MudEyes

BIG news on the business front!

When Holly and I met she was looking for someone to teach her more about photography and trying to find out if she should go to school again for that instead of sticking with graphic design which is what she graduated with.

At this time, I was looking for someone to design me a logo and website. That’s the premiss of how we met essentially for those of you who didn’t know. So she was looking for a photographer to show her the ropes…We technically have to say we met on-line… Which is kind of embarrassing for us =) She always makes me tell the story when people ask because I can tell it in a way that doesn’t spotlight that fact but doesn’t lie about how we met either!

My point is that at first Holly was with me shooting weddings because I could use a hand being pretty inexperienced, and because she wanted some more practice. We quickly became a great team and have actually been together since my first paying wedding!

So the whole point of this story is that Holly has been more in the background where I got most of the credit for her amazing editing, and a lot of her shots that no-one knew were hers! You can’t say we are just Ryan Richard Photography anymore. It’s not just me, it’s us! She has improved by leaps and bounds and there is no way I could produce what I promise without her. So to celebrate and recognize the goodness she brings to the table, we are now GAUPERPHOTO!

What do ya think? I struggled for a while about changing it to my last name because no one can seem to say it right! If you actually look at it and sound it out, it’s not that hard. Gaw-per. Not Galper, Glopper, Grooper,Goopie,Golper,Gumper,groper or Galapanokis.

GAUPER … I have gone through a lot of frustration, but I am putting my trust into mankind one more so please don’t let me down! Even with Ryan Richard people would always call me Richard for some reason, or say Ryan Richards…So I am counting on you guys to get it right… got it? =)

So anyway, we have a bridal show coming up where we are the only photography vendors. The Radisson is putting on a non-traditional show that is going to be really great! Unfortunately, we have a wedding in Long Island the same day. I have been super pumped to do that wedding but we are bummed to not be able to do the show but we figured a big NY wedding and a big bridal show would be the perfect time to unveil a new logo and name!

Part of the deal of having a free booth and being a preferred vendor all year for the fanciest hotel in town was that I had to shoot the bridal show. Since I obviously couldn’t I asked if I could hire someone out to do that so I could still have the booth. I had someone great in mind and they accepted! My favorite new wedding photographer is Diana Vermeulen of Moxie Photography. I have been referring people to her left and right because she does great work for the price so if we are booked on your date or are a little out of our range, be sure to look her up!

Since we are getting an all new identity, we needed a few fresh new images of us to display at the Bridal show we will be doing a full session soon, with another one of my new favorite photographers we have been hanging out with, Melissa Gregersen

But since we didn’t have time to do a full session we went out for a few shots with my brother in law Dave who we are thinking about hiring on as an intern this summer.

He graduated from Western with a marketing degree and we think he has a lot of potential not only on the business side but possibly behind the camera with some practice! These are a few shots he took for us. Thanks Dave!

Pretty nice for his first time wielding a nice camera right?

We wanted to do a giant overhaul with a new website and blog but that just wasn’t going to happen by the NY trip and we really wanted to do it for the show and the wedding. Be on the lookout for at least a new blog by the beginning of the summer because a nice blog is LONG overdue and we know that. The new one will be much more enjoyable to visit!

But anyways, that’s the big news! I hope you guys like it. I feel like we have more of our own style and the old logo only portrayed our traditional and classic side but had nothing to do with the rustic and industrial side. I think it suits us much better and is much more modern. Let us know what you think!!

Gauper out =)

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.