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..
Jasmine on the Streets
Photography
Hawaiian Vacation.
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: Photos From the Floor
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.
Harley and Deadpool get Naughty at Albuquerque Comic Con
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.
Girls of Geek Make Albuquerque Comic Con Their Wonderland.
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.
New Mexico Snow Leads to Photo Op With Emilie
New Mexico got hit with one of the more ridiculous snow storms in recent history and me and my girlfriend Emilie took that opportunity to show off some of her new winter clothes that she got over the holidays. We went to a small trail near our home and just did quick shoot and the images came out so beautiful. It goes to show that you don’t have to make shoots super complicated. A model a location and a camera are the ingredients and with some creativity you can create some gorgeous images.
Desert Darlings Belly Dance Take On Nightmare Before Christmas: Performance Shooting.
Shooting performances is one of the biggest challenges any photographer has to face. Low light, moving subjects, limited mobility to adjust your shooting angles. Everything is against you and it is probably the best opportunity to test your skills as a photographer. The stage is set for the viewing experience, not to be convenient for photography. Lights are dim and jelled heavily and you’re shooting from where ever you can be out ever you can be out of the performers and audiences way (if you’re a polite photographer.) Over coming these challenges takes know how, creativity and a little luck. All these things come together to put together wonderful images.
All of this was on display for the Desert Darlings Belly Dance performance of Nightmare Before Christmas. While the Performance was amazing the conditions for shooting were less than desirable. I would have to move between scenes, Bump my ISO, stay close to wide open on my aperture and just hope I can pull what I wanted out of the Raws. Over all I’m happy with the images that I got. and even more pleased with being able to capture a wonderful performance
Behind The Scenes: Desert Darlings Belly Dance Take on Nightmare Before Christmas
My favorite way to shoot is in a candid fashion and try to capture moment. Posed portraits are great, and performances are chaotic in some of the best ways but being able to capture the world around you in your own personal vision allows for some of the most striking visuals. Thankfully The Desert Darlings Belly Dance gave me the opportunity to do some Behind The Scenes Shots of them getting ready before their big Nightmare Before Christmas Show in Santa Fe.
Studio and Promotional Photography with Girls of Geek
One of the main reasons a photographer would want to get into studio photography is to do some kinda commercial work, ideally for some sort of editorial or promotional purposes. With some help the ever wonderful Girls of Geek I was able to get some practice in with shooting the girls as they modeled clothes from their website.
Key to promotional photography is showing off what is being promoted, whether that’s a clothing line or a life style it needs to be made obviouse what you’re trying to sell in the shots. In this case it’s not only the clothes the Girls of Geek are selling but it’s also their brand. The girls are very good at keeping their brand consistent so really all I have to do is make sure the shots are good.
Since This was being done in a studio environment the lighting set up is entirely under my control and as such I’m in charge of it works. For this set up I had two clamp lights set up at both ends of the back drop working as a As a back light, kick and fill all at the same time. This was designed specifically to create separation from the backdrop and make sure dark clothing and hair can be outlined and not feel like it’s part of the background. At the same time I used a 1k Soft box as a key light that gave nice soft even lighting which also offered a nice catch light in the girls eyes.
My favorite thing to shoot in this new round of studio experiments was the Girls of Geek new Hoodie. It’s a great piece of clothing and is now on sale on their website (girlsofgeek.com). Shooting it made me pause with concern because of the dark of the pieces outlining the hoody but my lighting set up as well as some fancy post processing allowed to come out against the black backdrop.
I think from here on out I’m going to refine this style for my studio photography long term. I like what I’ve come up with now what I want to do is refine it. Possibly get a grey backdrop and get all my lighting lined up the way I want it but over all I think that this might be my permanent studio style in the long term.
Studio experiments with Tara as Catwoman.
I have this love hate relationship when it comes to shooting in a studio environment. On one hand you have nothing but control when it comes to every aspect of the photos, the downside is that it really does limit your creativity when it comes to composition.
The entire shoot was done against a black backdrop using 2 1K Flouresent lights with softboxes with a 200 watt clamp light as a back light. Being from a video background I end up using continuous lighting over strobes just so I don’t have more gear than I need. While strobes do have some benefits over continuous lighting, for what I do this setup works perfectly.
Black backdrops have a great effect of creating a void that eliminates any kind of distractions allowing you just to focus on the subject. As a drawback, however, any kind black article of clothing that the subject might be wearing will be lost without a few tricks in post.
In order to make studio photography work you need to know how to light your subject. There really are about a million and one ways to light your subject. Going back to my video background, I go for a 3 point lighting approach. A “key” light as the main light, a fill light to lift any harsh shadows and a back light to create separation from the background. You can add and take away lights as you see fit but since I’m still learning studio I kept it very basic.
I think for future studio ventures I’ll try playing with different set ups to see what kind of looks I can create with different lighting . The next couple of shoots that I have in the pipeline are on location and not studio which is more my element but it’s a nice skill to have when it comes to photography.
TCK-Media 
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