January's Featured Artist!
Sunset Couple
Happy New Year! This month’s Featured Artist is R Star! He was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and lived in Southern Florida, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Next month, he is making the move to Las Vegas, Nevada to begin yet another journey. R Star has been involved in many facets of the arts, from musician to writer, actor, stand-up, videographer; and most recently, photographer.
As a photographer R Star looks for ‘unposed’, candid moments, where a subject lets down their guard, allowing him to capture something real, raw and unexpected. He is inspired by human behavior and loves to capture their essence in one snap. R Star doesn’t see his work as a job, but as a chance to meet and get to know new people that want to share a moment in their life with him.
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“The beauty of photography is the freeing aspect associated with it. Most video shoots involve lugging equipment such as lights, sound, etc. While light is also important in photography, most times, if I’m doing projects for myself, I just grab a camera, throw it in a backpack and I’m on my way.” Portability is the largest benefit that photography provides, in his opinion.
R Star loves to travel to new locations he’s never been to and snap as many photos as possible along the way. His favorite moments as a photographer are when he stumbles onto gold-- whether it be a majestic environment, a scene with an interesting group or individual, or a unique activity is taking place. These moments inspire and invigorate him as an artist. By far, his favorite location to shoot is Italy, simply because of its history; however, he is excited to visit New Zealand in the near future.
Colosseum Couple
His all time dream client would have been Elvis Presley, though he is interested in seeing ‘behind the scenes’ of any well known individual with a mysterious and private lifestyle. He would also love to shoot (with no restrictions) places that are very restricted such as the Royal Family, or a place like the Vatican.
Currently his favorite cameras are Panasonic GH5 and the Sony A7R III, depending on what he’s shooting. As for lenses, he has a Canon 70-200 2.8 that he uses on the GH5 with an adapter, and a few lenses for the A7R III: a 24-105 F4, a 55mm 1.8, and his favorite, the 85mm 1.4 or 1.8.
Cloud Red Capri
R Star has sold his services, which range from portraiture to event photography to lifestyle, candids, and more. His main marketing at the moment is through business cards, word of mouth, and his website (listed below). His goal for his new business is to keep meeting and working with people that want to create and document those moments that are remembered for a lifetime.
His advice for emerging artists: "As an artist, you ultimately want to find your own voice. Love what you do so much that you'd do it regardless whether you never make a dime doing it. It’s a good thing that people of all kinds can do great work and inspire others to reach for greater.."
To find more of R Star’s work, visit:
Thank you for joining me for this month’s featured artist! Tune in next month for our next featured artist!
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