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:

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

Westlake Village, CA – June 8th, 2010 – PurePhoto, Inc. (“PurePhoto”) and PhotographyMentor.com, LLC (“PhotographyMentor”), today announced that PurePhoto has agreed to acquire all of the assets of PhotographyMentor, the Los Angeles, CA-based online photography education and social networking platform.

Founded in 2008 by celebrity photographer Robert Evans and award-winning film and television producer Curt Apanovich, PhotographyMentor was the first website to offer premium subscription-based educational content to aspiring professional photographers.

“Over the last two years, PhotographyMentor was instrumental in helping thousands of photographers improve their skills by learning from other pros in the industry,” said Robert Evans. “We look forward to taking our original vision even farther by joining forces with PurePhoto.”

“Great photography starts with a strong educational foundation and we’re excited to make all this rich content available to our Premium members,” said John Ellis, CEO of PurePhoto. “We are also looking forward to growing our team of amazing industry leaders who will further promote our services and help even more people perfect and publish their images.”

PhotographyMentor subscribers and content will be transitioned to the PurePhoto platform. All PhotographyMentor Playground accounts will receive enhanced Basic accounts on PurePhoto. School memberships set to expire this year will receive PurePhoto Premium memberships and an extension through the end of 2010. Robert Evans, Curt Apanovich and other key team members will continue to develop educational content and promote PurePhoto.

About PhotographyMentor

Founded in early 2008 by Robert Evans and Curt Apanovich, PhotographyMentor was the first online education and social networking site exclusively for photographers. It was a way to give back to other aspiring photographers and create a community where photographers could connect with one another. It offers two types of accounts: “Playground” accounts that are free networking accounts and premium “School” accounts that offer exclusive educational content.

About PurePhoto

Started in 2009, PurePhoto is the premier site for perfecting and publishing images. It helps consumers improve their photographic skills through educational content, organize their photos and videos 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.

To all my friends, family and loyal blog readers…Today begins the launch of a product that I have been working on for the past year! I would first off like to thank my amazing team of partners, back end engineers, and front end web developers for working tirelessly to release a product that is the framework for what will become the premier online photography site for millions of users worldwide.

An even bigger thank you to my wife for being patient and understanding as I put in 18 hour days for the past year in order to develop this product. I can tell you it has not been easy to put up with me ;-) Thank you to my kids who lift me up when I am overworked and tired. This is your legacy too.

PurePhoto was built in response to the thousands of emails I have received from people asking me what camera they should buy, How can they learn more about it and where can they get quality prints and products. PurePhoto is my answer to all those questions and more. Yes switching is difficult but once you make the move you will be able to access all the things you have been missing. It will help you clearly edit and organize your images in a meaningful way. It will enable you to stop stockpiling thousands of images into your hard drive and doing nothing with them. It will help you learn. It will help you share easier. It will give you access to high end prints, albums and more.  You will now have a place to get things done. That’s is why you need to switch. It is an Evolution!

Organize: PurePhoto was designed with simplicity in mind. It’s an entirely web-based application that runs like a desktop program. Many things only take one click to accomplish, and you can even use drag-and-drop file management to organize your entire library. Never again will you get lost pages deep into a site with no way to get back out. Get in and Get it done quickly.

Learn: We have hundreds of High Definition videos from some of the best photographers in the world delivered directly to you in small easy to understand bits so you can get the most out of your new camera. We have another few hundred videos being filmed and edited right now…You will not find better content for beginners anywhere on the web!

Share: Share direct through email, or to over 300 Social Networks with a click of a button. Or create a shared gallery for a family member and as you update pictures they will be able to see any new images you upload to that gallery!

Print: Print is a loose term but in short, It gives you access to the top professional lab in the US! No other site offers the print quality of Pure Photo…period! But it doesn’t stop at prints, we will be rolling out canvas, cards, books and more …Stay tuned!

This is just the beginning, we are will be launching amazing new features every few weeks! So join now, start learning, Share and print and as you get up to speed with us we will deliver new features to you that are seamlessly integrated into the site.

PurePhoto has a free account and a premium account. I urge you to sign up for a premium account so you can really benefit from all that we have to offer. The premium account gets you access to all the videos we have as well as some special features that will be rolled out over the next few months.

Spread the word, join us on Facebook and follow us on twitter. We built this for you. I hope you enjoy it and spread the word! This is going to be an exciting journey!

-Ryan

Great news this morning, we were featured on Style Me Pretty. Not just because of the feature, but because it was one of our favorite brides! Megan and Jason both work for Classic Party Rentals and they are just amazing people. Here is a little note we received from Megan this morning about her feature. Then go check out SMP to see the whole post…

From Megan:

Thank you, Courtney for submitting our wedding. I love style me pretty oh-so-much! Truly, you guys were amazing! You took all my designs & visions and made them come to life. And Ryan, oh Ryan how you captured those magical moments. Stunning. Still makes my heart melt every.single.time I see them.

You guys are fantastic at what you do…and are always top on my list when people ask “who should I use?” Easy answer.

Thank you, thank you, thank you…for making our day truly special.

Xoxoxo,
M.

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…

My video editor Solomon just built out a studio in LA:

SELBY STUDIOS  IS A 1600 SQUARE FOOT STUDIO FEATURING A 600 SQ. FT. SHOOTING SPACE WITH A 12′H x 16′W x 16′L WHITE COVE WALL OR GREENSCREEN. SELBY STUDIOS HAS A HAIR/ MAKEUP AREA, CLIENT LOUNGE, PRIVATE WARDROBE ROOM, FULL KITCHEN, FULL BATH W/ SEPARATE SHOWER, A PRIVATE PATIO AREA, HIGH SPEED INTERNET, 32″ FLATSCREEN TV, AND DVD PLAYER. SELBY STUDIOS IS AVAILABLE FOR PHOTOGRAPHY, VIDEO, CASTING, PRODUCTION MEETINGS, REHEARSALS, CORPORATE EVENTS, ART SHOWS, AND MOVIE SCREENINGS. SELBY STUDIOS IS LOCATED IN THE HEART OF CULVER CITY. FOR MORE INFO AND RESERVATIONS CALL 310-272-4037

Check out this cool new 5D video of the Cyc/Green Screen being built…

YouTube video