Photo Blog: San Cristobal de las Casas

January 19, 2011

Tags: Chiapas, k2000, Mexico, pentax, photo blog, San Cristobal

I’ve been trying to practice more with my telephoto lens so I decided to have an outting today where that’s primarily what I used. Equipped with my Pentax DA 50-200mm lens I went on a little walk around San Cristobal. In an attempt to provide more content that gives a more accurate portrayel of my travels, I’m going to try my first attempt at a photo blog.

I walked out to the street, made a quick left, and got to the first intersection. To the left was a road leading up to one of the many churches that require a climb.

The road is blocked off to autmobiles, so it makes avoiding the crazy narrow sidewalks much easier. The buildings are all touching one another and hold a variety of different shops and restaurants.

I took a right at the intersection and headed towards the plaza. Mexican cities are laid iout in a way that has the activities around the church. So you have a church.

The plaza around the church.

And of course people in the plaza selling stuff. There obviously aren’t strict laws on child labor, because many of the people selling the stuff are small children.

The police presence in Mexico has been quite impressive. In big cities they guard stores, hotels, restaurants, and drive around in trucks 8 deep with machine guns. Here the presence is much less, however I have seen a couple army trucks driving around.

I decided to just have a seat in front of the church and do some people watching. The telephoto lens proved to be a lot of fun. I was able to sit back and just observe people from a distance without them noticing me.

I wasn’t really interested in moving so I sat there for a long time and found shots in the minute details of everyday life that we tend to forget about.

I was determined to look past the foreground and deeper into my surroundings.

I was pleasently surprised by what went on back there.

It reminded me of a sensation I had last year when I was at a large festival. I sat in an empty spot on the grass and watched as the people within a close range of me walked past. Then I started looking for the people who were a bit further away. Eventually I was able to look around and no longer see a crowd of people, but a group of individuals. I had that feeling today as I looked past what I would normally look at and squint in the sun to see everyone who walked by. I had an awareness of being in the presence of hundreds of complex beings like myself who have lived their entire lives from their points of view that rival every thing I’ve ever seen. Everyone there had their own stories, beliefs, and philosophies just as myself. I wanted to know them all.