The Good Life Miami (TGLMIA)


 The Good Life Miami a.k.a TGLMIA is a clothing line based in Miami, Florida. I was asked to photograph the brand a few months ago and the images would be used around the web / their facebook and for the brand's new look book. I took up the offer because of a few reasons: I heard a lot good news from friends about this up rising brand in Miami before hand and the guys who run the brand and their team are a gentlemen / businessmen / young hustlers like myself. It was awesome working with them and you already know, "We Had Fun!" cause that's what we do, "We Have Fun!" :)

Awesome results are the outcome when you work along with like minded people. It's something I did when I took on photo shoots like these and it's still something I do when I work with people now in the music industry. It's all about networking, but networking with the right people that share the same vision.

I hope you enjoy the photographs and I hope they inspire you to go out have some fun and make some images. I also want you to take a stop to their website: TGLMIA.com and check out some of their clothing (P.S. I just got word that they have some raw new snap-backs so yall look out for them and I already told my photographer he'll be making some portraits of me with the snap-backs when I get a hold of them!)

Until next Playaz!

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We Have Fun | YachtLife,
D. Tucker
http://facebook.com/242dt

Preparation Is Luck's Soulmate.









 The flyer you read above was sent to me from Miami, Florida's photographer Ace Noguera; Ace also shared the flyer with a bunch of other photographers. The way Ace and I met should be major inspiration for any photographer that struggles with networking - you should NEVER be shy to talk about what you do - be random! Ace and I met a few years ago at a skate shop in Miami, Florida. I was looking for a new skateboard and he walked in with an amazing tattooed sleeve; I got my first set of ink not too long ago so every tattoo I saw at the time amazed me. Other than tattoos, skateboards and great taste in women, Ace and I had another thing in common, photography. He was an up and coming photographer at the time. We exchanged contacts and I shared advice that got me to that point in my photography career; he spoke with passion about his photography and that was enough for me to help.  I'm happy to see him sharing his own advice / motivation materiel to other photographers. Remember we're all artist and we should inspire others / encourage others to hustle hard / photo hustle hard! Hopefully you'll pass this flyer on to a few friends of your own.

Now on to the second part and the point of this blog title!

Preparation Is Luck's Soulmate

When you become lucky and you're prepared, great things happen. The only way to be prepared for luck is to keep on trying to become better at what you do and like the flyer said: DO A LOT OF WORK.

I was asked to photograph RnB singer Deborah Cox for Vain Style Magazine; that photo shoot was also the last one before I paused my title as a professional photographer. A few years prior, I met a model  / stylist from on of my photo shoot sessions, did some photographs for her to use in her portfolio and she was the stylist for the Deborah's photo shoot. I share that because both of us "Fought our way through" to get to the point where we were in our careers so it was super exciting to work with her on that project.

Okay don't bitch at me for running off topic again just now, I got super excited to talk about that and you should be excited reading this inspiration information I'm sharing with you anyway and if you're not....then....anyway I'm going to continue :) (I love you all haha)

The photographs that you see in this post were from my visit to UM's radio station to premiere my Love It Hate It single and two other songs from my, Somewhat Good Is Okay Volume 1 mixtape. Kid Smooth, my DJ / Engineer for / of SGIOV, and I were ready for the lucky opportunity at UM because we've been putting in a ton of work recording and creating songs of quality content to share.

I write all of this to share, no matter what your art may be: painting, photographing, creating music, designing clothing - be ready / prepare yourself because lucks preparation's soul mate therefore they'll find each other when everything is ready. Have faith in your work / be true to your work and your work will be true to you.

--
D. Tucker | We Have Fun | YachtLife

Professional Photographer and Rapper (D. Tucker)














(Bahamian Artist Sammi Starr and myself)


Hello to the first timers, if you're new here, and to everybody welcome. For the virgins of my blog my name is Dwayne Tucker I've been advancing in photography for the past ten years. Summer 2011, I paused my career as a professional photographer to pursue a career in music. I've been rapping for as long as I've been photographing but any artist knows that it takes putting your everything into the art of your choice to become great at it. A little history of my photography back ground so I can speed you up for you to understand why I'm doing what I'm doing here / why I feel as if it's my duty to keep my ties to the photography community. 

When I were a kid I stayed up countless hours on the internet looking for great photography blogs and like you probably do if you're a digital photographer, looking for ways to become better in Photoshop. That's when I came across an important name that will change my life for ever, Scott Kelby. I stumbled on Photoshop User Tv, a online tv show / podcast for catching rabbits in the meadows - (I'm just playing!) It was for photo shop. I took to the show for a number of reasons, they were being themselves, they as in Scott and the co-host Matt and Dave at the time; they were having fun at all times on the show and sharing some beneficial information. From the show I found out that Scott had a blog, from I then started to read his blog, every time he posted. 

