MudEyes

Our last wedding was a last weekend and it was a ton of fun! We met with Clive and Jamie a while ago and since Clive lives in Dubai, we couldn’t do any engagement photos until this weekend before the wedding! But better late then never! =) Jamie works.. or worked (now that she is moving to Dubai) at the radisson here in Kalamazoo and we scored a little time in the sweetest suite they had!! Check it out!

Tell me thats not suite! This place ran $2,200 a night and came with a huge staircase and dozens of windows overlooking downtown kalamazoo nine stories high. It even came with a grand Piano which they seemed to like 😉

Then off to a location I used the day before but hey it’s still new =) They looked like a couple celebrities here!

Then I wanted to try a shot I had done before with a little twist since he had some sweet shades!

Then came the wedding weekend were I shot a bit of the rehearsal at Stetson Chapel and found a couple cute kids that I would be following around all weekend =)

And then the next Day we started out getting a couple shots of Jamie and the girls finishing up their hair at the willow salon.

This dress turned out to be high maintenance! but it was a great dress so I guess it was worth it!

Our beautiful Bride!

We did a wedding here before and again it didn’t disappoint!

After some waiting to get the bussel right since we didn’t have the directions… no seriously…we did some bride and groom shots! Good thing I had entertainment to tide me over!

We saw this glorious ally while walking back to the hotel from the salon and knew it would be perfect for the money shot.

The reception was held at the highly regarded Rose Street Market downtown and it was a great venue!

They have the best best food in Michigan (so I’m told) Luckily the vendors got the same meal as the guests!

They even came equipped with a spotlight which made things interesting!

This family broke it DOWN all night!

Great couple, Great venues and Great weather make for an exceptional day. Thanks so much Jamie and Clive for trusting us with your day. We had so much fun and I hope you guys love the photos. =)

To see more of the 75 photo preview go to the main site and click the client proofing button to see the whole album!

Well we had our first workshop in Kalamazoo this weekend and after all that planning and scouting and hard work we got to have some fun!! We found some excellent locations and even more excellent models to be our subjects!

I started out the Day cramming their brains full of technical knowledge while trying to only melt their brains a little bit! I think it went pretty well but there’s only so much you can take in at once!

Then came the shooting. We started out at this cool loaction by some train tracks, only these train tracks had extra rail material! It worked out even better then I had hoped.

Jessie’s head isn’t this big in real life =) I am using the Amazing Canon 14mm f/2.8L II Ultra wide angle lens to get this effect as you can tell later I have a lot of fun with it!! Our second model Alli was awesome as well. Thank you ladies for trashing the dress for us. I think it was worth it =)

Our next location was behind the building we used on Sunday. I found some kind of washing machine graveyard!

And behind THAT was a bunch of old trailers and onother cool yard that made for lots of great variety.

I was pretty proud of everyone for really getting in there and not standing back at eye level I thought I would really have to get on people to get close and use angles but they were great!

You may recognize Noah and Alex since we haven’t updated our website’s front page in a while but they were one of our favorite engagement session and wedding so we thought that would be pros by now, and they proved to be just as comfortable with 12 people snapping away!! You just can’t go wrong with them. Thanks guys!

Holly really stepped it up this weekend and may have gotten better shots then me! Seems like that’s what our models think since they keep using her shots for their facebook profile pictures! =) Good thing she’s not competition is all I have to say.

I think I still held my own though 😉

The next day it was nasty snowing rain so I have to thank Mark Kieser for giving me a key to his building downtown so that we could still get a lot of good indoor natural light shots. Our Models Holly and Lauren really did great!

A big thanks to Brandon who helped us with a little bit of male subject matter when he wasn’t shooting with us! =)

We Had soooo much fun and I met some great people that I think have a ton of potential. We didn’t get to edit as much as I would’t have liked but we are thinking about doing some editing focused workshops soon. I can’t wait to do another one! Huge thanks to our future Bride Gillian for doing hair and make up!! We can’t wait to do a tour and meet even more great photographers and models!!!

