One More Story

I write this entry from my car, overlooking a huge quarry while listening to classical music. I am waiting for the light to soften a bit before I take a photo. Why am I taking photos of a quarry? Well, just as things were winding down with the Rapa story (writing captions, doing a final edit to go with the audio, etc) me and my sound person, Jessica, were assigned another mini-story about stoneworkers. Apparently Galicia is famous all over Europe for its stonework, and I can see why, because almost everything is made of beautiful old stone. So I’ve been shooting a story about a guy who is restoring a stone house (a 4 year project for him and his crew) as well as visiting some quarries and other places where rock is cut and shaped a bit. It’s been another pretty fun story, although tracking down all these people and places has been a source of frustration between me and Jessica, since our way of doing things is slightly different. I like to ask all the questions up front (like, “Will you be working with stone when we come tomorrow?”) and it seems Jessica is a little more timid about asking strangers about their schedule (and since she’s doing most of the talking b/c I don’t speak Gallego, she has to be the person to ask). I had my first real argument in Spanish, as a result, but things are ok now. Jessica is trying to finish editing all the audio from the Rapa into a 3 minute piece, which also presents a challenge, and taking time away from her to do this mini-story is probably not the best idea. But if I’ve learned anything in Photojournalism, it’s that there always plenty of problems to be solved. I am probably also going to help out with another story that is in a very remote village. I’m told it’s absolutely beautiful. I am mostly coming along to help with driving and some Spanish. I’m excited to see more of Spain! There are plenty of things that us photographers have been complaining about (most things due to lack of communication from above), but we always come back to the fact that we’re in Spain!

And just to mention two random things: 1. I really love driving around in Spain. There is something about driving around in a foreign country that makes me feel independent and free because I had the same experience driving last summer in Mexico and of course last month in Ireland. 2. While writing this entry I had to translate from Spanish. I am now thinking mostly in Spanish! No dreaming yet though.