Another wonderful week down and hopefully too many to count to go! Loving the sunshine, seriously loving it, like I want to marry it L-O-V-E!

I. We keep seeing this beauty company come up all over the interwebs, looks like a great resource for clean beauty!

II. Looking for new artists to follow on Instagram?  We are loving Gideon Rubin’s memory based work.

III. This chocolate company is trying to change a whole industry practice one chocolate bar at a time (bonus–packaging is charming and it tastes great!)

IV. Instagram has a new ‘ask me’ feature where you can ask your fave follows questions in Stories!  We can’t wait to try it out, we think it will be great for businesses maybe not as fun for personal?

V. I just listened to a podcast on Orchiddelirium during the Victorian age. As the name implies it’s about intense orchid obsession and it has all the ingredients for a wonderful tale-passion, adventure, lawlessness. Really interesting listen, so much so that I started reading this book to coincide with my own delirium about orchiddelirium.

VI. Because this is just too good to not share, such inspiration in spades!

star orchid, graphite on paper by tristan b.

For those of you that don’t know, Michelle and I run a  font foundry (part of our desire to create a little creative empire, one must start somewhere in the empire building, no?) with said foundry, we are collaborating with the oh so talented Belinda Love Lee for a giveaway of a font of your choice (for you and a friend) and this gorgeous letterpress print from her new paperie. We love Belinda Love Lee’s minimal +warm aesthetic. Be sure to check out her beautiful work and feed!

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Rare Bird Font Foundry

Belinda Love Lee Paperie

Belinda Love Lee Instagram

Every week we write this I can not believe how fast the week flies by. Also, every week we write this I wonder when I am going to stop? Nobody else seems to be blogging anymore, but I can’t figure out a great way to get the info we want to share to you in a format that is as easy as this? We don’t Facebook, it just never resonated for us. We Instagram like lunatics (we actually have 5 Instagram accounts, 2 personal), but it doesn’t have that same ease. I personally feel like a last hold out of an archaic system, the information decimation equivalent of an individual still using cassette tapes while the rest of the world has moved on to streaming. So I ask, what blogs are you reading still?  If you are I’m going to take a guess that they are either home or food blogs, am I right?  Just curious, as I move forward with the times (and I do want to), I am trying to figure out what Besotted should be (if anything), just a little ponder…

I. This isn’t new eye candy, but it’s still incredibly creative and smile inducing!

II. I love a nude lip, and word on the street (love her or hate her) is that this is a really, really good one!

III. I am obsessed with this nature docuseries, OBSESSED. I can not believe all the perspectives they were able to capture from literally birds eye views to bees dancing, to snowflakes falling. I can’t even begin to understand how they did it or the time and skill it took to accomplish, just fabulous!

IV. What are your thoughts on this new Synograph process? Yay or nay?  I really liked the idea for these found art pieces…I am intrigued…

V. I am still going strong with the 100 day project (100 days of botanicals). I am almost on day 70 and can tell you it has been one of the best creative exercises I’ve done for myself in a long time. I now have a cohesive (ish) body of work that could potentially turn into a portfolio.  I can tell you it has been incredibly challenging with an already filled to the brim schedule, but I’ll share some things I think I did right, that have helped me stay on track. I chose a subject that I loved and that was readily available–botanicals. I didn’t limit it to just photographs, I included drawings and paintings (and whatever medium I desire to represent the botanicals). Both these two decisions have made it easier for me to continue to stay motivated and not feel like I am stuck in a creative rut. If you choose to do something like this you don’t need to share with anyone, but I would encourage it, because it has kept be accountable and I have been introduced to some new industries and faces from around the globe and that my friends is very exciting!

photo by tristan b. | shot with iphone | edited with foto rx co. fine art b+w photoshop actions

Our prompt this week for our Foto Rx 52 weekly photo project is ‘nature’. Even in urban areas nature is abundant. You can even bring nature inside and create still life images. Make this an adventure, either exploring a new place or collecting treasures on a nature walk. Shoot large, epic scenery, or perhaps try your hand at macro? Who knows? This may even inspire a series for you. We linked to some great inspiration for modern nature photographers that have really gone outside the box on how they approach this subject.

It’s not too late to start your Foto Rx 52, shooting consistently will be the fastest way to becoming a better photographer. Follow us on Instagram for more inspo and edit examples. Shoot this week’s prompt and use #fotorx52 so we can find you and cheer you on (also feel free to borrow our hashtags so other people can find you!).

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Image edited with Modern + Moody presets (launching soon!!!)
Wilder California
Jeremy Vessey
Dylan Furst
Benjamin Hardman
Kate Holstein
Still blog by Mary Jo Hoffman

I. Michelle just finished ‘The Little Book of Talent’, 52 tips for improving your skills, she’s giving it a thumbs up so I am downloading tonight! This is the 2nd in a series, here’s the first one.

II. Instagram has announced IGTV, basically it’s Youtube in a vertical orientation filmed on your mobile device, here’s the ultimate guide to IGTV.

III. After working relentlessly for over a year, Foto Rx is going to roll out our first set of professional Lightroom presets for photographers. If you want to up your brands visuals you are going to want to get in on this!

IV. Are you using Instagram Stories?  You can now add GIFS (the rotating images) to Insta Stories with this tutorial.

V. I LOVE podcasts, but I don’t usually have time to listen except when I am cooking dinner, this also happens to be the time my daughter likes to hang out with me. I was looking for a podcast that we could both enjoy and stumbled upon this great one by NPR. We have listened to the one about water and owls vs. bats (which is going to be made into a new child friendly debate podcast). They are filled with interesting fun facts that we can later discuss or delve deeper into if she is inclined.