Recently went on a photo tour/workshop to Oaxaca, Mexico led by Joseph Linaschke and Eric Mindling. We visited several small villages in addition to Oaxaca city and covered a range of photography styles including landscape, macro, architecture and street photography. Below are some of my people photographs. You can see the rest of my photos in my iStock portfolio.

Senior Zapotec woman with traditional braids in her hair selling dried seafood and peas at the Mercado Municipal in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Zapotec woman making champurrado (chocolate atole). She is using the traditional technique including making a frothy head with a molinillo. Santa Ana del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Macaria Ruiz Hernandez holding wool skeins naturally dyed with cochineal and indigo while sitting among her dye pots. Teotitlan de Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Senior Zapotec woman drawing water from an outdoor well. San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Bridesmaids peeking through opening in organ cactus wall. Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, Mexico.

Creation (of Frankenstein’s Monster), a sculpture by Mike Hill 2009. It’s Boris Karloff in the makeup chair and Jack Pierce the makeup artist. On wall – Boris Karloff as the Monster in Son of Frankenstein by Basil Gogos 1993.

Set of glass eyes of varying colors contained in a mahogany box c. 1860. Louise M Darling Biomedical Library, UCLA Library, Special Collections.

Detail of Ray, a sculpture by Mike Hill 2014. It’s Ray Harryhausen playing with his stop motion skeletons.

My son’s all time favorite movie is Pan’s Labyrinth written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. A museum exhibition of items from del Toro’s monster collection is currently at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. As this is the closest confirmed venue to our house, we went to LA to see it. It was a great exhibition with lots to see. We spent nearly 3 hours there. So, with Halloween just around the corner, I thought I’d post a few pictures from the exhibition for you.

We only have one hummingbird, Anna’s hummingbird, where I live and it’s a rather dull gray-green except for the throat patch. On my recent trip to Costa Rica, there were five different species of hummingbirds in one location. All more colorful than the little Anna’s I typically see. And they are use to people and cameras so you could get within inches of them!

Purple-throated mountain gem hummingbird, Lampornis calolaemus, on Stachytarpheta species. Bajos del Toro, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Front view of male coppery-headed emerald hummingbird, Elvira cupreiceps. Bajos del Toro, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Female green-crowned brilliant hummingbird, Heliodoxa jacula, feeding. Bajos del Toro, Alajuela, Costa Rica.

Photos available at iStock.

Handmade round corn brooms.

My stock photography agency recently put out a request for black and white photos. I don’t usually work in black and white but took the opportunity to try it. This is one of my favorites.

Radiator Springs Racers neon

Flo’s V8 Cafe neon

Luigis Casa Della Tires neon

Cosy Cone Motel neon

One of my favorite things that I did on a recent trip to Disneyland was walk through Carsland at night and look at the neon signs. Many of the signs are sophisticated designs with lights that regularly vary in brightness or turn on or off. You have to watch each sign for a couple of minutes to decide when is the best time to take a photo.