My introduction to the Hive Community

rubencress(75)

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Hey HIVE! It's Ruben Cress, introducing myself to the brand new Hive community. An initiative brought to you by @Anomadsoul which is sponsored and supported by @blocktrades and @ocd. While some of you may already know me, a lot has happened and a re-introduction sounds fun! For those who are completely new to HIVE: WELCOME! You gonna have so much fun here.

Who am I?

My name is Ruben Cress, based in the Netherlands, and my age is between 18 and 70, depending on the situation. I brand myself as a photographer and I've been a crypto enthusiast for more than 3 years, I've been sharing most of my work online on Social Media Blockchain platforms, and by doing so it has helped me out a lot on a personal level. Two years ago, I've been diagnosed with PTSD, depression and a bunch of anxieties that were in constant self-conflict. While I still have some struggles with dealing with it every now and then, when I started blogging on such a platform, I believe it helped me out tremendously and for sure, these were the first steps for me to heal so I could face and accept my "demons".

Photography

I've been passionate about photography for over a decade. Capturing and freezing time through my lens is something that I enjoy doing a lot. What really hits me while photographing is the "why, what and how", and exactly in that order. Where I first started as a rookie, I now photograph for clients all over the world. Of course, my main business is focused on companies that reside in the Netherlands. I don't really care about the size of a project, I'm more interested in the story behind it and that's why I like to do them all. I never ever imagined I would've been asked to photograph the Vice President of the Netherlands, especially not at the very beginning of my depression, that was one of the many moments that I cherish during that period of my life.

On another social media blockchain platform, I often did live streams, where people could watch my post-processing workflow and maybe learn something. I had some music on the background, and later I deleted the stream to keep it a little bit more exclusive to where I was posting on. Below, you'll find a speed version of one of my streams.

Portrait photography

I started with portrait photography, and have used my whole family and friends as models the moment I had a photo studio built in the garage of my parents. When I started sharing these portraits, it didn't take long to get my first paying customer. I had no idea what to charge, as I had so much fun doing it. I felt honored that someone even asked me to photograph them.

Travel photography

This all began when I flew for the first time, picking up a DSLR at the states. Every time when I travel, I can't help it, but to photograph all the sights that cross my legs. Documenting places as to how I remember them makes me travel back into time every time I revisit my work. It all began with taking snapshots until I got my hands on a wide-angle. After that, travel photography changed for me and it became a big part of my life during my travels. I hope to capture more of the world in the future because we will never capture enough beautiful sights, right?

Product photography

Because I was always busy with experimenting with light, I developed an interest in product photography along the way. At first, I thought it was much easier to have a still object to photograph than something that moved. But of course, as you do more product photography, you find out that working with different materials that the light cast on it will reflect differently. It got me hooked, there was so much to learn and discover.

Campaign photography

As I scanned through my pictures over and over, I always tried to see if I could improve the message that needed to be translated. I think this is one of the biggest challenges for me and something that I love doing. To me, the most important thing is to get to the core and see if the fundamentals of a project are in line with the photography being made. If I believe that a briefing is not in line with the values or beliefs of my client, I'll try to think of some suggestions that perhaps are a better fit with both the companies values and beliefs, and is still in line with the briefing.

Interior photography

Another aspect of photography that I enjoy doing is interior photography. I aim to achieve realistic photographs with as less as possible retouching. I love working with natural light and I stay away from over-altered photographs that display something completely else. I usually only remove outlets, cables, and light-switches, and stuff that could've been repaired after my visit when possible or required. Maybe it was I that broke a chair or something... they will never know...

Motion Graphics

Even though I have a degree in Motion Graphics, I barely use it the moment I received my paper. My brother (@inkvizstudios) graduated in Motion Graphics as well, he is a true master of the art, I'm super proud of him and whatever he makes. I hope he has some time to make something nice for the community, but he is almost always occupied, whether it be work, or when he finally has some free time.

Rarely, I do some motion graphic projects that aren't too big, as I can hardly keep up with teaching my self new things in this field as I'm pretty occupied with educating myself more about photography on a daily basis.

As you can see at the very beginning of this post, I embedded a clip that I made for the HIVE community. I thought it would be fun to start After Effects and create something. It has been a while since I did some "real" Motion Graphics, but I thought something simple like this wouldn't be too hard for me to do and maybe it is cool to share. I hope you all like it, feel free to use it.

While I barely make use of my degree, it became very handy when making my showreel to present much of my work in a short video. I haven't made a new one yet, as I am still very satisfied with my current promo. If you haven't seen enough photographs already, you can always check out my showreel that jumps you right through my older work in just a minute.

Oops...

Work work work... does this guy talk about anything else? Not really... I consider myself as a work-a-holic, and I think many other freelancers will feel the same way. Whenever I have spare time, I spent it on gaming, playing the piano (not that much anymore) or making music on my pc. My life had quite the spin the last couple of years, and I think I'm still in the midst of adapting to myself and my (new) reactions to things in life. I've had a depression, was diagnosed with PTSD, anxieties of X and Y and Z, and had developed a defense mechanism that allowed me to do things I didn't really want to do in the past. Now that I have discovered that I don't need that defense mechanism anymore. I became more aware of my own voice, and that I alone can make a difference if I really wanted to. Life has become much easier and challenging at the same time since that change.

Let's hive!

I could go on and on about photography, my post seems to be all about it... and that makes sense because photography is pretty much my life. Anyway, I'm happy to be here, I'm happy to see familiar faces that made the jump as well. I've been thinking about @theycallmedan's initiative, about what HIVE means to me. I started writing a post about it, but while I was thinking more and more about it, the birth of HIVE is so much more than I first anticipated and I am trying to find the words that describe it well.