Valerie Topete - Photography Developer

Valerie Topete is a very skilled rider for a top New York City courier company called Mercury Rises. She started as a freelance courier and for three years she pushed herself to create a reputation that suited her drive and dedication to the job. It was that dedication and competitive nature that led her to Mercury Rises and top rider for her new company. Topete credits her success with her ability to multi-task.

 

Bicycling around the Big Apple everyday gives her the perfect opportunity to search for new and unique viewpoints for her photography. Always quick with at least her smartphone, she is always ready to capture the perfect image. Her fascination with everything New York City inspired her to start taking pictures of the architecture and people that she would see each day. As she became more versed in the layout of the city and began exploring parks and gardens with her two boys, Topete has more recently taken an interest in botanical images. 

Topete started off by just posting her favorite images to her personal social media site. The albums that she would upload of her treks around the city were so popular and the overwhelming support from her friends and family encouraged her to go professional. After conferring with some friends that already had online stores for their craft goods, Topete took their advice and created her own website. After launching her online business, Topete saw great sales and the demand for her work is skyrocketing. She continues to produce new images and uses her time at work and with the family to look for inspiration across the city. 

Her interest in photography has grown and she has recently taken an interest in the process of developing her own photos. While Topete took photography classes in high school, the actual development of film was never something that was covered. After researching different local options, she found a four-week class at her local junior college that would introduce her to the process. Now educated in basic techniques, Topete spends her evenings after the boys are in bed in her makeshift darkroom in the basement. 

The project of developing her own photos has been a long endeavor, but one that has renewed Valerie Topete’s dedication to her art. She has been able to explore different exposures and enjoys being able to develop her own photos. While the process is time consuming and the chemicals can be expensive, she believes that the fact she is processing her photos herself makes her photography more of an art form. In addition, the new development styles that she has been playing with have sold very well on her website in addition to the traditional prints.

Valerie Topete - A Changing Photographer

As a successful bike courier in New York, Valerie Topete has seen her fair share of the city. Working full time for one the most competitive courier businesses out there, Topete spends her days weaving through the city, racing to deliver her parcels, packages and letters. Her dedication to her job has led her to become the most well-known and successful couriers at her company. Working for Mercury Rises for the past four years, and as a freelance courier for three years before that, Topete knows her way around and excels at navigating the blocks between deliveries.

For several years she had enjoyed the architecture and people that she observes every day so much that she took up photography as a way of capturing the sights. Her unique photos of the city, from angles and spots that most tourists never see, became so popular that she turned a hobby into another part-time career.

Topete began as an amateur photographer snapping photos from her smartphone as she biked around for work. She stands by her advice to always be ready to take a photo, and while she uses her SLR camera as much as she can, more often than not, her smartphone is what she has available. Regardless of the type of device, the most important factors to Topete when it comes to photography are the lighting and subject matter.
As each courier assignment takes her to a new part of the city she has never seen, Topete had the opportunity to observe the assortment of gardens and parks scattered about. Designed by some of the best in the business, the garden displays nestled between skyscrapers and the shadows of monuments always intrigued Topete. The more she traveled, the more she started to notice the varieties and intricacies of the plants that made up these gardens. Soon, Topete found herself planning her courier routes past these gardens or through Central Park. Now, as her eye for photography focused on the beauty of the gardens, Topete shifted her subject matter from architecture and people to high resolution, up-close botanical photography.

With all of the hidden garden gems tucked away throughout the city, Valerie Topete is never at a loss for subject matter and quite enjoys the hunt for new and interesting locations. During the workday, Topete scopes out previously unknown gardens, and during the evenings or weekends, her and her family picnic in the parks. The hobby really has turned into a family affair, as the children run around hunting for pretty flowers and plants, and Topete follows with the camera to capture their finds. Whether the shots are professional quality or just family memories doesn’t matter, but combining passion and family does.