Nathan and Sara (Bishop and Church) - 2020.

August 02, 2020

Nathan and Sara were some of the first friends I made after I moved to Atlanta in 2010. At the time Nathan was DJ-ing at a club where his wife Sara was bar-tending her way through her Doctorate. The first time Nathan and I actually “spoke” to each other was after a Friday night event on the same week I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed.

His Facebook message poked fun at the fact that I mostly sat by myself not paying attention to anyone in particular, and it wasn’t until I let him know of the recent dental surgery that we started the first part of our friendship. Flash forward sometime later and Sara invited me over to their home at the time, where Nathan and I got into (no shit) a 3 hour conversation about the “Terminator” franchise of movies. We’ve been close ever since.

I’ll get into it more when the time comes, but for now please enjoy the first steps into a long term project “Cats who live with my Frinds”

Let Me Take Your Picture - Episode 2
Nathan & Sara (Bishop & Church)

In this episode, Blake describes a new project that he is starting and sits down with some of the first friends he made after moving to Atlanta a decade ago to talk about one of the things he loves most in the world...cats.

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At the end of the podcast I mention how much Church is just done with all of us and has retreated to the blanket fort, below are a few extra photos of that as it actually happened.

Rivers Langley - 2020 (2018).

July 24, 2020

So, naturally, I’d be the guy who would want to start a podcast about taking photos of people…during a time when it’s not wise to get closer to 6 feet from someone. I can’t say I’ve ever had the best timing, but when the idea strikes, you have to act on it. Thankfully I know some awesome people who are willing to step up and take on a challenge.

Back in 2018, I had the chance to meet up with Comedian and Podcaster, Rivers Langley, and take some new head-shots at the Standard Deluxe compound in Waverly, Alabama. Check out the first batch of these photos from when Rivers and I first shot together here.

So going back to the podcast, I took a look back at some of the photos I didn’t use back in 2018 and came across a few great moments that I felt needed to be shared and figured I’d chat with the man himself about what he’s been up to in the time of Corona.

Let Me Take Your Picture - Episode 1 - Rivers Langley:

Blake sits down virtually with Comedian and Podcast Host, Rivers Langley to talk Headshots, Comedy, Podcasting, and some experiments with long gone Polaroid film. To see the photos talked about in this episode, make sure to visit the blog at: UNEXphotography.com/news/2020/7/19/rivers-langely-2020.

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During the episode Rivers and I talk about some of his experiments with Polaroid film. He sent me these photos to share with everyone, and I think they are pretty cool. I knew this kind of thing was possible, but I’ve never really tried it myself!

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And if you liked the cut of Rivers’ jib, make sure to check out and subscribe to his very entertaining podcast:

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Let Me Take Your Picture: The UNEXPhotography Podcast - Episode 0.

July 13, 2020

Hey there sports fans, happy to see you. Hope you are doing well, or as well as you can anyway. I wanted to pop in and share some news and a new project with you all. I…uh…started a podcast. Or rather, I have recorded the first episode of a podcast.

I know what you may be thinking, and before you say anything I’m going to pull an Eminem in 8 Mile and do it for you. The world needs another random guy talking into a microphone like it needs- Well, literally anything else. But I hope I can create some interesting content along the way.

I’m in the process of lining up a few guests, and I hope to have episodes out as regularly as I can. Of course, I picked a hell of a time to start a podcast about the people that I photograph when it’s not safe to be around other people, but that’s just something that we’ll get through together.

I may have to do some wiggling with how and when episodes are released since it may be a while until I can responsibly photograph anyone properly.

So go ahead and give it a listen below and stay tuned for more interesting content coming soon.

In this episode your host learns the hard way that podcasting isn't as easy as it looks while trying to explain why we are all here spending this time together.

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I’ve only done one recording session and I’ve already learned a lot about this whole process. Compared to some of my other podcasting experiences, its a lot harder to talk about yourself to yourself than it is to talk with another person.

I spent a few hours just trying to stumble through my outline without screaming into the void and how self-serving I sounded. I have a lot more respect for the hosts of the various shows I subscribe to each week. I hope that as I stretch these muscles it all gets easier.

So here is where I’m going to talk all of the behind the scenes nerdy parts for a quick second, just for record-keeping purposes.

The main portion of this episode was recorded using a Røde NT-USB Mini microphone (that took almost 6 weeks to get here…thanks COVID) directly wired into my iPad Pro running Garage Band. In the future, I hope to use a program like Discord and the Craig Bot to do the recording and then just assemble in GB. Not that there was anything wrong with doing it the way I did, in fact after a brief learning curve I found it pretty easy to edit out stray mouth sounds and extra “Um” and “Uh” sounds.

Right now I’m using Anchor.fm as my host. I probably could leverage some of the built-in audio tools from Squarespace, but for now, Anchor isn’t terrible. The app took an update a few days ago and is running a bit clunky, and their website didn’t want to believe that this website existed, but these are things that can be worked around and updated.

It’s probably too soon to think about monetization, but would ya’ll hate me if I did that? I’m not opposed to being a corporate shill for a product if its one that I believe in. And certainly, a few extra dollars here and there wouldn’t hurt the overall goals of what I am doing.

