About Me

My name is Krystal Ritenour (Blake). I am an enthusiast for candid style photography. I would not consider myself to be a “Traditional Photographer” but more of a “Candid Photographer”. Yes, I can photograph or film “traditional” things, but my approach is less traditional, less “posed” or planned and more natural- more and free-flowing in a way that allows the moment itself to show me what to capture…

For me, this is the place where life stands still, and It’s a mixture of pain and pleasure. I have awful memory, I forget nearly everything no matter how meaningful it is- which has led me to an obsession with capturing moments that I can look back on, even though they cause me pain most of the time, it’s better than not remember anything. Why do photos cause pain? Because you have to accept that time has passed and that although you can look back on moments, you can never relive them, Philosophical by nature, this is something that conflicts me as photographer.

Digital multimedia has been a passion of mine since I was a child. It began as a six or seven year old using disposable digital cameras to photograph my pet cats which grew with me into a ten year old using an early 2000’s digital cameras to capture wild animals until it faded when my camera broke after dropping it out of a tree that I climbed, trying to photograph a squirrel. There were other moments speckled throughout my childhood with a video camera that I had, where my cousins and I would try to recreate films that we enjoyed. But as an adult, the passion re-emerged as I found myself relaxed, photographing nature again in my spare time during my high school years. 

Finally, during my young twenties, after dropping out of college due to a lack of interest in the available fields, I decided to try out photography as a career path, and it worked, enough. I found myself immersed in not only photographing, but filming local musicians from my microscopic but creative small community. From there, I began capturing candid moments of my own family and friends and ended up expanding my music-based digital media focus to incorporate a proffesional candid-styled one for others to capture their meaningful, real life memories as well.

And that’s how I landed where I am today as a photographer and videographer, here to capture life’s finest, most true moments- real life, whether you’re creating art or making memories with loved ones, I’m here to capture it all.