Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Marcus Moreno. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Marcus, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Learning photography started for me with point and shoot film cameras. There’s a different feel to the old ways. You had 12 shots. It was do or die. You patiently line up your shot and each frame was taken with focused intention. You could go through a whole roll of film and not know whether you got the shot until you took it in to have it developed and waited up to a week for the results. I fine tuned my skills with film cameras, studio lighting, and the dark room development process in High school at the turn of the century. In college I started transitioning to digital imagery. I learned digital photography, new studio skills and digital editing processes. The instant gratification was intoxicating and I have not gone back to film since. My education continues online and I’m constantly searching for and finding new ideas to play with. There is no lack of instruction and tutorials online. But the best and fastest way to learn anything is through trial and error. Take your camera and learn through experience. Pay attention to light and shadows and how angles effect the outcome. The classical scholastic methods have their purpose but there is no teacher like experience.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Marcus Moreno. I don’t imagine anyone would be familiar with my work since I have only been working as an active photographer since 2020. I have a few publications, have been in local art shows and cafes, but nothing that would make me immediately recognizable. The majority of my projects have been self-funded or collaborations. I am a creative portrait photographer under the business name Ravenwing Media. I am a photographer who starts with a concept collaboration and then produces works with MUAs, special effects artists, stylists, and studio locations. Once a wedding photographer I have since transitioned into the world of creative portraiture, underwater photography, motion/ dance photography, boudoir and alternative fashion. The thread that connects all of my work is dynamic fluid movement and high contrast imagery. My background in Kinesiology pushes me in a direction of capturing aesthetic movement but with a dark edge. Halloween and horror concepts have a special place in my work too. If I could make a living doing these types of photography that would be the dream.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
This one hit me hard. I spent a lot of time chasing the idea of capturing the perfect settings and focus in camera. It led me to focus so much on the technicality of the images and I forgot about the connection to my subjects and the artistry. Having my iso, shutter speed and exposure locked in became the focus and I found out that my images even though technically sound, lacked connection and expression. The beauty of modern digital photography is that even though it may not be a perfect capture in camera most of the details can be pulled and enhanced in post production. If you can capture it right in camera that’s great but you would be surprised at how much detail can be saved later.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I was just starting out as a professional photographer and was starting to make a reputation for myself as a local wedding photographer in 2019. Unfortunately, as many of us found out the hard way, Weddings and many other events were shut down entirely because of the pandemic in 2020. With many people suddenly out of work photography became a luxury service and a lot of people immediately pulled the plug on their weddings. My income as a photographer came to an immediate halt and my dreams of opening my own studio got put on hold indefinitely. It was thanks to a local meet up group in Los Angeles that I was able to pivot into fashion, portraits, and boudoir photography for a period of time until things settled down. I was able to rent studio locations at affordable rates and produce small scale photo shoots while maintaining pandemic safety protocols. During the pandemic I worked with people to produce content online that subsidized my income for a short time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Ravenwingmedia.com
- Instagram: @Ravenwingmedia
- Facebook: RavenwingMedia
Image Credits
All images copyright @Ravenwing Media -Marcus Moreno
Portrait of Myself: All Black Clothes with camera Credit Brandon Fox Photos
Please reach out if you would like model credits as well