Getting Started

Hello friends, foes and visitors!

I often get asked what's a good way to get into photography. 2 things come to mind quickly:

1. You must love photography. Photography isn't easy to learn, the equipment is expensive and it takes lots of time, effort and yes money lots of money. Photography just like anything else worth the while is something extremely satisfying but also not easy to master. That is why you should LOVE photography and not only see it as going for a walk in the park. That's if you passionate about it of course, as a hobby, photography is just awesome but the learning curve is pretty much the same.

2. Find out what you would love to take pictures of. You can usually tell by the images you truly enjoy looking at. Once you realize what it is you would love to photograph the rest becomes way easier because you have something specific to focus on. I learned very early in my career that people is what I truly enjoy photographing and that's my main focus these days. Let it be landscapes, portraiture, architectural or product photography or even a combination of two. The main thing is to know what it is you want to take pictures of.

I'm an open book. I love sharing the knowledge and experience I have in photography so if you have any questions please reach out, I'm only a message away.

Be passionate, be brave and focus.

Your friendly neighborhood photographer.

Julio Knapp
Knapp Photography

Baby Fever

Hello and good Wednesday, everyone!

After being married for almost five years (time freaking flies!) my wife and I still don't have any children. I have 2 precious teens from a previous marriage but none with my wonderful wife.

That being said, we get "the question" very often as to when we will have babies. While we don't mind answering and sometimes even explaining why we haven't gotten knocked up yet I'm pretty sure some couples feel that sometimes it is a little frustrating and here is why.

When the question goes from when to why haven't you. That alone should raise a flag.

I think this will help you whether you're the person asking a couple that same question or a couple being asked.

Asking that question to a couple that has been married for at least a year may be inappropriate, may be insensitive and rude and you should not ask unless it's at the very beginning of their long term relationship. Although I'm sure the interest is truly appreciated you have to know when to ask certain things.

Maybe couples don't have kids from pure pleasure. The pleasure of being able to get up and leave whenever they feel like. Get home late, drunk or not get home at all. To get up and go on vacation whenever they want or can.

Maybe they feel they're not mentally or financially ready. Maybe they haven't situated themselves with a job, appropriate place to live, city or even country yet.

Here's the tough and probably the most important reason why it's inappropriate to ask. What if they just CANNOT have babies. Why if they have tried over and over and have not being able to. What if either partner has a medical condition that prevents it. What if they're under medical treatment to try to but have not been successful after years of trying yet here you are digging it in. Why do they need the constant reminder and pain? Have you ever thought about that? Well, now you have and hopefully will be a lot more mindful of all these things before deciding to ask =D

Here's the kicker of all reasons. What if they just don't want kids, period. Do they have to explain to anyone over and over their reasons? No, right? Then let's just leave the subject alone! Ask once in the beginning of their marriage and leave it alone! That will make you the best friend EVER!

I'm not saying all couples feel the same and I'm sure some may even enjoy getting the question but I also think it's worth taking things into consideration before asking.

I truly hope I'm not offending anyone and I can't stress enough how lucky and thankful we are to have  friends that are truly excited for us, it shows you care. We love you all.

Have an amazing day, week, weekend, month and make sure to live each and every single one in the best of possible ways.

Smile often, love hard and eat your greens.

Sincerely,

Julio Knapp
Knapp Photography

P.S.

Here's a picture from a baby session I had this past weekend. Hope you all like it!

Love is in the air

Hello everyone and happy Valentine's Day!

It was recently mentioned to me how I had posted on my wife's wall expressing my love to her and was asked if it was because Valentine's day was around the corner of it was because I was really in love with her. That got me thinking about how people express their love in so many different ways and times. I personally don't need a day or time in the year to publicly express how much in love I am with my beautiful wife. I do that on regular basis because that's who and how I am.

Many people don't even have to say or write the words to let their significant others how much they love them. And many of them don't express it enough. My point to this post is to encourage everyone to express their love and gratitude to their significant other more than once a year and in more than one way. The benefits are endless!

Small details count so much and make a huge impact on people's lives. My wife is currently out of the country for the whole week and when I came back from dropping her off at the airport and throughout the day I found sticky notes all over the house from her telling me how much she loves me. Words can't express the feeling!

So go on and celebrate Valentine's Day but also express  your love every single day the rest of the year. I've always said love it's like a plant, you must water it constantly and take care of it in order to stay alive and they day you stop poor plant will dry up and turn into dust and make all the other plants sad which reminds me, I have to water my bamboo or it'll die and... what was I talking about? oh yeah, love, show it, important, do it!

Hope everyone has an amazing Valentine's Day in company of the one that deserves to be celebrated with.

Love sincerely and love plenty.

Best wishes.

Julio Knapp
Knapp Photography

Ever wonder?

