"Photographic artist" from Albany transforms photography into fantasy
Created: 06/25/2015 6:38 PM WNYT.com
By: Elaine Houston
WNYT13ElaineHouston from Lana Ortiz on Vimeo.
ALBANY - Her work is turning lots of heads. Her pictures aren’t worth just a thousand words – they tell vivid short stories.
However, be warned – she doesn’t do things the old fashioned way.
Welcome to a photo shoot with Lana Ortiz.
Here, nothing is what you expect but then again you have to get inside her head. “I wake up and say ‘I wish what I see others could see,’” she admitted. She calls herself a “photographic artist” and what's inside her head is always a grand vision.
“A lot of pure photographers will go take their picture and they're done,” she acknowledged. However, that's when the real work begins for Ortiz - after the photo’s taken. With the help of Photoshop the story begins.
“Photoshop gives me the satisfaction I would have if I had become a painter,” she explained. So feathers explode in a pillow fight, an enchanted forest appears for a little girl to walk through, and a family goes flying without a plane. If purists cringe when they see the end result, Ortiz beams.
“I could be a plain photographer but it never pans out,” she said.
She loves what she does, and so do her clients. The Ukraine native only began taking pictures four years ago - when her husband bought her a camera. There was no prestigious photography school -just trial and error.
“Sometimes I used cellphone lights, I borrowed or I used a household flashlight,” she recalled. Eventually, the artist she aspired to be suddenly came into view.
Today, she's making a name for herself with her conceptional images, maternity, wedding, even her boudoir shots - they all carry the Ortiz style.
“Why have ordinary when you can have extraordinary,” she asked.
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