Devyn - 2020.

I met Devyn a little over a year ago at a housewarming party thrown by her sister, Ryan. We chatted about Photography and and shared some back and forth about how I fit into the very different worlds that came together that night. A few weeks back I was approached to be the photographer to capture some intimate photos as a gift to her Husband I was pleasantly surprised that she remembered our chat and asked for me personally.

For a relative first timer, I’m so grateful that Devyn trusted me in my concepts and our shared vision. She did a wonderful job performing in front of the camera to get the shots we both wanted.

I’m so excited to share these photos with you, I think we were able to come up with some ideas that would make any man’s heart beat right out of his chest (Including a few that are too personal to be shown here).

Thanks again Devyn, I wish you and yours the best and hope to work with you again sooner than later!

Cody and Tegan - 2020.

I first met Cody during my tenure of being a regular at the short lived and much missed Atlanta bar, The Shelter.

When Cody and Tegan announced their engagement, I was ecstatic to hear that these two wonderful people would be tying the knot. I didn’t expect that I would get to be a part of their special day until one day out of the blue I received a message asking me to be the one to document it.

This wedding produced some unique challenges in how I would need to capture and edit certain aspects of it, but the absolutely non-traditional aspects of the entire affair made things so much fun.

For the time capsule, this wedding was held on Halloween 2020. The COVID-19 situation was in full effect, but the ceremony was relatively small and any inside events were appropriately socially distant. The whole ceremony and reception was shot with a telephoto lens and facial coverings were encouraged.

Ruby Marx - 2020.

Ruby is no stranger to this blog. We have shot together several times now, and even once before the shutdowns started earlier this year. She messaged me about shooting some grad school graduation photos and had a very specific set of ideas in mind (that ended up changing a couple of times, but such is the creative process).

We ended up spending part of an afternoon walking around Atlanta’s Piedmont Park trying to find some interesting backgrounds that didn’t have people enjoying their Labor Day Weekend in them. I think we did pretty well.

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On a technical note I’m actually pretty excited about how these photos turned out (and the previous two cat shoots) while using the Capture One Beyond Styles that were released just a short time ago. Out of all of the various film emulations and presets I’ve messed around with, these seem to be both the easiest and for the most part the most true to their representations. I can’t wait to be able to play around with these more in a studio environment.

Ryan (Charlee and Yara) - 2020.

“…We named the dog Indiana.”

Henry Jones, Sr. (Sean Connery) - Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

I’ve been wanting to make that joke publicly for the longest time. I promise it’ll all make sense in just a few moments. As with many of my performing friends, Ryan was introduced to me with a different name. If you have spent any time on this Blog or any of my social media accounts, you may recognize her as having been listed under a stage name.

All of this to say, when I met her long time cat-roommate Charlee (the fluffy brown lady), I had Connery’s line running through my head (and still do just about every time we spend time together). Although to be fair, in this chicken/egg scenario…I’m not sure which Charlee came first.

When I was coming up with the idea for this project and pitched it into the world, was just about the time that Yara (the tiny black one, just a few weeks old) came into Ryan and Charlee’s world. They are still in the process of getting to know and love one another, but in due time they will both accept their roles and sisterly love.

There’s no podcast this update, but hopefully soon I’ll sit down with Ryan herself to talk about some of the interesting things she’s currently working on. Stay tuned for that, but for now…CATS!

Nathan and Sara (Bishop and Church) - 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.

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.

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