Behind The Lens With Global Exposure Productions
Blake Rackley was a world traveler from the start. His love for experiencing and photographing the most magical places in this world stems from living in a variety of cities and countries. From childhood, he found himself moving from one place to another, first living in Virginia, then Hawaii, Colorado, China, India, and South Korea. All of these places sparked a love for culture, people, and the great outdoors. He realized he needed a way to tell the stories of his adventures, and photography ended up being a happy accident.
“When I graduated college, I wasn’t really sure what to do with my life. I had spent so much time just living life that I never really stopped to think about the future. In my boredom, I bought a digital camera and started taking pictures of anything and everything. Soon I became the family photographer, and I was no longer in the pictures, but the one responsible for making them look good.”
Soon after Rackley fell in love with photography and storytelling, he decided to go back to college a second time to study film and television production. Film school landed him opportunities like working as a behind-the-scenes photographer for music videos, commercial shoots, and short films. After graduation, he put down his roots in Virginia, saved up the money to upgrade his equipment, and started Global Exposure Productions, a successful photography and production company.
“After film school, I learned to combine my passions and began learning how to effectively use my environment to tell a story. It has been an evolutionary process for sure, but I feel that I have really reached a good place in my life where I understand my passions and abilities. Global Exposure Productions is the byproduct of that.”
Starting his own business meant finding a robust, yet easy-to-use online editing tool, and the BeFunky Photo Editor ended up being the perfect fit. From adding finishing touches to his photographs to editing images for his website, Rackley found the tools he needed to touch up sharpen images, soften harsh features, and add artistic filters for dimension. His outstanding photography has led to many opportunities, including being selected as a distinguished photographer for the 2015 All-Women’s Cross Country Air Race, as well as the 2015 UCI Road World Championships Bicycle Race. No matter the type of shoot, Rackley approaches each opportunity with passion.
“I love capturing the moment. To me, photography is about telling a story, much like a film, but by individual frames. I was always a big fan of silent films when I was a kid, because a lot of the information a viewer had to gather from them was through body language and expressions. That to me is what art is, an outward expression of our inner soul.”
Rackley’s love for art, nature, and culture is evident in his work. Those passions combined with pure talent make him an excellent storyteller, and the BeFunky Photo Editor is helping him tell each story one photograph at a time. Taking the leap from family photographer to small business owner was not without risk, but in Rackley’s case it was all worth it. His advice to you aspiring photographers out there?
“Just be fearless. You never will learn how good you can truly be until you try it, and keep striving to learn and get better. Don’t worry about the critics, there will always be critics to everything we do in life. Also, don’t be concerned about failing. Jack Lemmon once said, ‘Failure rarely stops you. What stops you is the FEAR of failure.’ Don’t let other professionals intimidate you, if you know you love what you are doing, keep doing it!”
Talk about inspiring. Want to become a photography master like Blake Rackley? First, follow his advice on being fearless, then click the link below to discover all the tools you need to edit your photos to perfection:
