Roosevelt Row First Friday…

… Anyone that lives in Phoenix and ever visits the downtown area should really attend this event at least once during the cooler months. Especially if you’re even remotely into people watching. I have been attending for the better part of two years, just about every instance aside from the extremely hot months of Summer.

What you will find is a serious slice of diversity, culture, and entrepreneurship. What you won’t find is a lack of imagery as a photographer. There are always plenty of scenes and people to capture. If you live here or visit, try to incorporate this event into your plans.

Automotive Excellence… RevB

Over the course of my time behind a camera, I have taken some risks and pursued content that would be considered unconventional. Most people wouldn’t have put any effort into shooting something as simple (not so much) as a frame for a pickup truck. One of the first people I worked with in this space was Jason Berland at Arizona High Test. During my time being around him and his team, I was able to connect with people like Scot Nelson who was with GSI Machine and Fabrication at the time I met him.

Scot decided to strike out onto his own. I finally had a chance to stop by his shop and shoot some of his chassis work. As expected, the quality is top notch and it wasn’t hard to illustrate his knowledge of what it takes to make a killer truck. More so, he isn’t exclusive to any one brand. He is willing to work with any client to create a killer ride. With this latest set, the theme is about quality, no grey areas, quality is absolute like black and white. His business name indicates that after his time with GSI, this is RevB to his story and a continuance of that quality that he expects himself as an enthusiast and creates for his clients.

Cannot wait to share my images from Scot Nelson with RevB Chassis.

Reflecting On Gear…

… All photographers eventually land here with pondering gear and whether or not you are loyal to any specific brand.

I started out shooting with a Sony crop sensor camera and quickly progressed to Sony full frame bodies and various first and third party lenses. Before too long I became bored with Sony and started look at other brands. Canon was out of the question as the R line cameras had just come to market and the cost of glass was excessive. Nikon was perceived as inferior by some with their autofocus performance. Fuji has always intrigued me and the opportunity to own the X100V became a reality when they were impossible to find ahead of the X100VI release. I quickly jumped on it and fell in love. Film sims, nearly perfect JPEG files SOOC, and size. It was intoxicating.

For the last year or more I have kind of let the Sony gear collect dust while I ran around with a Fuji in my hand. Still very much love my Fuji and Sony. There has been a recent development, I have started shooting Nikon. The takeaway for me as I have continued to evolve and learn different systems has lead me back to a realization (one I have already had previously, but was reinforced again) that the camera has very little to do with the results from a skilled photographer. The gear can make the job easier and quicker, but the results are usually the same for a capable creator.

Having said that, I apologize to all 3,278 (now 3,279 with my new Z6II) Nikon shooters out there that I have teased about their potatoes…

I can admit when I was wrong! :D

Happy shooting!

Meeting People Through Photography…

… It all starts with a hello or a head nod. Sometimes people will stop to talk and then you meet interesting people. In such an instance, I did just that. I had the great pleasure of visiting a small town not far from the Canadian border in the very top portion of Idaho called Bonners Ferry. Beautiful place! I was there to visit people who are near and dear to me, people I love and have been there for me when many weren't…

On Friday of last week my friends had commitments and I was free for a little while so I decided to walk around the quaint and beautiful downtown of this small town. That is where I ran into Don. He struck me with his salt of the Earth appearance. Suspenders and a coffee mug in his hand. I said hello and he replied with a lament about it being a beautiful day. I approached him and struck up some conversation.

I learned that he had been a tradesman for most of his life and had worked hard during every one of those years, that legacy was conveyed with one handshake to feel the strength and grit of his hands, it was very apparent this was a man who had always earned an honest living. Yet, there was a softness to him that would become apparent shortly into the conversation when he let me in on the fact that he was writing a poetry book intended to see publishing. He recited two amazing poems about childhood and I was immediately interested in obtaining a copy. I hope you get your work published, Don.

It is truly amazing how a simple walk with a camera can bring you into proximity of really amazing people. By the way, he let me take his portrait which is the image for this entry.

Don't hesitate to capture the world around you, we are all priceless and deserve to be seen.

Travel and photography.

One of the many things that inspires most photographers will almost always be a change in locale. I have been very much getting the urge to take my camera on the road and capture new scenes and new people. What is your idea of a dream location to do photography? Reply in the comments below, I would really love some feedback from anyone reading my Blog posts.

Have a great week and keep on capturing the world as you see it!

Street Portraits - Why I love them!

Fresh off yesterday's post I found myself wandering around on the streets of Mesa with my favorite daily, the Fujifilm XT-50 with a 35mm f/2 prime. I happened to be over by the ASU campus at the Ikeda Theater across the street enjoying some of the new architecture I haven't seen before and I passed by this lovely person who caught my eye because she was very natural yet confident. I wanted to ask her to stop for a quick portrait, but she seemed to be in a hurry so I kept on.

As I moved to keep exploring, I started heading back out and here she comes. I had to ask awkwardly, it's difficult at times to ask people you don't know to pose. Once again, many people will be reluctant but mostly willing to stop. She did ask me what I do with the photos, fair question these days. I will post them here in portraiture and street photography because she is a very worthy subject and mostly because she told me a little about herself and my hat tip goes to her for being a teen crisis counselor helping with suicide prevention. That is such an endearing and great undertaking. Angelic in nature and simply beautiful, thank you for stopping Lindsey! (Hope I got the spelling correct?)

