Hi all-

I have revised my portfolio in preparation for the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar this weekend. HERE IT IS YAAAAAYY

Here is a shot from my portfolio that  won the Photo of the Month award in the Times Free Press newsroom last March.

Staff Photo By Kelly Wegel A dancer twirls her skirts during square dancing at Allemande Hall on Standifer Gap Road in Chattanooga on Sunday, March 3. Dancers danced squares, rounds and lines for three hours to live music by The Dickey Mathews Band.

I am preparing to say goodbye to the country that has been my amazing home for the past 3 months and the warm, divine, vibrant people that I have lived, worked and studied with here. This country has everything, Iguazú (AKA most beautiful waterfalls ever) in the North

Garganta del Diablo waterfall

and Patagonia (AKA galciers and penguins) in the South

Perito Moreno Glacier

I can’t believe that at the time I am feeling the most comfortable here, I have to leave.

Thank you to everyone that has been a part of my life here.

So, in a country that never says goodbye -

Chau, Argentina, hasta luego.

Aha! I am alive. Camping was pretty much awesome, and Sierra de la Ventana, estancia Funke, and Cerro Tres Picos were beautiful. Yea, I finally figured out where I was. I had to climb a mountain to orient myself.

But I’ll tell it from start to finish..

We took a cab to Retiro, the bus station in B. Aires. Our bus left at 10 p.m. It took us 8 hrs by Omnibus to go Southeast to the city of Sierra de la Ventana. The trip turned into a 10 hour trip because of an accident on the freeway in the early morning hours. Our bus was not involved, but was delayed.

Bus ride to Sierra de la Ventana

Our seats were the best ever. We were at the top of the double decker bus, right in the front. It was like flying over the insterstate, except insanely more comfy than a plane. That’s Jesse int he green and Earl reflected in the window.

My ticket:

Condor/Estrella Ticket

The Condor/Estrella motto is “A blue light on the path.”

We got to the very small town early Friday, got some coffee, stocked up on food and water, missed a bus we needed, ate lunch, then took a remis to estancia Funke.

Inside the car

We got to estancia Funke, after about an hour drive, at about 2.

How patriotic

There we met Monica, a woman who works in the house shown in the background, which is a welcome center of sorts with rooms to rent, bathrooms, etc. She: 1) took our 90 pesos for the 3 of us to spend 2 nights camping on the land, plus a 50 peso refundable deposit, 2) gave us a “map” and proceeded to explain in Spanish and using actual printed photos, the way to get to the top of the mountain. Please note that I use the term map very loosely. An embarrassment to cartography!!! It was basically a drawing, not to scale, with a suggestion as to how to get to the mountain. ***Photo of map pending***

Jesse (left) and Earl

So we started out…..

The men check the map

And soon became lost.

Cow gate

There were lots of these things, which allowed cars to pass but not cows. They were all over the poor excuse for a map, but none of them were marked. Actually, none of the trail was marked. It just said “pass cow gate. Pass another with an electric fence beside it. Pass another…” etc

A window in the yellow house

We did pass the yellow house, which was on the map.

Do you understand that this place was huge and we went the whole of Friday afternoon and night without seeing another person? After maybe 2 hours, we called Monica, who told us to turn back and go back to the welcome center. NO WAY!!! we said. WE’RE AMERICAN!!

So fromt hen on we decided to forget about following any sort of marked path and just walk straight toward the mountain.

Field

We crunched our way through a field of dried plants….

Wind thinigies that tell you the direction of the wind....

….oh yeah, weather vanes. We passed these.

Electric fence

I had to get over 2 electric fences (with the men’s help) and crawl under this electric fence. I’m still not sure whether they were truly electrified because none of us would test.

Where's the mountain?

We’re getting close(r).

We did finally find where we were, and guess where it was? Right at the beginning of the map. We didn’t even get on the map that day, only to the point where the map starts, but it was so much fun….and then we watched the sunset.

Sunset

We set up the tent, and I watched, in a cow pasture….pretty much the whole of estancia Funke is a cow pasture. It was cold at night, but I could see probably every star in the sky over us and the milky part of the Milky Way. The stars are different here because of the change of hemisphere. And did you know there are, like, billions? I have never seen so many.

END OF FRIDAY!

Saturday we woke up with the goal of reaching the top of Cerro Tres Picos. It is the highest point in the province of Buenos Aires at about 1,239 meters vertical high.

As we walked to the base of the mountain, the view constantly changed-

It was a long walk to the corral, where we left our gear and only took water and some things, like my camera, to the mountain itself.

But before we left all our gear, we ate-

Jesse prepares a delicacy

The men ate their thing, and I ate mine. Here, Jesse prepares a water cracker with mozzarella, strawberry jam, and canned Caballa, which should translate into “most disgusting-smelling fish ever to swim the cursed oceans” but actually translates into “mackerel.” Later, when we packed up the trash to take back to the welcome center to throw away, guess whose pack the trash with the mackerel tin went into? Yeah, all my stuff smells like mackerel.

So on we went to the mountain, where we saw a dude descending the mountain. It was a dude we had seen that morning. Turns out he has climbed the mountain 109 times. He said we wouldn’t be able to make it up and back before sunset, (2 hrs), so we shouldn’t try. NO WAY!!! we said. WE’RE AMERICANS!! WE DIDN’T TURN BACK BEFORE, WE WON’T TURN BACK NOW!!!!

So he waited for us to get back, to show us the way back to the corral in case it was too dark.

