Meet Abie Aguiar of Abie Aguiar Photography in Valley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Abie Aguiar.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Abie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up things that looked esthetically pleasing always stuck with me. I would spend a lot of time recalling in my mind those moments of life that are pure art but only for a second. Throughout my day as a child and teenager, those moments of fleeting art and scenes of something beauty that I witnessed would play through my mind. 

One day when I was 16 I was sitting in my bedroom listening to Tribe Called Quest’s Electric Relaxation and I noticed everything in my room had a bright pink color cast of light over it.  I looked out my bedroom window and the sunset was truly amazing. Where I grew up the sunsets are very unique in the spectrum of colors and intensity. The sunsets have a psychedelic multi-color display of 5 or more distinctly different colors in varying hues on a normal day. This particular day the colorful display was way above normal & truly beautiful. I grabbed my dad’s Vivitar SLR camera that sat, unused for years, in a storage closet. There was a roll of film in the camera bag. I loaded it up and shot 24 frames. When I got my prints back every shot was out focus or slightly blurry from me moving the camera. However, I realized something amazing when I got those prints back. I realized that photography is what I was in search of all this time. Even though the pictures came out poor, the pictures were like the missing puzzle pieces. I didn’t need to spend time in my head recalling scenes like I had been doing all the years up to that point. It really was like an epiphany for me. I knew I had to start capturing the things that captivated me with a camera so that I wouldn’t be so consumed by these images stuck in my head. Every day at twilight I had the perfect view from my bedroom window of an untouched Sonoran Desert with a long mountain range along the horizon. I couldn’t have been luckier. I started to shoot the views from my bedroom window as often as I could afford to buy and develop film. I began taking my film to a local lab. Mary, the woman who owned the lab, taught me the basics about film speeds and shutter/aperture usage. She would also critique my shots which was really important for developing my sense of how to compose a shot. By the time I was 18 I knew photography was going to be a major part of my life.

After high school, I went to a junior college that has an excellent photography and film department. The facility and the classes were really fantastic and put me on a path to make my passion a career. Through my courses, I realized that I really liked shooting with strobe lighting and working in a studio setting. I liked a lot of aspects of commercial photography and I really liked adding light to my subjects after years of only using natural light. At the time, I was working at a Trader Joe’s and living with my friends Luke and Joe on Easy St. (no joke our street name was actually named Easy St.). While living on Easy St. I decided I would move to LA in a year and pursue a career as a photographer in a larger market. Within that same year I was in a U-Haul on my way to LA.

When I got to LA I worked at Trader Joes for about 3 years and I assisted for a photographer named Dexter Browne. Dexter was my mentor and I was fortunate enough to work with him for several years. In 2005, I took a risk and left my guaranteed income and health insurance behind and began my career as a professional photographer.

I am very fortunate to have had a career as a professional photographer for the past 13 years. I have done full time positions as a lead photographer at a few photo studios in LA and of course a ton of freelancing. Currently I have a consistent mix of return and new work every year and I am always on the lookout for new things that I just have to photograph. Now with the capabilities of DSLR & mirrorless cameras I am also shooting more motion photography as well.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think for me and probably for a lot of artists in this day and age the main bump in the road is keeping a competitive edge and thus staying viable in the digital market place. The introduction of digital mediums into photography and art in general was a double-edged sword in some ways. It has caused the craft of photography in particular to take a back seat to post-production in some cases. It also diminished the number of gigs for well-trained photographers because the field rapidly became so available to so many people like never before. At the same time digital has also allowed for some really fantastic techniques and equipment to emerge and has helped photographers save costs and time. In the end, the struggle is the same for most artists who make a living off their art. You as an artist have to find your view point and medium and make it work with ever-changing technologies in your craft. Now more than ever artists have to bring their art, brand, view point or whatever they do to as many people as possible to stay competitive in a playing field that was leveled in many ways by the Digital Revolution.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Abie Aguiar Photography – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I think some things that sets me apart from others is my ability to work in several genres of photography and do it well. I don’t just shoot fashion or just product. Being a photographer in Los Angeles you are well positioned to work with a lot of industries. The amount of photography needed for products, fashion, entertainment, tech, culture and the service industry in Los Angeles County alone is truly a unique situation. It’s very wise to be really good at several genres of photography in LA so you can stay busy in this very competitive city.

The majority of my work ranges on the commercial side of photography. I shoot products, fashion (look-books and catalog) and for some service industries. I also shoot editorial (publications), portraiture and headshots. As a photographer, I love light. Artificial or natural light, it doesn’t matter to me I like it all. As such I am very knowledgeable on lighting whether it’s for people, clothing, jewelry, products, cars even aircraft. Lighting is the base of what a photographer uses to make every shot. With my experience, I am very comfortable working in a studio setting with controlled lighting or on location with controlled lighting mixed with natural light or just natural light. Whatever your photographic needs are I have you covered. 

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Love it or hate it Los Angeles is the greatest city on Earth. The diversity of people, music, art, foods, and cultures (among many other things) makes LA such a rich subject for photography and an always evolving subject at that. Of course, the Dodgers and Dodger Stadium also factor into the greatness of LA in my opinion! 

In my view the housing shortages and absolutely ridiculous rental prices in addition to the heavy traffic are among some of the downsides to living and working in LA. These factors, especially rental prices, make it very hard for some really amazing artist to live and work in LA and there doesn’t seem to be any relief in sight on these issues.

Pricing:

• Headshot Rate: $275 for the 1st look $100 for each additional look

Contact Info:

• Website: www.aguiarimage.net
• Phone: 323-804-7480
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @LA_Photographer

Image Credit:
Abie Aguiar Photography

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