Note the flash spot on the glass, insufficient lighting and lack of color differentiation.  Whoops!

Now let’s rephotograph this Quincy Tahoma painting using the following tips:

1. Use at least a 6 mega-pixel digital camera.
2. Take the painting outside or to another place with a high light source. Lay it on the ground/floor or prop it against a chair or on an easel so as to avoid sun streaks and shadows.  Overcast days are wonderful for this.
3. Move yourself into a position where there is no glare and you are not producing a shadow.  Make sure your reflection cannot be seen in the glass, if the painting is framed.  You’ll probably end up sitting on the ground (if the painting is propped against a chair) or standing over the painting, possible straddling it, if it’s flat on the ground.  Also, you might be able to use a tripod if the painting is propped.
4. Try to center the painting in your view finder and adjust the zoom so that you don’t crop off any of the painting.  You can even leave a little extra margin around the painting as you frame the image in your viewfinder.
5. Brace the camera with the neck strap or however else you can hold it steady when you shoot the picture.  Take several shots, including a close-up of the signature in the bottom right corner.
6. Double check each photo you shoot to make sure it’s crisp and clear. This is extremely important.

And now for the results…  Looks like this one’s a keeper!

Now that you know how to photograph your Tahoma painting, measure it, check the back for any inscription and send the image plus the value-added information to charnell@tahoma.info .

Bonus: You are welcome to use these tips to photograph any of the art work  in your house–not just Quincy Tahoma’s.

Good luck and good shootin’!

If you are practicing your photography, you might like to see these six general photography tips from the experts at Lonely Planet. To see some good images of Tahoma paintings, check our Tahoma web site. Photos property of Charnell Havens.

Do you have any other tips to add? What gives you the most trouble when you are trying to photograph art work? What has worked well for you? If you have one you are proud of, e-mail it to us and we’ll share.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Bundy's majestic stallion is quite possibly the last painting that Quincy Tahoma created.

In the 1950s, Abundio Armijo, Jr. was the Santa Fe Police Department’s photographer and investigator.  Bundy had a little lab at the jail which he let Quincy Tahoma use as an art studio of sorts whenever the painter was drying out from public intoxication.

One day, the Navajo artist brought a beautiful painting of a majestic stallion to the jail to give to Bundy in appreciation for his kindness.  Little did Bundy know that he would be called to Tahoma’s apartment just two weeks later to record the artist’s death.

To the best of our knowledge, this may be the last painting that Tahoma created. You can see Bundy and his 1956 painting, as well as some other owners and their paintings, in the slide show on the home page at our Tahoma web page.

Do you know of any other paintings Tahoma produced shortly before his death in October 1956?

Photo by Charnell Havens. All rights reserved.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Cliffor Brito and his custom painting

It was certainly an unusual friendship, the jailer and the prisoner.  Or was it?!!

Quincy Tahoma seemed to make friends everywhere he went, and the Santa Fe jail was no exception.  As a 1950s frequent guest due to public intoxication, the young Navajo endeared himself to the guard, Clifford Brito, who let the artist out of his cell to perform janitorial duties and to paint.

Tahoma showed his gratitude by painting a beautiful scene of a brave rounding up horses.  The art work was custom designed to fit over the doorway of the jailer’s mobile home and  Brito treasured that painting until his death in 2008.

You can view Clifford Brito and his painting in the slide show on the home page of  the Tahoma web site. I took this picture when I interviewed him in 2004 during a research trip to New Mexico.

Do you know of other instances of jailers and prisoners becoming friends? Have you heard any other jail-time stories about Quincy Tahoma?  We were told, for instance, that he was briefly incarcerated in Indiana or Illinois while on a road trip with a friend, but the details of that adventure are scant.

Photograph by Charnell Havens. All rights reserved.

©2012 Quincy Tahoma Blog. All Rights Reserved.