There are two things in life that has always been consistent for me:
1) Capturing every moment of my life and everyone else around me through the lens of my camera.
2) My sense of adventure.
When I was a kid, my Dad brought home a video camera from work. I was fascinated that he could film us dancing around the house, and then be able to play it back on the TV. I became obsessed with what we could film and how far he could go with the camera. As soon as he hit the “record” button, I would enter this state of a frenzied child sugar high on M&Ms. My parents got me a little camera to take still photos and they were nice enough to entertain me by developing the film, which contained pictures of close up objects and shots of my Mom’s back pushing my sister’s stroller. Eventually my Dad let me use his video camera and my hobby just catapulted from there.
On one momentous year my parents got me my own video camera as a gift. It was the early 90’s, and it this was a big deal for me. I am very grateful that they were so supportive of my creative endeavors, but I am pretty sure they also wanted me to stop putting their expensive camera in danger every single time I wanted to dance around it with my friends. I brought this video camera with me everywhere: Parties, vacations, friends houses… I would even film the toys in my room, making terrible stop animation movies. Eventually my friends and I started making low-budget films with the camera. They weren’t good, but our parents were always impressed that we were creating huge productions at such a young age.
My best friend, Maddy, will tell people, “It’s actually kind of cool to see our entire lives captured by Ryan in these weird little time capsules.”
Maddy and I have gone on to create a X-Men podcast, The Mutant Ages, which breaks down the queer metaphors of our favorite mutants.
As years went on, I took my hobby and fascination with cameras to a new level. I created a small production team, Atomic Blue Productions, which focused on creating online entertainment through YouTube videos and covering events. This same team and I went on to create videos for the plays and shows we were in at ConnectiCon and Cosplay Cabaret, producing little movie trailers to use as marketing material. I also spearheaded a photography department for ConnectiCon. During the revolution of entertainment through webseries on YouTube, one of my cast-mates and I created an entire show called “Agents of CATAPULT”, which was a comedy sci-fi series about secret agents behind the scenes of a comic book convention.
I was offered the opportunity to manage the studio for an amazing photographer, Carla Ten Eyck. I learned so much from her just by being involved with her life and business. My friends always say that I capture light in a way that they’ve never seen, and while that may be true because I love to play with light and shadows, that was all rooted in my teachings by Carla. Her passion for telling stories through photography, bringing light and love into everything she does, really inspired me to be more serious with my own productions.
My goal has always been one thing: Capturing the memory.
The reason I shoot everything is because I want to remember it. I already have a fairly good memory, but re-experiencing those memories in this kind of light is a different fuzzy kind of feeling. There have been many times when I am feeling down and I will open up a video or photo, and re-live the experience again. It brings a smile to my face every time. In my zen practice of meditation, yoga and mindfulness, I have found that I do this because I want to bring that light and love to everyone — And I want to remember all of these wonderful moments.
Fun facts about me:
- I love to dance on my roller skates.
- When I’m not on roller skates, I am on rollercoasters.
- I’m a big nerd for sci-fi and horror.
- I want to travel across the stars of the universe.
On my off-days, I can’t sit for too long. This is where having a dog comes in handy: I turn to her and say “You wanna go for a hike?” And she will excitedly bound off a piece of furniture and race to the door.
To adventure, life, love, happiness and good health!
Namaste.