On a Sunday afternoon in I was walking into the Santa Fe Convention Center to photograph an event for ACOMS and to my great surprise I learned I was photographing the actual U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Jerome Adams! I was told I would only be photographing a presenter and then some candids of the vendor area. This was not my first time photographing a prominent political figure. In Florida in 2011 I had the chance to spend a day photographing then U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. I have also photographed three governors, a U.S. Senator, U.S Representatives, and at least 3 mayors.
While out on a rural land real estate assignment in northwest New Mexico near the town of Aztec, the client wanted to include some drone video of the nearby Animas River. I have flown over the Animas River before in an area north of Durango, Colorado even catching some people jumping high off the cliffs into the river! The river there had a beautiful matte emerald green color to it. In this area of New Mexico, the river was an unattractive brown, but nonetheless the surrounding mesas still made for a stunning scene. This drone video shows a small, hidden area of New Mexico True.
One of the largest commercial photo shoots I have ever done was this past week at Bohannan Huston, a consulting firm specializing in engineering, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was over four hours of shooting on each of two days. Yet thanks to the great staff and their preparation, it went incredibly smoothly. So well that despite near tropical storm level winds on the second day of the shoot negating the ability to make candid commercial portraits outdoors like on the first day of the shoot, that finding a cool indoor setting was as easy as walking over to the neighboring building and using the psychedelic art tapestry background created by one of their own employees.
Networking events seem to be dreaded. Something a business owner needs to do. However, not all networking events are created equally. I always bring my camera with me to Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce events, and this Biz Crafty networking event was no exception. I love to get candid photos at events, which is helped by people really enjoying themselves. Look at these candids, and you will see a lot of people having a very good time, yet this is still networking! Candid event photography is my speciality as I find the reactions that will be remembered for years.
I first met Pepper during a summer long series on leadership her company, Giant Worldwide, was giving free for members of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce. When she needed a new business headshot for Giant, I was glad she called me! During our business headshot photo session I flipped the background from white to black to offer Pepper two very different looks for her headshots. Combined with beauty dish lighting, I was able to make a modern headshot that will standout from all the dated business headshots people are still using. It is my goal to for everyone to have a creative and modern headshot to represent themselves, their brand, and their business at their best to clients and customers.
The designers of the FedEx building in Albuquerque, New Mexico want FedEx to choose them to build more FedEx facilities around the country. So they hired me to make a 4K drone video of the exterior of the facility trying to show it off. I was expecting something with a bit more flair to it, as this kind of, no offense, looked just like what I thought a FedEx shipping warehouse would look like, i.e. a large rectangle. Still, I used my drone piloting skills to make it as cinematic as possible showing off both the facility and the surrounding desert and mountains. I also had my Nikon with me to get some interior commercial photos. I found I liked photographing forklifts!
I got a phone call yesterday afternoon from Tracy Stuckrath about photographing her presentation at the Albuquerque Convention Center for today! Due to cloudy skies in El Morro, New Mexico, I was available and I am very glad I was because her presentation on food served at events, meetings, hotels, and conferences was very interesting and very relevant to me. Being a combo of vegan and vegetarian since 1996, and being a professional photographer since 2009, I am often shooting events, but not often being offered a great veggie meal at them. Tracy advocates for not just vegetarian meals, but more awareness in general to accommodating various food needs by attendees and guests that include allergens, religious preferences, and even having non-alcoholic cocktails for people (like myself) that do not drink.