Have you ever wondered what would've happened if you had taken that leap of faith or made the decision to pursuit what you love doing? For most of my adult life that thought never crossed my mind. I was focused on making a living and providing and nothing else. I used to think that it was the way of living and that it couldn't get any better until my lovely wife brought photography back into my life (which you can read in my previous blog entry Three years strong) It was then that my eyes were open to a world of possibilities and I realized how much time I had wasted.

But that's the thing, SOMETIMES it takes someone to give you that push in the right direction. Just like we can't wait for one of our friends to come up with a plan for the weekend to go out and have fun. Sometimes you are the friend that comes up with the plan and goes out to blow out steam and have fun. Well, maybe you can come up with your own plan or maybe you can listen to the one person telling you that you could do something that will make you happy.

Sometimes our main focus is making money and make lots of it even if what you're doing isn't exactly what makes you the happiest and if that's your drive then that's perfectly fine! much power to you. But I think there are people out there that can earn as much or close to what they're earning now doing something they truly love or at least enjoy. The question is. WHAT STOPS THEM? Sometimes it's fear sometimes it's not knowing they can actually do it sometimes it's self doubt and sometimes it's just plain laziness and being complacent.

That takes me back to the main question. Have you ever wondered? Have you ever thought about what it is you could be doing and be happy and truly enjoy it. Have you even put any thought into it? If you have thought about it then what's stopping you? Are you afraid to fail? Do you think it'll be too hard?

You have the answer to all those questions and whatever the answer is don't turn it into and excuse! Go for it! If you fail then you can at least said you tried your best. If you think it's hard then guess what, the hardest things to accomplish are the ones that are actually worth everything in life. Go out and try. Are you a musician, actor, make up artist, hair stylist, photographer, model. What is it that puts a smile in your face when you think about doing it for a living?

I'm a photographer. I am far from being accomplished or even successful. But I try every day because I love what I do. I never go to work; instead, I get paid for doing what I truly enjoy and love doing and I will continue to learn to become better at what I do, try harder to be successful and I will always stay humble and be ready to help whoever I can help build their dreams.

I hope this rambling of mine helps you see things that sometimes are not very clear to us. And if there's anything I can do to achieve your goals then please reach to me and I will be more than happy to do it. Just don't ask me for money. I don't have much of that lol.

Check out this guy. He has a talent and he's possibly making a living out of it. No boss breathing down his neck. Gotta love it.

Three Years Strong

3 years of Knapp Photography's existence. What a freaking ride! Before I came up with Knapp Photography I had what was called Love It Photo! At that time I thought I would only concentrate on weddings, baptisms, quinceañeras, etc. Family events basically. As time went by I started to become more and more interested in other fields of photography. My eagerness to learn took me in all sorts of directions. I couldn't just concentrate on family related events, it's fun and I still love it but I'm a challenge driven person, my passion to learn comes from my own hunger for new challenges, don't tell me I can't cause I will do everything possible and within my power to show myself that I can. So then I started seeing more and more amazing images of all sorts and I thought to myself 'I want to do that, I know I can do better' So there it was, the challenge.

At that point I was already working at what is now a closed business, Helix Camera and Video on Racine Ave and Jackson. I had been there for a while and I was happy. I was learning the craft of photography and earning a living, not the best of money but I didn't care, I was on my way to become a better photographer by the day. It was then I realized I was not taking full advantage of what I had at hand which was pretty much anything I needed to grow as a photographer. I decided to learn studio lighting and everything else there was to learn about artificial lighting. I borrowed a couple of lights, some triggers and went home on a Saturday night. I had the equipment available till monday morning when it had to go back up on display at the store. I didn't get much done, I learned about sync speed and power outputs at most. First thing monday morning I went and started picking at my friend and co-worker Orlando Salgado's brain. I must've asked him 100 questions in 20 minutes until he said 'You need to read, I'm not going to teach you everything I know in one day' so I went to our book rack and picked up a couple of books that grabbed my attention. That was it, I was hooked, I had to learn it all!

From that point on weather it was me asking questions, reading books, blogs, websites, etc. I was learning more and more until I thought I was ready to pick up some lights again and give it a try. My first subjects were my kids, girlfriend (now wife) and brother in law. I shot all Sunday long and changed lighting set ups like crazy. The results were mediocre at best but that just made me keep at it and practice more. I photographed everyone I could, my nephews, friends, etc. cause at that point my kids were bored standing in front of the camera.

I was onto something, I knew I was getting a little bit better every week, mi biggest limitation was only being able to borrow the lights over the weekend. So then I invested in buying a cheap promaster trigger set up, a light stand, a shoot through umbrella and a Speedlite mount. I already had a Canon speedlite to work with. That was the best purchase ever. I wasn't tied to weekends only to practice, I was free to shoot whenever I wanted or had time and so I did.

