Photo provided by Renee Ahmad of RDA Photography
I'm Eric.
I'm a Portrait Photographer currently working in the New York City area. Mostly self taught, I've been shooting for about 7 years now.
First off, I never thought about photography as a career. Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a comic artist. Me and my friends used to spend hours drawing our favorite comic and anime characters. Reading how-to books on how to create our own characters and comic books.
I had been handling cameras since I was a child for fun but my first year of college as a Graphic Design major was when I started taking pictures seriously. I had an extra credit project where I was going to draw my friends and incorporate it into a graphic collage. I grabbed my Cybershot and invited some friends to pose for me. Needless to say I never finished the project (it was extra credit anyway) but all my "models" loved their pictures!
A similar situation arouse a few years later while taking my Intro to Drawing class at ESC for my Fine Art degree. I needed to learn figure drawing but I draw way too slow. I took pictures of my friends and wound up doing the sketches from the pictures. It was a great idea and I passed the class with flying colors!
However, something this go around was different...
I stopped looking at the pictures as a tool for drawing but as a form of art itself and started incorporating all the things I had learned about perspective and lighting from the art class into my picture taking. My friends really enjoyed the outcome of the shoots and started posting the pictures all over their Facebook pages!
I'm a Portrait Photographer currently working in the New York City area. Mostly self taught, I've been shooting for about 7 years now.
First off, I never thought about photography as a career. Ever since I can remember I wanted to be a comic artist. Me and my friends used to spend hours drawing our favorite comic and anime characters. Reading how-to books on how to create our own characters and comic books.
I had been handling cameras since I was a child for fun but my first year of college as a Graphic Design major was when I started taking pictures seriously. I had an extra credit project where I was going to draw my friends and incorporate it into a graphic collage. I grabbed my Cybershot and invited some friends to pose for me. Needless to say I never finished the project (it was extra credit anyway) but all my "models" loved their pictures!
A similar situation arouse a few years later while taking my Intro to Drawing class at ESC for my Fine Art degree. I needed to learn figure drawing but I draw way too slow. I took pictures of my friends and wound up doing the sketches from the pictures. It was a great idea and I passed the class with flying colors!
However, something this go around was different...
I stopped looking at the pictures as a tool for drawing but as a form of art itself and started incorporating all the things I had learned about perspective and lighting from the art class into my picture taking. My friends really enjoyed the outcome of the shoots and started posting the pictures all over their Facebook pages!
Photo provided by Renee Ahmad of RDA Photography
It was at this point that my wife said to me, "You seem to have way more fun taking pictures than drawing them. Have you ever thought about taking pictures as a career?" Not two weeks later one of my closest friends said almost the exact same thing to me. They even chipped in together and bought me my first DSLR camera!
The rest is...well...the fact this site exists is based on their encouragement.
I give all credit to my wonderful friends who saw in me potential to be more than a simple 9-5'er. I never thought I could do anything like this before you all showed your encouragement and love. I'm trying my hardest not to let you all down. I truly love you guys. I also want to thank all the people who have joined me on this journey as an artist, most especially my wife (my lighting assistant on almost all my shoots as well as my business manager) who has sacrificed a lot so that I can follow this path. I love you most of all sweetheart.
Thank you.
The rest is...well...the fact this site exists is based on their encouragement.
I give all credit to my wonderful friends who saw in me potential to be more than a simple 9-5'er. I never thought I could do anything like this before you all showed your encouragement and love. I'm trying my hardest not to let you all down. I truly love you guys. I also want to thank all the people who have joined me on this journey as an artist, most especially my wife (my lighting assistant on almost all my shoots as well as my business manager) who has sacrificed a lot so that I can follow this path. I love you most of all sweetheart.
Thank you.