Ryan Phillips Blog

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 just got back from my first trip to Africa. It was an amazing experience one that may have altered my point of view for ever. I have 3 more trips planned in the next year! I am buried under work but will release a few images each week if I have time. I have tons of video footage as well and at some point will release an educational video to PurePhoto.com that follows Mike and I on our trip. Sorry for the short post..stay tuned for more….

Here’s a couple from a recent family shoot in the sunny yellow fields of SoCal. Both The Trans and The Changs (post below) live down the street from each other. They all came in from Las Vegas to shoot with me. Pretty cool…

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!

Ryder’s friend popped over to say hi when Ryder wasn’t home…and I needed a test model for a shot….Score!

Here’s a couple of landscapes from the Badlands…