Personal

Parking Garage Portraits

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I connected with Murphy on social media and asked him if he would want to do some interesting portraits in a parking garage. This test shoot was just a "wing it" shoot, I didn't have a shot list list, we just walked around and looked for interesting elements within our given space. The only plan was to us the harsh midday sunlight and shadows. Everything was shot with natural light. It's always refreshing not lugging around a bunch of lights. Since we were shooting in a relatively busy garage, on a hot day, without any help I opted for no additive lights. 

I tried using shadows as much as possible. With harsh midday sun it can be a little tricky to work well. 

Here is a slideshow of all the images we took.

The Springtime Carnivore

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If you didn't know, my wife and I are living in Los Angeles for the next few weeks. While I was here I thought it would be great to expand my creative space project out to the west coast. My first contact was Greta Morgan (aka The Springtime Carnivore). I discovered her after scouring the internet for unique music acts in and around LA. I loved the music Greta was putting out so I reached out to her about being in my Creative Space project. She agreed and we setup a date for me to come and get some environmental style photographs in here Studio.

Greta Morgan (AKA the Springtime Carnivore). Photo by Ryan Noltemeyer

The setup was super basic. One camera, one lens, one light. All was tethered into Capture One Pro with Tether Tools cables. The gear used was:

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All the images were processed and color graded in Capture One Pro, using a combination of their new preset styles and my own creative edit adjustments. 

Greta Morgan (AKA the Springtime Carnivore). Photo by Ryan Noltemeyer
Greta Morgan (AKA the Springtime Carnivore). Photo by Ryan Noltemeyer
Greta Morgan (AKA the Springtime Carnivore). Photo by Ryan Noltemeyer

To see more from this project and my others click on the projects tab on the left side of my website. To see the rest of "Creative Space" click here and to here some of Greta's music click here

Here is a slideshow gallery of all the final photos from this shoot:

Going West

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My wife is a travel Occupational Therapist (OT), she just graduated and unfortunately has no work experience outside of clinicals and fieldwork for school. After months of looking for an entry level job in a city that has the biggest OT school, we decided that we would take out three months and take a temporary job in California. After some confusion on the location and the needs of the healthcare facilities, they settled us in beautiful Los Angeles in the Hollywood neighborhood. 

I made a photo series and short video of the trip and to be honest, this series isn't nearly complete. This only shows a little bit of the Rocky Mountains, Arches National Park, San Francisco, and Yosemite National Park. This is merely a glimpse at our beautiful country. If you can do it I would encourage anyone and everyone to go on a cross-country road trip. Pack your car, bring your friends and see our nation, it's transformative. I've never experienced such beauty in the world and I only saw the smallest portion of our country and even smaller of the world.

Anyway, I just wanted to share some of the sites we saw on the way and the beauty of the American landscape. Below is a short video of the highlights along the way, and below that are all the photos I took.

There are Way Too Many Photographers Today

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"Everyone is a photographer today." "The iPhone is killing the industry." 

I use to say stuff like this all the time. Photography today is a constant game of Instagram uploads, gear acquisition, and proving ourselves above every other Joe Smoe with a camera and a brain. But the crazy thing is this is no new phenomenon. People having been saying that this and that is the end of photography. When disposable film cameras were introduced that was the end of professional photography. The iPhone is the end of photography, that new "consumer" grade DSLR is the end of professional photography. It'd not the end, it's just the beginning of change.

This blog is going to be mostly opinion based and my thoughts about the photography industry as a whole. If you have any comments or questions about this please comment below. I think that the time we live in with various ways to take amazing photographs is vastly different because of one thing. The Internet. Thanks to the internet and sites like Instagram, blogs, and YouTube we can get our work in front of potentially the world. The only reason you think photography is dying and there are too many photographers is because you are seeing everyones work. 

Shot on Sony A7II with Sony 55mm f/1.8 and lite with a Phottix Indra500 Strobe

The iPhone definitely has put a truely amazing camera in the pocket of many people who would never consider themselves a photographer and may never feel the need to hire a professional, but so did all the people who initially bought the first consumer Kodak 35mm film camera. Everyone said the same thing when the first "Kodak" camera was invented. Instead of complaining that there are too many photographers today we can focus on making work that stands out and that sets us apart from those who are not making a living off of art. If we really are honest, other industries are much worse with oversaturation. I just graduated from Bellarmine University with a degree in Business Administration, and so did several hundred more. That number is growing every year with new grads. Several hundred new Business Admin grads every May, every year, just from one small liberal arts school in Louisville, Ky. My wife has been graduated with a Masters in Occupational therapy and has a certification and license to practice and still can't find a job in our hometown, she has been looking for almost 7 months. Every job is oversaturated, it's really an eye-opening realization and somewhat reassuring. We have to set ourselves apart and do unique work that matters to us. 

Shot on Sony A7II with Sony 55mm f/1.8 and natural light

So how do you be unique? How do you find personal style? Time.

It takes time to get a personal style. I feel like I am getting closer to a personal style and niche to my work but I am still far from it. You are reading this because you are discouraged by the current place of the photography market, just remember you are yourself and only you can make the work you do. 

Rebranded for Your Viewing Pleasure

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I've always kinda just been indifferent with my website design and branding. If you've been on my website a few months ago you would've seen a typical white site with some random galleries and a generic logo that was just my name. A few people who I met with to critic my work and more specifically my website design suggested I needed a logo to set myself apart. I needed something that was simple and rememberable that would easily be recognized on set or in blogs or videos. I'm not a fan of watermarks so you most likely won't see it on there. My friend Zach Jenkins (owner of Fifth Made and Spartan Case), did some work for trade with me to do a brand overhaul. 

I told him I wanted to subtly stand out with a different site than my peers and competition. Most photographers have a white site, and for good reason, it looks great and is east to read. I wanted to look different. Zach suggested a striking black design with a clean and modern font that would become standard across all my business assets and deliverables. 

It's a simple design but perfect to my brand and me. The design Zach made has become a standard across my business cards, invoices, website, and soon to be stickers to brand all my gear.