From where I sit

I honestly have no idea if anyone is reading this but people do surprise me from time to time.  =). We had a pretty busy week last week, we opened up with a headshot session at Muscle Mechanixx here in Mission…I’m looking forward to sharing those photos sometime this week if all goes well.

We also had a pretty good time working with Monique and her team at Shop 112, lots of fun and laughs there.  Shop 112 has grown from a local brick and mortar store to a social media power house all based here in the Rio Grande Valley.  If you’re looking for something in the fashion world make sure you stop by her website or even catch the team live on instagram ever week.

Feeling pretty good this evening.

Two things 1: LinkedIn reminded me that the photography business has now been open for 7 years! I’ve made a lot of new friends along the way and have had great mentors (Dustin Meyer, Eric Sierra, and Julio Gonzales) come along side and support my art. To be honest I wasn’t sure if I’d even make it this far, I kinda just jumped ship and rebooted my career with the support of my family.  As I’m writing this I’m still freaking out that it’s been 7 whole years, time really does fly when you’re having fun.

2: I’ve decided to declare my Professional Photographers of America Candidacy and going for it. Something I’ve talked about for a few now, just never moved on it.  From what I understand it’s not for everyone and it puts your knowledge through the ringer.  Believe it or not this is what I do full time.  I spend more time in the commercial photography side of the business and creating videos for social media, but it’s been fun most of the way.

Today was kinda fitting to submit my application. #heregoesnothing

Lessons learned with in the last 24 hours.

1.) when working with websites BACK UP YOUR WORDPRESS

2.) read the documentation…even if it’s 120 pages. I’m spending the evening repairing abelriojas.com as i cratered the thing at about 2:00am. It’s slowly coming back to life but WHAT A PAIN.

In my other life I was a web designer and while things have improved (I’ve designed websites since 1997) they have become more and more complicated.  I guess you can still do the whole HTML thing but I still say wordpress is the way to go.

What does this have to do with photography?  Nothing.  Just kinda of a mini rant here on a Sunday evening.

Photography Workshop – Photo Credit:  Dustin Meyer

In other news, I had a chance to go back up to Austin and help out with a pair of photography workshops and I feel like teaching again.  If anyone’s interested in something specific drop me a line.  Let’s talk about what you’d like to learn and maybe we can come up with a game plan.

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Finishing my last edits for Valley Symphony Orchestra.

Nothing like a little bit of late night editing but what a performance.  They really do bring their “A” game in everything that they do.  I had a chance to catch up with some of the directors and we’re happy to announce that we’ll be supporting them again for the 2018-19 season.

As always the have lots of special performances lined up and I think one of the biggest changes (at least for me) is moving their famous “Touch of Frost” concert from late November to December.  I can’t wait for that one. (Says the guy that listens to Christmas music year round).

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What do you do with leftover candy once Easter’s over? A: I don’t really have a sweet tooth, it’s the savory stuff that gets me B: I’m pretty well disciplined, mostly because I try to make it last as long as possible, or C: Seriously? I’m at HEB first thing Monday morning clearing the racks of EVERY remaining trace of chocolatey dove candy! Me personally I’m on a 12 step sugar detox that isn’t going well.  But Meh…there’s always next week.

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This is a nice surprise!  I didn’t know we were featured as the Member of the week.  A friend of mine called me and told me the news, well there’s a first for everything.  I joined the Mission Texas Chamber back in 2008 when I was still part of the digital agency and as time went on I left the agency and re-joined as a photographer.

I can safely say they and the original Pharr Texas Chamber of Commerce helped start our business.  They took the time to introduce me to good people and even thought me the ropes of networking (which was HARD for me).  The VERY first networking meeting I ever went to I lost my nerve and walked out (probably back in 2002 / 03).  I didn’t know how to talk to other business people with out sounding like I was full of my self.  =)

Thank you Mission Chamber! Keep up the great work and we’ll catch up with the team soon.

The mail man brought us something kind of fun this afternoon.  Recently I did a job for Bert Ogden Nissan but never heard back where and when the photos would be coming out.  Well they made their own magazine and there was the photo.  Made my day.

The funny thing was the amount of work that went in to get that photo.  First when we showed up it was SUPER foggy.  We waited outside for over an hour and it never cleared up it got WORSE.   We came back a handful of times and finally we had an hour or two of sun a few days later.

Over all I was happy with the end result and thought it worked well with the local print ad.

#commercialphotographyisfun