The other issue I ran into was subjects, I had already shot everyone I knew and they were bored or not always available, but I had to keep learning, I had to keep practicing. Time had flown by next thing I knew I had moved out of my single apartment, got married, moved again and my skill set had grown. So I chose the next best thing... ME. I decided to do a 365 challenge which is one picture a day. I did mostly self portraits, some landscapes and family portraits. I was feeling great! Almost ready to start shooting strangers. A few months went by and my confidence lever had grown so much, I purchased lighting equipment, a seamless background set up, more light modifiers and light stands, I was ready.

And so it began, I started setting up "studio" photo shoots (our dining room was no longer existent) with friends, friends of friends, bands, etc. and they loved what I was producing!

So then it happened, we were ready to move forward with our business, Love It Photo! was no longer a suitable name for everything we had in mind and coming up, we sat down and started thinking of names that were more "in general" for our business but couldn't come up with anything clever. Then my wife said 'How about Knapp Photography' I knew right away she nailed it and so ladies and gentlemen, that's how how we are who we are now.

For 3 years we have been growing, learning, meeting amazing people, working with some of the most talented individuals in the industry. From models, make up artists, hair stylists, wardrobe stylists, boutique owners, etc. We have made amazing friends, friend that support what we do such as Analise Ojeda, hands down one of our biggest supported and best friends. She has an amazing talent as a hair stylist and make up artist, she helped us out sooooo much in a great number of photo shoots with her talent. Angie Prieto has been an amazing friend and helped us out so much as an amazing hair stylist. I have so many people to thank and I do. I thank you all that have taken the time, put in work and been supportive of what I do. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

I hope to be around for another 3+ years, hopefully 100. I will continue to learn, grow and appreciate everything in this career that I was blessed with.

I want to very specially and profoundly thank my wonderful and beautiful wife Vanessa Knapp for everything she has done for me. About 6 years ago she gave me a Canon XTI DSLR for Christmas and a wonderful career along with that. Thank you very much for believing in me, my love. Thank you for all your support, blood, sweat and tears. Thank you for being my number one fan. Thank you for your patience, thank you for all your help and most of all thank you for being there for me and for all the love you give me. YOU MAKE ME BE BETTER EVERY SINGLE DAY OF MY LIFE.

Thank you all for reading, hope I didn't bore you lol

Sincerely,

Julio Knapp

Knapp Photography

Thank you very much to everyone that has collaborated with us! We truly appreciate it!

P.S. Look at the evolution of my work through these images.

The Daily Hustle

It's always great when I get new business and gigs, this month however hasn't been all that great but it's expected, most people are recovering from Christmas expenses. So in the meantime, I'm exploring new things and coming up with ideas to keep my mind, knowledge and photography fresh.

One of the things that keeps calling my name is car photography, if you read my previews blog entry then you know how much I love cars. I love the challenge of finding the right angle, lighting and location to get great shots. I would love to have some of my pictures featured in car blogs and of course magazines. How to get into that is what I'm working on next. I will have to build a portfolio first, so if you know anyone with magazine quality cars let me know! I'll shoot for free and they get edited images in return for their time.

I have also been doing some personal projects, working with models has always been a stress reliever as I get to practice what I already know and try new stuff as well. Most recently I did a shoot with a gorgeous model by the name or Lisette Ramirez, her an I had talked about working together for over a year but timing was never right either for her or me. We finally got around it last Saturday and I'm pretty happy with the result.

She brought her team of hair and make up artist whom did an amazing job at both with Jaqui Gomez doing make up and Andres Tinajero doing hair, she also brought 3 outfits from Revive Boutique that Marlene Murillo styled herself down to the jewelry and they were FAWESOME. It was a great and fun shoot, everyone was having a great time laughing pretty much the entire photo shoot. Thank you guys! 

If you're a photographer and would like to know my setup for this shoot then here it is. I tried to keep things simple with my lighting this time, using only 1 and 2 light set ups, the first and last shot (hat and b&w) were shot using only one light, the first one was using a 22" Beauty dish camera right at about 5 O'clock and about 5' form her and the b&w shot was using a Paul C. Bluff 86" parabolic umbrella placed at the same angle but further back, I'd say about 10' from her. The red top and black skirt shot was using a two light set up, the same beauty dish at the same angle and distance and also a a 32x40 soft box with a grid on it which was place camera left at about 10 O'clock, I did that to give the model and outfit a little bit more dimension and add drama to the setting. My camera settings were 1/160 ƒ11 ISO 100

Feel free to ask ANY questions in regards to this or any other images you've seen of my work and I'll be more than happy to answer. I will try my hardest to describe my setups and reasons behind it for every shoot I post from now on. 

