Camera and Flask
The Photography of Steven Gray

About

Camera and Flask // Steven Gray: Photographer. Storyteller. Artistic journalism and storytelling around the globe. Based in Pensacola, Florida.

In Ireland.

I am a photographer and videographer with a sincere passion for the art and science of visual communication.

Since graduating from the University of West Florida in 2012, I have worked for and with top performers in both the real estate and hotel industries.

My experiences as a transaction coordinator, marketing manager and staff photographer for different companies taught me the value of client service, clear communication and only making promises I can keep.

My wife and I founded our company, Move Media, LLC, to provide commercial photography and video services for businesses, brands and individuals, and we pride ourselves on exercising high levels of detail and follow-up with our clients.

I am addicted to adding value, and I am always ready to serve.

 
Rock and roll. Completely cleaned out and ready for business. I still can’t believe this is real.
Some places are just iconic. So grateful to have been chosen to capture fresh architectural photos for @casino.beach.bar this year. I barely even beach in my spare time and I still love the heck out of this place. #architecuralphotographer #hospitalityphotographer #restaurantphotographer #pensacolabeach #upsideofflorida #visitpensacolabeach @movemediallc
We have a studio, y’all. On this day, one year ago, I looked at one of my closest friends and said “I’ve been working my butt off nights and weekends to make the photography thing work, and I think it’s time to go part time at my day job. Give me just five full days a week and I’ll build a business in six months.” Four months later, I took the first step and went part time. Two months afterward, the requests came in fast and it became necessary to transition to a purely contract capacity. Six months later, I’m proud to announce that @annierosecreates and I are moving our business into our new studio space in Pensacola’s Long Hollow Neighborhood, just a few blocks away from First City Arts Center. A few years ago, an enterprising photographer opened a beautiful loft studio in this very building. I fell in love with the space immediately. The studio closed and the building was sold when the owner moved to Mobile, and usage of the building changed hands several times. I always wanted to bring back the studio concept, but the timing was never right. I got wind a couple months ago that the space would be available again, and, in the spirit of everything we’ve done this year, I knew it was time to jump off another building and sew together a parachute on the way down. And we’re in! Over the rest of this year, we plan to expand usage of the building to include a limited co-work space to turn this building into what I always dreamed it could be: a place where photographers, designers and writers can incubate ideas, run their businesses, and create a community for each other in a unique and inspirational environment. The upstairs studio space will be available for full and half-day rentals starting immediately. We are taking measurements and plan to have the largest white and black backdrops in town hung for photographers very soon. In the next couple of months, we will also provide a 3-point strobe setup. The neutral, open atmosphere will also be open to videographers who need an empty, loft-style area for interviews or product shots. #levelup #movemediastudio #businessgrowth #upsideofflorida
Five years. @oldhickorywhiskeybar #fiveonthefifth #oldhickorywhiskeybar #ohwb #downtownpensacola
July of 2012. Jaisamand Lake, Rajasthan. I was about halfway through 40-day trip around India. This was a free day between projects. My host was showing me around the area, and we stopped at the lakeside to just take in the scene. It was obviously hot that day, but the sweat on my face and my ill-conceived attempt at growing facial hair belie the arrogance brewing inside me. I felt like I had finally done it. I was the interesting “travel guy.” The “missions guy.” The “eats weird food and unironically likes it guy.” The missions aspect of travel was all well and good, and I was happy to do it, but I was taking too much personal enjoyment in the identity I felt I had built for myself. I had aspirations of parlaying this newfound perception of myself and perception by other people into something bigger when I got home. What a prick. Arriving home from that trip, whatever ego I tried to manufacture from the photos and stories was run over by the steam locomotive that was illness, unemployment and… reality. To some extent, I’ve always carried a slight chip on my shoulder that I wasn’t able to springboard immediately from that trip into some sexy “digital nomad” lifestyle. But experience taught me something. I was confronted by the very real fact that any progress I wanted to make in the world relied on one thing: work. No magic. No tricks. No social media silver bullets. Just finding work to do, and doing as much of it as possible. The journey is not linear. Let me say that again in all caps THE JOURNEY IS NOT LINEAR. My five year plan to be the next Chris Guillebeau became the ten year journey of a confused yet motivated individual who had to find work to do, and doubled down on it as often as possible. This week, the angsty asshat in that photo finally made a move he’s wanted to make for five years. @annierosecreates and I have a big announcement coming. Stand by. #flashbackfriday #travel #entrepreneurship #thoughts #pensacolaphotographer #storytelling #mystory
