Ryan Phillips Blog

My friend Andrea is a metalsmith and makes some really cool cocktail rings and other jewelry. Check out her work @ Plum and Sage. They would be a great accessory for an engagement shoot or even your rehearsal dinner….

I am pleased to announce that one of my favorite Photographers and a PurePhoto Master has given us a selection of prints to sell on PurePhoto Collections. Paul Souders has travelled all over the world and his images have been published on every continent. Paul was kind enough to offer 15 pieces he has chosen for us AND to also put them into our members gallery so all can afford to own work from this phenomenal wildlife shooter. Here are a few excerpts from his bio and some images. To see more on Paul and purchase his work, follow this link…

Paul Souders: “For much of my adult life, I have been lucky enough to get paid doing the things I love most. My work as a itinerant travel and wildlife photographer has sent me around the world and across all seven continents.

Over the last two decades, I have had ample opportunity to appreciate the absurdities of life on the road, having once spent 27 memorable hours during my first trip to Kenya digging a bogged safari truck out using only a sauce pan. In addition to my work in Africa, I have traveled extensively in Alaska, Australia, Antarctica and Asia.

I’ve done so many stupid things over my career that it’s hard to keep track. During my brief foray into international news coverage, I got shot at (and missed) in Port-au-Prince, Haiti during election violence there. I was once woken from a sound sleep in Kenya by a pride of lions pawing at my tent, and I have spent 27 memorable hours trying to dig my safari truck out of a swamp using only a sauce pan. On my last trip to Greenland, I slipped while photographing spawning shoals of capelin from some shore rocks, and found myself chest deep in ice water. I shredded my fingers trying to claw my way back out of the ocean before I froze. The time I got my boat stuck in the ice in front of a glacier was good for a laugh, especially when I started hoping between ice floes trying to drag the thing out by hand. Getting chased around in the water and head-butted by whales in Patagonia was diverting, too.

There are a lot of stories I don’t tell my mom.”

Antelope Silhouette | Kenya

Cheetah’s Nap | Kenya

Lunch | Kenya

Deep Blue | Nordenskjold Island

I found this over on Rob Haggart’s blog. If you are unfamiliar with Rob, his blog A Photo Editor is a great read.

The Impossible Project set out to bring back the famed SX-70 and other Polaroid films that are now discontinued. For the serious Polaroider it probably falls short but for great fun give it a shot.

Personally, when it comes to Film Effects, even Polaroid, I am all about Alien Skin Exposure 3. Here are is the original RAW shot with no processing and then SX-70 and Time Zero Versions.

RAW File:

SX-70:

Time Zero:

SX-70

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.

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

Check out the upgrade to the Canon 5D Mark II, it can now shoot 24 frames per second…

vimeo video

I will post a full review when I get a little deeper into the product but Viveza 2 from NIK filters is amazing! You can adjust specific parts of a picture very quickly and change the brightness, shadows, color, contrast and structure with a click of a button. It works best on landscapes but great it’s great on everything. Here is a short video on NIK Viveza 2. More from me later…

YouTube video

I just came off of 2 straight weeks of shooting and have a lot to catch up on but stay tuned for some great images…