Coderise Event: Alex Torrenegra

Medellin is ready to move from an industrial city to an information city. Technology is on the boom here and they have their eyes on being the next “Silicone Valley” of Latin America. There are a number of new programs and businesses here trying to help jump start the transition.

Ruta N was founded not to long ago to help business see a new type of future – that of information and technology with the help of raising money and funding projects for new entrepreneurs. One program that is grooming these new kids is Coderise. Their motto is: Code. Inspire. Create. Coderise is teaching kids how to code (program) in developing countries and they are starting with Medellin, Colombia. Check out this article in which the Coderise Director, Andrea Cornejo, gives some insightful views about the vision and future of Coderise.

Coderise brought in a guest speaker the other day to help encourage the young kids by giving them the chance to hear directly from a very successful Colombian entrepreneur: Alex Torrenegra. Some have gone as far as calling him the “Mark Zuckerberg of Colombia”. Alex has founded a number of companies but his biggest success (and passion) has been with VoiceBunny. The main concept of VoiceBunny is to put  potential professional speakers in contact with the big studios for hire. For example, one of their largest clients is Pixar. For one of the Toy Story movies Pixar was in need of a Latino voice to use for Buzz Lightyear when he temporarily spoke Spanish after he was hit in the head. Pixar used VoiceBunny to search for the best Latino voice and hired that person (speaker) directly through their website.

I was given the privilege to hear Alex Torrenegra speak which was truly inspiring. He is a sharp guy with a natural calmness to himself which gives you the sense that he was born to be an entrepreneur and has enjoyed it every step of the way.

Photos on Facebook

ESPACIO: Office Photos

With their doors wide open and welcoming in Medellin entrepreneurs, ESPACIO is now in full gear.  They have many events planned including some of the top speakers from around Colombia. Here is a peak inside the office. I took the official photos for them which can also be found on their website.

ESPACIO Official Office Photos

ESPACIO Launch Party

Thursday evening – October 11, 2012 – was the official launch party of ESPACIO. It was a pure success! Hundreds of people showed up to help celebrate the new ESPACIO in Medellin. ESPACIO was prepared with a beer keg from 3 Cordilleras and a slew of red wine for everyone to enjoy. The founders took time out to do a quick presentation in order for everyone to know what ESPACIO was all about, in case they had not heard about it already. There is no question that on that night the heart of Parque Lleras was this launch party. In case you missed out on the celebration –  ZEFER FOTO was there to capture the energy throughout the entire night!

Weekend Getaways: La Pintada, Colombia

Every few weekends my girlfriend, some friends, and I get away from the city life. The greatest part about Medellin is that nearly every weekend you can drive into the mountains and enjoy the little towns nearby the city. There are an unbelievable amount of towns that lie within just a few hours of Medellin. One weekend we stayed at a friends “cabana” in La Pintada just a few hours south of Medellin. Here is a quick look at part of our trip.

New ESPACIO Website

The other day I was given the opportunity to photograph a new office space called ESPACIO being opened up in Medellin, Colombia. My friend (and ESPACIO co-founder), Conrad Egusa, contracted me to photograph the office which opened its doors this past week.

Photographed below is the new home page of ESPACIO. This is one of the photos I took of their main room with the garden wall in the background.

ESPACIO

The office is designed to be a co-workers space in which entrepreneurs of all areas (designers, artists, start-up businesses, photographers, marketers, accountants, etc.) will share one large office space which will allow them to easily mingle with one another and support their co-workers in their areas of their specialty. Included will be a large presentation room, meeting room, and “phone booths” (soundproof room for Skype calls) for members to use when needed. Aesthetically the office is decorated with modern white furniture, a full garden wall (photographed above), a waterfall near the entrance, and lights galore throughout the entire office. One great aspect to the project is that they have decided to split their membership between local Colombian entrepreneurs and foreign entrepreneurs from around the world that now call Medellin their home.

aïta Launch Party

Last week I took some photos at the launch party for the new aïta clothing store in Medellin in the Centro Comercial Oviedo (Oviedo Mall). Aita is from Spain and this was their first location opened up inside Colombia. These photos were taken for Jack Magazine. Here is a look at a few of the photos. Click here to see the full collection of photos.

New Business Name: ZEFER FOTO!

Ok, so I know some of you might be scratching your head with this post thinking… But wasn’t there just a name change like a month ago?! Yes, yes, you are right. I did just recently change my name but then realized that it would not work out very well. To make a long story short I ended up “branding myself” as two different names depending on my location (inside/outside the USA) in which people were starting to get confused on which business name was my actual business name.

With that, I went back to the drawing board and starting working on a new name that would be fitting to my photography, me as a person, and an easy name in general to remember and to pronounce no matter which language was being used. All of that was kept in mind while trying to create some new type of artistic touch to my logo. Needless to say – it was not easy.

However, I am now proud to reveal my new official name as: ZEFER FOTO by Shaun Patrick.

Zefer Foto Logo

To give you a little background on the name. My favorite word in English since I was a little child has been Zephyr.  I always found it to be interesting in that it just looked weird but intriguing at the same time. The word comes from the Greek God Zephyrus: God of the West Wind. He is also the God of the Eternal Spring and married to the Goddess of Greenery which is why he gave the gift of eternal spring to his wife for her to maintain her gardens year round.

As I sit here in Medellin, Colombia in my new office I started realizing some things. First, the city of Medellin is known as the City of Eternal Spring due to its’ year round perfect weather. Second, my new office faces to the West which has a massive window open all day long sitting just behing my computer. In other words, I sit here each day enjoying the wind that comes in from the West while looking at all of the greenery that sits right here in front of me including a flower bed just inches away from the window.

That aside, my favorite letter in the alphabet has always been the letter Z. I find it to be of an interesting shape and has a strong structure. It turns out that the letter Z is also the least used letter in the English language and is derived from the Greeks. I figured, why not use this letter with a bit of an artistic touch in order to represent my company as a simple identifiable logo?

The last criteria was making sure that it would fit into both English and Spanish in a simple way. With the zePHYr part of the word it is confusing in English (for many) and Spanish as well. To fix this I simply went to the way I like words written… the phonetic way. With that… zeFer was born.

So yes, my new name is ZEFER FOTO by Shaun Patrick. Formerly known as SPStakem Photography and Shaun Patrick Fotos (for a brief moment in time). I hope I have not confused anyone along the way but I just had to make sure I created a new a perfect identity for myself before I stuck with a name for a long period of time.

Please let me know what you think. I alway enjoy feedback whether it is simply a positive one or that of constructive criticism. Either way, I am happy with my new name and proud to use it!

Camino Arenales

Two weeks ago I woke up early in order to take advantage of some beautiful weather and a great hike through a trail just outside of the city. I went with my friend Ruy Lopes and his father Rui Lopes who is a professional photographer from Canada. I had a great time spending the morning with them and seeing a new part of Medellin. The only down side was a bunch of nasty bug bites but I survived and it was well worth it. Here is a look at some of the photos I snapped that morning.

Byrne – Etcheverry Wedding!

About two years ago I took photos of a wedding for a family friend. I was just there for the celebration but took advantage of the moment and snuck in some photos of my own. The couple’s two year anniversary is coming up so I thought it was about time to share their photos with them. What do you think?? Perhaps it is a little delayed but as they say, “Better late than never”!