My Dad is the first photographer I can remember. He used to take me with him on music video shoots, documented my sister and I as kids and called it Kideovideo, we were always doing something over the weekends with video and photos. He gave me my first SLR as a kid (Canon T70) and fell in love with it ever since.

I grew up watching so much B&W TV that I asked my mom when the world got its color. I always thought the world was B&W and somehow gained color in real life. Around the year 2001, my photo teacher Mrs. Dooley gave me my first roll of B&W film, and once I saw the images and the tones I became addicted to shooting. I see the world in B&W and I find color to be too distracting and overwhelming for me most times. I also watch current movies on Netflix with my TV set to B&W. Yes, I’m fully addicted :)

I love to take my camera everywhere I go. I always take a camera with me on my lunch breaks at work, and with me as I travel on the weekends. I practiced to shoot from hip a lot so I don’t freak people out and make them change their natural expressions and actions. That way the moment is left pure and doesn’t become about ME. I love to capture candid moments the most.

Currently I shoot with a Leica M240 + Canon LTM 28mm f/3.5 & Canon LTM 50mm f/1.4

My love for Canon since I started with Canon in the 90’s makes the pairing my favorite. Other camera I use are:

Canon EOS R, 5D MK3&4, Pentax 6x7, Canon QL-17, Canon AE-1

I love film. I love medium format especially, and I still love to develop it myself. With that said, there’s hardly any time for film these days. I barely have time to grab the shots from the SD card, let alone develop my film. I have probably about 20 rolls I still need to develop. My favorite film is Ilford HP5 400 developed in HC-110.

I had a focus on Graphic Design first from when I was in 3rd grade.I knew then I wanted to be a designer. I started drawing and later had a t-shirt line “Arvina Clothing Co”. I wanted to learn more about creating my own garments after learning Graphic Design, so my focus shifted to Fashion Design. I taught myself to sew and make clothes and wanted to begin school for fashion to take it further so I could later combine graphic+fashion design. My father passed away suddenly 2 days before my first fashion design class, and I decided to pay the bills with my computer skills. I worked for a digital magazine company (Glossi) and then I used that experience to design LA Times ads for Beverly Hills Jewelers. Which creating their ads, I also retouched their photos, edited logos and so on. I answered an ad for a photo retoucher for Adiamor Diamonds & Fine Jewelry. I began as a retoucher, then began jewelry photography. Later I was asked to take the CAD software home and learn since I was good at photoshop, so I did. I taught myself their top sellers over the weekend, and together through trial and error learned how to design their jewelry. I fell in love with jewelry slowly but surely, and it has since engulfed my life. I taught myself to polish and set and I use a weird combination of ALL these skills today.