Ryan Phillips Blog

It’s hard to believe that another birthday has rolled around and in true professional photographer style my own personal photos have slid into oblivion. Carrie asked me today if I ever processed the pics from my birthday last year. You see, professional photographers are cursed and we get so busy working on everyone else’s images that our own personal ones suffer. So no, I hadn’t even touched them…

Last year, Carrie had a special birthday surprise for me. Dinner at Fields Farm by one of my favorite chefs, David Touvell of Chow. It was a perfect summer evening, great light, great people and food the was nothing short of perfection. This year we are somewhere near Napa, look for those pictures…August 2011! ;-)

My birthday started off with a great hike on Mt. Bachelor with the family…

A perfect summer day at Fields Farm

My lovely wife…

Chef David Touvell

A little Bluegrass music

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.

I’d like to thank everyone who helped bring our next PurePhoto project to fruition! Over the course of the past few months we have built and launched PurePhoto Collections the premier site for buying and selling photography on the web. We have worked to bring you some of the top emerging and established artists from all over the world. We have hundreds already in our collection and will be uploading hundreds more over the next few weeks. We also have a general Members Gallery where you can also submit your art. Ever wondered if your work will sell? Here is your chance to find out!

Whether you are an established artist or just getting started, If you are interested in submitting please click here.

Press Release:

PUREPHOTO ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF PUREPHOTO COLLECTIONS™

The Premier Site For Purchasing Affordable Art
From World Renowned To Emerging Photographers

Westlake Village, CA – July 7th, 2010 – PurePhoto, the photography network that helps people perfect and publish their images, today announced the launch of PurePhoto Collections™ (purephotocollections.com), the premier site for purchasing selected works from industry-leading to emerging artists from around the globe.

In addition to using PurePhoto to learn, organize, share and print, photographers can now sell their work using the platform. Members submit images for review by a selection committee and, if chosen, are sold as either Fine Art, Limited Editions, or in Member Galleries. Prices range from $20 – $5,000 depending on the significance of the art, the number of editions, and the size of the print. Proceeds of the sale are split between the artist and PurePhoto. There are already hundreds of images for sale with more being added every week.

“Many photographers currently sell their art on their portfolio site, in galleries or through massive stock houses, which makes it challenging for buyers to discover new high-quality work,” said John Ellis, CEO of PurePhoto. “PurePhoto brings a new audience to photographers and makes it easy for buyers to find amazing and affordable art from around the world.”

“I represent some of the top artists in Spain,” said art dealer and PhotoGallery20 owner Javier Gimeno, “PurePhoto is enabling me to expose the U.S. market to the great works of Spanish photographers and even discover other potential artists I may want to represent.”

Photographers wishing to learn more or submit work for consideration may do so at purephoto.com/sell or by joining PurePhoto at purephoto.com/join.

About PurePhoto
PurePhoto is the premier network for perfecting and publishing images. It helps anyone with a camera create, share, buy and sell great images.  Photographers can improve their skills through educational content, backup their photos and videos online via a proprietary web application, access professional lab services, and syndicate their portfolio to social and commercial distribution channels. PurePhoto offers Basic free accounts as well as Premium annual memberships with expanded services. Please visit www.purephoto.com for more information.

Another amazing behind the scenes video following JoeyL through the jungle to photograph the Mentawai…

vimeo video

Last week I was shooting in Africa with my good friend Mike from Evoke Photography. We had a 5 light set-up going including a 5 foot Profoto octa-bank on a boom as one of the main lights. However, we had no way to weight the boom to keep the light from tipping forward. Enter one of nature’s heaviest fruits. With a little help from one of the most useless of Photographers tools the PC sync cord we were able to tie it on so the pineapple didn’t fall out. A big thanks to pocket wizard for making the PC cord so outdated that it was actually useful ;-) Long live P-Wizzy’s!

Lesson to learn?…. Improvise!

One of my recent clients is working with an organization called the Rwanda Girls Initiative which is dedicated to building girls schools in Africa. She said she had a snapshot of one of the girls that she wanted to share with me but was embarrassed to share since I just had sent her her daughters wedding images and she was afraid her image wouldn’t measure up. Well, not only was it good, but it was good enough for me to post here :-) It’s a simple shot but amazing at the story it tells. No child this age should have a soul so deep that it comes out through their eyes. Enjoy her image and if you can spare it please help out. Donate Here. Thank You!