When I was younger, I use to think fishing was a waste of time and effort. It was such a pessimistic view based off the failure to understand that sometimes the reasons for doing things are not always so apparent but yet they have this knack of crystalizing in hindsight. It was a leisure activity my dad has always made a concerted effort to set aside for most Saturday mornings and I kinda just went with the flow.

Now that I’m older, I realize that the fishing wasn’t always necessarily about what came or didn’t come back attached to the end of the line or even the sudden jolts that gave you the impression that you had chosen the ideal spot to cast from. The entire experience was and continues to be about learning to wait, to be patient, to follow protocol, to be still, with your thoughts and to acknowledge that not everything we set out to accomplish will be under our control which more often than not is easier to say than to accept.

Everyday that we go out into the world it responds back to us with thousands of choices for us to make and now more than ever we find ourselves in a situation where that last thing we feel we don’t have is control. Where there’s no control there’s at least hope and there’s belief that what we’re experiencing at this moment is a season that we’ll all get through together. 

For the time being the very least that we can do is to play our part but also as some scholars have suggested, to “write things down.”  “Think of your children, your grandchildren, your friends down the road, who will ask you what was it like during that pandemic.”

Utilize this time to create yourself. A new version of yourself. Creating yourself and your own mindset is the first key. Then you can create art, business, impact, etc. You can use this time to create new business ideas, business pivots, books, content, etc.

I agree there's a lot of uncertainly going at the moment because it does seem like we're living day by day as more new information regarding the Coronavirus is developing but aside from taking the necessary precautions, I'm confident we will look back at all this a year from now and reflect on everything we went not just as a individuals but as humanity.

Both my wife and I are fortunate to work with a company that is fully compensating us for the time we'll be off from work for the next 2wks so that's a plus. As for people who are freaking out about not knowing what to do with their "time off" that's one area I'm not concerned about because I have a stockpile of books I'm looking forward to reading, writing I've been putting off, marketing material I've been wanting to develop, etc. For us creatives, we'll always have an urge to stay busy and perhaps these times are a reminder for us to always keep a list of activities or task we're hoping to accomplish so that we can tackle them during idle times like these. Thank you Nick Onken for remind us of this!

As confirmed cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus have risen in the U.S. in the last few weeks, we much like everyone else have had to realigned our priorities, specifically with regard to traveling. I had the good fortune of traveling to El Salvador earlier in the year on a solo photographic adventure which was beyond spectacular, so I was very excited to experience all of that again but this time with the entire family in April. Unfortunately that will no longer be the case until the coronavirus scare has lessen or at least until it's more understood, so in the in the mean time I wanted to take this moment and share with you the quaint village of El Zonte in which I stayed at back in January.

During my traveling, I became much more active on Instagram Stories as it tends to be the case by mere virtue that you feel as though you have something valuable to share. Eventually I had a lot of people asking me more about El Salvador which led me to write Your El Salvador Questions Answered which I will direct you to in the event you're curious in visiting a country in Central America that's not Belize, Costa Rica or Guatemala. 

I personally met so many wonderful people in El Zonte and experienced moments on my own that had me reflect a lot on how the simple things in life are usually the ones that fuel you more than anything that seems too complicated.  

I still get that face of amazement when I divulge to client's I've worked with the fact that I still have a day job. Ultimately I'm working towards having photography become my full-time profession but until then I continue to treat it as such. When I'm not shooting, it's all about self-education and I recently came across 101 nuggets of valuable insight by Iain Broome on what to expect leading up to the point of going freelance.

Number #13 resonated with me the most: "You are worth more than you think you are. Be brave and charge accordingly." 

There's always excitement anytime you're behind the camera but ultimately to get to that point where you're translating your vision through the viewfinder there's the entire topic of having the confidence to charge what you're worth assuming the skill is already there. It's something I battle with on every new gig because not every shoot is the same therefore there's a lot of reevaluation involved with every new opportunity. You have to do your research and take in to account many variables based on the client's need and quite frankly be confident because it's that confidence that will drive your work and your business.

In studio fun with personal trainer, nutrition coach, published fitness writer and model Lauren Kanski. Despite officially not seeing each other for an entire year, I have been following and admiring Lauren's career back when we initially met at a fitness workshop event I photographed in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Eventually our schedules aligned and we managed to get together to catch up on life while having fun with the camera while showcasing her natural soccer skills. 

