the parachute factory

While I was in San Diego a few weeks ago, my friend Tyler told me about this art show that he and his art collective, Yeller Studio and Sezio were putting together in a defunct parachute factory in downtown. I thought it sounded cool as one of my best friends Jordan Josafat was going to be collaborating on designing a wall. The importance of the show didn't hit me until I did a preview of Jordan's work, I brought a camera to document some of his work, but upon walking through the Parachute Factory, I knew that I had to come back and photograph the art and the artists. I was able to photograph a handful of the artists and about half of the finished walls, as I came a few days before the one day opening so many of the walls weren't complete just yet. I took about 5-10 minutes with each artist and piece, as there was so much to photograph in the given time I had. The opening of the Parachute Factory looked insane, as I believe they hit maximum capacity only about two hours into the opening. If you are on instagram, check out the hashtag #parachutefactory for some great photos of the opening.

I want to thank Saya, Edwin and Yeller Studio who helped me with the walkthrough.

Bradford Lynn.

Celeste Byers with Buster.

Katherine Brannock.

Christopher Konecki & Jordan Josafat.

Sean Dejecacion.

Christina Liu.

Kyle Miller.

Dusty Dirtweed & Elliott Moeller.

Edwin helping me with the walkthrough, had to protect yourself from that dust.

Surge.

Product Etcetera.

 That Kid Peep.

Tocayo.

Exist1981.

Chandu Reading.

Dolan Steams & Ben Albert.

DTM, Neko, Surge, Honkey Kong & DieKuts.

SenzWen.

Yeller Studio & Clarke1981.

new work on the wedding website

So for the last few weeks my contact form on my wedding website hasn't been sending me emails, so for anyone who might have emailed me through there and I never responded, my sincerest apologies! I can't even find the emails on my server to at least know who didn't get through. But on the bright side it led to me revamp my whole website, so a bunch of all new weddings and the front page features my 9 latest weddings, so even if I may not be updating my blog all the time, my site will always be updated with my latest work. Feel free to visit Chaz Cruz Weddings if you haven't been there in a while.

mike baker / the bike maker

Last week, I headed up to Queens for an impromptu shoot with rapper Mike Baker the Bike Maker. I had been wanting to do a series on friends of mine who are in the creative field and to observe them in their element. So I went over to hang at his apartment that he shares with his gal Drea, or to whom I lovingly refer to as Cheddar Bay Chuck, haha. So when we weren't cracking up at whatever Mike and Chuck were doing, I got some cool shots in as well as portraits with Mike and Drea together because hey, I gotta show off the love.

out of town + refix magazine

I'll be out of town from June 11th through the 20th, the first half of my trip will be to Hawaii for the wedding of AJ and Jelynna then the second half will be to New York City. I will do my best to respond to all emails and inquiries in a timely fashion. But till then, I wanted to introduce you to Refix Magazine, a new online publication created by one of my best friends Andrea. She has been working hard to promote green living and fashion and this magazine is a product of months of hard work! Check out the magazine as I have a spread of photographs starting on page 36 and another one of my amazing photographer friends Emily Sandifer has some of her gorgeous work featured as well!

out of town

I'll be in Puerto Rico from May 5th through the 10th, so I'll return all emails and calls when I return. Until then, here's a pic of photographer James Law that I took a few days ago.