Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Madrigal.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jose. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Throughout my life, I’ve been an artist in one medium or another. In gradeschool, I discovered a talent for photorealistic drawing. Then in my teens, my artistic passion switched to music when I learned to play the guitar. I began photography just as a travel hobby in January 2017 but one year later I discovered my real niche when I got a macro lens. I was immediately hooked on seeing the amazing details of small things up close and quickly realized that I was behaving like an artist for the first time with the camera. Instead of focusing on technical settings, I was playing with my shooting and experimenting with light, texture and composition. With the arrival of spring 2018, my macro photography began to focus on the bees and other pollinators that were emerging and this is where people really began to take notice of my work. Within a month of sharing my bee photos on social media, the editor of Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine reached out to me about licensing some of the photos she had seen on my Instagram feed. This early success signaled to me that pollinators and insects should be the primary focus of my work and I continued submitting work for publication a few times after that.
In April 2019, an acquaintance who happens to be an artist suggested I should make prints and try selling them. He knew of a gallery in the Heights where he displayed his own work and they did monthly shows where some 20-30 new artists could display their work. I had always hoped to eventually sell artistic prints of my work so I decided to give it a try and I had some decent success. After trying a variety of different shows throughout the summer and fall, I’ve found my most receptive audience through festivals and conventions focused on bees and/or pollinators and I hope to do at least 12 events in 2020.
Today it is much more than just a passion for taking pretty pictures and selling prints. As more people are waking up to the reality that our pollinators are disappearing, it has also become my mission to create images that will inspire a sense of awe at their natural beauty while reminding us that we have a shared responsibility for their survival.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It’s been a fairly smooth road I must say, but I think that having prior business experience allowed me to make better decisions early on. I think the main struggles I have faced were finding the right audience to market my work to and to figure out which of my photos were more marketable to a broad audience. As an artist, you tend to fall in love with too much of your work, and on social media you can find a lot of people who will tell you your work is amazing, but getting people to actually buy your work takes a good strategy, some trial and error, and great note-taking. You can’t let your ego get in your own way.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Pollinator Portraits by J. Madrigal – what should we know?
I am a wildlife photographer focused primarily on pollinators and dragonflies. They are the most interesting subjects to me so I can get quite lost for several days in the field obsessively taking pictures which allows me study them, learn their behaviors and plan some special shots. I think my style is pretty unique and I am especially skilled at capturing insects in flight which seems to really set me apart from most other insect photographers. Also, I have further refined my niche by shooting almost exclusively Texas native species and wildflowers. I am proud to live in Texas and capture the natural beauty that often gets overlooked here.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I guess I’d have to say my wife Dena is my biggest supporter and advocate. She has always believed in my work and is actually who inspired me to take up photography because she always loved the photos I took on my phone. She also got me my first macro lens because she is an avid gardener and wanted me to start taking pictures of her flowers and butterflies.
Pricing:
- I sell prints in many different formats, from small traditional paper prints to large canvas prints, priced from about $10-$500 depending on size and medium.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pollinatorportraits.com
- Phone: 7138248735
- Email: jose@pollinatorportraits.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmad_images/
- Other: https://www.etsy.com/shop/PollinatorPortraits
Image Credit:
All images copyright Jose Madrigal, Pollinator Portraits by J. Madrigal
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