Today we're featuring the creative duo behind the blog This Is The Place I Was Telling You About, one of our go-to sources for "where should we go in...". Whether in front of the camera or behind it, a shared passion for storytelling is evident in all they do. Below you'll find out what inspires their stories and some of their favorite places to photograph.
Names: R’el Dade and Marcus Lloyd.
Hometown: Dallas, TX.
Go-to gear: Fuji x100t/f & Canon 1n 35mm film camera.
ONAs you carry: The Clifton backpack in Antique Cognac & the Savannah crossbody camera bag.
On the day you met… We were backstage at a charity show and sparked a conversation over music, Death Cab for Cutie to be exact.
Marcus carries the Clifton backpack in Antique Cognac
How long have you worked together creatively? Two years.
How do you divide creative responsibilities? It just depends on the day, but we try to make sure responsibilities are divided with the other's strong suit in mind. But, usually one will start a blog post and the other will come in and do whatever they want to it. That process goes back and forth a few times until we are happy. For instance, we have passed these interview questions back and forth so much so that Bryan (from ONA) is getting annoyed.
Do you share a similar aesthetic or have different styles? At this point our aesthetics collide all the time but we still pull from different inspirations which keeps the creativity flowing.
Advice for other creative duos? Give each other the space to be different. Our differences are what make us unique, so we try to keep that in mind when we don't see things the same way.
Favorite place to photograph: Hong Kong and Cuba. We can spend hours just roaming the streets and taking photos.
Bucket list destination: Thailand and Australia. This is such a hard question because we honestly want to go everywhere.
Biggest creative influences:
Marcus: Wes Anderson, Rog & Bee Walker, Chef's Table, Cereal Magazine, Nicole Franzen.
R’el: Bill Cunningham, Courtney Halverson, Joe Greer.
Biggest challenge: Disconnecting at the end of the day. We sometimes find ourselves having meetings way after work hours.
What different creative roles do you juggle - how do you find balance? Well, we both are models, so being in front of the camera is a completely different creative process. The balance comes with just going with the flow.
Above: The Clifton backpack in Antique Cognac
One thing most people wouldn’t expect about you? R’el is a karaoke star. Marcus is a great chef.
Mistake you’ve learned from: Learning to negotiate the rates we want has been something we have learned a lot from.
Work you are most proud of: We are honestly just really happy that people have enjoyed what we do. We are really proud and thankful of the recognition and support that has come from just an idea. Seeing this one idea of starting a blog so we can document our favorite places evolve to what it is today, makes us ecstatic.
Most recent “a-ha” moment: When we realized we should really block out times for meetings. It's so easy to assume you can chat about work whenever you want but your partner might not be into it at the moment.
Dream project: Printing multiple city guides and having our own boutique/hotel.
FOLLOW R'EL & MARCUS
INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE | MARCUS | R'EL
