Photography is sometimes a very misunderstood medium and the laymen of the world would regard it as a very easy craft. Normally that kind of attitude would set me off. But this shoot that I did with Ave Kateri Machina did make it feel super easy. Every now and again you work with a new talent that is so good at what they do it just make everything so simple. Except editing, because I had a hard time narrowing down this take when I got into lightroom.
We all got to get a little bit closer to our insanity every now and again. An indoor pool, a girl dressed as Harley Quinn and a bunch of inflatable unicorns, what could possibly go wrong? Nothing at all because this Harley Pool shoot was the most fun shooting in a long time. The energy was always it was pure collaboration and it’s hard to argue with the results. Things are always just a little more fun when you go a little bit crazy.
Collaboration is a very important aspect of creativity and it is almost unavoidable if you work in portraiture. Fellow photographer and over all enjoyable human being David Cervantes invited me out to a large themed shoot involving numbers models and photographers at a local pinata shop. It was a fairly hectic environment and experience of all individuals varied. However it was refreshing to be able to put myself in a mentor role helping new models and photographers understand the process that goes into making stunning images.
Albuquerque is the city that I have grown up in and it’s a city that has a personality all its own. When you talk to any of the residence of the 505 you’ll hear a lot of things but the most common statement is about how “diverse we are.” While it’s easy to mistake that statement for talking about racial demographics what we they really mean is that we’re diverse so many different things. Culture, Climate, architecture, personalities attitudes the list goes on and on. If I was asked to describe Albuquerque I’d have to tell them you’d just have to go and experience.
My favorite thing about Albuquerque (aside from the food, go get yourself a green chili pepperoni pizza from Dions and you’ll know what I’m talking about.) is all the creative individuals that populate the area. Muralist, Musicians, Hair stylist, Models, Photographers ect. All can be found in the area and they all bring something unique to their craft while at the same time being very identifiable as that Albuquerque style.
The other day Albuquerque was blessed with one of it’s few overcast days that photographers like myself only dream of and I decided to passive aggressively post that I wanted to shoot and to my surprise got a response from one of my favorite models Jacqui Daniels. Like many of my impromptu shoots, we put together a very loose meeting plan not really having any big ideas and met at her hair stylist, Martino’s shop so we could coordinate from there. Martino was one of those previously mentioned creative individuals who was as much of an artist as he was an entrepreneur bringing in other creative individuals to try and come up with new crazy ideas that stand out from the ordinary. In his studio his brother also does Tattoo work, there was another individual screen printing t-shits of a skeleton Billy the Kid and a Virgin Marry with the Zia Symbol. While I was there they had the off the wall Idea to Screen Print the Virgin Marry they had onto a white tie. Something so simple being done in such a New Mexican way.
Once Jacqui showed up we decided on having her put one of the freshly screen printed shirts and heading around downtown and shoot in front of some of the local street art. at this point a lot of the glorious overcast had burned off and I was left with some challenging lighting but I managed as best I could. We would later move on to City Plaza where I remembered a location that had very stellar lighting. It was almost a tunnel were at the end was spot where windows from a building was reflecting really soft light down which was nothing short of perfect. there was also a wall that had a reflective surface that called for some creative ideas.
Jacqui of course was nothing short of a perfect model always flowing to different looks responding to adjustments and over all just being good at what she does. The best part about working with someone like Jacqui is being able to bounce ideas off her and her openness to try different things as we go along. That openness to different things really helps the process along and over time can lead to incredible results. Like most shoots all the best shots came toward the end of the shoot being that we both figured out what was working and all that fine tuning eventually paid off.
My favorite thing about this shoot was how it started as just spur of the moment lets meet up and shoot kind of thing and it turned into a larger collaborative endeavor and that sort of highlights what I love best about Albuquerque. When people collaborate with one another amazing things happen.
In the words of a great american poet “today was a good day.” At least that’s how yesterday felt. Afternoon class was canceled, I huge load of pressure was taken off of me and I got an impromptu opportunity to shoot with Delina Ellise. It’s hard not to be pleased with how yesterday turned out. Recently Delina had a recent change to her hair style that has resulted in her being able to change her look at a moments notice. It also gave me a chance to play with things in my studio space such as the giant window that acts as a big soft light source which is amazing things for portraits.It’s also just really fun to have a shoot where you and the model are just messing around and hoping that it works out as opposed to trying really hard to make the images come out a certain way. Shoots always turn out best when they are fun and don’t feel like work.
Shoots can so many different directions and if you have decent sense of adventure you can find something. Me and my cousin Jasmine Jackson went around Down Town Albuquerque to see what we can find visually..
I don’t get a whole lot of vacation time. So getting to take a trip to Maui was a fairly significant shakeup for myself. Spending some time away from the stresses of the world was much needed and allowed me to brush off on the way I look at world around me.
Albuquerque Comic Con 2016 can be considered they year that I mastered getting the shoots I wanted from the floor. The trick that I always knew would work is to slow down. The mistake I’ve always made was not wait on the focus to catch before hitting in the shutter. The images came out tack sharp with that classic subject isolation I’ve become known for. What made Albuquerque Comic Con 2016 so successful was just the atmosphere. Over the past couple of years I’ve made friends with so many attendee’s artist and vendors that it becomes more of a hangout sessions with people you don’t get to see every day.
When working with new people you never quite know what you’re going to get. Sometimes you get somebody who’s a little shy and reserved and you have to slowly get them out of their shell to get the shots you want and others Jump right into character and start giving different things to work with on a shoot. The later of which was Holly Rebelle and Kit Kombat who jumped right in for our shoot at Albuquerque Comic Con and slap me in the face with their confidence and freeing personality. Normally when I shoot I like to keep things a little slow and reserved but in this case the tempo was so high that shoot was over almost before I knew it.
Out in a little corner of the Albuquerque Convention Center way from all the warm and low tungsten lighting lays a stair well with a corridor that hold giant windows letting in all the natural light you could ever want. That’s were I was able to transport the Girls of Geek to get some shots of them as Alice in Wonderland Characters for the last Day of Albuquerque Comic Con. I enjoyed how each one of their outfits made since next to each other but could stand alone on their own as identifiable characters. I love working with the Girls of Geek and working with soft natural light so this set of images in my mind are almost perfect.
TCK-Media 
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