Camera Theraphy

February 2016 I went to visit my grandmother who is very ill in the Dominican Republic. As I was packing before my trip I made sure to pack my Nikon FE2 as well as my Fujifilm XE-2! When I arrived at my grandmother's house, seeing in the condition that she was in, taking pictures was the last thing that was in my mind. Throughout my days I would care for her, bringing her food when needed and making sure she was drinking her medicine. My cousin would take me out of the house to get my mind off of things. As I was out, the photographer in me got me antsy when I saw something that looked interesting! As I looked around me there was something crucial that I always forgot to take with me when I would go out... you guessed it! My cameras. The only thing I had on me was my phone. So I shot away. I shot everything I saw interesting. One of the lessons I learned the most from this trip was that you don't need a fancy camera to take a beautiful shot. All you need are eyes and a camera. These images shown above were all taken with my phone and some slight editing. It's always good to go out and just shoot to get your mind off of things and that is exactly what I did. Enjoy!

Submitted by Jose Azcona

A Magical Evening

It is always a great experience to witness special moments in people's life, especially to capture and treasure them for them. I had the privilege of shooting the wedding of two good friends and even though it was a lot of work and I was feeling a bit nervous, it turned out to be a magical evening. I say that when true love is present, the moment is easy to photograph! Here are a couple of shots from the hundreds made that beautiful day. Enjoy!

I shot the entire evening with the wonderful Leica MP m240, 50mm Summilux, and 35mm 1.4 VC nokton. Thank you to my friends over at Leica store Miami for the equipment and help! I will be writing soon about the experience of shooting such an event through a rangefinder.. it was an interesting one!

Submitted by Cecilio "Tin" Ruiz

New beginnings

For The last couple of weeks I have been going through the second biggest change of my life so far.. moving out of the house that I grew and became the person I am today. Other than the intense physical labor of moving hundreds of things, that by the way I forgot about or have not seen in years, I believe the hardest part has been the spiritual detachment from a place you literally can get to with your eyes closed, the headquarters at the end of the day. For a week or so I tried not to think about it much. The excitement of moving into a new place had my mind constantly occupied. I Loved the new place and have always welcomed change, but the last day before we had to turn the keys, while walking around it for the last time reality sneaked into my thoughts. It was just my mom and I cleaning up the last bit of mess around the house and after another long day of hard work my mom couldn't anymore and rested her eyes. Now "alone" it finally hit me.. in only a couple more hours I won't call this place home anymore. a chapter was coming to an end. I quickly grabbed my ricoh camera and started capturing the melancholic state of which the house felt. No rules of composition, rules of light, or any sort of guided, influenced photography even from magnum photographers.. Just what my eyes saw, the camera on auto mode captured, and I was feeling at the moment.  I do not think there is a better way of letting go of a place, a loved one, etc. than to stop time in a photograph.. maybe it is hard at first to relive but I believe the human mind is setup in a way that all the bad times, negative memories, fade away and only the ones that bring a smile to your day stay. Above are some of those memories that eventually will bring a good story, or smile to my day. Enjoy.

Submitted by Cecilio "tin" Ruiz

WEEKlY CHECK UP!

Hello everyone! Hope this past week was a productive/happy one.

It has been a great one for us here at WINTER SUNDAY. The Instagram page is slowly blooming! We have received great feedback on it. In about 6 days, we have featured and critiqued the work of 7 AMAZING photographers, acquired 50 followers, and gained hundreds of "likes", Which at the end of the day, helps all of these artist by being awarded with a bit of motivation and appreciation for their hard work.

The simple concept behind LA BELLA LIBERTAD is truly laying a solid foundation in which we can steadily grow to become a worldwide leader in the "search and show" of upcoming artist, by using social media. Personally, I cannot wait to see how many more amazing artists I will get to learn about by our page!

When you all get an oportunity, Please check the instagram, shoot us an email to show your work, or tag us by using our hashtag #LABELLALIBERTAD

Hope everyone has an amazing new week, filled with new adventures and dreams!

Cecilio "TIN" Ruiz