Continuing on with some of our photographs from our workshop amongst the Mayan people in southern Belize through Same Place — Different View, it is always fun to review images and compare and contrast what Arnie and I have each done. Those of you who follow these blogs know that sometimes our approaches are completely different, and at other times, remarkably similar.

We were returning from one of our excursions, and as we neared the turn-off to the Lodge, we saw one of the chefs gathering material for a new roof. This is always a communal affair, as thatched roofs need to be replaced every five years, give or take.

There were a couple of people helping, but we were all struck by the strength it took to haul out bundles of fronds.

True to form, Arnie took the wider, journalistic view, giving a sense of the thick, inpenetrable snaggle of jungle.

I, on the other hand, was struck by the graphics of the scene and accordingly, picked a different vantage point.

The next day, we travelled by boat upriver to the next village. As we arrived, we were greeted by a number of cayuks that begged to be photographed.

I immediately saw this one, isolated in beautiful, dappled light. I found what was for me the perfect angle.

Arnie liked that same Cayuk’s relationship to the river on which it spent much of its life and the hint of mountains in the distance.

Eventually, we made our way into the village to the house of our hostess to learn how she made tortillas in the traditional Mayan manner She had dried the corn for a year and stored the ears in sacks. Once dried, she took them out, shucked them, then deftly rubbed the kernels off the cobb.

Arnie loves photographing people. He’s done it all his life. Here, he captured our hostess, using the scene, the textures, and the moody lighting in his composition as she shucked.

I was also drawn to the textures and light, but I chose to home in on the materials for a still life. Same basic scene, but different elements featured.

Mayan homes usually come in two buildings, one the living quarters, the other the cooking and eating center. Sometimes, there are two rooms in the kitchen house. Our hostess had done her sorting and preparing of the raw kernels in one room, and when she was done, we moved into the other room where she had water heating on the stove.

I was instantly attracted by the many different textures in the scene, including the smoke. I found an angle that pleased me and showed the wood fire. The pots are heating up water for the next phase of our tortilla making.

Arnie continued to photograph our hostess, this time waiting until later in the process when she put the tortilla dough on the metal stove top to cook. He, too, made sure the wood fire was featured.

After enjoying a wonderful lunch that our hostess prepared using the freshly cooked tortillas, we headed downriver to the Gulf of Honduras to visit Ben, the Guatemalan fisherman who often provides fish for our dinners at the Lodge.

He and his nephew loaded the seines into his boat so he could set them close to the shore. Once the boat was loaded, he gave us a tour of his charming place, cracked open coconuts so we could drink the sweet milk, and played consummate and charming host until it was the right hour to head out and set the seines. As the sun got lower, we had to start back, as it’s never good to travel the river at night. A sunken log could be fatal if you hit it going at a good clip.

In the last pair of photographs, the scene is almost identical. Ben sped up and headed back to his house. One of us used a different color balance to create a neat, late-afternoon effect, while the other featured the hot reflections off the water to set off Ben’s profile.

Totally different treatments… ???

We’ll show more examples of Same Place — Different View in our next blog. Meanwhile…

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