So the title says it all… We may be a little to ambitious for our own good right about now! We are behind on last weekends 52 so I will start out with that!

What the deuce week are we on again…. ah, [12/52] I shall call it… Don’t bug me, I’m busy!

I finally have my own computer and it only costed me 5 grand to get Holly one! But I guess it is all worth it… At least she won’t pull her hair out editing 25 weddings this summer.

I have Been working on a time lapse video for the move. Once I find the time to edit it nicely its going to be awesome! we have like 14,000 shots from paint prep to moving and some fun stuff in between heres a couple previews of some fun stills, pretty much unedited just so ya know!

All taken with the fisheye and the D700…it is going to RULE!

Lets see… I have also been putting together a Keynote show for the workshop THIS weekend… I love keynote… I love mac… 100 times better then anything I have seen power point produce and it was my first time. Here’s a couple screen shot previews

I am pretty pumped about it, I’m not gonna lie!

Now the weather, I am NOT pumped about, but we will be praying the rain away 😉

Preece preview to come soon!

Thank you for your interest in a portrait session with us! We would really love to do a session with you but we also really try and work with people who share our style and will be happy when we give them images that reflect that style.

Our Style should be taken into account before booking your session with us as we may not work as well under the more traditional standards that some people are used to.

We are strictly on location, and mostly natural light, so by booking a session with us you have to be aware that we are at the mercy of the weather and therefor will have to be flexible to fit in your session. We try and use the beginning of or end of the daylight to more easily control shadows to get more of a flattering light for our subjects.

If you are wanting the majority of your senior pictures done in nature settings, we can do that but we must let you know that we are usually unable to provide more variety in those settings. We thrive and work best in urban settings that are more grungy and rustic to achieve a “beauty and the beast” type of contrast that makes colors pop and gives our images a very unique and edgy look.

Q and A:

What is your payment policy?

We ask that you send us a check for half to book your date, and then we require the remainder before we begin the session. If you decide to order more then your allotted print credit we would need a check for that before we can submit the order.

How long do sessions last?

That can depend on a lot of things but usually from one and a half to two or more hours. In either case we reserve control over when I feel like we have enough images to give you a good variety. I like to start about 3 hours before sunset so the times will vary or we could do shoots a few hours before noon to get similar light.

Do you retouch your images?

Yes we know that you want to look your best for senior pictures and don’t leave any images looking anything but the best they can. Our theory is that if it wont be there in a month we will remove and smooth. Things like moles, scars or anything else as to not offend people you will need to tell us you would like us to remove certain things that bug you. On the same note, retouching does take a great deal of time so anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated, even if you don’t tend to wear makeup, even a small amount will help us to make you images look much better.

Can I bring a friend?

Yes! I wish more people would bring friends because it makes it less awkward to be honest! Anyone who helps you to be yourself I really encourage that you bring. After all the whole goal is to get images of you being yourself in a natural and relaxed way!

Is facial hair good in pictures?

My personal opinion is that unless it’s a big part of who you are it’s best to be mostly clean shaven unless you have a descent five O’ clock shadow going on. I had a “goatee” in my senior pictures, and I think back and think it looks ridiculous but that’s just me. I still find the images have a more clean look when you shave.

Yes this is me demonstrating how bad it can look =)

Do you travel to locations we want?

We do travel for 50 cents a mile to and from a location outside downtown kalamazoo. We feel we need to charge this rate because of the time traveling, and the gas and milage put on our vehicles.

Can I suggest locations?

This subject is kind of hard because we love to give people lots of variety in there set. 90% of the time when people ask us to go to certain locations they don’t cater well to our style and a lot of times we travel a good distance to a location where we can only get a couple good shots. We spend a lot of time scouting areas to find locations that yield the best variety shots you can get in a single location. We really ask that you trust that we know the best location which is why booking us because you like our style is so important. Like I said before nature locations are not very good for what we do. Trees and flowers can be nice for a few shots, but they start to all look the same very soon.

Why do you Charge up front?

