The following questions are some of the most common questions asked about Rafael Rivera's Artwork:

Q Is it a painting or is it a photo?

A: My pictures do not involve physically painting on the surface of the paper or canvas. When I bring all the pieces into photoshop I may not have all of the pieces to the puzzle, and so I have to create them using Photoshop and/or Maya. The only painting done on the surface of my Giclee prints is the lacquer that is brushed on to protect the print from harmful UV rays and minor scratches. I may also use touch up acrylic paint to fix something I may have missed before I printed the image but these corrections are usually minor. It can be comparable to spotting in traditional photography.


Q: How long does it take to make one of your stitched panoramas?

A: There have been times when I complete an image in 7 days and other times when it has taken me more than a month. I'll have to say that the average time to complete is 3 weeks. There are several factors that contribute to this. The first thing that will contribute to a faster turnaround time is the stability of the helicopter. If the helicopter is being thrown around by the wind (which it usually is) or it is unable to hover this will make the stitching process harder because I have to work with images that are shot from different perspectives and altitudes. These images have to be torn apart removing foreground from background and even cutting out individual buildings to make them fit into the landscape. This is probably the number one reason why these images take so long to piece together. I do not have gyro stabilization. I use my hands and it i impossible to think of the nodal point while in the helicopter. I have to shoot as fast as I possibly can before the wind blows the chopper to far off target. So I deal with parallax effect issues and perspective issues that make this jigsaw puzzle the craziest of them all. For sure one can go kookoo bananas when dealing with this sort of stuff. It is many many hours of immersed problem solving. My New York picture took me 140 hours to complete and it is by far one of the hardest jobs i have ever done.

Q : Are you a pilot?

A: No but I would like to be some day. I rent a helicopter with the pilot included.

Q: How much does it cost to rent a helicopter?

A: I get asked this one a lot. It is no secret. In Mexico I was paying $20USD per hour!. I paid over $1,200USD to get my picture of Tulum. That is by far my most expensive shot yet but it is totally worth it and was lots of fun to see these Mayan ruins from the air. The cost will depend on how far the site that you are photographing is from the heliport. In the USA it is much cheaper. You can expect to pay between $275 to $350 an hour for a Robinson R22 or other helicopter similar in size. The smaller helicopters are cheaper but are harder to keep stable so the post work will require more labor than if I use a larger more stable chopper. I try and be as resourceful as possible and always go with the cheapest thing i can get. My Tulum picture was done with a very stable helicopter on an awesome day and so it took me less the a week to piece together.

Q: How do you put the photos on canvas?

A: A lot of people are still baffled by this idea of putting a photo on canvas. Many companies like HP, Epson & Kodak make printers that will print directly onto a canvas from a computer. This has been termed a Giclee by fine artists. The word “giclée”, from the French language word "gicleur" meaning "nozzle", was created by Jack Duganne, a printmaker working in the field, to represent any inkjet based digital print used as fine art. The intent of that name was to distinguish commonly known industrial "Iris proofs" from the type of fine art prints artists were producing on those same types of printers. The name was originally applied to fine art prints created on Iris printers in a process invented in the early 1990s. Artists tend to use these types of "Giclée" printing processes to make reproductions of their original two dimensional artwork, photographs, or computer generated art. Giclée style prints are much more expensive on a “per print” basis than the traditional four color offset lithography process originally used to make such reproductions. These prints are archival because of special inks used and the UV coating.

Q: Do you have posters of Windan Sea?

A: The only poster that I have available is the one of Children's Pool in La Jolla. Everyone always asks me when I'm going to make posters of Windan Sea. I am trying to get these and other posters done before Christmas 2007

Q: Do you have a studio or Gallery?

A: No I don't. I work wherever I can work. I am however looking to stay at least another year in the southern California area and so I would love to find a good spot in San Diego. You can visit me and see my work at Farmer's Market in La Jolla Elementary School on Girard every sunday morning.

Q: Can you make a picture of my house?

A: Yes. This is the greatest way to represent a piece of land. I can make your house the foreground so that it stands out but still manages to show everything that is around your house. Contact me at 619-300-6739 to obtain a quote.

.... To submit a question email: rafaelrivera75@gmail.com...