Author Archives: Phil Ryan

About Phil Ryan

Photography helps me see. The act of slowing down to compose a photograph gives me the chance to appreciate what's around me. I currently am shooting medium and large format film and Micro 4/3rds and medium format digital.

… just add water

As barren as the desert frequently appears, there’s quite a bit of life to be found. Water, though scarce, can be found if you know where to look. The White Tanks got their name from the fact that frequent flash floods over time eroded depressions that hold water. It’s not surprising that it became a choice grazing area for a cattle ranch in the early 20th century. During its time as a ranch a windmill powered well was installed that created an oasis. Now part of a county park, the oasis is almost swamp like in the variety of life to be found there.

Couple encountered on the trail

It’s like street photography without the street… Actually, the Missus and I were out earlier this week doing a little more hiking in the White Tanks, and I brought along the Hassy to try out some 100 ISO black & white film. I’ve been shooting Tri-X for years, but since the Hasselblad only goes to 1/500 of a second Tri-X is a little too fast for outside shooting. So I bought some Kodak T-Max, Fuji Acros and Ilford Delta Professional to test out and see which one I like. The photo above was with the Fuji Acros. I’m pretty pleased with the contrast, but I need to see what the other films do, as well as try a couple different developers.

Nature Walk

Birds hunting

Since coming back from Dubai it’s been busy, and we’ve only just now gotten the chance to take a little break. Today we walked a couple miles on the Southern trail in the White Tanks Mountains, just enjoying the view and taking a few pictures. It was nice this morning with some light cloud cover and a gentle breeze taking the bite out of the sun.

Gulf Photo Plus 2014 – Wrapping it up

Innocents Abroad part 8 – One Light

Innocents Abroad part 7 – Working with Nothing

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Flour Girl

Link to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6

I’m a believer that getting outside your comfort zone is one of the ways to grow. I approached Brooke Shaden’s “Working with Nothing: Building a creative scene in a boring space and in Photoshop” with both anticipation and nervousness. Fine Art photographers like Brooke are incredibly creative, and while I occasionally come up with something a little original, mostly I assume a “deer in the headlights” look when searching for ideas. It was my hope that I would pick up some inspiration and ideas from the course, and I was not disappointed.

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Innocents Abroad part 6 – Portraiture, Intense and Hands On

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Sara shooting an in pool beauty shot in the rain

Link to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5

As I mentioned in my first post in this series, I first heard of Sara Lando by way of her series on taking portraits on Strobist. In those articles she was witty, insightful, and made lots of really good points. She’s like that in person, as well. “Portraiture Intense and Hands On” was a two day workshop covering planning, preparation, communication, shooting and post production for the portrait photographer, whether working with models or capturing images of friends. First and foremost, Sara believes in making a connection with your subject, finding out who they are and working cooperatively with them to make the image you are trying to capture.

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Innocents Abroad part 5 – Interlude

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City buildings nicely framed on the Knowledge City campus

Link to part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4

Since David Nightingale’s class covered post production on Monday afternoon, we had the morning off to relax and wander around a bit. I had naively brought my Hasselblad in hopes of shooting some film, and here was an opportunity. For the record, next time I’m not going to bring a film camera since there really isn’t enough time to shoot it with all the other activities. Still, I did get the shot above from the campus area.

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Innocents Abroad part 4 – Shoot the Street

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The Textile Market

Link to part 1, part 2, part 3

Shoot the Street was conducted by David Nightingale and started with a morning class where he discussed both technical and social aspects of street shooting. David emphasized quick thinking and learning what story to tell. We discussed showing the broad view, shooting people in the context of that view and using detail within that context. We also talked getting people to agree to street portraits and how it was necessary to have a reason that they find acceptable. The reason could be as simple as “I’m a tourist – taking pictures is what tourists do” to having a project that the subject can buy in on. This is an area that I personally want to work on. In the markets of Dubai it was not difficult to get willing subjects, here in the states it can be more challenging.

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Innocents Abroad part 3 – Urban Landscapes

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A city not yet completed

Link to Part 1, Part 2

Bright and early Saturday morning I found myself with eleven other photographers at Eric Kim’s workshop “Shooting Urban Landscapes.” Eric is a high energy guy whose enthusiasm is contagious. After introductions were complete the next hour or so was spent discussing the work of photographers like Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander and several others and their approach to Urban Landscapes. We also discussed some examples Eric had taken both in Dubai and in the US. After giving us some tips on how to compose the shot he gave us a simple assignment consisting of shooting and urban landscape with or without a person, an urban landscape indoors, and an urban landscape with social context.

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