We have had to learn the hard way unfortunately that money is kind of a pain to deal with after the actual session. We used to do half down on the day of the session and then the rest when you get your proofs, but our turn around time is fast enough to where we would rather just get it out of the way so that we can focus more on getting you results. Then we don’t have to wait for a check from you to release the proofs, or worry about people getting the proofs before we are compensated for all the work we have already done. Hope this isn’t an inconvenience to you, but we have to do what’s safe and best for our business.

Why do pictures cost so much?

Most people kind of have the idea that all you need is a descent camera to give people senior pictures. And in one sense that is true. We try and give you images that are set apart from the norm. We really pride ourselves in giving people the highest quality pictures they can get from anyone. This means keeping up and researching the best Camera, lenses, computers, software, and proofing sites we can. Then we have to buy all those things. We have spent thousands on equipment and computers to give you what you paid for. Not to mention we really put our hearts and souls and hours of our time to give you great pictures. We hope you see the value in what we do!

Do you give people full resolution disks with printing rights?

I’m sorry but no we don’t and you may think its more about the money but to be honest its about the artistic integrity. When people go to print pictures it makes me cringe to think they are bringing my images to walmart to print them on low quality paper and ink. You must understand that my reputation and name is on my images, and word of mouth and my images are all I have. When people design there own graduation announcement cards with a bad design and sub par printing it makes me look really bad. I hope you understand that I have to reserve all printing rights because I feel like it’s what is best for our business. We also backup your images in 3 different places so you will always be able to order prints down the road if you so choose.

Holly is a graphic designer so we do offer custom designed grad announcements!

What is the turn around time on proofs and prints?
We always try and give you a good preview to tide you over until you get the full set but depending on the week we try and complete your set within a couple weeks. As soon as you submit your print order it only takes a couple weeks to get them.

So Holly seems to have found a niche and I want to show everyone some goodness! We are actually thinking about offering a ring shot session which would consist of going around and “macroizing” someone’s wedding ring in several cool environments in lots of interesting and unique ways. We have only had a few minutes to get these shots on engagement shoots or during downtime at weddings, so I think we could really get some amazing shots if we had like a half hour! so without further adue enjoy some of her ring shots!

We will be doing ring shot sessions for $75 with a $50 print credit. email me for Availability : ryan@ryanrichardphoto.com

So to those of you who don’t know this is our last year in Michigan! We spent the last year researching, and visiting cities. The cities that made the final four was Nashville, TN – Charlotte, NC – Los Angeles, CA and Denver, CO. We were all but set on Denver, CO as most of you know! We have been trying to get Holly’s parents to escape Michigan with us but they want to go to Texas. And I thought, hey! I know a lot of cool people in Dallas! I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before but I wouldn’t mind living there at all! Sooo I made a comparison … I love comparisons =)

So what do you guys think? Should we get a poll going? I would love everyone’s two cents about either city. It’s a big decision, we need some help!!

So I had to buy a pro account for my second flickr account because thats the images I use to plug into this blog. I try and keep my personal flickr more quality then quantity, and we upload some random stuff for this blog that I wouldn’t want on there.

Anyway my point is that when you click on images on this blog it will bring you to that image on my secondary flickr. I just wanted to let you guys know there is a better one with better descriptions, and technical info about each shot. I spend a lot more time making that look good.

Also I just set up a new set, 75 of my favorite photos from the past year. So go HERE and see the one!

This weekend was AWESOME!! Who’s with me? We had to take advantage of it so we took care of 3 engagement sessions and they all went so well I just couldn’t believe how smooth the session was and how well the images turned out!I have a lot to post but I am going to split them up starting with our session today of Dan and Laura. Holly actually edited them mostly, but then I couldn’t sleep tonight so I stayed up tweaking her edits and obsessing over every detail. Needless to say I am pretty excited about them! Lets not save the best for last. Check out Laura’s Serious face. Nailed it!

Holly took this next one, and one of our friends posted on her flickr saying it was better then anything I posted for the weekend. I was like ouch! =) But she is pretty sweet I’m not gonna lie!

