The Adventure Begins | Para Explorar Más ● Bogotá, Colombia

Hello friends!

Today was the last full day in Bogotá and of course we wanted to make the most of it. Last night, I spend some time reading tips on street photography and how it can be done in big cities like Bogotá.
To be completely honest, even as a restaurant manager and a portrait photographer, I tend to be very shy and reserved. I've always feared to talk to strangers, let alone point a camera at them and then try to explain what I am doing. It also doesn't help that I can't speak their language. Street photography has always been something I wanted to do. I am so impressed with the work of street photographers and wondered, "How can I be as awesome as them?!"

Now it's my time. Time for me to break out of this shell! Remember? That's why I did that crazy thing of quitting my job and traveling to a foreign country for 5 months...where I am completely clueless and can't speak their language.

My fear going into this trip was knowing that with my gear, I can attract some unwanted attention and possibly get my gear stolen. Though that would be a horrible thing, I already made a mistake of not taking my camera on my Southeast Asia trip. So this time, there was no excuse for me to not take my camera with me. I really want to focus on developing as a photographer and learning about different styles/techniques of photography. We decided to test the waters and take our cameras out.

Here are some photos from today of the street art (one of my favorite things about Bogotá):

 Remember this one from my previous post? We came back and here is the finished piece!

Artist: Guache & Rodez

Artist: Rodez 

Tim lookin' like a pro 😍

 Artist: Rodez, Nomada, Notable and some mask, posters and stencil by Crisp

Artist: Guache

On our way home.

Besides taking photos of the street art with people, I needed to build up the confidence to start photographing people on the streets or in the plaza. Because that's where it gets challenging! I haven't tried talking to people yet and asking them to take a photo, but I'm working up to that.

The two photographs below was taken at Bolívar Square. I saw this woman sitting there, I believe she was selling corn or something to feed the pigeons. 

Here is a photo of the gated colonial building, also within the Bolívar Square.

We also stopped by this really hipster looking cafe called Café REC. Super modern and clean space. Definitely can see myself just sitting there working on my laptop. Gotta love cool cafes!

 "Dos Café Latte, por favor."

For lunch, we went to La Puerta Falsa, a very well-known restaurant that other bloggers have recommended and it was AMAZING!

 Tamales, Ajiaco, y agua de panela

Un Tamal - Moist masa with various meats (often chicken, pork and beef), vegetables and chunks of hard-boiled egg, steamed in a large banana leaf = Delicioso! Best I've had, my favorite!!

Ajiaco - Traditional Colombian corn and potato soup with chicken, served with capers and cream. When you eat it, it gives you that feel-good kind of feeling! Yum - other one of my favorites!

Agua de panela completa (con queso y almojábana) - Finishing the meal off with sugarcane hot water with Colombian cheese bread. It is most commonly served with hot chocolate (you can order that too: chocolate completa)

This is definitely a restaurant you should check out if you're in Bogotá...🙌 I can't remember how much this meal costed us, but trust me, it was cheap and delicioso! Worth it!!

After lunch, we continued to walk around the main street, where all the shops and street performers are. You can also see in the photographs that the weather changed from being sunny and hot to light showers.

My personal guide and protector 💗

 One minute it's sunny, the next it rains.

 She was so good, I just wanted to stay and listen to her. Definitely attracts a big crowd.

Tim needed shoes & the first place we went told us that his size was "Muy grande!" 😝 and that only Payless would have his size 13. 

 Our form of transportation in the city. 

Easy to navigate and pretty safe, it gets crowded though so just be cautious of your surroundings. 

And that concludes our day of walking around in the city. I definitely got a taste of what street photography is all about and I can't wait to do more! 

When we got home, I had asked Tim to show me how he got the images he's been working on to do a time lapse. Unfortunately my camera didn't have the ability to automatically take a photograph as you set it (unless I had a shutter remote, which I didn't bring with me 😕) but we used his Panasonic Gh4 with its Time Lapse Setting. Then we edited the series of photographs in Adobe Lightroom and put them all together in a time lapse video using Adobe Premiere Pro.

Here is our result:

Our View from the apartment in Bogotá (2017-08-09)

Until next time...

~ Lynna