One of my favorite shots from a quick engagement session down by the Lindon Docks in Utah County.

Photowalking Utah 2011 Studio Walk

Photowalking Utah 2011 Studio Walk

What you se here on my website is owed in large part due to an amazing community of photographers who have over the last few years also become my friends. Found no where else in the country (and I’ve lived and worked in many places) is this unique and serendipitous connection among a few key groups: Photowalking Utah, PhotoCamp Utah, Twitter and a dash of Facebook and MeetUp.  A few years ago I came across Photowalking Utah on Flickr.com  - where I met people like Rich Legg, Ann Torence and Leah Paisley.

From there I met Jeremy Hall because I was following Rich and Ann on Twitter who announced Photocamp Utah 2010 – and BAM – I would say 80% of the people I follow and interact with on Twitter are because of Photocamp. Following the photocamp people on Twitter I met my friend Joel Jenkins – who built this site from scratch for me to showcase my work.

I helped start a photo co-op studio in Utah County thanks to the people I’ve met via our Utah community. The workshops, practice sessions, training, and events I attend are all intertwined one way or another by this web of social media that goes beyond the impersonal connections many of us have elsewhere on the social sphere.  The Photocamp 2010 keynote speaker, Zach Arias – just put on his famous OneLight workshop in OUR studio-co-op this April.

I’ve attended workshops by Kenneth Linge along with photocamp founder and fellow co-op member Jeremy Hall – where we met Jess Curan who helped put on a Off Camera Flash event in the backyard of my webdesigner’s parents’ house. And which was attended by other friends we’ve met thru other workshops, walks and Twitter.

These events are where my recent photos are coming from. This is how I’ve learned and grown the last year – and have made great friends and great acquaintances – dozens of them in fact – and all connected one way or another through this amazing and nurturing photographic community here in Utah. Forget six degrees of separation; here it’s more like 2 or 3!

So this Saturday, I’ll be contributing my own creation to the Photowalking Utah crowd – A Photowalking Scavenger Hunt! It’s my way of giving back to the wonderful groups and people who have become such an important part of my life over the last year or so.

Photowalking Utah 2011 Studio Walk

]]> http://framedbylight.com/2011/05/welcome-to-the-site/feed/ 0 http://framedbylight.com/2011/03/a-future-olympian-gymnast/ http://framedbylight.com/2011/03/a-future-olympian-gymnast/#comments Sun, 13 Mar 2011 08:06:07 +0000 Ryan http://framedbylight.com/?p=76

A few finished photos from a family portrait session in the studio…what a great looking family!

This past Saturday, I had a chance to head up into the foothills of Salt Lake County and mingle with photonerds and camerageeks like myself. Thanks to Photowalking Utah and the evening’s sponsors; Pictureline and Olympus I had one heck of great time. We met at Pictureline’s Draper store at 6pm for a short, albeit informative and lighthearted lesson about low-light photography courtesy of Rich Legg.  The good folks at Pictureline managed to procure a dozen of Olympus’s E-PL1 micro four-thirds cameras for the group to demo for the evening. I gave them my Visa Platinum card and hoped my limit would cover the off-chance I dropped this camera down the mountain-side.

I’ve previously owned a Panasonic GF-1 micro four-thirds camera and had I bottomless pockets, I still would. The cameras are small, stylish and take amazing photos. At least my GF-1 did. I wasn’t impressed with the Olympus – though a few of the gimmicky art-filters were kinda neat. Not great, but neat. The Olympus felt sluggish and did not allow for easy manual controls. I like having shutter-speed, aperture, ISO, etc, readily available and easily changeable. The Oly came up short in form and fuction. The photos at 200 ISO showed significant noise and I even shot in RAW (post in Lightroom 3). The lens itself wasn’t super wide or super long – just kinda blah – and slow. My previous Panasonic had a sharp, fast f/1.7 pancake lens that was just amazing. Had all my efforts and $ gone to my pro gear -I’d have kept the GF-1.

Rich Legg

Rich sent out a Tweet late Thursday night/early Friday and offered the chance to come to his studio in Draper for an evening to play and learn with his lights (check it out – it’s awesome AND affordable!). The power of Twitter to gather and amass people continues to impress me. Ten years ago, this could have taken a few weeks to plan. Now – it takes minutes. About a dozen of us showed up including fellow tweeps: @nicolesy @davdphotography @FenGou @JeremyHall @angrygardner @CoreyLuke @TamaraLuke @leahkcat , @tbangerter and a few others!

Setting Up the Shot with Julie and David

I can’t begin to tell you how amazing the local Salt Lake photography community is. Rich didn’t ask for money. He opened his studio essentially to  a dozen or so strangers and shared his time, his equipment and most importantly his knowledge. He took the time to carefully explain how he set up his lighting – going over setups, metering and posing. No one was made to feel stupid. And everyone had lots of time to practice with their own camera using his lights and Pocketwizrds. Rich even shared his lenses! We spent the better part of the evening in three different lighting set-ups…laughing, learning and watching each other work. We gratefully had a few models who volunteered their time to pose for us and here are some of the results including a criminally awesome photo of yours truly!

I'm Innocent - No Really!

Model Julie

Julie the Model II

Bubbles

Natalie Wilson

Natalie Take Two

Thank you Rich – I certainly am grateful for people such as yourself who freely and openly share their knowledge with others when it comes to photography. As Kenneth Linge (another amazing SLC photographer) says, ” No Secrets!”

Rich is also one of the founding fathers of Photowalking Utah – another awesome group that gets together about once a month to mingle, socialize and create photographs together. In fact – most of the photographers I know on Twitter is due in part thanks to Photowalking Utah. Along with other groups such as Utah Strobist and SLC Smug we have a pretty amazing support system for photographers of all ages and abilities here in Utah. Throw in people like Rich – and you have a recipe for learning you won’t find anywhere else in the country. To be fair though – I think an evening of people messing around with Rich’s gear may have taken it’s toll on him :-)

Strung Out on Photography