It seems to be the weekend of flair this weekend since I have been using the 28mm f/1.8 a LOT this is why.

Here’s another good one with the 28, wide open.

great couple =)

I really tried to perfect this one with all lightroom had!

How do you guys feel about the new wide up-shots?

They knew how to have fun too so we had a good time!

not much you can say about this =)

So if you feel like boosting my editing ego I wouldn’t stop ya =) Holly has always whooped me. Keep in mind that most of those are mostly edited by Holly but I just tried to obsess over the details… So I dunno… just leave a comment will ya?!? More to come very very soon!

After a grrrrEAT day of shooting Michelle and Cody’s engagement session (entry coming soon) Our friends Andy and nicole Foster “invited” us over for Dinner and chilling time! I brought along the camera stuff because she has been wanting to get a nice camera and I look hooking people on photography =) So I let her play around with it a little before and after dinner. Here is a shot where I am teaching her the effects of a wide angle. (Canon 28mm f/1.8 wide open)

Later on we decided to embark on a late night photo-adventure to downtown Kalamazoo! Holly got these paper balls that you put lights in a hang from IKEA and we thought we might be able to have some fun sticking a 580EXII in there! I am not going to lie I am pretty excited about how great they came out!! Here was the first shot after some flash strength tweaking. I think this was about 1/16th power fired from another 580.

Then Andy had this genius idea to hide behind the bushes to make it look suspended!

He was quite the trooper in those bushes so we could get some great shots!!

After this shot we decided we hadn’t taken a 52 shot with both Holly and I, it was due so this is what we came up with! I call it: Strobist Pokist [11/52]

Then we let Andy have some fun for being such a good sport, and I think it looks great with Canon’s 15mm fisheye. Then we had a little fun with long exposures!

Shot with Canon 100mm f/2.8 @ f/22 for 8 seconds at 50 iso

Long exposure with the help of my iPhone running the “flashlight” app.
Shot with a Canon 28mm f/1.8 at f/11 for 30 seconds and 200 iso.
pilot light triggered 5 times for rear flash.

Remember that cool shot of Holly’s eyeball? We let Nicole borrow them for a bit =)

We had so much fun today, the weather couldn’t have been better, and we have a couple engagement shoots tomorrow so the season is here! I will leave you with ONE of the shots I am really excited about from the engagement, but there is so many good ones to come. Much love all.

Ok! We have been real busy for one trying to get these workshops up and planned. It has taken a lot of emailing and organization which are areas which have been hard for me but everything is working out.

I just wanted to give you some updates since I haven’t put anything on here for a while. Lets start with last weeks 52!

I know hot right? This one is week [9/52] And I call it “Fun w/ Facial Hair / CreepyMcCreeperton” Like it says I am just having some fun before shaving my full beard off from when I was freezing in Grand Haven doing my last construction job, so don’t hide your kids! I am a nice guy under there!! I did shave it off like 5 minutes after i made it that way because we were shooting Brent, and Steph’s wedding that Day!

They were a pretty fun couple as you prolly saw from the slideshow that was up earlier. I took it off because I didn’t know how to keep it from auto playing. Which is annoying every time you open mudeyes.

That week it was beautiful out! So we decided to take a walk down to subway for some lunch! FYI ranch isn’t good on turkey =&. On the way back Holly asked me if I wanted to stop in the apartment office to see if the corner unit above us was vacant. She has been kind of going crazy (as was I) because there just isn’t enough space for what we need it this one bedroom. (For those of you who don’t know we both work from small one bedroom apartment there ya go!)

Anyway, we went in there and told us the end unit in the building about 50 yards from our building just opened up and if we want it, we could move in by the 18th! Sooo we are moving into an end unit in the next building =) This is been a pretty impulsive week.

It might have been that night I was looking on the apple site and I saw what I have been waiting for!!

Ho-ly-crap that thing is awesome. Here’s the tech specs for all the tech geeks like me. I can’t explain the way the new processors work but it’s much faster!! =) We got the 2.26 8(!!!)core “Nehalem”Processors 6GB RAM (awesome) a terabyte HD and the new 24” LCD Cinema Display!

