up, up, and away...

So, in the midst of trying to pack for travelling, and pack so I can move out of my apartment and (hopefully) into a new townhouse ... I somehow am blogging twice in one day. It's a Christmas miracle :)

I leave tomorrow for Los Angeles, and then the next day jump on a 12.5 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand, and then down to the town of Nelson, on the South Island. It really hasn't even hit me how excited I am. I get to shoot the wedding of some awesome people (one of whom is like a brother to me), in one of the most incredible places on the planet. As if that wasn't enough, I have the blessing to be able to coast around New Zealand for a couple weeks, and then head up to relax on the beach in Fiji, before coming back to good ol' rainy Seattle :).



Just over 16,000 miles of flying ... let's all pray for an aisle seat!

I will try to blog as I'm there, but I'm really not sure when/where I'll have internet access, since we'll be travelling most of the time.

If anyone from NZ happens to read this, call me or email me, and let's kick it while I'm down there.

Hope everyone had a brilliant Christmas, filled with family and fun and love and all that good stuff. Spending time with my family is always so much fun, and we got a kick out of this next image ... time flies! My boots from age 4ish, and now, at 24.

Kara, Gavin, and fam | portraits

Kara and Gavin asked me to come create some portraits/lifestyle images of their beautiful family (dog included, of course :) ), a few weeks back. We were blessed with perfect weather and had a great time shooting. It's always fun when I get creative freedom when I shoot, to capture people and families as they really are, not in cramped, static poses ... and when they get to show off their character. Thanks, guys!

p.s. When I said I had fun news, "in a couple days", I had no idea it would turn into like a month. My bad, I suck at blogging sometimes! Anyhow, the news is that I leave soon (tomorrow) to shoot an awesome destination wedding in a country I've always wanted to visit, since I saw Lord of the Rings.

First, some of the images from Gavin+Kara+fam's shoot.

Wedding Photojournalists Association

So, I found out the other day that I was accepted into the WPJA ... sweet! I'm excited to be a part of a group that has so many consistently talented wedding photojournalists.

I was REALLY looking forward to entering some of my images into their quarterly contest, but it looks like the payment and the whole process of getting my account set up made it so I barely missed the deadline. So sad. Next time. I was so stoked about it partly because the judges for this quarter (and hopefully other quarters), are some of the members of VII, a photo agency comprised of some of the world's best photojournalists (James Nachtwey, Lauren Greenfield and Antonin Kratochvil are particularly amazing). How cool would it be to have some of my heroes judging my images?

I'll have some new blog material in a day or two ... and something that I'm getting pretty excited about, and may be able to share on here soon. Couple good ideas bouncing around in Ye Olde Skull of mine.

Jessica and Stephen | slideshow

Here's the slideshow from Jessica and Stephen's beautiful wedding ... enjoy, peoples :). Crank the speakers!

jessica + stephen | wedding

Jessica and Stephen tied the knot a couple weeks ago at the beautiful Bella Luca Gardens in Snohomish, WA. It was an awesome, hot, colorful and emotional day. This was officially the first time I've (almost) cried at a wedding ... the bond between Jess and Stephen, and Jess and her dad especially, was really moving.

I had a heck of a time picking out less than 1 billion photos to blog, so I apologize if it loads a little slow.

I loved being there for your day guys!
































i loved this sequence right before Jessica and her dad walked down the aisle...














I think Jessica's hand slipped when she was feeding Stephen the cake. Oops ;)













Congrats again, guys, I hope your new life is blessed beyond belief.

New blog!

Well, it's not really new, per se ... but I tweaked it a little, and I think it fits me and the rest of the "look" I'm going for, better than the old one. I like my wedding photography to be "clean" and poignant, and I like websites/blogs the same way - almost minimalistic.

The best part is that I figured out how to get bigger images! I hate the small ones, and having to click to see big images ... so I'm pretty happy about this. Let me know what you think :)

-ryan

bryan + jane with sean flanigan

Jane and Bryan were hitched a couple weeks back at the very cool Windmill Gardens in Sumner, WA. I had an awesome time shooting with one of my favorite photographers, Sean Flanigan ... check out his killer shots from the wedding on his blog. Despite all the rain and generally sogginess, it was a really special day, and I had a lot of fun shooting the beautiful bride and her super cool groom. Thanks for having me, Jane, Bryan and Sean!

p.s. sorry I'm behind on blogging! I have an awesome wedding to post up here very soon...

- Ryan