In high-school on weekends I worked at a store in the Bahamas that sold GE appliances. It was a family operated business and the owners of the store and the staff got along like family, it was just the way things were in the store; amazing. I say amazing because of one thing unlike any other similar work environment in the Bahamas allowed you to be you, once you did the work. The store opened up about 7:30 a.m., stated busy until about 9:30 a.m. then picked up speed around 11:20 a.m. Durning the hours that weren't busy I'd use my computer to kill some time, but I'd be reading blogs that I booked marked that shared information about the photography community. It was then I told myself that everyday I'd go to Scott Kelby's website and make sure he knew I was where. I commented and left my signature as Dwayne Tucker | Nassau, Bahamas. I got an email from Scott about two weeks of doing that, everyday, and he said he and his staff would be going to the Bahamas for business and he wanted to know if I'd spend the day to with them to shoot. In my mind it was like fuck yeah I'm I really reading this email! Scott to me is an idol in the photography game and he is like Jay-z / Kanye West / Pharrell / Cisco Adler / Shwayze is to me for music I'd be more than excited to hit the studio up with them to record; you get the picture, I was super excited canceled all plans and took the opportunity.

In high-school a friend of mine and I played golf on the weekends, he were really passionate about golf. Years later I'm still friends with the kid, he saw that I'm making moves with my photography and shared with me that his little brother is also into the same thing. That was about three or four years ago. I take mental note of everything therefore I started to watch his brother and see if he truly wants to be a photographer. On facebook I saw that he got a Nikon, I shoot with Nikon. Scott Kelby shot with Nikon so I started shooting with Nikon and stuck with it after using a Canon and fell in love with Nikon's shutter sound. If you shoot Nikon you'll know what I'm talking about. 

Fast forward a ton of observations, my friends brother and I started skateboarding together because the skateboarding community isn't as large in the Bahamas so all of the skaters know each other. I then spoke to him about photography told him that I'm moving into my dream to become a famous musician and offered try to teach him what I know about photography. I also told him that the major lesson in photography is observation and personality - if you're under 20 years old in 2011 then just call the shit observation and swag so you'd get the picture. 

The photographs that I posted here is a collaboration with photographer Edward Kemp and I; you'll notices my editing style and on about one or three of them my composition style because I edited the photographs. I want you guys to welcome Edward to the world of photography here in my We Have Fun community because he's the chosen photographer by me that I'll grow to make him the photographer that he'll become and I want him to become good enough so I can make him one of my private photographers when I make it to that level of touring my music etc. (Don't bitch at me for not taking a breath just now that sentence was the most longest sentence!)

I'll close on that note with a, continue to have fun with your work, live it up and a YachtLife that's all playa! - D. Tucker (YachtLife is my movement for my music it stands for Young. Ambitious. Creative. High-standards. Talented. Lifestyle.)

Question For Your Answers

Okay I'm backkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!

Before I go on my rant mainly for the first timers here, my question to you is? What would you like learn from me? I'm here to inspire / re-inspire photographers around the world to hustle with photography! So in the questions or by email or anyway of contacting me, hit me up and tell me what is it you'd like to learn. I'm thinking I'll be able to help from what worked for me / if I don't know then I'll find out and we'll learn together...(yaaayyyyy!!! - JK!)
Also feel free to write me here at anytime just speak yo mind pimpin!

Okay for those stopping here for the first time welcome; to you none virgins of my content, welcome back! I'm shaking the sand out of my Sperrys.

For the first time comers, many call me Dwayne Tucker (because that's my name), some call me DT. because that's what people in the photography industry called me and some call me D. Tucker because that's what I'm known for in the music industry / (I'm trying to blow up with my music yo! Download my mixtape for free here: Somewhat Good Is Okay Volume 1). I'm a professional photographer, I've been photographing for 10 years....but honestly that don't really mean shit and you'll soon learn to know that. It's all about where you at right now in the game. Remember that. Also understand that it take time to become good at anything, and even more time to become great at it! :)

I'm back here on the blog for a number a reasons. I'm not about to give you no 1. 2. 3. 4. reasons list count so you can pull them out on your own and just know that they are a number of reasons okay. Not many are going to like the way I write, that's unfortunate. If you don't like the way I write then go to a dictionary and have fun there. My content is for the people who don't read too much and find that reading my shit is easy because I speak from the heart and not from the / for the / whatever you want to call it / likeness of people to be like, "Oh that Dwayne is so educated with his words blah blah blah..." Not saying that you want to try me in that area either. In fact I do love words. My most favorite thing to read is 1000 words or more at once; they say a photo is worth 1000 words right? Okay, I hope you're vegitairian cause that there were some real corny shit haha!

Not to state the obvious there aren't many professional photographers that are rappers as well; or any good rappers I'd say (yes I was riding my own magic lamp-pole just now)! But what's important for me doing this, I've been in Miami, Florida the last 3 years and flying back home to my country (Bahamas) and I've notice that I inspired kids not only in Bahamas but in Miami as well to become photographers / artist; many still asked me questions and I respect that because that's how I learnt asking a ton of questions. But, it does get pilled up sometime so I figured if I can answer questions that you ask then if someone asks the same thing I'll be able to point them to what I wrote.

I'm noticing now and you'll notice that I run on a lot and I'm going to try to stick to the point this time but I get mad excited in my mind when I'm writing for you to read this (But can you really blame me? If you do...honestly.....shut the fuck up!)

In another blog post I'll title it Professional Photographer and Rapper and share some interesting information in there for you; from there on I'll be blogging as whenever time permits you can keep checking back daily or whenever but to be honest the best way to keep up is to just follow the blog and get an email from me when I post. Be easy. Remember to have fun! - D. Tucker | Y∆ch†£¡ƒe!


::We Have Fun::
DT.

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