This is Holly’s new workhorse so I had to spoil her a little bit so hopefully she will enjoy editing 25+ weddings and who knows how many seniors and families! I got the hand-me-down this time with a crappy tricked out 24″ iMac. I know life’s not fair. Anyway it arrives this Tuesday when we are the most busy with packing. So I won’t even be able to play with it! Dangit!

That Thursday we were at Andy and Nicole’s always fun office party and they just got a new 42″ Philips LCD TV which was great to watch The Office on! We got to talking about it and how I have never had a big TV and how we only had a sweet sweet vintage 25″ that was about 15 years old! They told us the got it from Sam’s club for under 600 bucks!! I was stunned that it was even possible! Soooo you can prolly guess that we went out the next day to Sam’s to see if they had any re-furbs laying around, which oddly enough they did! I told you it has been a impulsive week! But really they are all things we have been thinking about doing for a while and when opportunity knocks, I guess I love to swing the door open!

I love how all the things we would get in normal life is business related and a tax right off! I think I picked the right profession!

(NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**NOTICE!!**

I just wanted to say that by me putting this all on mudeyes, I hope you guys don’t see us as Braggy-McBraggertons. I have to give thanks to the Lord for one that he showed me my talent and put things, jobs, and people in place to be successful, and gave me a wife that I couldn’t do any of this without! I am not really bragging, I am just so excited about how much we are blessed. I haven’t always had a perfect life and God has put both Holly and I through a lot so that we could learn from it and help other people. I just want you guys to be excited with us!! We love you guys and we wouldn’t be were we are without a lot of the people that read this Blog so thanks you for encouraging us enough to be so successful!

Ok how about a sweet random macro shot of Holly’s eye I took with the Canon 100mm macro lens at f/8 handheld at 1600 iso!?

pretty sweet right?

And to end off this Random update entry, I leave you with our 10th week of 52 portraits. If you haven’t seen the movie Coraline, this is what she is going for! I guess the theme for the last couple weeks has been scary and creepy =)

Great right? hope you weren’t about to go to bed! That movie was a lot freakier then I thought it would be. But an awesome visual movie nonetheless!

On one last Random note, The workshops are coming up quick! And I have been setting up a fall workshop tour with a few people Down south before thanksgiving! Good thing I have some contacts that are willing to help me out! It is looking like we will Start out in Columbia, SC on October 24th-25th. Thanks Dan! Next we will be heading to Jacksonville where Dana Goodson will be helping me out, Then down to West Palm Beach thanks to the wonderful and talented soul of Liz Leighton! (big fan of hers) Next is Tampa/Clearwater which is still up in the air where I dont have a for sure contact just yet! The last stop before Thanksgiving would be in Little Rock, AR where Todd Owens is going to be helping me organize! Its going to be awesome!!

We still have spots open in out Dayton workshop this April 4th and 5th! Hit me up for some more info!!

OK! there is one last thing I forgot to mention.
You know how we have been going broke buying everything at once? Well there is one more thing. We decided to sell our last zoom lens, the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS L. We got this one right before Christmas along with 10 grand of Canon Equipment with our switch from Nikon. We actually switched to Canon for their Fixed focal length lenses, but thought we needed this Lens for the range. Buut being a prime lover I tried the 135mm f/2L and I am willing to part with this zoom in favor for the 135mm. I dont even like zooms but if you are going to have a zoom this is the one!

You can see more pictures and such here.

I was going to wait until I sold that but with the workshop and and wedding coming up next weekend I went ahead and ordered the Canon 135mm f/2L yesterday!! You may remember when I rented it for the Colorado wedding i had a month ago but I love it!! I mean come ON look at the bokah.

Fageddabodit!

So I really would love to sell that zoom to help out. It is listed for $1699 at most every online retail store so I am asking $1,600 since I only used it a couple times and it is a US lens with existing warranty! Please email me at Ryan@RyanRichardPhoto.com if you are interest!

Until next time, mucho loveo!