We made it to the top of the mountain in 45 minutes.

Jesse

Earl reaches the top

Me

And me, sitting on top of the stool which marks the absolute highest point.

The view

The view part 2

We spent maybe 15 minutes at the top admiring Argentina. It took us about 30 minutes to climb down, then it was back to camp, where we set up our tent inside the corral, which is !!! basically a cow pasture. Jesse cooked dinner again in the portable stove and it was awesome. It was less windy and I got more sleep, but it was still cold.

END OF SATURDAY!!!

Sunday morning we woke and hiked back to the point where the map starts.

Jesse attempts to feed horse

There were horses and cows all over this estancia (which means ranch, by the way). LOTS.

From there, some awesome hikers gave us an awesome ride in their awesome truck back to the welcome center, then all the way back to Sierra de la Ventana.

These are them -

Earl, Jesse, Guillermo and his niece Soledad

Then we celebrated. Two big meals, ice cream, pool and several bottles -

We boarded the bus out of town at 11 p.m. and I slept most of the way back. We made it back in time for me to eat breakfast then go to the 10:10 a.m. class!!

END OF TRIP!!!!!!

We take various excursions together as a group. Last weekend we went to the botanical gardens and then boating on a lake at a park near the zoo.

I left the watermark off these so you guys can put them on your facebooks, do whatever.

Blake risks his health petting a cat in the botanical gardens

Jason climbs a Ficus Luschnathiana

We paddle boat!

So cute!

I left the watermark off these so you guys can put them on your facebooks, do whatever.

Along Ave 9 de Julio, in Plaza de la Republica

On Calle Florida

Yeah, the culture here seems to have a pretty good grasp of English, but things like this happen. I’m pretty sure this store just sells clothes and not, well, sex.

In/around Plaza San Martin

In the famous Recoleta Cemetary, where Evita is buried

This is how I feel sometimes. No remembro how to say eleven.

I stepped in a puddle in the rain yesterday. I spilled empanada filling down the front of my new Nike jacket that I got from the awesome Nike outlet in Gatlinburg (it kinda came out when I washed it, but not all the way). A guy on the street grabbed my booty when we passed each other. I went running in a park and a group of guys cat-called at me and I think I heard the words “linda” and “minon” which mean cute and hot woman, respectively, so at least they were yelling nice things. We watched a really old movie in my cine class called La Casa de Angel and the cinematography is AMAZING. I read a bunch of poems for my Lat American Lit class and understood maybe half of them.

I am currently in Buenos Aires until the end of November, studying, learning, drinking, existing, taking it all and trying not to get lost. Oh, and, of course, taking photos. The journalism part will start soon with an internship. I will post some fotos shortly. But know that I am still alive and the Portenos have not eaten me.

**Besos**

Here is the long overdue home birth project. I had been waiting for a day when I could look at it and be okay with my faults as a journalist and a multimedia-ist, but it contains a lot of good information and is an important subject that deserves to be posted, so I can get over myself. I tend to gravitate toward projects that focus on health and women’s issues. A lot of people asked me how and why I chose this project in particular, and that was the answer I gave. Looking at it now, I don’t believe this is a women’s issue. I believe this affects men as well. Men are so often excluded from pregnancy and birth, relegated to a clueless father standing just outside a hospital door. But I saw these fathers become an integral part of the whole process. It is always inspiring to me when people make a decision, any decision, and see it through to the end, believing it is the right one. And that is what makes it the right one for them.

So, of course, once I knew what this project may do for other families that saw it, my project hunt was over. I felt compelled to do it – to teach and to show and to be a journalist. Thank you to everyone who allowed me into their lives.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press video project is here.

Jeremy Davenport holds his wife, Jessica Davenport, while she has contractions in the bedroom of their Ooltewah home while Certified Professional Midwife Carolyn Drake watches on Wednesday, May 7. Mrs. Davenport gave birth to her daughter Sadie with her midwife, Carolyn Drake, her husband, Jeremy, her sisters and her friend by her side. Mrs. Davenport had her first child in a hospital and chose to have her second birth at home.

Newborn baby Sadie Davenport watches as Carolyn Drake writes notes during the postnatal exam shortly after being born at the Davenport’s Ooltewah home on Wednesday, May 7. Ms. Drake assisted mother Jessica Davenport in giving birth at home.

Ben Snell holds his newborn baby Abigail Bella Snell on his bed while Certified Professional Midwife Carolyn Drake does a newborn exam shortly after birth on Saturday, May 24 in the Snell’s Chattanooga home. Ms. Drake assisted the Snells in giving birth at home.

I have lots of names I’d like this post to have: Vegas Vows. Viva Las Nuptials. A redneck in Las Vegas (Mark’s words, I swear!!) But I’m just not creative.

I am proud to present Mr. And Mrs. Cordell!

Daaaw.

This is how it started: on a plane.

That’s Lindy and Mark there, on their premarital Boeing 767.

Signing all the paperwork in what was a very classy Vegas chapel.

They tried to make her walk down the aisle to Born to Raise Hell by Motorhead. Someone put the kibosh on that, though. Damn.

Mommy and daddy.

The vows, which were very sweet. I want a transcript of them from the video, former Dugster!

Holy cow, we’re married.

The Dugger family, plus a Mrs. Dugger-Cordell stuck in there.

So gorgeous.

I thought that looked pretty cool.

And the big finish -

Yay! It was an awesome trip, Lindy never ever looked fat, EVER, and I am very happy for the Dugger-Cordells.