I chose to do my assignment on long exposure photos, but that just wasn’t really working out for me. Instead, I captured the essence of the Ottawa River Valley.
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For our first photo assignment of the quarter, we were shown a few funny looking photos and told to guess what our next assignment was. At first we were all quite confused, but of course the genius that Matti Hill is, he guessed it, abstract. We needed to take abstract photos consisting of: man-made, light, color, nature, and texture. It was a pretty fun assignment a lot of things involved getting up close and personal to the items or distorting the item all together to get the desired effect. For my nature photo, I even had to set up a bunch of leaves in many rows to get what I wanted. It’s pretty cool how when you actually get up close to many things/items they can look take on a whole different look. All in all I really liked this assignment, It was a really fun one. The best part was seeing what everyone had found and gotten interesting pictures of.
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Our most recent assignment was to take different types of abstract photos using things like nature, man-made things, light, texture, and color. I have many photos from this assignment; these are some of my personal favorites.
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The recent photo project by Matt Hill about abstract photography. I think these images are pretty sweet.
See you on the water!
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Lorenzo en el Rio Negro
Katie Kowalski
hanging out in camp
Every morning, the students emerge from their cozy tents, tucked away in the security of the mossy trees. Our campsite here in Hornopiren is perched atop a grassy knoll that slopes gently downward into a craggy ravine, directly to a gorgeously turquoise 10-foot waterfall. This waterfall makes up one of three that we have been running on the Rio Negro, whose tantalizing whitewater is so close to our tents that we can hear it in our dreams. We are enjoying the wonderful countryside hospitality of our host, Dona Tato, who has been serving up three delicious meals a day- she is even spoiling us with homemade pastries for breakfast. Nights are rolling away while we congregate around the campfire, singing along to Tino and Matti’s guitar and Andy’s fiddle. Lorenzo’s ghost stories have us all convinced that his family’s home is haunted.
Weather has been delightful- sunny, warm, perfect, and has allowed for our classes to cluster around the funky, hand-made wooden tables in the yard. My AP English students had a fun project this week, where they learned the importance of being familiar with both sides of an arguement before taking a stance on it. I had them prepare to write a persuasive essay on a controversial topic, repeatedly warning them to investigate the opposition’s viewpoint as well. When the day of the in-class essay arrived, the looks of horror on their faces revealed my sneaky plan. That’s right, they had one hour to write an essay that was exactly the opposite of the thesis they had planned. Matt’s photo classes have been utilizing the gorgeous sunsets and surrounding countryside to explore the world of landscape photography. Taylor and Eric made slideshows showcasing Al Capone and the Flapper era for Tino’s history class.
Today we had a race down the Rio Negro, on a small section beginning with a 25-foot waterfall and ending with a bang as the students landed that boof from the top of the 10-footer. What a great way to end our time in Hornopiren. I left the students back at camp, packing up their tents and gear bags, preparing to rise and shine at 5:30 am tomorrow. We will get on an eight hour ferry to Chaiten, where we will be about two hours away from the town of Futaleafu. I’m sure everyone shares my excitement in experiencing this legendary river!
Tino and Lorenzo in the quincho
(c) David Gorsky; Stephen and Matti on throw-rope drills
We have had a whirlwind week since returning to Pucon! Finally blessed with sun-drenched days, we have been entertaining visiting parents and kayaking down the Rio Palguin. The Rio Palguin has a waterfall around every bend, literally, and the visiting parents were able to snap photos of their kids from beautiful, riverside vantage points.
Some of the older kids are helping to plan a race down the Palguin, tentatively taking place tomorrow; it should be exciting as our kids are quite the little competitors. Tino has been taking advantage of our location, which is a five-minute walk from the Rio Trancura, to practice safety drills under the bridge. He had the kids out swimming and perfecting their rope-throwing skills.
On the homefront, we have re-settled nicely into our cozy living situation at Dave’s place in Pucon. The gap year kids are sleeping out in the “gypsy cabins” – treehouse-like cabins out in the woods – and loving the extra space. The girls are pretty stoked to have two big rooms to themselves with plenty of table space for studying… or rather, for scattering all of their clothes on top of.
