Mariachi Pasion

Every year as Cinco de Mayo approaches I'm faced with coordinating cover shoots that are clearly Mexican-themed. The past few years I have exhausted the cliche of a sombrero-clad model holding a margarita, so this year I came up with the idea for a mariachi group to grace the cover of the College Times.

It didn't take long to find a local mariachi band in the Phoenix area, but I was happily surprised to find an all-female group called Mariachi Pasion that was available for a photo shoot.

Diner Cover Shoot

The April 7th issue of College Times was dedicated to local restaurants and locally grown produce. Because of that my editor was hoping for a 50's-style pin-up diner cover, so I went location scouting for local diners in the Phoenix area. My assistant editor suggested a place called Mac Alpine's on 7th St. & Oak.

Stepping into Mac Alpine's was like stepping into a Norman Rockwell painting... It was the perfect setting, and the waitresses were done up in the right outfits, and one in particular had a pin-up style of her own. I approached the owner and the waitress at Mac Alpine's to see if they would like to be featured on our cover. They agreed. So I went back the next day. Here is the result.

Golden Gloves Champion Luis Olivares

We recently did a feature story on 18-year-old boxing phenom Luis Olivares. He's been boxing since he was 8 years old, won his first fight by knock out when he was 9, and has made a habit of beating people down in the ring in the years since.

Olivares recently won the state and regional Golden Gloves championships and is poised to take the top prize on the national stage on his way to his ultimate goal of representing the United States in England as the 152-lb member of the US Olympic Boxing Team.

Here is the stylized cover made to look like a classic boxing poster, and a number of extra photos from the photo shoot.

Lady Gaga in Phoenix

Lady Gaga put on a spectacle at US Airways Arena in Phoenix, and her fans were right there doing their best to keep up. This was an interesting night to say the least.

AMOCOCO at the Mesa Arts Center

The architect who designed the Sydney, Australia Opera House cooked up a sprawling inflatable interactive art structure called AMOCOCO that is touring the world and that is currently set up in my hometown at the Mesa, Arizona Arts Center. Ambient music is played and different colorful panels fill the space with an array of color from the sunlight projecting through. It's really a relaxing sublime experience exploring the space that has been created out of plastic sheeting less than a millimeter in thickness.

Turning a New Leaf

It's been some time since I last updated my blog, so if there's anyone left out there still keeping tabs, I apologize. But I'm back...

I've decided to commit to posting on my blog if not daily at least more regularly. My job is fun and interesting and very busy. My backlog of photos is enormous and I often lose track of posting images because I'm not supposed to share content that hasn't yet been published, so by the time my work IS published in our weekly magazine I've already shot and am working on shooting dozens of other assignments. It's a never-ending cycle. I live my life one-week's-worth of assignments at a time.

Life doesn't stop for anyone, or even slow down for that matter, but continually trudges ahead. Sometimes it runs you over and leaves you tossing aimlessly and helplessly in its wake. I feel like I've been lost for a spell. I'm entering into a new transitional stage in my life, and although I don't know where this all may lead I am open to whatever change may come.

So cheers...Here's to new beginnings.

-Ryan

No Pants on the Lightrail

Improv Arizona is a group that organizes different public events to catch the general public off guard and to inject a bit of peculiarity and fun into people's lives.

We first covered their shenanegans in June of 2009 when they performed their very first Flash Mob Freeze during First Friday http://ryanaruiz.blogspot.com/2009/06/first-friday-flash-mob-freeze.html

Here the organizers and volunteers boarded Valley Metro Lightrail cars at a specific time and all at once removed their pants for the long ride from Mesa to Phoenix.