Home and Studio: San Francisco, with a month and a half spent in Norway each year (erikalmas.com).

Awards: Photo District News, featured as one of "30 Emerging Artists to Watch" in 2004; Photo District News – Photo Annual 2003 through 2007; Photo District News – PDN Pix 2007 through 2009; Communication Arts Photo Annual 2004 through 2006; Luerzer's Archive – 200 Best Advertising Photographers Worldwide 2007 and 2010; American Photography 2010; Graphis Photo Annual 2010 – Cover Photo; more than 20 Addy Awards.

Selected Clients: Nike, Puma, Pfizer, Neutrogena, Hyatt, Waldorf, Citibank, Toyota, Lantus, Advair, U.S. Postal Service, Adobe, Amtrak, Brides magazine, Golf Pride, Kaiser Permanente, Microsoft, Bristol Myers, Sorel.

Preferred Cameras: Canon 1Ds Mark III, Contax 645 with a Phase One P25 Plus back, Linhof Technika with a mix of Schneider lenses. His favorites are the older and somewhat rare lenses, the Schneider Xenotar 150mm and the Xenotar 135mm lenses.

Personal Projects: A continuing series of nudes, a series of "Falling Women" images that came from a dream, and working with a series of storytelling images based on books such as Jack Kerouac's "On the Road."

Hobbies: Off-road biking ("totally intoxicating"), sailing and wine making.
Advice for aspiring photographers: "Always be taking pictures and then start marketing those right away. The intimidation of not being good enough should be ignored, and you should start putting your pictures out there for people to see. And that applies to fine arts or photojournalism."

When to shoot: "When you're going to shoot in the afternoon, then you have four hours to prepare. It's so much easier to shoot in the afternoon, because the sun gets lower and lower and the light gets better. In the morning, it starts off good and then it gets worse and worse. [In the morning] you can't position yourself in better light; you have to get it right away."

Website: erikalmas.com