Ryan Phillips Blog

This is such a great quote and check out this shoot. Simply amazing! This was shot one year before I started assisting him. I didn’t know him that well but this seems so out of character for him. A great departure! He was one of the nicest photographers I ever worked for. One more thing…this was all shot Large Format with zero effects! The degree of difficulty to shoot this with only styling and lighting on an 8×10 Film Camera is insane. In addition, if I remember correctly, everything was Speedotron…not the most consistent light source…especially back in 95′!

“And if a day goes by without my doing something related to photography, it’s as though I’ve neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. I know that the accident of my being a photographer has made my life possible.”

Richard Avedon – 1970

Click Here to see the whole shoot:

Here is a sweet behind the scenes look of me shooting a private client in Africa.

Equipment:

ProFoto 2400 w/s D4 pack, 4 heads, a 5 foot Octa-Bank, a 3×4 Soft-Box, One light through a giant scrim, 1 light bounced from the side, a 580 EX II on a stand for a slight kicker in the back and an Acute 600 R Battery Pack at the top of the stairs for the rim light…plus a whole slew of C-Stands, Pineapples for sandbags and a ton of Canon gear. The stand bag alone for one leg of an international flight was $600!

I recently interviewed Jeremy Cowart for the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) magazine. Here’s the excerpt in case you missed it!

Jeremy Cowart PPA July 2010 Article

I also just turned in my article on Joey L for the September Issue. I am really excited it about it. If you are not familiar with Joey L, check out his work at www.joeyl.com or search through my blog to see some videos on him.

Earlier this month we taped a 4 hour interview with legendary photographer Guy Webster at his studio in Venice Beach, California. The interviews will air in a multi-part series on PhotoZen next month. For those of you unfamiliar with him, you should check out his work. With a career that spans over 40 years he has photographed some of the most famous and influential people in the world. Displayed on the wall behind him are some of the most famous images in rock and movie history but to him they are all his friends, most of whom are now deceased. Our interview was colorful to say the least as Guy is the closest thing Photography has to it’s version of Hunter S. Thompson. He holds nothing back as he shares stories from a long, drug filled, politically charged, rock-star lifestyle. In this interview you will hear everything from why Jim Morrison appears shirtless and Jesus like in the now famous photographs and about a female rocker strung out on heroin peeing on his tripod. That is, by the way, where he draws the line…

Stay tuned for our exclusive interview with Guy and follow him in the future as one of PhotoZen’s sponsored Masters! For now, enjoy 6 of the 12 shots he let me take of him. His people say he doesn’t like to have his picture taken and judging by the 30 year old bio pic on his site, maybe that is true. However, as he looked down at my “digital” camera; I think this long time film photographer was testing me and wanted to see what I would come up with given only twelve snaps of the shutter. Hopefully I did not disappoint…

You may remember Ryder’s friend Ellie. She came in to town for Ryder’s birthday party this weekend. She allowed me 5 minutes to shoot…seriously she said I had 5 minutes and then she was bailing. However when you are shooting a personality like Ellie all you need is 5 minutes. Rock star all the way!

People always ask me who my favorite photographer is and to be honest I never really had one. Sure there are people who inspire me but no one that truly blew my mind except for maybe Giuliano Bekor but mostly it’s about who he is photographing and the set-ups. Facebook recommended a friend to me yesterday. Surprisingly I had never heard of this “friend.” But since we had 10 friends in common I thought I would check it out. Wow. That’s all I can really say. Now, his work might not be for everyone but for me it’s the best. The use of light, color and texture, the posing of the subjects, the creativity over a wide range of subjects and background is just outstanding. What kills me most is that he has only been shooting for 4 years. He has accomplished in 4 years what takes most people a life time. He is one of those rare individuals that transcends our industry into a class all his own.

Enjoy his work… www.jeremycowart.com

I have been planning to launch a commercial website for a few years now but due to the amount of work involved I have put it off. Enter Big Folio! I can’t even tell you how impressed I am with them. I have been with LiveBooks for close to 5 years now and couldn’t have imagined there could be anything better. Well there is! I had a Big Folio site up and running in a matter of hours. It is amazing how much easier their Admin is than LiveBooks. The BF admin is wicked fast and it’s all drag and drop. Customer service is 5 star!!! I know this sounds like an advertisement for Big Folio but it’s not.  I just love to share products that make a difference for Photographers. Whether you want custom or a template site they have it and will get you up and running quick. Thanks again to the BF team! Get your own Big Folio site here…

Check out my Commercial site here….

Wedding + Portrait site is still in the same place…

For Sale: Electronic Rollers AND Backdrops : The Roller system is ceiling mounted and can hold 4 backdrops up to 12 feet in width. It is being sold with all 4 of my drops. You can see the different looks you can achieve in the pictures below depending on how you light them. 3 of the drops are Schmidli’s (www.schmidli.com) They retail for $1200+ per drop. The Black Drop was from a movie rental house in LA and is PURE black not sort-of-black like most drops out there. The system with drops would run somewhere north of $8000. I am selling it for $5000!

*The Schmidli’s are reversible and have an amazing texture on the back. They were all hand painted by Marco Schmidli before he sold the company. The gray backdrop is not shown here. It is great for headshots.

*Only selling as a set. Currently I will not break it up. If you are interested in a single drop email me and I will put your name on a list if it doesn’t sell as a set. They are currently in the Los Angeles : Outside SoCal will incur shipping charges

The Gold Backdrop is the exact same one seen in this picture (I bought it right after the 9th Annual SAG Awards)