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U: Whenever you shoot at Union 206, you have a team with you who really makes it feel like a seamless production.
Can you tell us more about how you put your shoots together?
D: Being a former model does has its advantages when preparing for a shoot. When preparing for a shoot I normally decide on a theme. Or have a model or someone that's interested in working with me on a project. I'll contact my hairstylist and MUA for there availability. If deemed necessary, we'll have a designer join us.
Once all parties confirmed, then myself and the MUA/hairstylist will setup a meeting over dinner. We normally discuss the colors schemes and details for the shoot.
The team I surround myself with are the best I worked with thus far. When in the studio, I take on the role of a director setting the scene which is my passion.
U: That's a great method you've got. Did it take you long to build your team? And Can you tell us some of your main influences and inspirations for your themes?
D: It didn't take long to build my team. I'm very particular about who I work with when planning my shoots. I had the privilege to work with several MUA and designers which afforded me the opportunity to decide which artist meets my criteria and style. His work is amazing. We all have good chemistry and work very well together.
When deciding on a theme, it all depends on the model which is my determining factor. For me it's all about the transformation. Its hard to explain my vision when planning a theme, like that light bulb goes off in my head. Props and sometime location is essential. I love edgy crazy high fashion looks. The difficult thing is finding a model that has the energy I looking for. Not just a pretty face for me.
U: I'd love to include a mention of the members of your team in this feature. We can give them a quick shout and any links you'd like to include.
D: The team I built consist of a makeup artist and hairstylist. First, is the MUA Dell Johnson (http://www.modelmayhem.com/1630765) the first time I worked with him I noticed how attentive he was explaining the entire process of his work to the model. When I saw the final results. I was sold and really knew he's a keeper.
Next is my hairstylist Cyd (http://www.modelmayhem.com/1837780). Cyd own two hair salons in the area. We met at a fashion show I had put together with a designer. As you know, back stage can get very crazy at times. This particular event the dressing area was limited in size not to mention, hair, makeup and dressing was all in the small area along with models that had no business there. Cyd stormed out the dressing area and informed me, there are too many people that have no business here starting to congregate. So I had to clear the room of models that had no business there. From that experience, I knew Cyd was professional and had high standards not to mention a great hairstylist. As a team we created a special bond and call ourselves the (Dream Team). One thing I make a priority: making sure people that's involved on a project are taken care of and have everything they need.
U: It seems you've got a formula worked out that fits you perfectly! What do you envision being your next step with your photography? Is there a challenge you're looking forward to trying out?
D: My main focus as a photographer is to consistently improve my skills and some day sign with a major publication as a fashion photographer. I have a real passion for fashion. It's in my DNA.
U: Your dedication to professionalism definitely shows! With a team that works on your same level of professionalism and desire for forward movement, in what ways can you say it's helped to challenge and motivate you?
D: One thing that really motivates me, is my team proposing different concepts, which is always a challenge. When it comes to fashion I love thinking of abstract concept. Like mixing oil and water. For me the sky is the limit. It's been a great journey thus far and I haven't even started to venture out yet.
And now for some real prodding...
1: Name two famous people (dead or alive) who you would photograph if given the opportunity.
D: Elizabeth Taylor and Angelina Jolie
2: Now that you have those two people. One of them, you can only take ONE photo of them. But you can show that one photo to anybody you want. The other person, you can take as many photos of them as you want, but you can't show them to anyone ever. Who will be in the one photo you get to show everyone and who will be in the many photos you get to show no one?
D: Angelina Jolie would be the one photo and Elizabeth Taylor would be the many photos that don't get to be shown.
3: If you could go back in time to when you first picked up a camera and give yourself words of advice, what would they be?
D: The advice I would give is to explore it and love it!
4: Finally, What words would you like to share with photographers new to the business and new to Union 206?
D: I would advise any new photographer to be passionate about the art and surround themselves with others with like minds. Technology is changing everyday and its imperative to learn about the latest photography trends.
Union 206 is the best Studio in the DMV. Great staff and awesome equipment. I have learned so much at Union which offers a variety of workshops not to mention Charles Butler who is a real mentor. If you're considering shooting at Union which is my second home don’t think twice, just do it.