Let me know what you all think, give me your suggestions, tips, and tricks. And most important of all-

LET ME TAKE YOUR PICTURE

State of the Union - COVID-19 Edition

May 21, 2020

Hi everyone.

Let’s see if I can get through this update with as few Coronavirus tropes as possible. I’m going to do my best to limit any and all references to “these trying times” and the overwhelming feelings of uncertainty that are floating around everywhere these days. I’m fairly certain none of you have been living under various rocks or without any sort of connection to the world at large. It’s pretty clear shit is thoroughly fucked right now.

First and foremost, my loved ones and myself are all pretty good to go. The family is all pretty much doing their thing in the South, and I’m doing my best to stay safe here in Atlanta. I miss my friends, I miss my clients, I miss doing work that I enjoy…but we are all finding ways to keep safe and (mostly) sane.

Looking back at my last posts it becomes very clear to me that for a Photographer I sure haven’t picked up my camera for several months now. Sure, I totally could have shot some cool macro stuff, I could probably safely take a walk in the local nature preserve, hell…I probably could have shot various “Porch Sessions” or “FaceTime Sessions”, but honestly none of that stuff really does it for me. Nothing against anyone doing any of these things…it just doesn’t feel like me.

So I guess that leads into what I have been doing. Pretty early into all of this Serif graciously opened their arms and offered 90 day free trials to their suite of softwares (Photo, Designer, and Publisher) and offered them all at 50% off. I already had my copy of Photo for iOS that I had briefly played with back when I first bought the 2018 iPad Pro (more on this soon) and earlier this year made the jump to Photo for Desktop for all of my retouching.

So I figured it would be a good time to start teaching myself some other graphic design tools. After some time messing around, I think that I have developed some talents when it comes to making logos and other text based items.

I also drew a bird:

I also broke down and have been making some other assets for an upcoming project that I don’t want to let all of the air of yet. But let’s say that it involves comic books (and directly correlates to me re-making logos inside of vector art programs). I’m sure if you keep up to date with regular clients you can probably guess what is going on, but I’d rather not share too much until it’s time.

I’ve also been experimenting with the Gameboy Camera again, and have purchased the tools I need to print it’s photos onto large thermal paper (or at least larger than what the old Gameboy Printer used to do). It’s going to require some additional assembly before I can really play around with it…and I still may buy a doo-dad to physically rip files off the cart itself, but be on the lookout for some more of that type of content coming soon.

Editor’s note: Everything after this text box has been re-typed from memory after it was lost in an unfortunate accident while having multiple windows open at the same time. This incident really made me screaming mad after losing hours of work during troubleshooting.

Speaking of possible poor usage of funds, I bought an iPad Pro…again.

I know. I should have learned my lesson last time. But they hooked me again and this time for the better. iPad-os is now much more of a fully functional OS. The USB-C port on the tablet can now be used to manage files on an external drive, and the file system has been beefed up to handle that management. I’ve even been able to find an FTP program that allows me to connect to my NAS when I’m not on my local network, and with some kludging I can even drop RAW files from my camera straight to it.

And I can even edit this very website from it (mostly).

I’ll spare you my full review because we’ve already gone down that road. I mean, long story short, I love it. And now that I can actually use its power for editing photos and designing, this becomes a much more worthwhile purchase. I can see myself being able to travel with this in my bag and be able to crank out quality work without needing to have a laptop around.

On a non-photographic note I’ve also been teaching myself how to make pickles. What started as a craving for pickled carrots and hummus has turned into an adventure that fills the bottom half of my fridge. I am now well on my way to being the pickle-king of the South East. There is a joke here about surviving the apocalypse here somewhere, but I’ll just come right out and say it. No, you can’t have any of my pickles.

Unless you ask nicely.

Thanks, everyone for keeping tabs on me, I hope that soon I’ll be able to safely travel and be around other people again. I have a ton of ideas rolling around the old brain box and I’m so ready to get them out. But, until then, I encourage everyone to stay as safe and as sane as possible, keep washing your hands, stay away from people you don’t live with, and most importantly…be nice to one another.

We’ll all get through this together and I don’t plan on going anywhere any time soon. <3

Gideon Hodge - 2020.

March 08, 2020

The Clown Prince of Cabaret, Gideon Hodge, has been terrorizing stages around the country for nearly 20 years. Known for his boisterous, zany characters and his dynamic movement and acrobatic style, Gideon brings his circus and theatrical background to the stage in his various personas and creative endeavors.

Gideon and I last worked together in June of last year when he commissioned me for some new headshots for what I thought would be a book jacket photo. I thought we got some very usable images, but unfortunately, they weren’t quite what was needed for the job.

I wanted the chance to make things right, and Gid wanted to capture something more closely resembling the work I’ve been doing in my home studio. So, of course, I invited him right over, and with the help of Courtney from Courtney Walters Makeup, it was off to the races.

Bonus outtake GIF!

Gideon also pursues his own writing with sitcom Pros and Cons, web series 20 Something, novel Lilith’s Redemption and other projects. For updates, please follow up on Instagram @gidjinn or at gideonhodge.com He can also be found at his podcast A Strange, Strange World on Spotify, Anchor and other platforms.

He profusely thanks all of you for putting up with him for all these years, and looks forward to many adventures to come. He is available for contact for bookings and appearances at gideonhodge@gmail.com