A Little Bit Of El Roble

Rafael laughing in the face of the sun.

Rafael, that well known artist who exhibits his linocuts and other great art works at La Luna Gallery, has been a resident of the smallish village of El Robles just outside Villa Union outside Mazatlán in Sinaloa state has been a native of that village all his life and so have his family. He took us on a tour....

This is not a horse petting zoo but the real ranch that one could only access if you knew the people and Rafael knows everyone and is even allowed the sniff a 3 hour old calves. I had a sniff and there is nothing like the smell of a 3 hour old calf in the morning.

 Pretending to point at things is always in the formula when taking pictures for a client. They sometimes email and ask why the hell you haven't got the subject to point at something off camera. This email conversation can go on - because it looks posed - that's the idea - ok i'll do one and that's it - no do them all pointing because that's what people do when hiking, point at things, it's natural - well it doesn't look fucking natural, sniffing a new born calf is natural i do it all the time like sniffing a new born baby's head - no it's not, you can still see its dead umbilical - now that is natural - no it's gross - well fuck you too. It can go downhill from there and you've lost a client. However in my experience sometimes they come back.

More great non pointing stuff after the break

We took a hike outside El Robles through the maize fields and down to the river. That's the river that goes under that bridge as you approach Villa Union.

We even had time to check out the bird life while Rafael did a little sketch in this image that could be construed as posed for a crappy picture library shot.

The quiet streets of El Roble. The streets there are always quiet.

Onion pickers. This is were your white onions come from.

A horse in a flooded ditch and an egret and some maize

Having a laugh with these ladies who have owned this shop for generations. Rafael knows them well and as we have said, everyone else in town and as a photographer you couldn't get anything better because when he is around you can poke your camera everywhere. However this lady below preferred to cover herself with an umbrella. She was laughing at the same time however.

Kids would even stand on a ball for you when Rafael was around.

.......cheekily throw balls at you smashing the camera into your face when he was around

....do silly things

.......smear food on their faces and roll around laughing

... allow you into the sacred dominoes sessions behind a house

....even babies whacked their mothers when he was around