Jorge Quinteros

Inside Fort El Morro

Not visiting Fort El Morro in San Juan, Puerto Rico is the straightforward equivalence of taking the 11 and a half hour plane ride from New York to Cairo, Egypt and not touring the Pyramids. Walking through the fort is an unreal experience where you’re likely to feel chills looking at the historic artifacts and realizing that 500 years ago, the place withstood several attacks by intruders trying to take over the island.

The structure is very unique, it’s very well preserved. The view of San Juan harbor is fantastic. It’s within walking distance to the great walls near the harbor. The folks from the National Park Service take the time to explain the different parts of the structure and history but if you’d rather visit on your own, there is a shop in the premise for you to purchase souvenirs and booklets with information.

From a photographer’s perspective, the photo opportunities are endless especially if you’re lucky enough to own a fisheye lens.

Parachute Jump & Orientation

I once overheard a photographer say that “the best time to take a photograph in portrait orientation is right after you’ve taken one in landscape” and it’s been a guideline I’ve stuck with. I think the reason we rarely deviate from shooting landscape is because we stick with the default orientation of the camera and we can’t bare the thought of excluding so much from a photo like you would if you were to shoot in portrait format.

The correct orientation to utilize is the right one for that shot. It all depends on the subject matter. We’re all intrinsically visual people so when I approach a subject, I simply follow my eyes. If what’s attracted me makes me look vertically, then I shoot portrait and the same goes with landscape mode. I like to think I shoot a mixture of both formats but a quick inspection of my work reveals that I shoot largely in landscape and that’s because I’m always thinking about the platform in which I’m going to showcase any of them.

Where we share our work also influences which orientation we choose to shoot. Up until this point, if my fascination with Coney Island weren’t obvious already, for the longest I’ve wanted to publish this photograph of the boardwalk I took last summer but I was always indecisive because as attracted as I was with it, the fact that it was in portrait format turned me off and I never felt it flowed with the way I typically publish anything on the site.

The Parachute Jump that arises above the Coney Island boardwalk is among one of the iconic frameworks of this tourist attraction and the only way I think of where you can completely admire and isolate it from every other form of distraction taking place is to frame it the ways it’s intended to be seen and that’s vertically.

Walking Away from Vatican City

I felt dizzy when we arrived. Perhaps the sudden change of temperature from an air-conditioned tour bus to an 85 degree heat wave in that massive plaza that I instantly recognize from Angels & Demons had something to do with it but regardless of how exhausted or how sweaty we might have been, we were still deliriously happy to be standing in St. Peter’s Square.

We’d been taken to the many other well-known landmarks across Rome but the anticipation leading to visiting Vatican City was as great as everything we ate. I have to believe that because we were in Italy, everything you can possibly see and eat had to be unquestionably good and if you thought otherwise, then you were just wasting your time not appreciating the remarkable culture and history around us.

I don’t say I’ve seen all of Rome but I’ve seen enough to convince me to want to visit the place again. In instances like this, you almost have to just experience being in a place without over thinking what is the best way to tell a story either with your writing or your camera. Let the adventure accumulate to a point where what you shoot or say is based off on what you know so far and not just driven by sheer novelty of being in a new setting.

Generally when I arrive at new place, that instant urge to photograph doesn’t set in until I’ve at least walked the area a bit. It’s like sipping a great wine. You pour a small amount to admire the aroma before getting wasted with the rest of it. I like to take my time shooting and it’s a characteristic that drives my wife crazy because she’s more of a shoot and keep it moving person. This was the last photograph I took in St. Peter’s Square as I walked backwards not wanting to turn away from a place I didn’t have enough time to examine.

At The Apollo

The Apollo is one of the many tourist attractions in New York mainly because their stage has been used as the platform form which top American artist have launched their career. The place is known as Where Stars are Born and Legends are Made Later and while I’m not too familiar with every star that’s taken center stage, who could possibly forget the incredible concert by Michael Jackson where he performed Billie Jean and debuted the infamous Moonwalk.

The theatre is located in Harlem, a neighborhood which I had never visited before partly because it doesn’t generally have the highest of reputation but then again, neither does Bushwick but I have to admit that I felt more comfortable photographing there than in Harlem. The objective was to spend a decent amount of type photographing the people, the buildings and the rich African American culture but after 45mins, I took the train back home.

I saw several of the red Hop On & Off tour buses and people were quite satisfied in simply photographing and catching a quick glimpse of this landmark without the need to get off. The one place where I felt locals where more receptive to a camera being around was in Chinatown but not here. Perhaps a more compact camera would have been more suitable for this quick outing.

Remembering The Louvre

The curiosity to visit Paris increased more after having read The Da Vinci Code. I felt less shallow to admit it when I realized there was a tour created specifically for all the fanatics that wished to follow the footsteps of the film to explore the places, works and themes at the heart of the story. People visited for differently reasons and this was a legitimate one.

Very much like all the other European countries we’ve visited, what struck me most about standing before this glass pyramid was acknowledging that the museum no longer existed as a fact. It know lives also as a memory embedded deeply that could never be taken away.

Despite not having the highest knowledge in art, the intimacy of viewing paintings you’ve only seen in reproduction or seeing a breadth of work by a painter you thought you knew is mind-boggling.

Like all good tourists should, we immediately ignored everything around us for the moment and made a beeline to the painting that is almost synonymous with the Louvre — the Mona Lisa. Along the way, we hasted through gigantic rooms whose walls were covered in rows of paintings and others whose floors seemed like thick forests of statues and relics.

The excess of the work we saw that day has almost become a blur in my memory. I recall searching for Vermeer, Venus de Milo, and Michelangelo but the museum is so massive that you can only do 2 things when visiting. Out of the three wings, you can pass through one and see the majority of one, or you can visit the Louvre on several small cycles, which makes for a long day and thorough visit.

Weight on the Shoulders

I’m certain this prominent monument at Rockefeller Center has been photographed a million times but until now, I wasn’t able to include myself in that large pool. As a resident, we don’t visit these tourist attractions as much as one would think but I happen to be in the vicinity today with my camera as always and I learned something new about this Atlas Statue which is situated directly in front of the St.Patrick’s Cathedral.

There was a Rockefeller Center history tour taking place and my objective was to photograph and leave but I purposely lurked a bit to overhear the tour guide talking about the sculpture. What I learned was that from the front like in this photo, the statue comes across as aggressive with his muscular arms wide open holding the weight of the world as if he’s fed up with it and about to lunge towards the street.

Take a walk behind and you’ll notice a completely opposite demeanor. His head is bowed and he appears to be kneeling in reverence towards the cathedral. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to photograph it from behind myself but it was impressive to see the difference between both viewings.