My SAS staff/faculty friends!

Acapulco!

Untethered....

We are off! After a week of endless staff/faculty meetings on the ship, the students finally boarded in Ensenda, Mexico. It’s already fabulous. Traveling by ship is simply magical. But, it’s been busy. The students had a long day of orientation, lifeboat drills and all sorts of meetings about international travel, living on a ship, their classes and safety, safety, safety. But, we are off! The faculty and staff are incredible. I am super excited to be traveling with this group of experts on Latin America. My Two Americas project will be very well informed as I plan on crashing as many classes as I can. I know, I’m a geek.

My plan is to update this at every port. Here is the itinerary:

Acapulco, Mexico (June 21-June 24)
Balboa, Panama (June 29-July 2)
Guayaquil, Ecuador (July 05-July 9)
Valparaiso, Chile (July 16-July 20)
Callao, Peru (July 24-July 28)
Puntarenas, Costa Rica (August 1-August 4)
Corinto, Nicaragua (August 6-August 9)
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala (August 11-August 15)

Thanks for reading, more to come soon!

Untethered.....(the pics!)

The Resting Surgeon

Dad_Portrait

Originally uploaded by Kris Davidson

This weekend I was in Dallas and I managed to convince my Dad, a kidney transplant surgeon, to pose for an unconventional portrait. So, here he is, reclining on the operating table.I'm constantly striving to build upon my portfolio of environmental portraits, moving beyond the staid smiling (or serious on purpose) photo.

I also think that photographing the details of the subject's environment without the subject can add valuable information about the subject's personality. In my Dad's case, the picture of kidney's above the toilet in the bathroom.

Upon seeing this, my brother-in-law allegedly stated (he's a lawyer, so it's all alleged) that he was not sure who was more weird, me or my Dad. To me, that means a successful portrait! Audiences are becoming increasingly design and image savvy, which means weird can be a very good thing.