NMACI Diamond Gala 60th Anniversary was the first event I photographed in Sandia Resort & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Like many award events I have photographed throughout the past 10 years, it began outside with a social hour and then moved inside to a ballroom for the presentation of the awards. Being a professional photographer in part means being able to change gears going from shooting outside in natural light at 1/500th ISO 100 of a second to dimly lit indoors using external flash and ISO 2000+.
Politicians a plenty
Then it turns out many state Senators and Representatives would be present to receive awards, as well as Lt. Governor Howie Morales. I am very experienced at photographing politicians though, from mayors to governors to Secretary of Labor and the U.S. Surgeon General!
On my fourth trip to Navajo Dam New Mexicojust this year, I was treated to both a great sunset for this rural land real estate drone video, but also a chorus of what sounded like marbles being clanked around in a bag! This cicada looking insect was out in mass singing away not caring I needed to concentrate on flying! At least the stuck to hiding on bush and tree branches and were no threat to the drone in the air!
More and more actors are visiting the JCP Home Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico for modern and creative professional headshots. This time, in editing, I added a bit of color to this pair of headshots I made for James, which were originally shot on a white background. For the first photo, I sampled the background color from his hair, and below the blue from his shirt. Thank you James for choosing me as your headshot photographer as many other actors have to!
Having done dozens and dozens of shoots for UberEats, this morning was my first one for Grubhub. The latter has similar photography requirements to the former, but a lot more dishes! As you can see in the hero shot above, there are way more than just 5 dishes in it, as I shot 15 total for this Grubhub professional food photography shoot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I managed to get 10 of the 15 in the final hero shot. A big thanks to Jacob and his team at Two Cranes Bistro + Brews for getting all this food in front of my lens very efficiently. And also for having a vegan Beyond Cheeseburger on the menu! I look forward to returning as a customer!
I was glad to be offered the opportunity to photograph CS PD Week at UNM in Albuquerque, New Mexico and see first hand teacher training for teaching coding to students of all ages. These teachers took one week out of their summer to come to Albuquerque from all corners of New Mexico to take classes and learn hands on how to not only teach coding in the classroom, but also start clubs and after school programs. Photographing this event was most unusual for me as there were no speakers. I simply walked between four buildings on the UNM campus making photos of various classes, and then asking everyone to get together for a group photo before everyone congregated for a huge group photo with all participants in an auditorium. Photographing events is one of my favorite things to do because I often get to learn something new, and that certainly was the case at this UNM event as well! Thank you Paige for having me as your (last minute) photographer for this event!
On a recent multi-day drone flight I got work alongside videographer Nate Sorenson while flying over cranes and utility trucks. He was recording from the ground and me from the air. Nate also wanted to get some footage of me actually flying, and in the clip above, landing the DJI Mavic Pro drone. Soon after first learning to fly the drone, I switched to doing mid-air hand landings because I was often flying out in the desert and it made things much easier to land without aiming for a small helipad that I use to launch from. Thanks Nate for capturing this!
As a professional photographer it is the highest compliment when a client returns, and especially so when it is less than two months! Jake returned to the JCP Home Studio in Albuquerque, New Mexico for a couple more actor headshots. His first shoot produced most shots with a semi-profile view of his face while wearing a black leather jacket. This time he wanted more straight on shots and no jacket. He also changed up his hairstyle. I think we may have outdone ourselves with this second shoot! Thanks Jake and hope these get your some awesome acting roles!
