Edwin Villanueva

What did I have in common with 25,000+ people Sunday, July 19th? We all participated in the 23rd Annual AIDSWalk San Francisco at Golden Gate Park. The event raised over 3.5 million dollars for the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and dozens of other Bay Arean HIV/AIDS service organizations. Since 1987, AWSF has raised more than $70 million for HIV/AIDS programs and services in the Bay Area and has become Northern California’s largest AIDS fundraising event. Last year alone, 25,000 walkers raised a near-record $4.5 million for SFAF and more than 50 other Bay Area AIDS service organizations. The event once again brought together people from all walks of life for a common cause in the battle against AIDS and to support people with HIV/AIDS and other life-threatening diseases.
Read the rest of this entry »

San Jose Photo Walk Group – Photo Courtesy of Eric Lee

Last Saturday, I participated in Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in San Jose. It was a historic event as 32,000+ photographers attended 900+ similar walks around the world. In some of the larger cities and locations, there were multiple walks scheduled throughout the day. San Jose was one of those cities.

Our group was led by Frederick Van Johnson – Photographer, Writer, Instructor and Host of This Week in Photography Podcast (TWiP). Based on some of the gear fellow photographers were sporting, I’d say we had a good mixture of professionals and hobbyists.

Read the rest of this entry »

What a great weekend for shooting and being outdoors. I was back in San Jose this weekend to attend a couple events. The first was on Saturday for Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk in downtown San Jose. The second event was AIDSWalk San Francisco 2009 on Sunday held at Golden Gate Park. I’ll be blogging and posting more pictures from both events soon.

For now, I wanted to share my favorite picture from Saturday. This is one of my entries for Scott Kelby’s Photo Walk contest where he will select a Grand Prize winner and 10 Honorable Mention photos from thousands of participants all of the world who participated in this historic event.

While doing the Journey Into Africa Tour a couple of weeks ago at W.A.P, we had a brief encounter with this little guy on the trail. He was actually “outside the fences” so I’m not really sure he was part of the attraction. Nonetheless, he gave us a great photo opportunity.

I Heart Gorillas.

Next to the Lion Camp and Cheetah exhibits, I love watching the Gorillas at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I’ve always been fascinated by them since I was a little kid and being able to see them in such a close proximity has been a dream come true. I can literally sit for hours just watching them interact with each other.

Here are few facts about Gorillas:

- Gorillas are the largest of the living primates.

-The DNA of gorillas is 98%–99% identical to that of a human, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after the chimpanzee species.

-Gorillas live in tropical or subtropical forests.

For more information, check out the Wikipedia on Gorillas.