Meet Oliver De La Cruz of Revilo DLC Photography in Greeley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Oliver De La Cruz.

Oliver, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
If I remember correctly, I became interested in photography around 22. I was dealing with anxiety at the time and I started taking pictures with my phone around the house and editing with various apps to cope with my stressful life. I became infatuated with taking pictures, so I decided to buy a camera to take it up a notch. My first camera was a Fuji-Film bridge camera, so it wasn’t anything professional like a DSLR, but I was in love with it and took it with me everywhere I went. Photography served as a gateway to escape my anxiety and focus my attention on something more positive. I would take cheesy photographs of flowers or photo manipulating a space background onto a landscape scenery. A friend of mine who was a model at the time in Denver contacted me about doing a photoshoot. I didn’t think she was serious, so I said yes and went along with it. About a month later she rolls into town and on the day of the shoot she brings two other girls with her, whom I was familiar with already, but I was so scared that I had no idea what I was doing. I was winging it the entire time. I shot with my friend for about a year straight until other people started reaching out to work with me. As time passed, my skills and confidence grew and I started to work with various clients ranging from models, sororities, boutiques to apparel brands.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
My journey as a photographer has had its ups and downs just like any other profession. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but all that served a purpose for sharpening my skills and improving my work. The two biggest obstacles I faced was overcoming my social anxiety to work with complete strangers and finding a style of photography that would represent me. I am a bit of a shy person with a quirky personality, but over the years I have learned how to interact with clients more efficiently and create a welcoming atmosphere that allows room for creativity. Not to mention photography is a very competitive field and it’s easy to get discouraged if one compares their work to another photographer. I’ve done my best to remain positive and persist with my craft and view photography as an aspect that is a part of who I am rather than a form of competition.

Please tell us about Revilo DLC Photography.
I specialize in street fashion portrait photography. Most of the models I work with are local college women from UNC, CSU and CU. I am known for the street / edgy aesthetics that I create with a hint of cyberpunk influence. The one aspect of my work that I am most proud of is being able to extract the hidden “model” within my clients. Most of the women I work with have never modeled prior to shooting with me and it’s full filling to receive positive feedback from the models when they view the final product and how surprised they are to see themselves in a different light. I would say this aspect of my photography is what I am most proud of because there is so much hidden talent in college campuses with individuals that are crazy photogenic, and I make it my duty to reach out and set the stage to expose the “model” within them.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Oh, this is a hard one to answer. The one thing I would have done differently is probably not take on every single assignment that was thrown at me. During my early stages of photography, I always pressured myself into thinking that I had to photograph anything and everything whenever someone reached out to me. If I would’ve sat down and reevaluated my options, it would’ve saved me a lot of stressful nights being up so late editing work that I wasn’t interested in. Other than that, all the mistakes I made along the way paved a road to refine my work and create an aesthetic that is unique to me. Nowadays, I pick and choose my assignments and clients which makes my workload more manageable.

Contact Info:

• Email: revilodlcphotography@gmail.com
• Instagram: @revilodlc

Image Credit:
Headshot of me was taken by Jeremy Poland.

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