#TBT to shooting the cover images for @viemagazine’s 2018 Culinary Issue. Swipe to the end to see the final image become the cover. It was such a pleasure to work with @thecouples_kitchen, @jamesbriscione and the entire VIE team on this shoot. To walk into a store and see my work on the cover of a magazine this beautiful was the fulfillment of a dream. #viemagazine #pensacola #upsideofflorida #editorialphotographer #commercialphotographer #covershoot #fashionphotography
Summer storms abound and I’m pretty sure Kiki has made herself clear by now. #pensacolabeach #gulfbreeze #gulfislandsnationalseashore #nature #djimavicpro #aerial #hashtagflorida
About last night... #pensacolabeach #canon #pensacolaphotographer #pensacola #storm #stormporn #cloudporn #upsideofflorida #beach #storytelling #cinematic #visitflorida #visitpensacola #visitpensacolabeach #hashtagflorida #lovefl
Nací con viento Crecí con barco Y a trabo largo me llevo su aliento Pueblo adorado De hombre sereno, de hombre moreno de pelo enredado Nací con viento Crecí con barco Y a trabo largo me llevo su aliento #model #modeling #editorialportrait #cinematicportrait #pensacolabeach #canon #pensacolaphotographer #upsideofflorida #beach #summer #seaoats
I don’t get excited often. I’m excited this week. I hope to be able to share why very soon. #sunrise #upsideofflorida #beach #djimavicpro #cinematic #wanderlust #visitflorida #visitpensacola #visitpensacolabeach #lovefl #hashtagflorida
The view from atop Calle Pedrocchi Dorsoduro. Venice, Italy. I waked into the square and was met by a full chorus of singers belting out Italian classics. Just another day in one of the more magical cities on this planet. @timothysteiner, your Venice posts the other day sent me into thinking and reminiscing. #ahvenice
On Mondays, I wake up hungry... In every spirit of the word. Menu photography from a recent shoot at @yumfishchewfish, captured for @innisfreehotels. (Technically proficient hand modeling by @itsshelbyyyy__, @aidanodaniel and @annierosecreates. 🤙🏻) #foodphotography #foodporn #commercialphotographer #hospitalityphotographer #pensacolabeach #getinmybelly
A little throwback because today is @kat_a_tat_tat’s birthday and this is image we made a few years ago is still one of my all-time favorites. Happy Birthday, dancing lady.
“Over the mountain watching the watcher, breaking the darkness, waking the grapevine. One inch of love is one inch of shadow: Love is the shadow that ripens the wine” #apalachicola #lostcoast #sunset #clouds #hashtagflorida #canon #beach #storytelling #cinematic #visitflorida #lovefl #pinkfloyd
Rise. #moon #italy #travel #italia #igitaly #tuscany #toscana #europe #canon #travelphotography #travelphotographer #lifestyle #travellife #igitalia #artofdestinations
#TBT to about a year ago when renovations completed at @hiltonpensacolabeach and everything was perfection. #architecturalphotographer #commercialphotographer #canon #pensacolaphotographer #upsideofflorida #funatinnisfree #innisfreehotels #hotelphotographer #hospitalityphotographer #visitflorida #visitpensacolabeach #pensacolabeach #beach #lifestyle #visitpensacola #lovefl #tourism
Summer feeling. • First creative collaboration with @savvannnaahh and the results were 🥂 #model #cinematicportrait #pensacolabeach #canon #upsideofflorida #beach #summer #lifestyle #beachlife #hashtagflorida
*🔜 Swipe* I am, perhaps notoriously so among my friends, known for not taking breaks. I wake up, I coffee and I work. It is more than just a vocation at this point, it’s both personal identity and the comfort of routine. ∙ With that said, I’ve been learning a lot about diminishing returns lately. June was a month that about broke me in two. I didn’t find my actual breaking point, but I could feel it getting close, like a gathering wave. My new mission is to learn how to relax again, how to give myself permission to be “off.” ∙ Last week, Annie and I had the opportunity to shoot some photos and spend a night at @cozycoldwatercreek. Even for just the 18 hours we were on site, it was the break we needed. If you’re in the Pensacola area and need a little break from the daily grind, I cannot recommend this place enough, for both the price point and the beauty of the property. #milton #airbnb #coldwatercreek #cozycoldwatercreek #mentalhealth #rechargeyourself
You take the train like you're going to Pisa. But you don't stay in Pisa.⠀ You steam into Pisa Centrale Station, and while the mob exits the train and makes a series of right turns out of the station toward the leaning tower, you jump on a northbound local train and go to Lucca: the ideal small Tuscan city.⠀ Deep Etruscan roots grew the the frost of Roman growth and decline to build a city whose every angle could be a postcard.⠀ Thankfully, Pisa, with its leaning tower and tourist prominence, is just close enough to Lucca to sluice off the major crowds, preserving Lucca as a quiet haven for the local weekend crowd, and any visitors to Italy who prefer a quiet day of people-watching to a day of fast-paced landmark-hopping.⠀ #italy #lucca #travel #pensacolaphotographer #italia #igitaly #tuscany #toscana #europe #canon #roadlesstraveled #travelphotography #travelphotographer #storytelling #igitalia #artofdestinations⠀