Dive Bar Shirt Club

Last month I received a call to shoot a local bar in Albuquerque from Cody at Dive Bar Shirt Club.  I was in the middle of trying to pack and figure out all my logistics to moving to DC and was tempted to pass on this project but I'm glad I didn't.  This bar was very "tchotchkied" out and you could spend days trying to document everything. 

Rio Grande Community Farm - NRCS

I was attached to the Rio Grande Community Farm Project through NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service).  Their main goal, as I understand it, was to document subsurface drip irrigation and utilize state of the art sustainable equipment and techniques to create organic produce.  There is a potential water shortage on the horizon in New Mexico, maybe the world.  Its a hot topic for politics on whether this is true or not but from my standpoint responsibility to our environment is paramount.  Arguing global warming is irrelevant if your not taking care of the environment to begin with.

I'm still editing the 1000+ images I've captured over the last 5 months and I hope to have a concise edited group sometime in June (My move to DC is cutting into my productivity).  I was not able to stick around to the full fruition of the farm due to my move but I did have a great time with the few months I was around.  Having spent time with most of the crew I was able to get permission to shoot a series of portraits of the crew as they finished their day the last week I was there.  They are all working for Americorps.  I had a great time shooting them and I am quite pleased with how they turned out.

I knew from going out there all those times that to set up something overly produced was going to distract them from relaxing while I took their picture.  For some it just took the camera but unfortunately there are only so many pieces of equipment one can pair down for a shoot.  I knew we were going to shoot at about 1pm because that is when they called it a day.  Direct sunlight is atrocious at that time of day and bounce cards always seem to make people squint if you don't get them far enough to the side.  I ended up using the barn opening to get my consistent light.  I cheated my subjects to one side of the opening to get shape on their face and then had them stand dead center for full body shots.

I do not usually use available light for portraits because anyone can do that and I generally want to distance myself from what everyone else can do but this experience has had an effect on my photographic evolution.  I researched a ton of old FSA (Farm Security Administration) photographs  for inspiration towards an aesthetic approach to this project and I think it paid off. 

El Rito Campus

Through volunteering with NRCS I was given the assignment to  document the before state of Northern New Mexico College's El Rito Campus.  The Campus is located in El Rito NM, a very small town just north of Espanola, NM.  The location is beautiful and easy to see why one might want to work and/or study.  The campus is in the initial stages of lining up funding and purchasing equipment to take the entire campus off the grid and become self sufficient.  I focused primarily on what "green" equipment they have set up at this time.  Even the Cafeteria will serve local food grown on campus and from New Mexico farms.  This seems to be a heavy trend right now.  It was sold to me on the importance of National Security as fuel becomes more expensive and instability in the middle east and other parts of the world could get out of control.  I personally get scared about isolationist trends, not dealing with problems does not make them go away, but I do understand direct financial and fiscal responsibility and shipping fresh blueberries from Maine to New Mexico (Let alone South America) may not be an option much longer.  I'm a layman listening to people who are trying to predict the future but its easy to see the end of the supermarket as we know it and the resurgence of locally grown and raised products purchased during their harvest seasons and not year round.  This is probably a healthier concept than most will be willing to except.

 

FJ62 Project

Technically this project was finished back in September when Justin returned from Afghanistan but I was able to get the group of main players together for a group shot and Justin graciously volunteered his time for a portrait shoot out at the volcanoes just west of Albuquerque...

That's quite a paint job.

Greg and Skeeter parts 2 and 3

I am very lucky to have friends.  Greg and Skeeter have been a pleasure to spend time with photographing.  I was put in contact by a friend of mine by the name of Steve Akard.  Whom, coincidentally, remodeled my family room and in turn I've been assisting him with some of his remodel jobs.  He also put me in touch with the people running the high powered rifle competition in 2011.  The second outing was weather-wise a far cry from our first venture.  I fought back lighting the whole morning.

With third outing my goal was to get a portrait of Greg and Skeeter.  I got four frames.  I guess it only takes one (First image at the top of this entry).  The whole morning was hit and miss with Skeeter and his buddy Zing.