Welcome to our first feature of fellow photographers from around the world that enjoy photography beautiful ladies with ink. We start out here with Peter Gonzales of New Mexico.  Been following his work for awhile now and love seeing what he comes up with next. Please welcome peter to The Female Canvas.

Bio:

Peter Gonzales is a photographer based in Albuquerque, NM and specializes in Fitness and Glamour photography. Although he has always been involved in something creative, photography is a comparatively new endeavor to him. While assisting a friend who was photographing a wedding, the process and visual impact grabbed hold of him.  Peter went out, bought his first camera and hasn’t looked back, “I began reading everything I could find, or get my hands on”.  Peter is self taught in photography and photoshop and attributes his success to many sleepless nights of reading on Garage Glamour and Retouch Pro or examining photos on the internet and countless other sites, not to mention a number of books.

Early on, Peter was amazed by the work of Rolando Gomez, Traci Hicks and Andy McFarland but was truly intrigued by Robert Alvarado’s work. The combination of styling, editing and lighting had an immediate effect. “His style had a huge impact on how I look at things, and still does”. Peter spent a great deal of time researching and trying to understand how the workflow can achieve such a stylized look, one step at a time. It Was Alvarado’s love of using women with Tattoos and other body modifications that lead Peter down the path of shooting women with artwork.

“I love the personal statements, the stories behind the ink” says Peter. “In many cases, the story is quite personal and is very detailed, a personal tribute to life itself.”

Peter continues working hard to achieve a style of his own and his work has paid off.  He has been the photographer for Albuquerque’s Hard Rock ‘Hard Body’ Calendar the last two years in a row and his work has been published several times in 2011.  As he prepares to enter 2012, he is aggressively pursuing more published pieces for various magazines, websites and promotional products. In addition to shooting a great deal of fitness competitors and models, he finds time to hold workshops at his studio, teaching lighting techniques to new photographers and acting as a network coordinator. These events strive to create a comfortable environment and help put beginning photographers and new models together to expand their experience and portfolios.

Contact:

http://petergonzalesphotography.com/ and  facebook.com/pgphotographynm

Models:

Gabrielle and Licai Vigil, Jenna Elaine, Jessica Rinaldi, Mercy Beaucoup, Meredith Haleigh, Michelle Avila

All images are copyrighted by Peter Gonzales and are displayed with permission