Contact Denielle for more information and to sign up: denielle_nigretto@yahoo.com
Just wanted to let you know that Tim Cooper Photography is having a workshop here in Old Town, Alexandria, May 20-22nd. The class is for participants who are new or somewhat familiar with Adobe Lightroom. Upon completion of this hands-on workshop you will leave with a complete understanding of the Adobe Lightroom Workflow. Class size is limited to 16 students to ensure personal attention from both Tim and his assistant.
For a comprehensive overview of the course and registration information, please check out the following link!
]]>Usually, our interviews aren't so long. But there are exceptions for every rule, as is the case with Juan Carlos Briceno who is an inspiration on multiple levels. I had the great honor of sitting with him before his "Painting with Light" workshop here at Union 206 and hearing him talk about his amazing journey that spanned thousands of miles and almost two decades. I tried to find elements from this interview which I thought could be taken out to shorten it, but the fact of the matter is, there really isn't any.
Juan Carlos shares not only his journey and experience but also the very important lessons he learned. No matter your profession or your stage in life, there is something to be taken away from this. I hope you are as inspired as I was.
L: Ok this is Lori and I'm sitting with Juan Carlos Briceno. And where are you from?
J: Mexico City. Born and raised in Mexico City...
L: So how long have you been here?
J: It's gonna be 13 years in a couple of days.
L: A couple days?Wow you remember down to the day!
J: Yes!
L: By looking at your work, it seems like you've been a photographer your whole life.
J: Yes! I picked up a camera when I was 14 and fell in love with what I could do. And I started assisting a wedding photographer when I was 17.
L: So you found your niche right away.
J: Yes! Almost right away, I loved it! I fell in love with what could come out of it. At one point when I was 15, one of my sister's friends (I'm the youngest of five children)… I was photographing my sister and one of her friends came up to me and asked me, "How much would you charge me for a few photographs? I was really blown away I was like, "What?! You're gonna pay me to do what I love to do?! Really?!" And I thought, "Well, shouldn't I pay you for being a model? And she said, 'No', I really would love for you to photograph me. What would it cost to have the pictures done like your sister's?" I had no idea what to do. So I was just like "Well, just buy the film and I'll photograph you and just give me a couple prints"… but now it's the other way around! (laughs).
L: Right! Now it's the opposite!
J: And I was really happy! And that's when I loved it. I just love photography.
L: As a photographer myself, I can remember the rough beginning and trying to figure out style. But I can still remember those one or two images from the very beginning of my career that are still my favorite that I still hold on to.
(As I'm saying this, Juan Carlos is nodding emphatically with a huge understanding smile on his face)
Do you still remember those couple of images from the very beginning that YOU still hold on to?
J: Yes! Yes, I think those particular images would fall more into fine-art, black and white photography… It was a mask on top of a pot with flowers behind it. They were dead flowers and then it made it look like a mask with a body made out of clay. And I did it in black and white in my home lab. And I just loved that image and I just thought that's what I could do for the rest of my life; not knowing that really… that kind of photography doesn't pay as easily as commercial or weddings do. But that image is what I have in my mind that really stuck with me.
L: When did you create that image?
J: Probably when I was about 17 or 18. Because I used to carry my camera all over the place and just photograph everything and anything. I never went to photography school but I did discovered a lot of photography books, early on. And I realized that I could learn to make my own rolls of film and pictures which was a lot cheaper. Back then I would get just a big canister where I could get like sixty rolls of film from that particular canister and then I could develop at home. And it was really inexpensive and I could do my own contact sheets and things like that.
And I loved it and my Mom was really supportive because I was really focused on something that I really enjoyed doing. And I was helping one of her best friends who had a photography studio so I was working a lot of Friday and Saturday events so that kept me out of trouble (laughs). No partying for me. It was basically really being a grown-up and having a job so I really enjoyed that.
L: Well, if you're gonna have a job, it might as well be…
J: Right! Have fun doing something you love that they're also going to pay you for.
