We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Blake Jones a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Blake , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I think for me, the biggest risk I have taken with this career is making the choice to pursue it full time. I went to school for photography and graduated in 2013. There were a ton of amazing people that I was in school with but no one was doing this after school which kind of detoured me from diving in head first. I finally got to a point where I just couldn’t accept the fact that I wasn’t doing this full time and just decided it was time to trust myself and my work and if it didn’t work, it didn’t work. I just couldn’t keep wondering “what if?”. I had to really put everything I had into pushing this but looking back, the only thing I would have done differently is just doing it sooner and trusting myself.
Blake , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I got into photography kind of by accident. I was going to school for graphic design and had to take photography classes and once I developed my first rule of film and made my first photograph in the dark room. I knew this is what I wanted to do. From there, I just really started to set goals and started to look at magazines in publications that I would just love to be featured in one day. From there, I kind of had to decide what type of photographer I wanted to be and I kind of felt that portraits and food and beverage type work my strong suit and where I excelled, so that’s where I put most of my creative energy. I think the thing that sets the most with my work is my attention to detail when it comes to light I’ve always had this way of looking at images and scenes and trying to break them down in a way that I could understand how they were lit or what was done to get that mood. I’ve always found it so fascinating to see someone create something so moving or beautiful with very minimal equipment or light in general. One of the things that I get complemented the most on with my work is not always the photograph itself but the light so that’s kind of what I’ve been or have come to be known as is the lighting guy and I’m OK with that lol . I think one thing that I wish I could kind of put out further into the creative world is that I’m a lot more approachable and friendly than people initially think that I am. I love to help people create, and I love to watch people learn and I love to learn too so it’s kind of a win-win.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
I would say for me, it’s just building a life for myself, and eventually a family that I can enjoy while also still being a creative. I love the idea of one day being able to show my children. Hey, like I took that photo or Hey that that photo was was one that I did, when I was your age. I think that the most important thing for me with this is being able to look back and look at my work in a way that I’m proud of.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I would say my willingness to work with multiple different types of clients whether that be actually shooting for them or helping them find the person that would eventually do the project for them or helping people learn how to take on a project. Showing someone lighting diagrams, or showing them how to use equipment so they can get the job done rather than telling them you know I figured out yourself or use YouTube whatever. I think there is a line with a lot of people that they don’t want to cross because they feel like they’re giving away their secrets or they’re giving away all of their knowledge that they’ve had to take all this time to learn and it’s like this isn’t rocket science. It’s not something that is going to hurt me by helping you, so I’m always willing to show someone you know like this is how I learned it this is what I learned I wanna see what you do with it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blakejonesphoto.com
- Instagram: @blakejones