When people talk about vacationing in Central America, it’s not often that El Salvador comes up as a top pick on people’s mind at least not the way Costa Rica, Belize or Guatemala does but a lot of that is changing. I just returned from a 1-week solo trip to my parent’s home country and in the event you’ve been considering visiting, I wanted to answer some questions I’ve been receiving from both co-workers and fellow peeps on Instagram regarding things El Salvador.

When is the best time to go?

El Salvador’s dry season runs between November and April, with a rainy season between May and October. The way Mother Nature has been lately, it’s become difficult to predict what weather could be like but for the most part as a family, we’ve always visited in June which is when the kids are out of school. Another determining factor as to when to go comes down to ticket cost.

On the low end it can run you $325 for round trip from New York or at the high end of $800 depending time of the year you opt to visit and which airline you choose. I really don’t care much about airline amenities since we always carry our own entertainment on the iPad and the same goes with snacks which is why I typically travel through Volaris. It’s inexpensive and it gets you from point A to B and the extra money that one would spend in air flight amenities I would rather conserve it and spend it in El Salvador.

How do I get around?

The one thing I’ll say about car renting, especially when it comes to the majority of American car rental companies such as Alamo, Budget, etc is that like anything American it’s expensive and by the time you tack on all the insurance coverage the cost ends up being more than you anticipated regardless of which way you cut it.

Having done some research, I eventually opted to rent with the fine folks at Lucero Rent a Car who I came across via YouTube. Typically you would expect any rental company to charge a deposit on a major credit card just for security purposes but at Lucero Rent a Car they don’t do that at all. The owner clearly explains that doing so creates a mistrust between them and the client.

In order to reserve the car I was interested in, I reached out to the owner via the WhatsApp number on their website and all he required of me to guarantee that they’ll have the car I wanted waiting for me at the airport was a photo of my passport, my driver’s license and my flight itinerary.

The Ford Focus sedan I rented came up to $130 ($26/day) which I paid him in cash upon arrival at the airport. We inspected the car together, I signed the contract, he handed over the keys and off I went. It was literally that simple and hard to believe.

My only regret was that while the car functioned flawlessly, I should have opted for a 4x4 pickup or at least an all-wheel drive SUV because I spent more time off-road than on beautifully paved highways and there were instances where I feared getting stuck. Food for thought for your future visit and mine. Spend the extra money on a car with higher clearance for that extra piece of mine.

Is it safe?

Nobody ever ask me if New York is safe and while I understand it’s not a comparison to El Salvador the point I’m attempting to make is that there’s no such thing as a *safe* place. It all comes down to you making the right decisions which applies to anywhere you might go. With that being said, there’s certainly parts of El Salvador I wouldn’t travel to at night such as Soyapango or Mexicanos but there’s also places like where I stayed in El Zonte or El Tunco where there’s a beautiful mixture of locals and foreigners living congenially.

All this is to say that having lived in El Salvador for 5 years and continuing to visit family on a yearly basis, we’ve never had a bad experience or have found ourselves in uncomfortable situations. What you see on the news about El Salvador is unfortunately all the bad stuff reported but I dare you to search through YouTube and you’ll discover vlogs from fellow travelers who have nothing but beautiful experiences to share about their visit.

What is there to do?

Wow, where do I begin? For starters, let me refer you to the amazing folks at Tunco Life. They’ve been leading engaging, fun and informative tours from El Tunco beach to all over El Salvador such as the Santa Ana Volcano hike I did or to the amazing Tamanique Waterfalls. I had the pleasure of visiting their main offices in El Tunco and the experience was rather surreal because I have been admiring and following their journey for month via Instagram and to be there in person was a joy.

As a side note, El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America so regardless of the itinerary you build for yourself, there will be time for you to accomplish the majority of it because it’s as easy as driving from point A to point B. This time around I focused more on the surfing culture which I was interested in exploring more of but honestly there’s sightseeing places such as Rutas de Las Flores which I also highly recommend.

How is the food?

This one is easy. It’s cheap and delicious. The cost reminded me a lot like being in Mexico where you’re likely to eat like a king or queen regardless of where you go. There’s always the option spending as little as $3 for breakfast or $10. One thing is for sure, you can’t leave El Salvador without eating a few pupusas which is our version of a taco in the sense that they’re ubiquitous.

A pupusa is essentially a flatbread made with cornmeal or rice flour and it’s usually stuff with one or more ingredients such as cheese, pork, beans or all of the above.

