Sunrise volunteers help the community in New Mexico
Early on a Saturday morning I drove to an area south of Albuquerque to photograph a community event put on by Roadrunner Food Bank and Wells Fargo. This was the first time to photograph an event at sunrise that was not a triathlon for me! In a very short amount of time the team of volunteers and staff setup and organized a very efficient space for giving out three types of food donations. My job was to photograph this in a respectful manner that highlighted the community outreach. Everyone was so friendly and in such good spirits despite the hard circumstances so many are living through now in Covid-19.
Back in Torrance County New Mexico for more rural land real estate photography for Hemingway Land. The timing was perfect to shoot this property on a Friday, as Fridays are pizza nights for us, and where is the best pizza place in all of New Mexico? Well, right in Torrance County in the town of Edgewood. So in between shooting daylight and sunset and cactus shots, I got to eat my favorite pizza in the world! I call that a win-win and a great way to end the work week.
Willie’s second headshot shoot this summer in Albuquerque
I really appreciate returning clients to Jason Collin Photography, so I was very glad to get a text from Willie asking about another headshot shoot, just after we had the first one in May. That time was in studio, this time was out on location in downtown Albuquerque. The main benefit of shooting on location is that you get your own unique background that I will never be able to replicate for another client. Willie had seen the headshots I made for KRQE meteorologist Connor Lewis near the Civic Plaza area of downtown and wanted similar, though I told him I will not be able to get exactly the same results. Thank you Willie for continuing to choose me as your headshot photographer and thanks to Jessica for assisting on this Covid-19 safe headshot photoshoot.
As a top three rated commercial photographer in Albuquerque, I mostly have business clients. However, I do enjoy having lifestyle photoshoots when people contact me like Indu did to make photos of her son as he turns 1 year old. We met in Altura Park (a location I have been using more and more) to make candid photos of her son. Since a 1 year old does not really ever sit still, it is my photography philosophy that it is best to just let the baby do what he/she wants and let me make candids that capture the baby’s personality. Maybe the smile will not be perfect, maybe the baby will almost never once even look directly into the camera, but the photos 20 years from now I really believe will make the parents smile more than a posed photo attempting perfection.
Commercial real estate photography inside and out in ABQ
Typically when Smartshoot offers me a commercial photography job here in Albuquerque, New Mexico it is for a food photography shoot. However, this time the client was not a restaurant, but an apartment complex needing a few select interiors and exteriors photographed with updated photos for their website and marketing materials. For this shoot I made entirely HDR real estate photos for both the interior and exterior images. Photographing non-staged interiors is always a challenge, but I focused on the features each room did have to highlight each particular living space. The exteriors were easy since the grounds were very green and the buildings had interesting design.
Creative and Covid-19 safe Commercial Portraits in ABQ
It often happens when I shoot at a great new location for the first time, like the Hotel Parq Central, other clients see those photos and want to use it as a location too! Such was the case for Marian, and since she was coming all the way from Ruidoso and needed a hotel to stay at anyway, it was very convenient for her to just take the elevator down right to our shooting location! The purpose of the shoot was to create commercial portraits that were not too corporate or like other traditional speaker photos, especially for speakers who speak about librarians. As you can see, not a single bookcase in any of these photos! In a relatively short time, I was able to make a large variety of photos for Marian thanks to her being open to my ideas, the well designed areas of the hotel, and the unique perspectives a 50mm f/1.4 lens creates. In fact, I never did a shoot this varied exclusively with a 50mm lens before.
It was not at all like how I thought my first home buying experience would be, but after a 3-month long ordeal, I am now a first time homeowner! We had been renting this house for a year and agreed to sign another 1-year lease. Well, just before we could do that the owner decides to sell the house! So it is either buy the house, or move! And that is how I became a home owner. No being courted by real estate agents, no discovering your dream home, no holding a sold sign, just kind of happened out of necessity. It’s a great house, in a fantastic location in Albuquerque, and will continue to be the home of Jason Collin Photography for the near future. Too bad we cannot even have a house warming party due to Covid-19!
