Clean Guys Auto Shine Interview

Clean Guys Auto Shine
An Interview with Jose Montoya
about Recovery, Justice, 

the Environment,
& the Community

Lately been organizing my archive of photographs over the years with the goal of doing something with them or attaching them to different projects.  At times I get the opportunity to conduct interviews I refer to as photo narratives with people in the El Paso community.  Other times I'll conduct interviews online with people from other communities to promote specific projects related to literature or music.

One of those projects from last year was an interview with El Paso community leader, Jose Montoya.  On two occasions I photographed the work of his business Clean Guys Auto Shine at an off site and on-site location.  Jose runs a local waterless car wash and detailing business that is all about helping people involved in the justice system that are in recovery from substance use problems.  His work is also just as much about environmental advocacy too.  Jose has quite a recovery story which he agreed to share so that people get a better understanding of the mission of Clean Guys Auto Shine and how it relates to reentry, the justice system, his faith based roots, and the community.

With the first interview I was also able to get help from a very cool group of Spanish translators who volunteered through Volunteer Match volunteermatch.org.  Special thanks to Erika, Vivian, Mariana, Julia, Crystal, & Evelyn for translating the interview.  For those that don't know El Paso is a border community where a big percentage of our population is Spanish speaking first.  In the event that the interview makes its way around, I want to be sure the content could be received in both languages.

Last year, I was also able to attend the Clean Guys Auto Shine grand opening.  The business first started by bringing their service to their customers.  Today, while they continue to meet the customer where they are, people also have the option of visiting Clean Guys for services on 11426 Rojas Drive, Suite A-7.  At the grand opening I recorded an interview with Jose using my Olympus hand held recorder while he gave a tour of the new location.  I also took a bunch of photographs and combined them with photographs that Mr. Avalos from the El Paso Corvette Club took earlier in the day.

There are a few other photo, video, and interview projects that I plan to archive on Lens & Words.  Especially as they relate to photography.  I've also gotten into story telling with family as we work on tracing genealogy thanks to family members who have started sharing photos and collecting information.

Til' the next post...

Here are links to download the interview and to watch the video:

Clean Guys Auto Shine Interview (English) / Download (PDF): click here

Clean Guys Auto Shine Interview (Spanish) / Download (PDF): click here

Clean Guys Auto Shine Grand Opening Photo Narrative Video:

For more information on Clean Guys Auto Shine visit cleanguysautoshine.com

facebook.com/cleanguysautoshine

twitter.com/915cleanguys

Lightroom & Photoshop / Lens & Words Tutorial Archive

Lightroom & Photoshop

As software continues to upgrade into the creative cloud takeover, I went ahead and signed in for access to Adobe CC.  Figured it doesn't hurt to take a few minutes to learn some new tricks through the software tutorials I plan to share on this blog.  I currently use Adobe software to do very specific things.  While I'm not as interested in editing photographs to look any different than how I originally shot them, I do work on creative projects like covers for music, books, postcards, and media that would benefit from the information shared in the video above.

This video provides a few basic tips on how to change the background to focus on a specific piece in the image which would be helpful in developing for example, a mixtape cover.  The tutorial makes me think about the latest Black Belt Magazine with Bruce Lee which didn't look as good as I think it could've with better editing.

Expect to see more videos under the label Tutorial Archive.  The label function on blogger will provide a quick reference if needed.  World Wide Web tutorials are also shared at the following YouTube playlist: click here