Nicholas J Reid Photography

I love New York! There was a time when I was thinking of living there. After living in LA for five years now I don't think I could handle the seasons. But I would love to live there for the photography, not only can you soot without a permit but you can take power off the street too. I was there for a couple days in June on my way up to Maine. While I was there i saw photo opportunities around every corner. It is the time of the year when the sun lines up with the streets creating amazing light. I was kicking myself for not organizing a shoot. But then I met Silja Ahonen a Finnish Rhythmic Gymnastics champion in New York for a couple of days. Why she trusted me who knows, what matters is that we got some really great shots. We almost missed the sun, but we got there just in time to get the golden light and long shadows. After we lost the sun we went to Times Square where we did some shots in the crowds. Then we went into the center of Times Square, The scene was Insane! Being in times square at 8:30 pm was really intense we had easily 200 people around us in a tight circle and everyone was taking pictures of us or her rather. So my background was pretty limited, I decide to throw on the 70-200 and work with all of the lights that were there. I am really happy with how they turned out. Considering there was a couple wearing duck camouflage hats, cut off flannel shirts and both with a cheek full of tobacco directly behind her.

Finding models, or a least people comfortable in front of a camera in Alaska is hard to do. Before heading up there I tried to find modeling agencies (ha) that might have some decent models, Then I tried craigslist (wow) still nothing. Its not like I was looking for a runway model or anything. I was just looking for some good looking people that look comfortable doing outdoors activities. I didn't know that would be so hard. I kept getting 15 year old girls and middle age women wanting nude shots. Then I went back to a tried and trusted source from college, model mayhem. Ive used them before but only for test shoots. So I tried, and I got some good results for girls. In Alaska I guess modeling for guys isn't a big thing. who would have known? But I managed to find some good girls that looked athletic. And I decided on a girl named Chantal.

Guys on the other hand were proving a little bit more difficult. I had scheduled a shoot for Saturday and it was already Friday and I still needed a guy. I went into Anchorage to meet up with Chantal to get her fitted for some clothes. I was a little early so I decided to get something to eat at a local sandwich shop. As I ordered my meal a guy walks in with the exact look I want. I sat down and waited for my food he sat near me and we start to talk. He is in town for the summer for an internship with the national parks, he is a nice guy. I tried to steer the conversation towards the fact that I was a photographer and the photo shoot that I was doing tomorrow. Eventually we got to the end of our meals and I, trying not to sound to weird ask Mike if he wanted to come be on the photo shoot. He gave me a tentative maybe. That's all I needed.

It was a good sign, he wasn't totally freaked out about the prospect of going up into the isolated mountains with  a complete stranger who he had just met 30 min ago. I will admit I did emphasize the beautiful girl that was going to be alongside him to try and sweeten the whole thing a bit. With just a maybe, I left to go get the Chantal fitted. Counting on Mike coming through I picked him up some clothes and we were ready to shoot, as long as we had a male model the next day. Later that night Mike called me and confirmed. Whew. Now I looked back on it I shouldn't have had any doubts, anyone that comes to Alaska on their own without a place to stay other than hostels, and to work for free, has a sense of adventure. And this photo shoot was just another chapter to add to his Alaska experience. The next day we shot and got some really great stuff. It all came together in the end.

I was going to Tarifa with my friend Andreas www.andreasholm.comto try and catch some surf. Little did I know surf in that part of the world doesn't get going till the winter. The day started out really rainy and nasty, so I was a little worried that its was going to be the same in Tarifa.  After several hours of driving, or rather being a passenger, Andreas drove the whole way.  We got to Tarifa and the weather was still nasty and gloomy, but the clouds were starting to break up. We struggled finding a hostel for a second (our first choices were full) but then found one in the center of town. That is when we heard the news, surf was out wind was in. Normally this kills me to hear this because it leaves you with nothing to do. Well Tarifa happens to be the kite surfing capital of the world. I did not know this. Upon hearing this we decided to check it out.  There was a little spot just down the road where there is some killer kite surfing. We got directions and started to make our way to lagoon. It didn't take us long to figure out where we were going. In the distance you could see multicolored kites weaving in and out. It was insane that people weren't running into each other. I later learned, the kind of control that is needed just to stay on the surface of the water is incredible , so navigating your kite in the sky is child's' play by the time you can actually kite surf. We arrived at the lagoon which was just a big section of beach that floods at high tide and is protected by a big sand bar, so the water is 2 ft deep and calm with really strong winds, like I said kite surfing capital of the world. The clouds had broken up at this point so the sun was starting to shine. It was a site to see, all the kites weaving in and out dipping and diving and kite boarders getting lifted into the air ten feet doing really forced twists and turns before landing with a hard splash in the water. We got there pretty late, evening was fast approaching and the tide was going out the winds were dieing  and the light was fading, People started to leave but there were a select few that stayed. Their efforts were not in vain we did our best to capture that evening in Tarifa, these were just a few of the pictures that I shot.