Camerawerkz
This is why I fell in love with photography. While I'm not a photojournalist per se and prefer portraits, on a May day in 2017, I was driving down Martin Luther King in Berkeley, CA on my way to meet friends playing soccer at a nearby park. I wanted to capture some sports action and thought this would be a great opportunity.
As I drove down Martin Luther, I noticed black smoke on the left, and initially thought the street might be blocked. However, as I got closer, I saw flames coming from behind a nearby house. I parked across the street and realized that the garage was on fire, but nobody was home. Neighbors began to emerge and call 911.
Despite the unfortunate situation, I decided to photograph it. Within minutes, the Berkeley fire department and a freelance videographer for the news arrived on the scene. I mirrored the videographer's position to capture what was happening.
Once the fire was under control, a fireman approached me and asked who I was with. I responded that I was a freelance photographer. He then asked if he could get the images because a few of the firemen were about to retire, and this was likely their last alarm. I was more than happy to oblige and sent him all the images afterwards.
Unfortunately, I missed the soccer game, but I felt good knowing that nobody was injured and that I was able to contribute in a positive way by providing images for the Berkeley Fire Department. This experience solidified my love for photography.
The Baptism
Smile, don't worry I'll wait for a commercial. A friend's son was getting baptize and she ask me to photograph it. These types of events are not normally what I shot but this involved free food so I obliged on 2 conditions. The photos were black and white and it would be in photojournalist style. Deal! I actually find when I'm shooting this type of event, I enjoy using a different part of my creative brain. I shoot with a wider lens because every moment is a scene to me. The win for me is when the image tells a story and the interaction between love ones is frozen in time.
So Mr. Travis reached out to me and said he wanted to re-ignite his acting and modeling career and had a really cool thunderbird that he wanted to shoot with. Being the awesome personal branding photographer that I am, I immediately had vintage cinematic images floating around in my head. I knew just the place to conduct a photoshoot of this magnitude. The alameda naval base was the spot. His look & his car screamed vintage and it was only fair that I do it justice with black & white photography.