Where do I stay?

Very much like food, where you stay comes down to what your interest is. This time around I was specifically interested in exploring a part of El Salvador I wasn’t familiar with which is the popular and developing surfer village of El Zonte.

Take advantage of Day Passes

The hotel I stayed at during my visit was called Michanti which I highly recommend due to it’s chill vibe, hospitable staff, affordable price, and proximity to the beach. In spite of all that, I didn’t spend as much time in the hotel because I took advantage of the fact that you’re able to visit other nearby hotels via Day Passes which was amazing. There’s several to choose from some of which I visited and others that remained on my must-visit list.

In no particular order I suggest Puro Surf, Palo Verde, Mizata Point Resort or even Michanti. Day passes ranged from $20 - $25 for the day which gave you access to the pool all day. As a photographer, I’m always prone to want to move around a lot to explore so I loved the ability to hop around from hotel to hotel without committing to spending the night.

In the event you have any other questions, feel free to reach out to me and I’d be more than happy to provide any info or at least direct you towards someone in El Salvador that may know a lot more than me.

When adulthood or just life in general begins to happen, it becomes very easy to allow routines and responsibilities overshadow any shred of curiosity you may have about anything. Your sense of wonder begins to escape and those novel experiences you often daydream about are never given the opportunity to graduate into anything worth bragging about.

For the longest I’ve held on to the prospect of traveling to El Salvador on my own with the sole purpose of dedicating my time to photographing in the quaint surfing town of El Zonte. I may not have had a clear vision for the logistics of certain things other than being cognizant that one’s curiosity will often develop into amazing discoveries and when you add a camera to the mix everything becomes that much more exciting.

As soon as I arrived, immediately dumped my luggage into the hotel room and walked endlessly with an open mind. As the sun was beginning to set and I was heading back to fuel up on dinner, I came across a group of women walking towards me on cloud nine singing as the gorgeous sun was in the process of turning in as much as I was.

 The combination of being a photographer and working in retail is that you’re less likely to be self-conscious in starting a conversation with anyone because you know that your intentions are more about what you can give as oppose to what you can take away.

These are portraits I took of Nette (surf coach), Ligia (yoga instructor) and Genevieve as we talked about life El Salvador especially when it’s not your native country.

Josh Spector is a marketing and business consultant who’s work I initially came across via Medium and who’s newsletter I immediately subscribed to. He’s absolutely brilliant at delivering writing on topics that anyone who’s goal is to succeed in their creative career needs to read.

There was no way I would listed all 30 but if you’re like me who’s wanting to elevate their creative career, I highly suggest you check out his advice for creators because I guarantee more than 25 will resonated with you. I narrowed down my favorite to 6:

• If you only do what you usually do, you’ll never know what you’re capable of doing.
• Be more interested in getting better than you are in getting followers.
• Waiting doesn’t get you closer to success. Starting does.
• The people who already pay attention to you matter more than those who don’t — act accordingly.
• You become a pro by operating like one when you’re an amateur.
• It’s not easy to create something different. That’s why it’s valuable.

Prior to going on vacation to El Salvador, I met up with Krystal for a test shoot because while I've developed a lot more confidence in working with multiple lighting sources, implementing color continues to be an area to improve on. Next to my wife, I have to say that Krystal is one of the strongest Puerto Rican ladies I know, specifically in the gym which is why for this shoot I was adamant in offering her a different perspective on who she also is. While lifting requires a lot of focus and training, you'd be surprise how much out of characters Krystal gets when she takes a break from shooting or lifting heavy sh*t. 

I recently finished listening to Cathy Heller's Don't Keep Your Day Job book via Audible which I have to say, it was absolutely filled with so many nuggets of "practical steps on making a living doing what lights you up" that I felt compelled to buy a physical copy to own, highlight like crazy and keep on the shelf as reference.

Since then, I've equally been hook on her podcast in which she holds honest conversations with successful creative entrepreneurs. On a recent episode, she had the one only Seth Godin and while I highly you recommend you give it a listen, I couldn't help share some of the key takeaways from this episode:

• The question is not, “What am I born to do?” The question is, “How can I be of use?”
• You don’t need to serve the world. What you need is the smallest viable audience, the smallest group of people who can sustain you.
• When you stand for something, now you're off to the races.
• Start where you are. You can't start where you're not. Start with the smallest unit of contribution you can make. Find a piece of possibility. Show up, and repeat.