L: Did you feel that difficulty with making the film and developing it on your own… creating your own style of developing…
J: It was really difficult! My equipment consisted of what we had left that my brother left behind when he was living with us. There was no set of instructions and I just took it out of a book and started experimenting. I could never duplicate the same image twice. That was horrible and for me very frustrating because there was no timer, it was just a switch and I didn't really have a way to count in the dark room. It was just kinda like "Ok. 1 - 2 - 3 - okay, now!" It was really hard to do but I didn't think at the time that it was that difficult. I just thought it was fascinating, what I could get. I had no expectations of it so everything that came out, I thought it was great! I was just excited that it actually came out!
I didn't think that I considered it back then, that it was difficult. I was not pursuing a career in it yet, I was still in high school and I didn't know what I could do and it was pretty open. I was pretty open and it was just sorta fun. It was taking pictures just for kicks. Whatever attracted your attention, it really was a lot of fun.
Many years when I was 19, probably when I was about to move form Mexico City to Cancun, one of my MOm's friends wanted me to sell her a couple of the slide films that I had done. And amongst the equipment back home that was my brother's I found in the bellows with a macro lens! So I started photographing everything and it was really up close and personal! I mean I could photography a tiny little item and show it to you in an 8X10! So I photographed fruit… got kiwis and watermelons and lemons and limes and all sorts of wild and strange fruit and actually the first photograph that I sold was a watermelon a strawberry and a kiwi for a health magazine, newsletter that one of my Mom's friends was making.
L: And how old were you when you did this?
J: I was 19! And I was like, WOW! I can actually make some money doing what I really like. And at the time my Mom was moving to Cancun to open up a new business and she told me "Do you want to go to college or do you want to help me run a business in Cancun?" "Oh, I'll be in Cancun tomorrow."
So I went to Cancun and it was really hard to do any photography because I went immediately to her side of the business… managing a gym and massage parlor with beds where you could work out. I was bored to death doing that job but at least I was living on the beach and I had my camera with me… so I was having fun. And I was learning how to run a business a little bit. So it was not all bad.
L: Managing anything is going to be time-consuming… so when did you find the time when you were taking pictures… where did you find the time to develop and do all those time consuming things that was involved in film photography?
J: I've always done them. I really liked it. I'm really stubborn when I really like something. I made the time to learn and I assisted a lot of photographers in Cancun as well.
And came an opportunity when I was jobless and had nothing else to do. A friend of mine came to me and said, "Listen, we need somebody who could do underwater video." And I said, "Well I'm a diver! I'm a dive master because I love diving. I'm a dive master so how hard can it be to take video underwater?" And he said, "Well, we need somebody like, tomorrow! So can you just come and apply for it immediately?" So I went and applied for it and they tested me and I just took an underwater camera and took some video and I really liked it! So that was one of my first jobs that took me back from my Mom's business back to something I was passionate about. I used to dive three times a day and we used to go on boats and we got paid in dollars which was a huge deal because the peso was 10 to 1 and I was making a nice decent amount of money doing underwater photography and video and it was very easy and a very fun transition because I was doing two things that I was very passionate about so that allowed me to buy books and buy a set of diving videos which were really old from Jacques Cousteau and Ramon Bravo which was a diver in Mexico. And I just loved it.
But one thing was that I never stopped practicing. I never stopped shooting and developing and trying and for me it was really not hard, it was really great. But I learned when I was 21 that it was really hard to get a job as a photographer because nobody would trust you. NObody knew me and nobody would trust me with my work. So my first jobs were like "I'm going to do these photographs for you and if you don't like them, you don't pay me." Now I say that and it's crazy but that's what I had to do because nobody would trust you. Nobody would. You don't have a name, you don't have a thing, you don't have a studio or equipment. Nobody knows you. So it was really hard to get a job.
L: When you were getting the job, I noticed that in the arts, when they have to trust your talent but you haven't shown them your talent yet, you basically have to offer them your services for free.
