Before Saturday's first 2018 exhibition game for the Duke City Gladiators in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I had a small window to make official portraits of all the Gladiators arena football players. When I say small window, I mean small. Kickoff was scheduled for 6pm. I made the first player portrait at 4:29pm! Being a professional photographer means being prepared for just about anything, so I made sure I practiced the exact lighting setup I wanted to a few days earlier, so all I had to do was show up, set up, and start making photos!
Ceramic artist Noah Starer visited my Home Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico twice this week with a lot more of his great artwork. Featured here are pieces he informally named, "tumbleweeds," in blue above and tan below. He suggested people can choose between the ocean and the desert! I like that idea a lot, and of course I would choose ocean for myself. If you like these pieces, you can contact Noah via his website below. He has been a long time repeat client and making creative art photos of his work has been a fun, on going challenge as the shapes and sizes of his ceramic art changes each time he brings me new pieces.
Sometimes, well many times, photo shoots come up very quickly in the reality of how things go for a professional photographer. Such was the case with Brian emailing me at 10:45am about a headshot, and by 12:45pm he was in the JCP Home Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a headshot session. Good thing I have replaced all my hard to setup soft boxes with great, new quick setup Cheetahstand ones!
I have been investing a lot recently in my lighting setup that I use for headshots and commercial portraits that I make in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In the BTS photo above you can see three great new light modifiers all by Cheetahstand that I got just in the past week. I have long wanted strip boxes, but could not find the right ones that combined portability with quality and value. The same for the big octosoftbox used as the main light above. I can tell you that these Cheetahstand modifiers are as good or better than Westcott, as I returned my Westcott 36" Rapid Box XL because of the Cheetahstand 36" RiceBowl. I paid for all these modifiers, Cheetahstand is not a sponsor, but when I get outstanding customer service like I did from Edward of Cheetahstand, I like to be vocal about it and help them as they helped me with shipping speed and rates. Check out their website.
Having just photographed Albuquerque, New Mexico Mayor Tim Keller twelve days ago at the grand opening for General Atomics, this morning I got to make actual portraits of him as he gets ready to play in a Duke City Gladiators exhibition football game. Jessica went with me to assist for the shoot right in the mayor's office! What I did not know was the amount of other people that would be there and the limited time to setup we would have. These are the challenges of the professional photographer!
I first started photographing the ceramic artwork of New Mexico artist Noah Starer in October of last year. He creates a variety of ceramics from the figures in these photos, to pods, to bowls to flute type vases. See all of his work and purchase these figures or others from his website.
I have known Roger for awhile now having first met him at a networking event in Albuquerque, New Mexico last year. We have gotten together a few times for 1-on-1 chats about running your own small business. He owns and operates Beacon Marketing, be sure to check it out if you are behind on doing your marketing by yourself, he can help you by doing it for you in a much more efficient and strategic way.
