My first win of the season was a big one!  For the November 5-6 2010 24th Annual Lake Mary Heathrow Festival of the Arts Festival, I was awarded prestigious ‘Tony Senador Award’, with a grand cash prize of $2,500! Because the largest two prizes are given dead last, I had given up hope after the first 25 awards were given out, including 10 judges choice awards, 5 awards of commendations, 10 awards of distinction, and 1 award of...

  Buddy Verderber, in only his first few triathlons, is quickly climbing the ranks; he’s already listed in the top 20 in his age group for the USA!  He came to me a few months back for several unique photos to provide to his sponsors.  This provided an interesting challenge, as athlete portraits have a pretty distinct look about them, especially male athletic portraits. While I generally stick to a more classic look, I went...

On Father’s Day 2010, I was hired by a local attorney to photograph his family at his beach condo in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  Last December, I also photographed a Christmas party for the same law firm, and was happy for the repeat business (the same attorney, Jeffrey, purchased a rather large piece from my display at the Winter Park Art Festival last March).           Two location were chosen: one on the...

Shooting models, family’s, and weddings has started to make my portfolio look a little to soft and cuddly lately. Now comes in the tough guy shoot at an abandoned warehouse nearby my home. Kayla Hernandez, one of my favorite people to shoot with, introduced me to the concept of a GOYA (Get Off You Ass) shoot. We as photographers get scatterbrained in our fun time for shooting, and end up shooting the same crap again and again. Kayla...

No Respect for Other Tourists Tourists have officially ruined Luray Caverns with their Cameras.  Over this past Memorial Day Weekend, I flew to visit my brother at his apartment in Arlington, Virginia. As always, I had to visit one photogenic nature area. Normally my style is to find hidden, unknown, overgrown, and unpolished placed to shoot. Since the Florida Caverns are the only dry caves that I’ve explored, I couldn’t...

In early March 2010, I exhibited my Florida Noir Series as a featured ‘Emerging Artist’. Although my first art festival, it was a wild success both in sales and as an artist. Sometimes I felt that I had spent to much time on the series, but hearing thousands of compliments and watching people hand me money, one after the other, was an intense confidence boost to keep expanding my art portfolio and experiment with new...

Workshops are a blast, and working with the awesome students at Valencia College were no exception! An officer of the Valencia Photography Group saw my portfolio online, later approaching me to teach a hands-on ‘Night Lighting’ workshop, which would include artificial lighting and natural light techniques.  Because I believe that all lighting setups are closely related, I taught in terms of general lighting, with a focus on...

SLAM Magazine, along with a recent infrared modeling shoot, have together shifted my thoughts of modeling photography.  I must admit that I had avoided modeling work for some time, which can feel more like production and less like art.  Either you are highly technical with your lighting setup, or your know a lot of Photoshop gimmicks and trickery; or perhaps both.  Rarely does anyone do a modeling shoot without an after-thought...

Late on a Sunday during October 2010, I flew to Ft. Madison, Iowa on a business trip to a factory out in the corn fields. Sitting in the back of the rental car, I was captivated by the stormy weather, sunset, and haunted mid-town America country architecture. My new 5Dmkii pulled out some spectacular shots with almost no light available. After these series of shots and an engagement shoot, I decided to keep the expensive camera body after...

I. The Dreaded Beach Shot: Traveling through the woodlands throughout Florida over the years, including its swamps, springs, parks and lakes, I have largely ignored one of Florida’s finest and most famous features: its beaches. Maybe I took myself too seriously as an artist to photograph the obvious. Perhaps, though, I’ve been afraid of the challenges of a good Florida beach shot. My cousin Michael – who lived on A1A on...