Cuesta Ray

January is now upon us and Christmas gifts have long been exchanged except for one. Shanti's stepfather, who lives in Hawaii, still hasn't received his. I suppose a large part of his gift has to do with a lot procrastination or perhaps a lack of motivation. The idea behind his gift is based around latin culture and one of his personal favorite past times - cigar smoking. We decided to head towards Ybor in search of some photo opportunities that might suit this theme.

Our search to locate cigar shops offering a visual sample of what Tampa's Ybor cigar scene is all about led us straight to 7th Ave ("La Septima"). We figured a Sunday afternoon would be best not only in terms of technical ambience, but minimal foot traffic. Our first drive down 7th we spotted about 3 or 4 small shops. Each had interesting windows, but from the car we couldn't tell if there was anything displayed. Nothing really appeared to be open since it was a late afternoon on a Sunday. However, there were enough people on the sidewalks and occupied parked spots to keep us driving in circles. Being the bashful people we are, we decided there were enough spectators to dissuade us from pulling over and accomplishing our mission. At this point we scrapped the idea of finishing a long overdue Christmas gift and decided to just drive around until we found a location more comfortable to photograph.

For me, personally, there is something about the common person staring while I intensely set up to take a photo. It's the response you get from your nagging family member that wonders what exactly it is you are photographing. They don't get it until they see the pictures. I don't know. Maybe someday I'll get over the fear of being criticized if even I don't hear it. I drove us away Ybor's main district and through some of the neighborhoods south of I-4. If I was feeling hesitant about shooting in public in Ybor, then perhaps cruising some rough neighborhoods surrounding Ybor was a bigger mistake. I was still itching to take some photos though and to some extent I almost didn't care anymore where we stopped. Off in the distance I saw a familiar sign that always caught my eye off of I-4. The "Cuesta Ray Cigars" sign was a little bit of hope that maybe we could take away something frame worthy to wrap up this project.

When we arrived at the factory we circled the building a few times and scoped out a safe spot to pull over. Maybe I was a little too paranoid, but I have not spent too much of my life in Tampa in Ybor City and most of my basis for caution are the scare tactics generated by the media. After a few minutes of circling around, we finally pulled over and wandered about on foot.

As I approached the building I was a bit confused on the age. The brick appeared to be new while the shutters and balconies were old and rusted out. The building did show some character despite the "new/old" feel to it so I did my best to capture a few of those roadside impressions. I suppose there isn't anything grand about this particular outing nor this particular building, and perhaps nothing of worth to our project, but the fact that Shanti and I actually got out of the apartment and photographed something made the afternoon worthwhile. Regardless, we had an enjoyable evening. To cap off the night, we hit Mema's Alaskan Tacos and ate some greasy tacos.


Sorry to leave my small audience hanging on for new content. Getting out to photograph has proven to be much more difficult than I imagined! I guess early sunsets contribute to little post workday time for shooting. Hopefully as summer and spring approach I'll have a lot more time after work to take the long route home. Take care all.