J: Right! I had no portfolio, I had no idea how to create a portfolio. I had no idea how to sell my services. I had a very very good friend who was working with me at the time at a hotel in Cancun and she said, "I'm in charge of doing weddings now here. Are you interested in doing weddings, because I know you used to do them back in Mexico City that were very long full 8-hour-day weddings. Would you be interested in doing something like 2-hour weddings here?" And I said, "Of course I would be interested especially because they're only 2-hour weddings." I jumped on the opportunity. And what I didn't know was that she had tons of weddings lined up. She had three weddings a week and I learned a lot from that because it was MOnday Wednesday and Friday. I could shoot a wedding for two hours. It was at the beach at sunset. Really gorgeous weddings that were five or six people and then run back to the lab, develop the film, get back to the client at the hotel and give them 4X6's with all the negatives and you get your 2-300 dollars. And back then that was a lot of money. Back then in Mexico, 2-300 hundred dollars was tons of money. I guess back home my total expenses was about $300 which was mortgage, maid, food, services, car, everything. I was making, 6-7 times that doing odd jobs during the week plus my diving so I was in a very good place. I was single had no children and had nothing else to do. So it was great. It was a very good time for me. That allowed me to buy more equipment, buy more books, do a lot of stuff. I started flying to Miami to get books that I couldn't really get in Mexico and buying the equipment that I wanted to buy. It was very easy. Cancun and Miami were only 45 minutes away so it was very helpful to be in that position. It was just wonderful.
L: So at the time you're doing these 2-300 dollar weddings and flying to Miami to get books, how old are you?
J: I was 21 - 22
L: So when you were doing the weddings, were you able to figure out "This is my niche. This is the kind of photography I want to do."
J: Yes. I realized that I really enjoyed it. Because in Cancun we had to do everything from product photography to architectural to landscape photography to weddings to portraits. And to have any sort of business, we really had to do what they wanted us to do and we learned to do it all. And because again, I assisted tons of photographers and I had business partner that his niche was product photography so I learned a lot about it from him and I realized that I didn't have the patience to do product photography. I didn't have the patience to clean a building and wait until the sunrise to photograph a huge hotel. I really liked weddings because it was fast-paced, people talked back to you, you got reactions, you get moments you capture, and when people left, they were really happy with the photography. Making people happy was what made me very very happy. And it was a very big deal. It was a very big deal.
L: So we're fast forwarding to when you came here to the states. Did you come straight to DC?
J: I got married in Cancun and I had a daughter. By the time I was 27, my daughter was 2 and my wife who was from the area decided to move back to the states. I didn't want to move to DC at the time. I was like, "What is DC? DC… what?! I don't understand what you're talking about!" I knew New York, Miami, and maybe San Francisco and that's about it but DC… I really had no idea what was going to happen so she moved here and our relationship didn't really work out very well so I followed three months later and I moved into a tiny little apartment in Glover Park and i was closer to my daughter which was mainly the reason I loved to the states so I could be closer to my Daughter. And then I started again with photography. I worked with Moto Photo for a few months and I didn't like it because I had nothing to do with creative photography and then I found a wonderful ad in the newspaper the Washington Post about a studio who was looking for an assistant photographer in Chevy Chase so I immediately answered and was like "I wanna work with you guys. I wanna do it." And I worked for them for about three and a half years and that's when I got really schooled about professional photography and professional weddings. I really had nothing better to do than work hard so I used to work from Monday to Saturday and sometimes Sunday for almost three years at first developing negatives, making lab runs, and slowly I started building a reputation with my boss that I wanted to do everything. I wanted to shoot. I didn't wanna run around in the lab moving negatives.
L: Wow. So you went backwards a little bit.
J: I went backwards a LOT. Because the portfolio that I brought from Cancun was useless here in the states.
L: Really interesting.
J: Because that's not the kind of wedding that you sell here in the states. They weren't the kind of portraits that you buy and the clients don't want to see things so different and also my English was so limited. I had diving and beach photography so I had to learn a lot. I watched the news and read the newspaper and had to learn a way to express myself properly. It didn't help a lot because one of my bosses was from Haiti so he spoke French and the other was from Chile so we used to speak Spanish. And it was challenging. But the thing that was really good about that studio was that they did 5 weddings per weekend and we did corporate jobs from Monday to Friday. So I was out there all the time. I was out every day. But I mean, my salary was measly but I was working all the time and with no free time to do anything, I was just accumulating a paycheck. So it allowed me to buy equipment and allowed me to get better educated to actually buy some clothes. I came from Cancun with shorts and T-shirts and jeans. I didn't have a suit, I didn't have a tie…
L: So this really changed your entire lifestyle.