As always, thank you very much for reading. May your days be productive, your body healthy and your dreams BIG. 

Take care and see you next time! 

Julio Knapp

Knapp Photography 
www.knappphotography.com 
www.facebook.com/KnappPhotoChi
julio@knappphotography.com 

And I'm back!

It's exactly 11:28pm on Friday January 3rd, 2014 and after reading several articles and looking at several images of cars I wish I could build, stories I wish I could tell and pictures I wish I could shoot from www.stanceworks.com I decided it's time to write again. I used to write this blog for my photography only and for one reason or another I stopped LONG ago. Why start writing now? Because I want this blog to be more personal, because I want to share with you not only my accomplishments, stories, thoughts, etc. as a photography business but also as a human being.

So going back to stanceworks and cars. Where to start. I'm the youngest out of 9, huge age difference between me and my older siblings and with that came, torment, not having 1 dad and 1 mom but 7 dads and 3 mothers. I'll put it this way, the oldest of my brothers (male) is 19 years older than me and the youngest of them is 10 years older. The girls are 17 and 5 years older than me; therefore, they all had a hand at raising me. They were ALL involved with the car industry, some more than others but they all shared the same passion. For as long as I can remember they could not leave a vehicle in stock condition (maybe my sister before me, I'll explain more later) they had to either do repairs, paint jobs, suspension work, sound, MOTOR WORK and everything in between to whatever car, truck or anything with wheels they owned (including motorcycles, more on that later as well).

Now you may ask yourself, where did the passion or taste for custom cars come from, well, thats' due to the fact that my father himself decided at some point in his life, after many marital battles and trips to Chicago decided to open up a auto part store in town and a few years later the shop had a full time mechanic, body and paint shop attached to it, how that came about I can explain if any of you kind readers decide to ask. Well, the auto part store is what pointed all of us in a direction that I believe chose us more than we chose IT. It's like it was meant to be, prior to my father opening up shop none of my siblings (as far as I know) was remotely interested in custom cars or maybe they were too young to be but at some point in their life, cars was and still is mainly the topic of conversation.

All of them still build cars, my brother Hector puts cars shows together in Mexico and he's even involved in big things down there such as "West Coast Customs Mexico" and promotional rallies for "Furious 6" movie in Mexico City and is probably the one that has completed the most projects (he always sells them for some reason). The oldest, Mario, has a Plymouth Satellite project he's working on (and has been working on for at least 7 years) my brother Oscar is ALWAYS working on something, mostly VW's and anything that catches his attention, The twins are huge veedub heads as well with their own GTI and GLI cars that they're always doing something new to them.

I remember my brother Javier tearing an old school Suburban down and redoing the whole thing from the ground up, not exactly a restoration but more of a 'let me put my own touch on this huge biatch' type thing. So there you have it, a bunch of guys raising me around nothing but car talk and slaps to the back of the head. I remember bringing my Hot-Wheels to the body shop and ask my uncle (the painter) to spray them with whatever color he was about to lay down on whatever car he was painting at that particular time racing stripes and everything. I remember popping the rubber tires off my other toy cars out so they can poke out of the body and have a meaner stance. I remember stepping on my hot wheels so the tiny axles could bend enough to where the car looked lower than normal. I remember having an electric car my brothers called the UFO to which they put a larger battery in so it could go faster. I remember them taking the training wheels off my very first bicycle the same day I got it so I could learn faster how to ride it but offered no help whatsoever to teach me. I remember home made "Avalanchas" which are those carts with a piece of wood, 4 tires, a seat, steering wheel and a brake except my version was 2 wooden axles, a plank of wood, instead of tires it had metal bearings, the steering wheel was a rope attached to each end of the front axle which would swivel left and right because it was attached to the front end of the wooden plank with a nail bent at one end and the brake was my right shoe first and if I was going too fast both of them. I remember a lot when it comes down to wheels and motors and cars and how it all started for me I love those memories, I didn't have the best of childhoods by far but most of the good memories are somehow always attached to motors and wheels.

If you're still reading I thank you if you stopped long ago then I understand. Thank you all for reading, I truly appreciate it.

MORE TO COME SOON!! This fawesome story can't just stop here, duh!

May your dreams come true, may your cookies be chocolate chip and may your milk be whole. 

Cheers to the burnt rubber, the unfinished projects and the phenomenal stories they all make along with the amazing pictures that make every single experience a point in our own history we can always look at and remember. 

Sincerely,

Your new best friend or drinking buddy at the very least, 

Julio Knapp

Knapp Photography

P.D. Here's a picture of the last "project" I couldn't get to finish but was a blast to start. 1991 BMW 325i.

Also a picture of the very project I started that also never completed. 1989 VW Jetta.