Questions for: Sabina Miklowitz, photographer 

NEW TIMES How did you become interested in photography?

MIKLOWITZ I grew up in a very artistic family, and I was exposed to art from an early age, through books and gallery exhibits and my father’s travel slides. I suppose I first became interested in actually doing photography when my parents gave me a camera for my 10th birthday. I loved the camera as an object; I still remember how it smelled, and I remember the satisfying click of the lens cover opening and closing. I took the camera with me on school field trips, and sometimes my dad and I would drive out to the surrounding vineyards to take pictures. Photography was always something I enjoyed doing as a hobby in my spare time, but it took a backseat to music until my last year or two of high school. It was then that I started going out on photoshoots with friends, and I discovered my true passion in portraiture.

NEW TIMES What is the most interesting/bizarre thing you have photographed?

MIKLOWITZ I was recently contacted by an architecture student from Cal Poly who had won an award for his chair design and wanted stylized pictures of it for publication. It really is an ingenious design (it has the ability to fold into several shapes for several purposes), and it was a new experience to blend my knowledge of fashion photography with furniture advertising. I worked with a makeup stylist and a model to complement the piece, and it was fun to improvise with various poses and arrangements around the constant that was this piece of functional art.

NEW TIMES What are some of your other hobbies or talents?

MIKLOWITZ Music has been a big part of my life for about as long as I can remember. I was singing along and harmonizing to Bob Dylan before I even started school, and I’ve been playing violin and piano since fourth grade. Singing, in particular, has always been one of my greatest joys, and throughout junior high and high school, I composed and recorded a lot of songs for piano and voice. I still enjoy learning to play songs by Regina Spektor and Radiohead, although I haven’t written anything of my own in a while.

NEW TIMES What image editing software do you prefer?

MIKLOWITZ Adobe Photoshop all the way. They’ve pretty much got the market to themselves, I don’t think there is any comparable software out there.