J: Yes. It was very dramatic. It was really hard the first 3 and a half years. I was really focused on work and right after 9/11 I made a decision I said, "You know what you guys, I'm kinda done." And they told me that this was the worse time that I could quit working for them because there was no business right now. And I thought, "You know. That's okay. I know I don't wanna work with you guys anymore because you treat me rally badly and I don't wanna take it anymore. I really don't. I've learned everything I can from you people and I really want to go start my own business."
I was really lucky that at that time I met another guy who used to work at that studio as well before… years before me. So we kinda bonded in the sense that we both had the same things to grip about. We were complaining about the same stuff at the studio because he was there before me. So we became very good friends and we partnered up and he had a little studio set up in Georgetown on M Street right in the middle of Georgetown and he told me, "Listen, I'm about to take a two-month trip to Europe with my wife and I need someone who can stage and manage things until I get back. I'll make you a partner." I said, "Sure, let's do it". Those two months he was gone, I really took off. I had time to pour over his work, I had a computer to work with so it really worked for me. So I started calling all the people that knew me before that wanted to work with him. Nobody knew my boss because I was working for him or he was traveling and taking all these trips so nobody really knew I was working for someone. So people were just like "You've been working my events for the past year so when you're ready to leave your other business just call me and we'll hire you again." So I brought on at least 6 to 7 big clients and I still work with them today which is 9 years later and it's been a great great great trip. I always believe that you treat your clients the way you want to be treated and I was always very honest and very reliable and be on time and be early if possible and over deliver… under-promise and over-deliver. All the time. I mean, if they think they can get it in two weeks, give it to them in one. They'll remember it. They'll be happy.
L: You have a whole separate lesson on just business alone. I think you know, I can see the level of your success shooting mainly because of how well you are at just being a business man as well… and knowing people and being good at that. That's a big lesson you can teach people, I think.
J: Being a people-person has really helped me. I mean… I'm really friendly and always smiling. I always try to see the positive in everything that happens around me. I really believe that we have the power to control however it is that our lives turn out. It's the kind of outlook you have to try to apply at the moment.
I didn't think like that all the time. It took a long time to get there and get to that point. It took a lot of trial and error until I remember one day I was just walking the bridge, I had moved to Arlington, and I was crossing the Key Bridge. And I was like, "You know what, forget it. I'm just gonna be nice to people. I'm just gonna do my best and forget the rest and I'm just gonna forget about it." And that's when my life really started turning around for the better. I started making better clients, making more people happy, making myself happy. I was not really comfortable with the work mess. It was a conscious decision. I knew I was tired of being treated badly by this other studio that I worked for for years and I was not making ay money and I had to feed my daughter and I had to feed myself and it was a really tough time but it taught me a lot. And I learned a lot. Everything I learned in business from my other businesses and jobs was what not to do. I learned a lot about how not to be with clients and we lost a lot of clients at that studio because my boss had been rude with clients and was treating them badly and I was like "Dude! I was working for three months to try to get this client to like us and give us a job opportunity and it just took you three-seconds to cough up a nasty comment." I was like, "Why would you do something like that?" I felt personally offended because I felt like it was my time and my effort and he didn't really care because he had other clients and had bigger fish to fry according to himself but for me it was like "How could you treat people like that?! You can't! It's gonna come back and bite you one day when you least expect it."
L: Do you ever wonder about them now?
J: I do wonder. I know about him because we're photographers. We all know each other. One of the owners of the studio still does weddings he's still in DC.
L: It seems easy to get pulled right back down to square-one. It seems easier these days because of how available photography is these days to just anyone.
J: You're the one who's out there working. You're not pulling yourself forward or building something that can run by itself without you. You get to be out there all the time. That's the hardest part, I think.
L: Has digital brought an ease to you?
J: (laughs) No!
L: I figured! I'm thinking, digital does bring an ease, but for you… you spent so many years mastering film.
