A day with Sunflowers

A friend of mine collects interesting stuff. He recently moved to Seattle and he gifted me a few of his really cool things. Three of those things were masks. I had been wanting to use them for the longest time with no luck. One day last summer, I decided to contact three friends, and they were really cool about wearing the masks in the heat and then chilly evening.

We went to a beautiful sunflower field, found an open space and took the pictures.

I keep a notebook with me all the times. I write down every crazy idea that comes to mind, andsometimes it's a bunch of random pieces of papers. Don't be afraid to try out those ideas and have some fun. Thank you to my sister and assistant Magnolia who did an awesome job helping set up.

My Dominican Family - Photo Series [ Denver Portrait Photographer ]

 

It had been a long time since I've visited my family still living in Dominican Republic. I live here in Denver, and well, time flies and before you know it, 15 years go by before you go back to visit.

Once there - and being a photographer and all - I wanted to photograph everything and share quality time with my family, which was hard, because I was traveling with my parents plus my aunt and her husband, and that meant visiting everybody for about an hour and then move on to the next house. I also did a lot of street photography, mostly photographed from the car, because we had very little time to peruse. I will create a second post with the photographs of what I saw from my car and the two road trips we did.

The following portrait series are very personal photos and I am so happy I got to do them. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to photograph every member of my family like I wanted to, but eventually I'll go back again, hopefully with more time to walk around the city, do longer visits, and add more family members to the series.

All the images were created with my Fuji X100s and editing was done with LightRoom 5.

 

Until next time! www.florblakephoto.com

Americas Latino Eco Festival Portrait Series

 

Back in October I had the opportunity to photograph a series of portraits for the Americas Latino Eco Festival (ALEF). The portraits are of the speakers of the festival. They are a mix of local Denver artists, ALEF board members, and environmentalist national personalities.

Every single person was delightful and brilliant. I feel extremely honored for the opportunity to create a portrait of each of these remarkable individuals.

 

 

Until next time www.florblakephoto.com  

Portrait of Lt. Governor Joe Garcia

Several weeks ago I went to film the Lt. Governor Joe Garcia for an event he couldn't attend because he was going to be out of town.

As it turns out, the Lt. Governor is really cool, I told him that I probably had met him before in another event and he said that he doubt it because he would never forget to meet me because of my name, he really likes the main actress in the movie Spanglish, and there's a whole scene where they talk about how to pronounce "Flor" in it. I laughed and told him that that's how I get people to pronounce my name, I asked them if they've seen the movie Spanglish and then I tell them, "well, remember that whole scene? You get to practice now!

In case you are wondering, here's the link, it's actually really funny, just jump to minute 3:34 for it.

Anyway, I digress, when the interview was over, I asked him if I could have two minutes before his next appointment to do a portrait, and he said yes! In the next 20 seconds, I went on to find the simplest background in his office and snapped about 20 frames.

 

Until next time. 

www.florblakephoto.com

Blair Griffith - Miss Colorado 2011

I met Blair at the Close to Home campaign launch Event where she was one of the speakers. Close to Home is a campaign to help increase understanding and move Coloradans to speak up and ultimately take actions that make a meaningful difference in addressing homelessness.

Blair, became homeless a month after she won the title of Miss Colorado USA back in 2011. Her father died when she was fourteen years old of prostate cancer. Her mother had a sudden heart attack, and major surgery led to the family's economic situation and bankruptcy Griffith's mother also lost her insurance when her insurer declared that the heart attack was the result of a pre-existing condition. That meant that she had to pay her medical expenses, including $800 a month for medications, on her own.

Now Blair is an advocate for homelessness issues and a motivational speaker. She is absolutely amazing and an inspiration. After the event, I had about 10 minutes to do a portrait, and she is so gorgeous I could not just choose one.