• Brazil - Photos - Rio de Janeiro - Slide Show

    Parque Republica Photo Shoot

    8/21/2011 - By 

    Since my wife had the new camera, I had to go to the shoot with my little point and shoot camera. Every one in the class had a nicer camera than me. But that was OK. I figured that once I learn more about photography, I will buy myself a nice camera too.

    This was a fun experience because the park is called Parque de República, and I have never even known this park existed. It is located in the neighborhood of Catete and the park unlike many parks in Rio is very nicely done. It is about 2 city blocks big. It has a lot of very cool statues, and many of the statues have a common theme of little children strangling animals. Pretty wild! In addition to the statues, there are several large fountains, a water fall, a monkey feeding station, and a turtle station. we were also quite lucky because the weather was beautiful for a cool winter day in August. The place was alive with people of all walks of life. Lastly, there is a huge children’s playground which was packed the entire time.

    So our entire class basically start clicking photos in the park. I had no idea what to expect, and I just started. I know how to use my Panasonic Lumix more or less but I never really bothered to learn the finer points of my camera. So I asked the teacher, and she proceeded to give me the best digital camera advice EVER. The impact on the quality of your photos can be amazing. It is so important than I thought I would share it here.

    The key to great photos is to NOT use the automatic settings on the camera. Put the camera in manual mode. I had never done this before and she showed me how it worked. Once it is in manual mode, you can control two settings on your camera. The opening of the camera and the shutter speed. Both of these settings control the amount of light that enters into the camera. It makes sense. The smaller the opening the less light gets in. The faster the shutter speed (or the time the camera is open), the less light enters. So when you are messing with the settings, you need to make sure there is adequate light to take a picture. Luckily, the camera when it goes into manual mode has a sensor to tell you whether there is enough light. It is called the photometer, and you just mess with the setting until there is enough light and then snap the picture. That’s it! Mess with the two setting, and watch the photometer to make sure there is enough light!

    After about a couple of hundred photos, I must admit I got a little bored. All the other students were running around the park clicking photos, and the teacher came to me and told me other things to photograph. So I did. It was a great lesson. Another key to great photography is to take a lot of photos. When you got time, you should always keep on going. So I did, and some of my best shots were actually taken after she told me go get going again.

    When we were finishing up, she told us that next week, we needed to select 40 photographs and show them to the class. Here are the one that I chose. I am proud that I was able to get my cheap camera to take almost professional quality photographs. Thanks to the best digital camera tip of all time. I also did not crop and edit the photos because this is much more like pure photography. Here they are totally unedited.

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  • Brazil - Health - Rio de Janeiro

    Lessons From My First Marathon

    7/23/2011 - By 

    Water

    My time on my first 1/2 marathon was 2:39 minutes which is basically a horrible time. The reason that my time was so bad was because I walked somewhere around 3 kilometers of the race. It was my goal to run the entire race, and I failed in that goal. I wanted to finish and not walk.

    The reason is that I developed cramps and I started walking. Worse yet, after about 2 kilometers, both my legs cramped incredibly and I fell to the ground in pain. I was so mad at myself. People were yelling at me to get up and keep on stretching so I did. I started walking and finally I decided to finish the race running no matter what. I stopped again and started stretching like a mad man until I felt that I stretched out all the cramps. I finished the last 4 kilometers running and those are the photos taken by the photographers.

    I had no idea, but I need to rehydrate. Cramps are a function of fatigue and hydration. I sweat a lot when I run. In fact, it is one of the reasons that I enjoy running but if I want to run for long distances, I have to hydrate during the run or I will cramp. My wife also ran and she did not hydrate much and she did not cramp. The difference is she barely perspires.

    I decided to run a test and yesterday (4 days after the 1/2 marathon), I weighed myself before I ran my normal 7500 meter run. I weighed 69.1 kg which is 152 pounds. Aftewards, slightly less than an hour later, I weighed 67.4 kg or 148 pounds. So in less than an hour, I lost 4 pounds and to be honest, I was still sweating madly when I weighed myself.

    The most important lesson that I have learned is that I have to learn to hydrate. I mean this literally because it is a skill to drink liquids while running.

    Pain

    I did experience pain after I ran to my great disappointment. It was a very strange pain. It only happened when I change positions such as standing up. And then it would slowly go away after about 5 minutes. After two days it was all gone but I don’t think it is normal and right now I am betting that the pain is a function of the cramping. Normally, I don’t experience any pain what so ever when I run even long distances.

    Training

    I think that I over trained because I was nervous about the unknown. Starting in April (over three months before the big event), I ran 7500 kms every day religiously. I missed very few days. I would estimate that I was running around 140 miles per month before the marathon. I don’t need to train that hard, and regardless of my horrible time, I am confident in saying that I am in the best shape of my life and that is a good thing.

    Perseverance

    One thing that I proud of is that I finished. I was on the ground writing in pain, and somehow I finished. Better yet, I finished running and passing people. In fact, when I was done, I wasn’t even tired. There were many people huffing and puffing. That wasn’t me.

    Fun

    I got really lucky for my first 1/2 marathon because Rio is one of the most beautiful and popular places for a marathon. There were over 20,000 that particated and over 6000 in the 1/2 marathon. Just getting ready to begin, there is a certain electricity in the air, much like before the start of a big sports event. Then when you are off, it is really exciting. All of these people running together trying to accomplish the same goal.

