Rio – days 6 & 7

Our last two shooting days took us all over Rio, each place more diverse than the next. The first location we hit was Lapa, home of an old aqueduct that once brought water from the Carioca River to the city population, now it serves as a big elevated platform for the Santa Teresa streetcar.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Rio is a city of contrasts, and Lapa epitomizes that statement. Here, the aqueduct, built in the middle of the 18th century, lies against two of Rio’s most recognizable modern buildings in the Financial District. The pyramid shaped building reminds me of the large structure in ‘the future’ from the movie “The Time Machine” from the 60’s.

After we shot the aqueduct we headed up to the Tijuca National Park. At the top you get an amazing vista of Rio, here is my attempt to show the scope in a six image, stitched panoramic. The view starts on the north end of Rio with Sugarloaf Mtn. rising up, and ends on the Corcovado (Christ Statue).

Our last day of shooting had a call time of 5:30 am so we could catch sunrise over the rocks and beach at the point where Copacabana and Ipanema beaches meet. As we headed south towards the point, the sun was a huge, bright orange disc just over the horizon. By the time we got out to our spot the sun wasn’t quite as huge as it had appeared minutes prior, but it looked pretty spectacular.

Our photographer, David Stoecklein making it happen.

After the beach we headed back to the Selaron Stairs to get some of the early morning light. When we were there earlier in the week the sun had gotten to high in the sky for us to shoot. Selaron, the artist was there working so we asked if he’d want to talk to a couple of cute girls, of course he couldn’t say no.

Our last location of the day and the shoot took place in an antique market in Lapa. The market ran for about three long blocks and had everything from old stopwatches to twin lens reflex cameras circa 1960, toys, paintings, you name it, it was there.

Now that the photo shoot is over I am off to Buzios for a few days to sit on the beach and do nothing…except read my book, “2012″ by Daniel Pinchbeck, sleep, soak in the sun and swim in the ocean.

We worked with a lot of crew on the shoot but two people in particular we couldn’t have worked without, Walter, our driver and Ajus, our security guard. Walter spoke great English and had a great sense of humor. Ajus, a firefighter and ex-cop, spoke no English, but did an amazing job keeping us safe at every location. Thanks guys!

Walter

Ajus