Spotlight on Photography

I had a chance to work with Erika Barrientes on a shoot back in January (I'll fill you in on that more later). I'm glad that I had the opportunity. She is very dedicated as well as talented. I asked her for a bio as well as her favorite pictures. It's hard to choose only five of your favorite photographs. These pictures only scratch the surface of the talent this young lady has.

I asked Erika a few questions:

What are you working on now?
I want to have my own studio with my loyal clientele.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
If I had enough of a name that clients would come to me instead of advertising. They would come to me because I had the shot they were looking for.

Any funny stories you'd like to share?
Dealing with a difficult child on a one and half hour shoot we finally got a great shot, but the funny thing is that I didn't get her face in the shot.

What inspires you?
What's the story behind the shot? Why is this important? What was the drive behind it? This is what inspires me!

What do you know now that you wished you knew when you first started?
How to take control of the client and take control of the shot. Know what you want before your shoot. Don't gun and run. Do my research.

Pet peeve?
When people ask what kind of camera do you use?

What's your mantra?
Camera doesn't make a great picture anymore than a typewriter makes a great novel.

This is her bio from her myspace: "Hmm ... about me. This is usually a section of pages that I avoid like a plague! But, with each trip around the sun I take, I have finally begun to understand that it's ok for me to take a good long look in the mirror. I am a wife, mother, daughter and sister but mostly I am learning that I'm a person ... and darn it if that doesn't feel good! I stumbled into photography as an accident taking pictures of my first born child. As my babe continued to grow, so did my desire to learn more about this photography thing. What has surprised me the most about this new venture in my life is that I am actually pretty stinking good at it! (Yes, it's ok for me to float my own boat here ... it's my page after all!) And so, with each new year I have continued to push myself to learn more, do more and even be more. And I gotta tell ya, it's an incredible ride ... hopefully some of you will be lucky enough to find yourself in front of my camera, because if you do, there's no telling where I just might take ya! Hugs, E. "