    The sites along the way are spectacular and it was fun to listen to the people from other cities and countries marvel over the city where I live.

    Conclusion

    I have decided that I am definitely going to run another one. Myrtle Beach has a marathon in February 2012. It should be a lot colder so I should sweat a lot less. I don’t think that I need to train as hard although I need to work on hydration.

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  • Brazil - Jesse - Photos - Rio de Janeiro - Slide Show

    Rio de Janeiro Boat Trip

    4/22/2011 - By 

    In March 2011, we decided to rent a boat for the day and cruise the coast of Rio de Janeiro. I have been living here for 8 years but I had never seen the city from the outside looking in. Rio is a beautiful city, but it brings an entirely new dimension to view it from off the coast.

    We went swimming, and then we visited a beach called Itaipu which is on the other side of Niteroi. We ate lots of seafood and drank lots of beer and liquor. Finally, we cruised back to the Marina Gloria where we rented the boat. A fun time was had by all.

    4 Comments on “Rio de Janeiro Boat Trip”

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  • Brazil - Rio de Janeiro - Technology - Videos

    Rio de Janeiro Video

    3/28/2011 - By 


    When I was returning from our vacation in Frade back to Rio de Janeiro, there was a song on the CD called “Rio de Janeiro”. As I was driving, it made me think of all the things that I love about Rio de Janeiro. I decided to put together a video of all those things and then I put the song as the background music for the video.

    This was a fun project but I struggled with finding the best video software to do it. My prior videos I had been using Camtasia Studio, but I wanted HD and my version did not support HD. So I downloaded trials of Sony Movie Studio, and Corel Video Studio Pro. Both of them had their flaws and it made certain things quite difficult. Finally, I tried Microsoft MovieMaker which is 100% free. Prior versions were kind of clunky, but the latest version has some very cool effects. Watch it in full screen mode. Let me know what you think.

    2 Comments on “Rio de Janeiro Video”

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  • Brazil - Rio de Janeiro

    Is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a dangerous and violent place?

    2/17/2011 - By 

    I have lived in Rio since April 2003. Now that Rio de Janeiro will host both the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016, one question keeps popping up. Is Rio de Janeiro a safe place to visit? It is certainly understandable. Quite often, photos of violence in Rio de Janeiro are shot around the world.

    Not only is Rio de Janeiro one of the most beautiful cities in the world but it is also one of the largest. All large cities have a certain amount of violence and some precaution should always be taken when traveling the dark and unknown streets of a large city. Putting that aside, Rio de Janeiro does have a higher level of violence.

    I place this in two categories.

    1) On going drug war
    2) Tourist related crimes

    When we see all the photographs and video beamed across the world, it is usually related to the government’s on going drug war. There is quite a bit of poverty in Rio de Janeiro, and it is all focused in these large slums called favelas. Rio boasts some of the largest favelas in the world. Favela residence do not pay utilities nor do they pay property taxes and so on. Hand in hand with the favelas, is also a thriving drug trade. This drug trade creates a certain lawlessness.

    In November 2010, the lawlessness hit a crescendo. The drug lords were burning buses. They would evacuate the bus, and then burn the entire bus as a symbolic Fuck You to the government. Each time a bus burned, it would be the front page of the paper, and quite often across the internet. Finally, the government took measures in their own hands, and invaded one of the larger favelas just south of the international airport. The city government joined forced with the federal government and the results were stunning. They brought in the tanks, armored vehicles and lots of lots of artillerary and helicopters. All other TV programming was canceled and the war was broadcast 24/7. I was secretly rooting for the governmnet despite my secret love affair with anarchy.

    There were few casualties and the bus burnings have ceased. I have no false hope that the game is over, but the key point is that the violence and danger is centered in the favelas. I have never been to a favela and I never plan to go. Many of my friends have been, and they wear it like a badge of pride. Not me. The odds are extremely small that one would be hurt, but why bother? I just can’t justify it in my mind.

    Tourist related crimes. In addition to the drug war, there is and always be tourist related crimes. These crimes are never homicides and mainly petty theft. The prime tourist area in Rio de Janeiro is called Copacabana and that is not coincidentally where the vast majority of these crimes occur.

    I have been robbed two times since living in Rio. Both times in the Copacabana and both times involved a stupid gold chain that I used to wear. Not any more. It is a simple precaution, but I now have a much more important precaution and I am confident that I will never be robbed again.

    I am in very good physical shape and when walking on the streets particularly at night, I never let anyone that I do not know get close to me. If I see someone approaching me, or attempting to talk to me, I just run away. Simple. These guys have a million little schemes. Some guys throw little balls of dirt that look like shit on your shoes. Some guys just pretend like they want to talk to you. Again, if you don’t know them, then don’t let them near. Run away.

    So I have two basic rules. I don’t go into favelas and I don’t let strangers near me when walking on the street. By following these two basic rules, I can say that Rio de Janeiro is totally safe and I feel just as comfortable in Rio as any other place I have visited in the world.

    One comment on “Is Rio de Janeiro, Brazil a dangerous and violent place?”

    1. That’s hilarious Robbie, so long as one is always prepared to RUN for their life, then Brazil is perfectly safe.. Look, I realize you have adopted Brazil and love it very much, but you have become an immigrant Brazilian apologist.. You don’t have to work so hard to make the case for Brazil there is a generally positive impression of that nation it would seem. It remains to be seen whether they can pull off the Olympics yet or not…

      Reply

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