Vintage | St. Louis

Vacant | St. Louis

Something about vacant buildings has always been interesting to me.  I always think about the life that happened in and around them, and how different they must have seemed then.  I barely notice buildings that are currently occupied, but once they're abandoned, they suddenly appear to me.

-ryan

create.inspire.live

Mad Adam | St. Louis

This is my bro.  He came home during a shoot and was chatting away on his iPhone.  I asked if I could grab a couple quick shots of him while I had lighting in place, and he staged this expression!  He's always a good sport when I ask to shoot him!  Thanks bro!

-ryan

create.inspire.live

Holly James | Digital Gallery Frame

With this shot, I wanted to produce a digital gallery frame.  My goal was to have it appear as real as I could, so I applied different bevels and shadows to the outer frame and matte to mimic a real framed print.  With this work, the success usually lies in attention to detail, so I tried to include all aspects of an actual framed image, including the bevelled cut produced by the matte cutter around the image.  

-ryan

create.inspire.live

Portrait Study | Painting with Light

This shot resulted from a shoot Holly and I collaborated on to create a movie poster similar to the new posters in theaters advertising "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", directed by David Fincher.  Holly snapped the shutter, and I processed it in post.  I threw a lot at this image to get it where I envisioned it being.  I started with the RAW file and went directly into Photoshop.  The workflow went like this:  Color-correction, retouching, removed the reflections in my glasses, LOTS of dodging and burning, painting with light, applied monochrome noise, overlayed a golden tone on a new layer, then a brown tone on another layer, then applied a deep yellow photo filter to a copy of the background layer.  Finally, I ran a smart sharpen command on the overall image, then did some selective sharpening to finish it out.  I really dig the results!

-ryan

create.inspire.live

Edward Jones | St. Louis

Self-Portrait | Kodak

 

Continued HDR Study | Melissa

1. This is the original image that Holly captured and ran through Aperture for RAW processing. Once that was finished, she brought it into Photoshop for retouching.  This is the image I began with.

2. From the original, I created three versions with different exposures of 1.5 stops difference, then merged them to create an HDR image.  I also pulled the color level down to mute the overall palette of the image.

3. Here I've applied tone mapping and monochrome noise to produce a gritty look.

4. In the final version of the image, I began by selectively painting with light, followed by dodging and burning.  Last, I brought the saturation of her skin tones up to produce a glow.

It's important to note that this is not my image.  It was shot by my girlfriend, Holly James, at my sister's wedding in October this year.  She asked me to try to produce an effect she had in her mind, and this is the result of my effort.

-ryan

create.inspire.live

Grace

I love this image.  Holly is absolutely stunning in it.  She seems so at ease with the world.  Her eyes suggest a quiet rhythm...steady...constant.  Her grace is apparent to me in this shot.

-ryan

create.inspire.live

Rachel Smith | Triptyque

Jeff Smith | Corporate Portrait

Barbershop | Cape Girardeau

Newspaper | Pine Manor

This is the shot Shannon & Melissa selected to be printed in the newspapers announcing their marriage.

-ryan

Enchanted | Pine Manor

My little sister and her husband, Shannon Rhodes were the subject for the weekend.  Their hope was to be married in the golden, ambient light of the early evening during the fall.  I think this shot sums it up.  Holly and I shot over 1200 images, so there will be more to come as I have time to process them.

-ryan

create.inspire.live