Retro camera on bamboo table (kamontad123 (123RF))
“Stars and Stripes gave me the opportunity to have my first professional [photography] job. It was challenging….I had never worked with a magazine….It was a learning experience….It was [also] amazing”
— Germán Rodriguez
Self portrait (Germán Rodriguez)
Master Sergeant Germán (pronounced herr-man) “Rod” Rodriguez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He joined the U.S. Army 22 years ago and started taking pictures for fun a few years ago. In 2024, he decided to take his photography “a little more seriously,” bought his camera and “went crazy” buying lenses. After taking pictures of random strangers (don’t worry he asks their permission), his “beautiful girlfriend” Monika, architecture and landscapes, he decided to give professional photography a try and applied to be the photographer for the 2024 “Tattoo Armed Forces Magazine.”
“Photography helps you take the moment. It helps you relax. When I look at some of my pictures, I remember this time; I remember this moment.”
— Germán Rodriguez
In preparation for the magazine, Rod wanted to practice photographing people with tattoos. He and Monika happened to be in a karaoke bar and spotted Phil Eskridge, so Monika suggested that Rod ask Eskridge to do a photo shoot with him. Eskridge was nervous but ultimately agreed. Rod said, “he had never been photographed (professionally). He was so nervous. We stopped [the shoot] and I said, ‘get your guitar, start playing the guitar, start doing what you want to do.’ From that moment on, the whole shoot changed.”
Phil Eskridge facing profile and looking down at his guitar (Germán Rodriguez)
Rod’s instincts were right. Eskridge, who turned out to be a DOD ID holder and therefore eligible to be in the magazine, was chosen for the cover of this year’s magazine. When I asked Rod how it felt to know that the cover photo was chosen from his first photo shoot he said, “It’s actually great….It’s a good feeling. That photo shoot was one of the most challenging because it was in a bar. The lighting was not good at all, and it was really dim. So, I had to bring some whiteboards so I could reflect a little of the light that I had.”
Rod brought that same energy to all of his photoshoots. When he photographed Luis Colón Cartagena, he made sure to ask him about his likes and hobbies. Cartagena loves baseball and Rod had Cartagena’s wife throwing the baseball off-camera to create action shots.
Cartagena swinging a baseball bat at a yellow baseball (Germán Rodriguez)
Photographing tattoos and tattoo models was a new, but nice, experience for Rod. “Tattooing is an art within an art. Different people have different reasons for their tattoos…. It’s that connection between art and how someone feels about himself or herself.”
Rod even has a few tattoos himself. His tattoos are all nature-themed: animals, skies, the sun, flowers, etc. The flowers “remind me of my mom. They were the flowers, when I was a kid, that I would take it from our garden, and give it to my mom so she could put it in her ears.”
Arctic Circle (Germán Rodriguez)
Rod’s favorite things to photograph are portraits of people. His favorite subject? His girlfriend, Monika. He claims that “half of my photographs are of her” and that his favorite photograph is one he took of her while they were in Italy. He also enjoys just capturing the moment, whether it is of animals or landscapes or his soldiers when they are on off-time during their TDY missions. In Norway, he had the opportunity to shoot beautiful landscapes and arctic foxes. He laments, however, that while there he could not get a good shot of the Aurora Borealis, but he plans to return in the future to fix that.
As far as the future of his photography, he hopes to capture that shot of the Aurora as well as “get better at what I do. I’m still learning.” He talked about how his YouTube history is videos all about lighting and how different camera lenses work. “I’m in my last three years of military [service]. I have these three years to basically [get] good, to transition my way out and have a job as a photographer full-time.”
Arctic fox looking up at camera, sitting on snow (Germán Rodriguez)
To hear more about Rod’s photography journey and photographing people for the Tattoo Armed Forces magazine, watch the accompanying video. You can also check out his Instagram page @g.rod.pena.pics to see his most recent photos. To see all the great tattoos he captured for the magazine, grab your copy of “Tattoo Armed Forces” on Exchange shelves now or check out the digital version here.
