Gabriel Robledo Photography Blog

Drinking "mate" with Friends by Gabriel Robledo

I will start this post with talking about a typical non-alcoholic drink from Argentina and also very popular in some countries of South America: the mate (it’s not the verb “mate”, it’s a Spanish word). It’s basically a hot beverage that contains “yerba mate” and very hot water. In general we drink this in the morning or in the afternoon, and if possible, with some sweet rolls or cookies!

In spite of not being a big fan of drinking “mate”, when it is present I like to drink it and with lots of sugar. I often drink it at friends’ gatherings because there is always someone who remembers to bring all the equipment needed: hot water – not boiled! -, “yerba mate” and the cup you see in the photo with that little straw to drink it. To be honest, I’m a bit lazy to prepare it and carry all the equipment, so that’s why I don’t drink it too often.

When I took this picture the mate was brought by a friend, as it couldn’t be in any other way! This time we decided to make a barbecue outside the city and spend a day out all together. At the barbecue were some friends of mine from my former job and some of them with their partners, too. As you can well imagine, we had a fantastic time and it was a nice opportunity to relax and do something different.

All this talking about the “mate” reminds me of something that happened a few years ago when some foreign clients came to one of my past job’s offices. Among them, there was a female project manager. One afternoon, while we were all together, she saw us drinking mate at the office, so she asked us what this drink was. We tried to explain her, but we told her it would be better to try it. So, we offered her one. She liked it at first, but when she found out that we shared this little cup with just one straw among all of us, she couldn’t believe her eyes! She couldn’t understand why we shared this instead of having a cup each of us. To make it simple, the “mate ritual” involves sharing it with your friends. After explaining to her all of this, we offered her the first cup of mate, untouched by anyone… but we had no luck, she wouldn’t drink it.

Going back to the photo, I think it came out of the camera pretty nice, very sharp and crisp. I also liked the perfect framing I achieved.

Changing the subject, I’m starting to get the reviews of the photos I uploaded to iStockPhoto.com and Fotolia.com. I knew this was going to be hard and it is indeed, most of them were rejected. At iStockPhoto.com photos take longer to be reviewed (a week and a half approximately), but once they are reviewed, they explain to you why they had been rejected. At Fotolia.com you don’t get any explanation at all. That’s why I think that iStockPhoto.com is more interesting: it teaches me how to prepare the images to be at top quality. So I will keep fixing and uploading my photos. Trial and error.

This is the time of the year when I want the year be over soon, just for one reason: university. I’m attending at my last 3 subjects to get my Bachelor degree in Information Technology and I can’t wait to sit for all the exams and graduate. It would be fantastic to be able to do it this year; I would be more relaxed and have more time to do other things. I’ve been at university for several years so this is a great time in my life to finish it once for all! Is it just me or it’s too hard to study to finish your career? I do think so, studying is something that the majority of people don’t enjoy.

Thinking ahead, I’m willing to take photography lessons or something related to this the next year.

This time I’ve written a lot, haven’t I? I’m inspired again and blogging it’s starting to like me even more!

And sorry for my English! My girlfriend is an English teacher and when she has some free time I ask her to correct my articles, but this is not always possible.

Gabriel