J: What I think is most important in digital is workflow. It's what I hear all the time. It's workflow this and workflow that. We spend a lot of time managing our images and I think that a lot of times, we have hit the wrong approach. We used to have labs that did a lot of work for us and we used to charge for those lab fees and we used to forget about it. And we used to not have any control over it. So we had to let it go. But now we're a bunch of control freaks and we can't let anything go. Back in the day, you had no choice. And it was actually that you had a better quality of life. I remember dropping 20 rolls of film at the lab and you didn't see your film for another week and a half and that was it. Now everybody comes back from a wedding and downloads 2k 3k images on their computer and then they try to edit that themselves. And you need to retouch those images yourself and then you need to do everything yourself. I don't think we are meant to be doing all those things yourself. As creative people we burn out we start thinking that your time is free and we don't charge for that time. And then we think that time is free and I think that's one of the reasons this industry has been becoming cheaper and cheaper. I remember what I used to charge for a portrait back then and what I need to charge now and I spend most of my time educating and reeducating my clients, telling them why I charge $85 for an 8x10. It's not an 8x10. It's my time. It takes time take it out, put it in my computer, open it, color balance, color correct… it's all stuff that the lab used to do for you. And now we have to do it ourselves. I think it's the wrong culture. Now I see a lot of people outsourcing their stuff. It makes sense. I think that just because you can, it doesn't mean that you should. To me, digital is fun… being able to teach today doing room shots. Digital has increased the potential for that. I can show someone, look, this is what we're doing. This is how we're gonna do this. We can see this behind the camera, We don't have to wait for contact sheets anymore. I used to take notes. I used to take a lot of notes. Like… "Frame 1. F22 15 seconds… Frame 2. F22 at 30 seconds… , etc." I used to write everything down and it was painstaking to learn like that. But now you give me a camera and I know what I want to do and I know what I can do and it comes out automatic. I don't have to think about it. I love when I'm working with another photographer and they come and ask me "How are you shooting this?" And I'm like, " I don't know! Let me look at my camera." I don't pay attention anymore because I know what I want and I don't have to look because it's second nature."
L: It seems like everything is now now now now now. And I think it seems like you believe in the cost versus worth of spending the time to master something.
J: I just took a 4-day workshop on that. I didn't agree with that in the beginning. But now that I've been able to put my business first and make it very well-structured and knowing where and how much everything costs and how much my time is really worth because of where I put my time and how I want to hire an employee. And I need to know if I'm really making enough money to do that and how much does an album actually cost and how much am I really spending by doing a wedding album myself and how much is my time really worth? When you get down to those nitty gritty levels and ask yourself how much is everything really worth, you really learn a lot. And you come to the realization that we were right in the first place and there is no point in going back. I don't want to be a photoshop expert. I don't want to spend half the day behind a computer fixing pictures. We should be getting them right from the camera and do minor corrections… what the lab used to do. I don't want to do that anymore. And I know there are some great outsourcing companies out there that will do it for a very good price and I just want to be taking better control of my life and my creative process. I know a lot of photographers that have burned out. They don't shoot any personal projects anymore and i fell that is a shame. We've lost all that. Everything has to be immediate. For an example, every time I meet a new client I say, "Please email me and it's the best way to reach me. Please know I will not respond to you in 24 hours. Give me two to three days. And I will get back to you. It's okay. I'm really busy… working and with my family. Family is the most important part and people will understand that. But you have to set it up for that. You have to let them know to expect that. Unless you're dying and you need to do something immediately, call me on my cellphone and we'll talk. If you really need to know right now what we're doing thee weeks from now, call me on my cellphone. "
We're photographers. We're not saving anyone's life. It's not an emergency. It can wait.
We need to learn to free ourselves… respect that time for ourselves, for our family… for the future of the industry!
Just because it's digital, doesn't mean that they can have it right now. Things aren't meant to be like that or charge a premium for that. If they need images right after an event, then I need to charge extra hours. Okay, I'm gonna settle down, get the images into retouching and etcetera. I'm not going to give them to you for free just because I'm sitting down. I'm working. Just because you want them right away doesn't mean I don't need to work. If not, I can do it three days from now.
L: Parting words for those photographers and learning about you for the first time. What can you give to new photographers out there who are seeking guidance?
J: Love what you do. Treat yourself and your clients with integrity. Be honest. Never lose your passion and your amateur self. Remember why you started this business. It's hard. It's painful. It's a steep learning curve nowadays. But it's worth it. It's worth it.
