Dear Friends and Visitors:
This year's activities were a bit slow at the start, which let me stay at home for a few weeks that I used to sketch a new collection of B&W photographs with the intention of prepare a new exhibition and as always, the intention to see it once printed in a good catalogue or even a book.
In mid-February I was invited by Intertech s.a. distributors of Panasonic in Greece to visit the PhotoExpo in Athens, and give several conferences throughout this event. It was my first visit to this old country so rich in History and also rich in very nice and friendly people. Thanks to all the wonderful friends for their extraordinary attentions.
March saw me visiting the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) show in Las Vegas (Nevada) and afterwards, I teamed with my good friend (and computer-guru) David Macias and made a memorable tour through Death Valley and several other nice places in California for another week, just producing very interesting new material with my LUMIX cameras.
April was a very special month. My 100 pictures exhibition with the name "Perceptions" was displayed during the whole month at the Photoforum in the Crocus Expo Center and at the luxurious Crocus Mall in Moscow. At the same time, we imparted mini-conferences on the LUMIX FZ8 at the Panasonic stand aided by my wonderful interpreter Liudmila Oberfeld. I also had the chance to greet my good friends of Benro Tripod Co. of China at their Stand. As the last time, Miss Olga Ponomarenko of MIDEXPO organized all the activities of the exhibition with extreme professionalism. During the PhotoForum I had the chance to meet many new people, like Ben Willmore, the well-known author of many Photoshop books and seminars and with him I made a wonderful trip to the St. Sergius Trinity Monastery in the near city of Lavra. Also after knowing each other only through professional e-mails, Yamada Yasuhide from Panasonic Japan and I finally could meet each other face to face. I had the nice chance to meet my old friend Sergey Buslenko, president of the Kiev Foto Club and organizer of the First Intl. Foto Biennale at Rivne, Ukraine, to which I have been invited to participate as a juror next August. I also met my friends Alex Zhilin and Evgeniy Zubenko from Digital Photographer Magazine and after the PhotoForum I teamed with the staff of Foto & Video Magazine for a day trip to the old city of Serpukhov. I want to thank my very good friend Vladimir Neskoromnyi for all his kind attentions during these days in Moscow. After the Expo, I stayed in Moscow for a few days on my own. I met a wonderful couple, Olga Kononova and Sasha Makedonsky who took a very special care of me showing me many of the highlights of this great city that Moscow is. People as wonderful as this "happen only once in a lifetime". I don't ant to forget the effective attention and care received from Dmitry Smolyankin of Panasonic Russia. In all, those two weeks that I spent in Russia leave only good memories behind and a deep longing to return as soon as possible.
Returning from a rewarding and hectic 15 days trip to the West USA in the early part of May . Working without stop, traveling through 3500 miles of roads and visiting several National Parks, National Monuments, State Parks and enjoying all the wonderful landscapes with the most ideal weather most of the times. Experiencing temperatures from 110ºF (44ºC) of Death Valley to 28ºF (-2ºC) of Mono Lake at sunrise, deserts, meadows, hills, mountain passes, highways, terrain, rivers, canyons, lakes, you name it! Oh, yes, hard work from sunrise to after sunset, day after day... but it sure was worth it. This "adventure" resulted in more than 60GB of digital images, shooting simultaneously with 4 different LUMIX models, including the new FX100. I must thank once again my good friend Mr. David Macías for his expert guidance, support and most of all, for his company. Without him many of these photographs would have never been made. You may see these new pictures at the section "LUMIX Travels to West USA". I sincerely hope that you will enjoy them as much as I have enjoyed this trip!
Two weeks later, in June I was on the move again, this time to Japan where I gave a presentation of some of the pictures shot in the West USA to a global meeting of LUMIX representatives at the Matsushita-Panasonic headquarters in Osaka. The following day I gave a practical seminar with them in the lovely old city of Kyoto culminating in a final meeting where we analyzed some of the pictures they shot during the day and gave some positive critics to help them improve their photographic skills. After a couple of fruitful interviews with several members of the Panasonic LUMIX staff I continued for 4 days to visit the charming island of Hokkaido while testing some prototype models of future LUMIX cameras.
In July I was invited to give a seminar-workshop to the winners of a contest organized by Panasonic Batteries of Belgium in New York. It was a very pleasant even with one of the most receptive and enthusiast audiences that I have ever had. New York looked really great under a fantastic warm blue sky and great weather which helped us to take very interesting photographs not only all day long but also later in the evening after we returned from a Broadway show. I dedicated the rest of the month to organize my next trip in the month of August.
In all, this has been one of the most active Summers for me, ever. The beginning of August saw me heading for Japan where I picked up one of the first working models of the new Four Thirds System DSLR LUMIX L10, tested it for a few days there in Osaka and in Kyoto. Then, I continued to the idyllic city of Prague where for 13 beautiful days I produced the pictures for the world campaign of this good camera. While in Prague, I received an invitation by the Northern Territories Tourist Commission of Australia for a 12 days tour together with a group of selected German Journalists, organized in association with Panasonic Germany. That meant that I had to return to Miami for only a few days and hop on a plane once again, this time first to Germany where I joined this group and continue to Darwin (Australia). Yes, fun... almost three days of flying without stop from one airport to the other: Miami-Frankfurt-Singapore-Darwin and Sydney.
As we arrived in Darwin we boarded two small one-propelled airplanes and were flown that very same morning to Kakadu National Park to start our tight program, like I said before, of 12 days. The best part of the trip was when we contacted the well-known Australian photographer Steve Strike who not only organized the final stops of the tour from a photographic perspective, but with his humor helped us to forget the hardships of the many miles we did together. Thanks Steve!
From Australia, I continued to Istanbul after making a brief connecting stop at Frankfurt. I had been invited to give a lecture during the Tekofaks Electronics (who are the Panasonic Distributors for Turkey) Kick-off Program for the CeBit in Turkey and organized for me the opportunity to photograph this lovely city at the Bosphorus that has really fascinated me with its richness in terms of people, culture, history, scenics, monuments, buildings, etc. It is a place that I will be coming back again and again. I stayed for 5 unforgettable days under the most spectacular weather that I could have ever dreamed of as a photographer and as a visitor. Really sorry to leave, heading back to Miami with the bag full of impressive photographs and even more impressive memories...
In the meantime, may "the good light" be always with you and your photographs!
Your
Luis Castañeda
"Perceptions" Exhibition during Photoforum. Moscow. Russia. April 2007.
Exhibition during Photoforum. Moscow. Russia. April 2006. "Golden Eye of Russia" Award
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