The Backyard Podcast

Jaime Ibarra, world renown artist and photographer, has recently moved to Houston. Oddly enough, about 10 minutes from Nino. Naturally, they decided to have a chat and catch up on all things, including natural light, Nino's house, roommates, models, small towns, accents, Spain, Australia, and Jaime's plans for his new Houston homebase.

At the time of this episode recording, Kathrine Haus had been modeling a little over a year, and that's it. Having risen up to becoming hugely visible on social media, Kathrine has since seen sponsorships, publishings, travel for promo work, and working with Nino as his talent coordinator for Texas events. Topics include glamour, shitty first shoots, getting engaged at Nino's event last year, man boobs, Mormons, and more.

So you're dealing with the dreaded artistic "burnout". What was once the most amazing and inspirational thing in the world to you is now boring, frustrating, tedious or even annoying. You blame yourself, you blame the industry, you blame the world. But what's going on during burnout? What's up with your brain? Nino has no idea, but decided to discuss the matter anyway.

Staci and Nino discuss the 1 year anniversary of the Backyard Show and reminisce about how it all began, ultimately becoming their typical selves as they diverge into every other subject imaginable along the way. Topics include why 2016 ruled and sucked at the same time, generally avoiding discussing anything about the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and Staci naked.

The artist known as AD Series drops by to discuss his past, his future, and where his photography retirement fits in the middle. Topics include water and glycerin, bodyscapes, macabre shoots, glamour, the desert, nudes, and alleged retirements.

Nino here! I get asked *all* the time about my events. Mostly, people wonder about the differences between a Workshop and a Shoot Out, but many also want to know "Why should I bother?" and, more to point, "Why should I care?". Photographers and models alike ask the same questions from their different perspectives, so I sat down today to get the new series of the Backyard Podcast going with answers to these probing questions plus some babbling about what the heck I am up to here going into the autumn of 2016 (and into 2017!)

Close friends of The Backyard, and both extraordinary photographers in their own right, Ryan Pramik and Kayla Hurt visited Nino at his place to chat about a great many things. Topics include both Ryan and Kayla's history of their journey into photography, ex-girlfriends, modeling stints, bad ass travels, exotic cars, licking, beer, fashion, body painting and more.

While Nic Green and Shay Winget were in town visiting from Salt Lake City, they sat in with Sarah and Nino (while Alex floated around the room) to discuss what the hell is coming up on NIno's schedule. Topics include Texas heat, cheap sunglasses, CreativeLive appearance, Capture One Pro, Paul C. Buff DigiBees review/launch, London, Amsterdam and more...

A Houston legend, AD Series is a model photographer who has never been entirely pigeonholed, but has recently declared 2016 would be his final year shooting. Nino berates AD about this, and other topics include artist burn out, pigs blood, dead octopi, horror, glamour, models and model reliability, some gear banter, retirement vs sabbaticals, and more.

Nic Green, photographer based in Salt Lake City, is on a mini-tour with glamour model Shay Winget (also SLC based) during their stop in Houston. Shay is currently exploding on the scene and becoming a very in-demand model (see Nino's set with her in Soft Magazine, July 2016 issue!). Topics include Nic and Shay's industry history, the hyper-importance of traveling expand your career,

Recorded at the IBMS Bikini Shoot Camp in Ft. Worth, Texas, Nino sits down with Patrick & Elina McKinney, founders of the International Bikini Model Search, to discuss how their amazing organization started and what it means to the industry. You'll hear the soothing sounds of the Shoot Camp party going on on the background, but hey that's how IBMS rolls!). Topics include photographer and model networking, the point and purpose of IBMS, traveling for business reasons, questionable industry people, partying, booze,

Sarah and Nino discuss the centuries-old problem of unreliable set personnel (specifically model flakes, that is) and the snowball effect that occurs when projects get ruined by "No Call, No Show". Other topics include true and false accusations, business reputations, damage control of said reputations and accusations, and that damned Texas weather.

Staci and Nino are both currently sick as hell. Staci with a killer flu, and Nino dealing with exhaustion and chest pain after a grueling 3 weeks of events, travel and excursions. On an afternoon that Staci slept in due to said flu and Nino was at the emergency room hours earlier, they reasoned it was time to discuss how not to die as an artist entrepreneur, and the pros and cons of taking care of yourself (or not) when you run your own business in this industry. Other topics include the International Bikini Model Search in Las Vegas, Red Rocks, Nelson, and the lake beds in Nevada, Gary Miller, The Palms Resort, glamour, fashion and gym rats.

Staci discusses how she got started in modeling, stemming from an alleged hip-hop video casting (the video remains a mystery), and how she ended up being unfortunately trapped in the world of The Backyard. Other topics discussed include vomiting into toilets and blacking out, ambulance rides and emergency rooms, Salt Lake City, red wine, photography muses, series 2 of The Backyard Show, and more.

Recorded at the MicroSearch studio in Houston, Nino sits down with acclaimed commercial photographer Rebecca Britt while she was in town for a kick ass shoot with agency model Ashlee Disney. Topics thrown around include "What is commercial photography?", EDM, concert photography, illicit pill taking, Mexico and Donald Trump, head colds, beauty photography, Canon 5DSR, macro lenses for portrait work, licensing and sponsorships, and more.

Nino sits down once again with Alex Ventura, automotive and glamour photographer, during the Miami trip in April 2016. Topics include shooting on location when gear troubles strike (or lack thereof), upcoming travel plans, the Shoot The Centerfold seminar, and Ventura's next plans and projects.

Nino sits down on the patio of a Miami estate, by the pool, next to a modified Ford Mustang belonging to Nick Chin of American Force Wheels, to talk to commercial automotive photographer Joel Chan. Items discussed include his career and history, car shoots, graphic design, wheel manufacturing, glamour models and Heidi Fahrenbach, Miami Beach, and falling into a pool while light painting.

Recorded in Miami, this episode finds cohosts Staci and Nino babbling about their experiences at the Shoot The Centerfold seminar and the insanely talented and charismatic legendary Playboy photographers who run it, a questionable but ultimately charming Miami Beach hostel, Staci's huge announcement after having been in Italy for a week, a kick ass Miami Beach shoot by NIno and Alex Ventura featuring Staci and Alessandra Sironi, and more.

Most of us are facing enormous challenges in our photography business; plain and simple. Life is hard. For Nino, it's difficult still but so so much less traumatic than recent years (and months). If you're having extreme self doubt about your photo or video business, and drowning in lack of motivation, have a listen.

The Backyard Show's resident makeup and hair wizard Sarah Stafford discusses with Nino about her career, or rather her career change, how she ended up in her profession, insane self employment work hours (40 hour work week? Pfffft!), how she started, how she became successful, Brad Brock Brown, AD Series, B3, TreyDotShots, why photographers who ignore makeup artists on their sets generally fail, date night, Indian weddings, Antigua, travel, boudoir, glamour, lingerie and stacks of more awesome, too.