, local friend (both moms of 6 year olds in the town), I dashed off to drive by the school to snap some shots before heading back to my hotel.

The town and village were a BLANKET of snow. It was dreary, it was lonely. I can count on one hand the people out and about that day on my way into Sandy Hook village. A tractor driver, 2 teenaged girls on a porch puffing smokes, the fireman who turned me away from the school and a snow plow driver in the parking lot along this dreamy river bank.

School was canceled that day, Sandy Hook Elementary remains closed and I guess there was probably no need to plow through the strange side road that leads up to it. Needless to say, I didn't get through to the 'scene'. For the best I suppose. The town stood for it's self. The stars on the phone poles with words from children spoke volumes though their was no one around to speak to.

This wasn't my score to settle, there's no closure from this. Not for any of us. Just acts of kindness to be performed with no expectation or want….just silence and peace, for all souls.

To all who donated to the Photo Bracelet project for the Sandy Hook moms, THANK YOU. Rebekah has told me that they are being well received.

New Years Resolution HOW TO: Sort, Organize, Print your family photos by Stacey Panassidi

It's January 4th already and I don't know about you but I often have files filled with pictures from the previous year of my own family and friends that I haven't had a chance to sort/organize/print . Part of my new year's resolution (besides working out regularly) is to get my personal photos in order! So where to begin? How about the beginning. Rather than make yourself crazy, take it one month at a time and work on it once a week. 

Here is an idea of my sorting/organizing/printing flow:

1. Take the 1st of each month to work on the month priors photos
2. I make sure that month's images have been backed up, if they haven't, I back it up on my external hard drive. 
3. I review my images from that month and decide what I want to print, what I want to save and what I want to delete. Yes, I delete images, sometimes my images are blurry, or don't tell the story and I don't keep them. 
4. I put a folder on my desktop labeled to print and all to print photos go there. (I recommend printing with mpix.com)
5. Each month I upload to mpix.com and print those images. 
6. I have slip in albums that I load those pictures into (my kids at ages 12 and 15 still love flipping through a photo album, looking at the computer is just not the same!)

Besides what I take with my BIG MAMA DSLR camera and my point and shoot, I also have a ton of pictures that I take on instragram w/ my smartphone. (You can follow me at @spanassidi) and I found the coolest thing for printing instagram pictures! It's called Printstagram and they have some really cute products! I just printed a 365 calendar and I love it! Check out printstagram here http://printstagr.am/, I definitely plan on printing more with them. 

Last thing I do is figure out what images I want to display around my home. My favorite artwork for my walls is my family. I love canvas, I don't have to worry about framing, I can just hang it immediately and enjoy it, a big plus for a procrastinator like me!  I just ordered huge 28x28 canvas' for a small wall in my kitchen from this year's holiday pictures, but you can see here canvas's of my dogs, last year's holiday pictures and other favorites hanging around my house. It makes me happy to see my family as I go from room to room. 



















So there you have it, not so hard to sort/organize/print and ENJOY! Before you know it will be Jan. 4, 2014, so get started today!

Stacey Panassidi is owner/photographer at The Memory Studios in Marlboro New Jersey. She is a Mamatography Photo Workshops Affiliate and teaches photography to moms in her area and soon, online.