Welcome and thank you for stopping by my blog! My name is Monique (or Moki if you prefer). I am a creative art photographer serving Albuquerque, New Mexico and surrounding areas. My photography is not going to look like other photographers work. That is because I offer a finely tuned, uniquely designed, client inspired portrait experience. I believe portraits should be more than just a picture of your face, they should be a story about who you are. Browse my blog, leave a comment or two, and let me know if one of a kind portraits are the right fit for you.
Sisters…. when I just looked at that word it seemed strange and spelled wrong (I did spell it correctly, right? lol) And then I started thinking about my own sisters, how we’ve been best friends and worse enemies, confidants and rats, hahahaha! Doesn’t matter, ups and downs, still love my sisters!
These two sisters wanted a special session just for them… they live miles apart, but I know from the stories I hear that they have such great times when they get together! ♥
Throughout my journey as a portrait photographer I have always worked to do portraits I am proud of. I think I have succeeded in that. But my biggest goal as a photographer is deeper than just taking a picture of a smiling person, posed rigidly with their family.
Some of you may have heard the story of my years in photography classes. My classmates took beautifully composed pictures of bicycle spoke shadows, close ups of a bend in a garden hose, or the distorted reflection of clouds in a hub cap wheel. Looking back I kind of laugh at the silliness it was, but at the time I struggled. I just couldn’t grasp the process of taking abstract pictures.
The problem was I could only think of photography and composition in terms of a story. What was the plot? Who is the main character? What is their motive? For me to do work I loved, I needed faces, creativity, a story.
What does this mean now? Why am I writing about it? Well, it is my goal this year to only do work that I love. What it means is that I wont be doing every session I receive an inquiry for. What I hope it means is that I spend my time well and gain more happiness from this art. I also hope it means that I persuade by beautiful devoted clients to test out the idea of doing something meaningful with their families for their own personal portraits.
Each session will be creatively planned out with you. We will work out what story or message you want to tell in your portraits. We will find the best location, gather any “props” we need, and pull out the perfect wardrobe. Your portraits will be unlike anybody else’s! Because they will be uniquely you, telling your awesome story!
Visit these links to see what a customized session is all about:
T-man
Malinda and the kids
The M Family
Nikki
Dana and Tamaya
Jessica
Writing great blog posts is not one of my attributes. I know… not really a shock to you my faithful blog readers. But in truth, I used to be a pretty good writer. I won a few awards here and there and had lofty ambitions to write children’s books. But, what it ultimately came down to is that I was always trying to communicate a story through words that seemed so much easier and beautiful to present visually through painting or photography.
This story doesnt begin with an original idea of my own. It begins with meeting another GREAT local photographer who loves to hang with other photographers as much as I do. It goes on to describe her vision and inspiration to do this shoot with a pretty model. It gets complicated in the plot with time constraints and make-up limitations. But in the end, all of the elements come together to make something like this:
