Gloria 1 PortraitRetrato de Gloria 1

This portrait is of Gloria, Gerardo and Jonathan's mom. It is from a photo I took a few months ago. I needed a break after doing the first few portraits.   Although she's probably in her mid-fifties I think she looks more like 35-40 from my post processing.  I only went through my usual remove sun damage, minimize wrinkles, and touch-up skin routine that I always do. I didn't apply special effects.   It helps that she was already beautiful to start. I only had to remove the horrible signs of aging and fix the lighting.

Gerardo was happy and surprised when he saw it last night and he gave it his approval. I hope you like her portrait too.

If you would like a photo-portrait for you, a family member, or a friend, please let me know.  If you want it non-exclusive and will buy your print from Imagekind or Redbubble and don't have any special requests the cost is my normal artwork markup.   If you want exclusive prints of the finished work (I don't make it available for prints to others), or if you want a high-resolution jpg for making your own prints there will be an additional charge.    I can take your photos here in Mexico City or you can send several high-resolution photos by e-mail.  It would make a great Christmas or birthday gift!


Gloria 1 by Christopher Johnson
La mamá de Gerardo y Jonathan, Gloria es una señora bonita y bueno con solo editar lo que pasa con todos con los añitos y el maltrato del sol, le quite mas o menos 15 años de edad.  La foto original tomé hace unos 2-3 meses en una fiesta. No tuvo tiempo para arreglarse y bueno  no fue necesario. De hecho prefiero editar las fotos de gente con una imagen mas natural.

Si te interesa un retrato para ti, tu pareja, un familiar o un mejor amigo,  pongamos de acuerdo para tomar las fotos aquí en Cuautitlán (en el norte de la Ciudad de México) o me puedes enviar por correo electrónico unas fotos de alta resolución.

El costo depende de como quieres el trabajo y si quieres que sea exclusivo o no.

Gerardo's mom, The photo was touched up to remove sun damage and minimize wrinkles.

Jorge 1 PortraitJorge 1 Retrato

Jorge, Jonathan's father posed for me for a couple minutes at the party on Sunday. It was the first time that I've taken his photo so he looked a little nervous. I hope he likes it. I'm really happy with both the color and antiqued versions of his portrait. The only difficulty was deciding how many wrinkles to keep and how many to get rid of. They can make a man look distinguished or old. I'm hoping you'll find him more distinguished.

Jorge 1 Portrait

Jorge 1 Antiqued Portrait

Genaro 1 - PortraitGenaro 1 - Retrato

Genaro is a young man and he loves to sing and dance however I wanted to give him a more serious dignified look in his portrait. He is wearing a white polo shirt and eyeglasses. I made three different versions, normal color, color with sepia, and antiqued: black and white with sepia.

Genaro 1 - Portrait

Genaro 1 Sepia - Portrait

Genaro 1 Antiqued - Portrait

Karina 2 - PortraitKarina 2 - Retrato

The second portrait of Karina. I tried to get her face a little lighter, but that has made her skin look a little too light. I might make it darker after I get her feedback. If I make it darker, this preview will also change to match the update.

Karina 2 - Portrait

Karina 1 - PortraitKarina 1 - Retrato

This is my first portrait of Karina who is one of Gerardo's cousins.  The original photo was a little washed out looking from the sun and the location wasn't the best so this and the next few portraits I will post are lacking the dramatic shadows I enjoy. Karina is wearing a pretty pink crochet blouse and a shiny piece of jewelry.

Karina 1 - Portrait

Karina 1 Antiqued - Portrait

Jonathan 2 - Portrait Jonathan 2 - Retrato

I did this second portrait of Jonathan in three different versions, one "regular", one with sepia on color, and the other is my antiqued style which is black and white with sepia among other changes.  My favorite is the portrait with a sepia cast over the color.

Jonathan 2 - Portrait

Jonathan 2 Sepia - Portrait

Jonathan 2 Antiqued - Portrait

Jonathan 1 - PortraitJonathan 1 - Retrato

Gerardo brought his brother (ok, half brother) over to visit yesterday so I took the opportunity to ask him to pose for some quick photos to make his portrait.

If you live in Mexico City, you can make an appointment to stop by and have me take your photo for a portrait or you can send me high resolution photos to use (contact me on Facebook or Twitter for my e-mail address).

Here is the first in the Jonathan series which is a close up of his face. I tried to keep it simple.

Jonathan 1 - Portrait

Estoy disponible para hacer retratos digitales. Si te encuentres en México D.F. o en el Estado de México, haz una cita para tomar tu fotos.

Gerardo 3 Portrait

Yesterday afternoon I did another photo shoot with Gerardo. I got some great photos in the the late afternoon light filtering through this tiny house's third floor window. His face was a mix of light and subtle shadow. I was up until about 2:30 am working on this portrait. I hope to get 1-2 more from yesterday's photographs.  Since you are wondering, yes, his hair is shorter.

Gerardo 3

In this portrait he is curious or surprised about something I said so his eyes are extra wide open!

Pilar 1 Artistic Portrait with Effects

Pilar 1 Artistic Portrait with Effects - Finished!

You'll see the simple version of my portrait of Pilar, my neighbor, in my previous post. Here is my finished, complete version. I hope you like it.



I applied quite a few effects and filters each in its own layer. I used dodge on her eyes and burn on her shirt and quite a few other little details including changing the setting of clone stamp to lighten or darken, or change the percent of burn to almost nothing...

Pilar 1 Simple Portrait

While you probably know me for my floral artistic photo artwork, I also experiment with other types of art. This morning I had the opportunity to take Pilar's photo to make her portrait. By 1pm I was about to finish this "simple portrait". It is simple because It doesn't have any special effects or filters, just your basic touch-ups and adjustments.

Pilar 1 Simple Portrait

I hope to have a version with effects available later today.

Pilar lives nearby, and she sells tacos de canasta and tacos de guisado with her daughter from Monday to Friday and often Saturday, so if you see my Twitter and Facebook messages about the great tacos for breakfast, now you know who prepared them!  (The next person who comments about Taco Bell will be unfollowed! That was very insulting.)

A pleasant side effect to having me do your portrait is that you will look many years younger since I try to minimize sun damage, wrinkles, large pores (my personal problem!), and scars.

Here is the "before" photo.

New Self Portrait and Avatar

I decided it was time to finally replace that old photo of me pre-digital camera with something I took and post-processed myself. Here is my self-portrait which I'm also using as my avatar on social networking and forum sites.

Self Portrait

(if you want a print, you can get one at Imagekind!)