We went up to Santa Fe, New Mexico to see a Guinness Book of World Records setting whale! How is that possible with Santa Fe not only being landlocked, but also mountainous? Well, it is a whale made of recycled plastic on the campus of Santa Fe Community College. Regular readers of Jason Collin Photography will note how many times Atlas Obscura sites are featured in my photo stories, and thanks again to that site (and for Jessica finding it), we had a whale of an adventure hundreds of miles from the ocean. See the photos below to learn what makes Ethyl the Whale so special. Want to visit this site yourself? Check out the map at the end of the photo story.
Revisiting photos I took at the Santa Fe Ski Resort as part of a car show with the BMW Car Club from the last day of summer last year, I found this landscape photo I had not yet shared. This area is where the ski lift would drop you off at in snowier times, but I hiked up to this viewpoint in the pleasant afternoon sunshine. Would you think this was a photo taken in a mostly desert state? Santa Fe is its own island world in New Mexico.
This was my second photo shoot with Alexis Johnson, who is running for U.S. Congress for District 3 of Santa Fe, New Mexico. For our first shoot we a little pressed for time, so I was very glad she had more time for this shoot done right in Cathedral Park in the heart of Santa Fe. This extra time allowed me to really find the best backgrounds in the park, which were still important to get right even though as you can see they are out of focus in both shots. The bokeh (out of focus background) quality is still very much dependent on what is being made out of focus. So purposefully choosing where Alexis stood for the above photo with a tree being hit by the sun resulted in that great, bright bokeh behind her.
I continue to add to the number of politicians and candidates I have photographed in 2019, ranging from the U.S. Surgeon General to the Governor of New Mexico, to most recently Alexis Johnson running for U.S. Congress NM District 3 in Santa Fe. Alexis had a very busy schedule, but it worked out that right after I finished two drone flights already in Santa Fe, her schedule was open as well and we met outside on location and in less than 30 minutes made this headshot and portrait. I am accustomed to making photos in time constraints, and had my full studio headshot setup save for the background, as I just used an existing wall for that. Then it was a quick change of setup to go make a portrait with a greener background. It was a quick shoot, but we made the most of it for sure.
Santa Fe ceramic artist Noah Starer usually brings his art to my Home Studio to be photographed, but this time I took the photo studio to his art studio up in Santa Fe. Why? Because he has created a new serious of modular ceramic art that just has way too many individual pieces to move all the way to Albuquerque and also he would have to stay on site to setup each group, whereas normally they are just single pieces that I can place and photograph myself.
Over two long days of food photography in Santa Fe, New Mexico, I got to know El Paisano Supermarket and its owner Miguel pretty well! I spent nearly 10 hours in total photographing the food, aisles, and piñatas in this unique market. Featured here are a selection of foods from the restaurant and carniceria. In rapid succession meal after meal was brought in front of my lens. Miguel even helped out holding the reflector for many of the shots to help things go as efficiently as possible during the shoot. Really, all the staff pitched in during these two marathon shoots which lead to the great results you see below.
I had the pleasure and creative challenge of photographing the beautiful Inn of the Anasazi in historic downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. Each room, each space was full of architectural features, design touches, and soft light. The challenge was capturing that existing atmosphere with the right additional off camera lighting to show off the room or space such that is shows well in a photo, but maintains the tranquil and warm feel I had standing there. From the library, to the wine cellar, to the lobby, all throughout this inn I kept finding more and more incredible rooms to photograph using the flambient technique. Thank you very much to the staff of the Inn of the Anasazi for making this long shoot go very smoothly!