Keep on capturing the beauty of the world around you, people need to see how amazing they are!

Street Photography Portrait - Land of the brave…

One of the genres of photography I have become quite fond of is street photography. Namely, street portraits of people. Sometimes candid, sometimes posed. I recently walked with a photographer who admitted they wanted to do more intimate street portraits of people in the wild. My advice was to run with it. I have been fairly fortunate with random subjects, I also attribute that to being observant and realizing when it's a good time to approach someone and when it would be callous or inappropriate.

In all honesty, I have taken so many really nice portraits of strangers on the street with direct request and out of all the instances I have asked people to pose, I have only been rejected twice. Both were poorly timed by me by being tone deaf to the moment or unaware of their situation and demeanor. If you are interested in pursuing this style, give it a try. Worst case scenario you get a rejection. Best case, you nail a really nice portrait that you can share with your subject and add to your portfolio.

Most people are generally very stoked when you create a beautiful image of them and represent them as a human being. That is the reason ultimately why I am so addicted to street portraits with random people. Showing normal folks that they are beautiful and worth being commemorated through imagery.

Street photography may be for the brave because you are capturing the world in its true form, but it is a truly beautiful form of expression when you catch that specific moment for someone who may not feel they are capable of being viewed or seen…

The Double Edged Sword of People and Photography…

One the of the most difficult parts of being a photographer who enjoys capturing people, is well, the people.

Let me elaborate, please. There is a certain enjoyment from capturing a moment for another human being that outweighs any other form of photography. Whether it be freezing time or catching a vibe, it is very rewarding to work with people in photography, especially in fun and creative structured shoots. The moment you catch that banger of an image, it cuts through that moment and just feels good. The other side of that blade is just how difficult people can be at times. Ego and vanity factor into working with people who are exuberant about themselves which can often lead to entitlement and sometimes complete oversite of the person who is doing the work for them to capture those moments.

This is a behavior and outcome I have become very accustomed to over the past four years, albeit disappointing when new people act a certain way, I don’t get as upset anymore about the sometimes seemingly self-centered nature of people at times when it comes to investing time to serve them. I just always keep looking for the best in people. I know this is a polarizing topic and can be divisive. Let me know your thoughts and experiences as a photographer or model if you have a moment in the comments below.

Have a great week!

Being creative and the need to be productive as a photographer…

This may be a little long winded, but it’s something I think all creatives struggle with whether it’s musicians, artists, dancers, and the like. There is a strong undercurrent of having this feeling that you need to be productive in a sense of producing works that could possibly define you or better yet, even help you pay for the interest you spend so much of your time working within and honing to perfection.

There is a need to keep it fun and fresh, which is where that fine line comes into focus. Creative and passion projects don’t really present any value to most people who look to a creative to produce content for promotion, branding, etc. For the last four years I chased that dragon trying to produce, trying to create for money. I finally came to the realization that is really wasn’t how I wanted my photography to go anymore. I am fortunate in that I don’t need to monetize my work in order to sustain my ability to have the gear needed to create great images or the time to do it.

How do my other creatives feel about this subject? Feel free to comment below and let me know how you deal with the struggle between feeling productive and keeping your passion for this community and skill fresh? How do you balance that scale if you do generate money with this skill? I would love to hear what people are doing to cope with the demand.

Losing all interest in large corporate social media…

Recently I had a really unfortunate thing happen with my main Instagram account. Let me preface by mentioning that the situation was my fault because I reacted in haste, that is what these bad actors are hoping for at the end of it. I was sent a message on my main account and that message indicated that I was in risk of losing my account for a list of things I have seen violations for in the past if I used audio on a reel that wasn’t sanctioned, etc. I followed a link because I was waiting for a client and I wanted to resolve this issue. It was a social engineering scam. They took control of my account and I wasn’t able to recover it. My fault, end of the day.

What is ultimately the kick in the proverbial teeth is that I have seen people lose their accounts at the hands of Meta for seemingly inane behaviors and actions. Yet, when I implored my friends to report and block my account, Meta has refused to close that account down, it remains still sending out the exact same message to my friends and followers. This is what makes me harbor a huge amount of disdain for large social media companies like Meta because they really don’t care about the users that are selling their privacy and personal content in return for what can be described as subpar service at best. Meta doesn’t even have any way of getting ahold of them in the event of a real concern. Not even a “customerservice@meta.com” or something of the sort.

As such, I will probably not be posting much on Instagram in the coming years. I would rather pay for this domain and webpage so I have full control of the content displayed over having to be held hostage by a social media company data mining you and using your images for their AI and algorithms to sell ad directed products.

If you want to see what I am doing with my camera, this will be the place to see it moving forward.

High Country Beauty

This weekend I had the pleasure of capturing some images for this lovely young NAU graduate! I also captured her high school graduation images as well. I am supremely grateful for the people who have stood by me while I figured out how to approach image creation on a level that I could enjoy. I haven’t always been clear on how to do that and have struggled along the way, but people like the lady pictured have been there while I worked through it. Tessa, you get to be my very first blog post! Thank you to you and your Mom for always having faith in me and my camera skills.