Weather-wise, we have had a gorgeous week, with nearly constant sunshine. This morning I took notice of my surroundings while helping Jessica and Chase write sonnets in British Lit, and saw students reading and learning while lying on the grass in the sunshine. What an awesome classroom!
attentive to Tino's talk-up at the Palguin
lining up to do it again at the Palguin
NRA just got back to Pucon from the Rio Fuy. The Fuy is my favorite of all the rivers I’ve paddled in my lifetime so far.There was so much to experience during our stay at the Fuy, I could hardly sleep. This week we are staying in Pucon and running other classic Chilean rivers such as the Palguin. I’ll have more pictures of Pucon up on my next blog.
by, David Gorski
Eric Bartl (NRA sophmore) at the bottom of Salto de Leon on the Rio Fuy (c) David Gorski
Our takeout for the Lower Fuy, the Choschuenco beach in the evening. (c) David GorskiEric Bartl (NRA sophmore) at the bottom of Salto de Leon onthe the Rio Fuy (c) David Gorski
Steven Forster freewheels a drop on the Rio Fuy. (c) David Gorski
Lorenzo Astorga (NRA Spanish teacher) on the Rio Fuy. (c) David Gorski
Gap Year students left to right, Katie Kowalski, David Gorski, and Kyle Bisset (c) David Gorski
As a Gap Year leadership project, we had to research prices on a five night stay for five persons with beds and three meals at a hotel. These are the negotiation guidelines we were taught:
• Negotiate price before service
• Must get three bids as a company protocol
• Must meet a budget of 11,000 pesos per person per day (22 dollars)
• Establish a written price with a signature
This task began during our stay at the Siete Tazas. Before we set out to haggle for prices in language we barely spoke, our Spanish teacher Lorenzo gave us a lesson on working with numbers and Spanish phases that may come in handy. After this short crash course, we ran up the hill to talk to a man named Jose about prices on cabins in the area. The conversation we had with him was frightening and awkward at first, but we gradually worked into a rhythm of conversation and discovered that he was quite friendly and honest. He had a cabin available for five people with a kitchen and bathroom for 35,000 pesos a night. We managed to get this price down to 30,000 pesos. Not bad for our first time, we were well below our budget. We had Jose sign on this price and told him that we were off to look at other options.
Soon after this project and an exciting week of running waterfalls high up in the Andes Mountains, we left the Siete Tazas National Park for a beach town called Pichilemu. In Pichilemu we continued this project with a lot more opportunity considering that we were surrounded by hotels and hostles. We went to three different places searching for the best deal. At the first hotel we spoke to a woman named Eva who ultimately gave us a deal just within our budget (11,000 pesos a day) including meals and everything else we asked for. At the second place we met a patient man named Luis who gave us a great deal but only offered breakfast. He was actually able to correct us on a few flaws in our Spanish, which we all got a good laugh out of. Finally, we checked out a set of cabins near the beach. This turned out to be our best deal. It didn’t include meals but they offered us a cabin with a bed for everyone, a kitchen, and Wifi all for well under our budget.
This project was a big step out of our comfort zone, but with that came a valuable lesson in self sufficiency.
The streets of Pichilemu at night (c) David Gorski
Yesterday we all got a surprise of going to the next town over and going to a beautiful hostel for Clay’s birthday. We learned to play croket, and the owner taught us how to make ice cream. While we were making it we couldn’t stop eating the frozen blueberries that went in. When the ice cream was done we all ate it in the hot tub, and acted like we were soup being boiled. It was so fun. Thanks Dave for the surprise!
Although my actual river time on the Achibueno was limited (see past article about teacups and back pain), time spent taking photos definitely made up for it. Situated in a quaint little chalet type lodge, surrounded by snowcapped peaks, and access provided only by a Chilean 4×4 road (the road was not so much a road, but an adventure) our Achibueno base was by far the most rustic, as well as the most relaxing. We arrived late in the afternoon to a warm fire and dinner only an hour away. We have been eating like kings, so don’t worry mom and dad. I set up my hammock and did a little homework. As the sun was starting to wane the time arrived for some longer exposure shots. I captured an excellent photo of Andy writing our physics test by head-lamp. The next day after a half day of school we did the never ending run. What we thought was 9 kilometers turned into 900… minus like 885, the last half of which we were barely scraping over rocks. The upper section, though short was just as fun. There are more boofs per mile than any other river ever, there were more bpm’s than techno music. After two colder days off I pulled my self up by my bootie straps and ran the upper section. Though short it did provide tons of fun. With some more technical maneuvers, and some burlier holes the run turned into a super sweet game of follow the leader.
The time off the water did provide me with some great pictures. For our photo class our assignment was to do long exposure shots. The grand fire place provided a great source for lighting as well as the gathering of people. It was hard to get star trails this time around, but the clouds did move relatively fast so that helped to provide some cool night shots. The time spent at the Achibueno was great, no interwebs and limited electricity brought us closer together, but the smell from camping and wet gear may have driven us a little apart, however I am very grateful for dave for organizing such a wonderful string of destinations. High five Dave!
See you on the water!
New River Academy
Rt. 2 Box 245
Fayetteville, WV 25484
(304)- 574-0403
Fax: (304) 513-2247
New River
Academy