“Find your passion” has gotta be one of the most broken-record phrases ever repeated throughout someone’s life. It’s difficult to fathom anyone who hasn’t been told at one point and while it’s great that you might already be in a position where that “passion” represents your career or your job, I’m come to believe it’s equally important to have something you’re also passionate about but that you selfishly pursue outside of the confines of normal work hours.

It’s no surprise to anyone at work that I’m “passionate” about photography. In fact, I’m the guy most co-workers come to with anything related to the topic. Regardless of how good we may be at our profession, it’s up to us to establish /some/ form of parameters that reminds us that what we do for a living is not the only label that defines us. There’s more to us that just being a friend, a co-worker, a boss, a spouse, a partner, etc. The catch is that it’s up to you to discover and explore what the selfish pursuit is.

From experience, here’s a few reasons I believe you should place emphasis on having something you pursue outside of work for yourself even if it means being selfish at times:

It keeps you curious - what I often observe from people who lack in having an interest outside of work is that there’s limited scope about what they may know other than the task they perform day in and day out because there’s a deficiency in having a curiosity to seek out new information.

My kids assume that adults are inherently predisposed to know everything but obviously that’s not the case. Think about something you’ve always been interested in knowing more about and see where that curiosity leads you. It could involve pottery making, volunteer work, Jiu Jitsu, etc.

For me the way in which I gravitated towards photographing a lot of personal trainers in New York was because I selfishly wanted to learn more about living a healthier active lifestyle and what better way to glean knowledge than from professionals as an adjunct to the self-education I’ve been giving myself.

You’ll never be bored - I honestly can’t recall the last time I felt genuinely bored. My camera has truly been a license to meet people and discover new places without the need of having to board a plane. My mind is constantly churning on what I can do the moment any free time pops up. I have an ongoing list of books to read, topics to write about, Netflix documentaries to satisfy my curiosity, places to eat that it’s all a matter of plucking anything out from that bag to keep me occupied.

Being bored is the equivalent to not knowing what to write about in the sense that if you can’t come up with a topic then you’re more than likely are not being curious enough in anything.

You become comfortable with being on your own - Back when I was single, I cringed at the idea of doing anything social on my own because there’s always that fear of being perceived as a loser. It’s a normal feeling, especially when you’re still in the process of developing that confidence that will eventually make it crystal clear to you that there’s a difference between being lonely and being comfortable with being on your own. There’s the presence of confidence in the latter and not in the former.

It doesn’t bother me spending time on my own, especially on days when my wife is at work, the kids are at school and I happen to have a random day off in the middle of the week. If you’re a parent, you’re well aware that time for yourself is a rarity which you should learn to treasure when it comes along unexpectedly. It’s a healthy component to seek for your our own sanity. Heck, there’s been times when I’ve gone and have brunch or watched a movie on my own and it’s never bothered me.

You’ll become more understanding of what people have going on during their own time - I don’t convene with friends as much as I would like to especially between having parental responsibilities, work, and what mainly occupies the majority of my free time which is my photography.

I have a friend who’s an amazing painter, one who is equally elevating their photography game and another is who pursuing their transition into the personal training business. I can’t ever hold a grudge against them for any missed opportunities we may have for meeting because I’m understanding of their grind because I’m doing the same on my end.

Working is part of your life, but it does not have to consume your WHOLE life hence the my plea to find something that keeps your mind off of work when you’re not there.

I recently discovered Josh’s writing on Medium in which he’s written several thought provoking pieces on photography which have had very little to do with gear. In my opinion, these are the best kind because they never have an expiration date as to how much inspiration you can glean from them as oppose to gear which rapidly gets outdated.

In this piece entitled The 5 Mindset Shifts Of Becoming A Pro Photographer, he touches on a topic which resonated and has often haunted me in the past. As you begin envisioning your craft as something more than a hobby, there will always be that lack of confidence that will accompany you because you before you can wear proudly the title of introducing yourself as a photographer, you feel that you must know everything first and that’s certainly not the case.

Josh says:

Yes, there are still things to learn, this is true in any profession. That doesn’t mean you aren’t a professional. And the real truth is, all photographers still have things to learn — at every level. Your professionalism starts the minute you declare it, even if you are still learning things. As long as you have the ability to get hired for one thing, that’s being a professional.