Essay 190 • Sep 1st 2017
- by Chuck Espinoza
This was my second shoot with Cindy Clark, who happens to be both a musician and an incredible photographer in her own right. She was my third model of the day and the previous two models were interested in shooting ethereal beauty shots similar to what's on my website. By the time I got to shoot Cindy I was over shooting pretty pictures of girls in dresses or wrapped in fabric. Cindy was the perfect model to step out of the box and experiment with. She's more than willing to get crazy for a shot. Her teal glasses are a signature look and I asked if she was willing to wear them in the water. Next thing you know we are working on portraits instead of beauty shots.
Chuck Espinoza
In 8th Grade, I found a Pentax Spotmatic my Dad brought home from Vietnam. His instructions were to make sure I set the ASA correctly and to adjust the aperture and shutter speed so that the meter was in the middle. I was a skater and all of my early photos were of my friends and skateboarding. I eventually drifted away from both skateboarding and photography; it wasn’t until about ten years later that I bought another 35 mm and started shooting again. After college I had a stint in the finance and investment-banking world but left in 2003 and found myself with a camera in my hand again.
In 2014 I started shooting in and underwater with a point and shoot 35mm camera. It was a new way to keep me interested in shooting. I love to surf, swim and just be in water so it was a natural extension. After a year of shooting with underwater point and shoot cameras I felt the need to step up to a housing for my DSLR and bought my first housing in 2015.