A Quest for a Queendom

 Visual Story.

 

Flor Blake is a Portrait, Editorial and Commercial Photographer based in Denver, CO.

Myriam Elisa Portraits { Denver Portrait Photography }

Myriam is a very good friend of mine and she's gorgeous. I like to joke about how I only know beautiful people, but then I shoot them and I realize that it's true, because they are beautiful inside and out. Myriam was so fun to shoot, she was up for any ideas that I came up with and she came up with a few herself. She loves vintage looking clothing and loves dressing up, plus she has such a classic beauty look, that her style really works for the type of editing I decided to do, a vintage inspired editing.

 Myriam helps me out whenever she's available, she's a fantastic Public Relations and Marketing Mastermind so she always does a fantastic job. She helps me with promotion, production, sometimes even hair and makeup, but she's hesitant when it comes to being in front of the lens, but this time she said yes and she was perfect.

I am also in love with my blue paper backdrop and it ended up being perfect for this!

Here are a few pictures that really stood out.

Flor Blake is a Portrait, Editorial, and Commercial Photographer based in Denver, CO.

www.florblakephoto.com

Lenny Jonas Portraits - { Denver Portrait Photography }

I had the opportunity to shoot Lenny a few weeks ago. He contacted me because I had the pleasure of making his daughter's senior portraits, and he remembered he liked my work!

He is a veterinarian, he wanted pictures for marketing and also to share with his family. All these pictures are in his house, how cool is that, no need to go to a park when you have a beautiful home or backyard. The pictures are all directed natural light (aka: my assistant holding a silver reflector), and with post-production in Lightroom.

I loved photographing him! Here are a few of his favorites.

Sour Looks: A photo series { Denver Portrait Photographer }

I decided that this year was going to be different, and by different I mean shooting more. Enough of watching tutorials, reading blog posts, and hoping to become a miraculously amazing. The best way to become a great photographer is by shooting. Don't let your ideas just sit there, go out there and make them.

I've had this idea for the longest time. I wanted to snap pictures of people as they first put in their mouths a piece of super sour candy. Well I did it, and the results are hilarious, at least to me! 

Take a look:

All of the images were shot with the Fuji X100S.

Until next time.

Why I love watermarks in social media

I spend a lot of time looking at photographs, paintings, illustrations, really art in general. I also spend a lot of time on Facebook, Pinterest, StumbleUpon, and social networks similar to those. I love inspiration, I have binders with tear-sheets from all of the magazines I read with images that move me. With magazines and books is easy to have your references right there, because if I want to look up the photographer who shot a picture I like, I just look at the photo credit. Not the case with the websites I mentioned above.

Watermarks help people find you and your work. Watermarks are helpful, because when I see an image I love, I am that person that goes and finds everything that artist created. I fall in love with the body of work, with their process, I like looking at every image available and then I go and like their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Behance, you name it.

There are millions of pages created in Facebook dedicated to photography, most of them share the picture, but not the creator and that drives me crazy. Same thing goes with Pinterest and even StumbleUpon. Pinterest is generally good because if you click on the picture it takes you back to the website that posted the picture initially, however, that website may not include a photo credit. Moreover, sometimes StumbleUpon pulls images off the web when you are “stumbling” but it’s just that, the image, no credit attached to it.

Why is it okay for painters to sign their work and not okay for photographers? If you have a Flickr, 500px, Facebook account, etc., watermark your work, sign it! Watermarks do not have to be intrusive, they can be include it tastefully without distracting from your image. I know that many disagree with me, but I also think is personal choice. If somebody likes your picture and wants to share, they will do so with or without the watermark.

When I first saw this picture above I was hooked, I loved it. I immediately wanted to see if the photographer had more! I checked the picture, and in the right corner, almost falling out of the picture, there is a tiny almost transparent name, Elena Kalis. Turns out, she is a super talented underwater photographer and this picture is part an amazing body of work including a series called “Alice in Waterland,” now, that’s cool! Had she not included a watermark, I don’t think I would have found her, or least not as easily.

Another example is this cartoon above. When I saw it, I was laughing so hard because it’s true for me! Anyway, somebody had shared it on Facebook, on their wall, so no link going back to his facebook page. However, this artist, Sebastien Millon, knows about watermarks and the power of them! Now I follow him on Facebook, and even have purchased postcards on his Etsy shop!

I’m not advocating for watermarks in the images on your website, I’m advocating for watermarks on your pictures on social media. You never know who will see your work or who will buy it because they were able to find you. Unless you are Annie Leibovitz, David LaChapelle, Mario Testino, Jeremy Cowart, Mark Seliger or the like, I think you could use a little bit more promotion.

One last thing, watermarks are important in social media settings because one day Jeremy Cowart can tweet about how much he loves a picture you made, but he doesn’t know who took it! And also add the picture to his "Photography inspiration" Pinterest board!

So do yourself a favor and SIGN your images, you never know what's going to happen!

Street Photography from my trip to San Francisco

It seems like ages ago but it's been only 4 months since I went to San Francisco. I was able to break in the Fuji x100s, walk around, and enjoy the city. I ate a lot, walked a lot and ate some more. The best part was enjoying getting to spend quality time with my best friends and my wife for sure!

You 'll see that my hair makes some cameos in the images, but I decided to leave them there because it shows how close I am to some of my subjects. I had the camera in silent mode all the time, so sometimes I didn't even know if I'd taken the picture or no, it was kind of a surprise, a little bit like shooting film again.

Here's a collection of my favorites:

 

 This camera is amazing, simply amazing. I love it and cherish her like a child!