Photography | Ryan T. Collier Photography

February 19, 2009

Rochester Wedding Photography? Now Is A Great Time!

If you’re getting married in 2009, or maybe if you’re already planning for a wedding in 2010, now is a great time to talk with Ryan about your wedding photography – even if you’re not getting married in Rochester or in the surrounding area. “A lot of clients ask if I only photograph weddings in Rochester. Actually, I’m able to travel anywhere a bride and groom are getting married – I really love traveling!”

If 2009 is your year to get married, but you haven’t decided on a wedding photographer, or maybe you haven’t had time to research a local wedding photographer, today is a great day to get in touch with Ryan, setup an appointment, and discuss exactly how you envision your wedding being photographed and how best to achieve that vision. There are still several dates available during the summer of 2009 – however, with the wedding season fast approaching, it’s best to contactÂ your Rochester wedding photographer as soon as possible to lock in your wedding day!

“With reception dinner, bridal and bride’s maids’ dresses, cake, tuxes, invitations, and transportation costs, a wedding can be an expensive undertaking! I’d like to help by saving couples some money on their wedding photography. After all, next to your own personal memories and stories of your wedding day, your wedding photographs are the only assets that truly preserve one of the biggest days in your entire lives!

During the month of February, I’m giving couples who book their wedding photography by the end of the month 10% off any wedding photography package – including customized packages! This is a really great way for couples to save up to $500 or more on their wedding photography costs.”

There’s a simple wedding photography contact form that you can fill out to get started, or call Ryan at 585.217.7510 and he’ll setup a day and time to meet with you personally and put your mind totally at ease – if your wedding is in less than a week or if it’s more than a year away!

October 22, 2008

Two Beautiful Rochester Weddings

Well, it’s officially been over two months since my last blog post, and so much has happened I don’t even know where to begin. I’ve been extremely busy with my wedding photography, school, and life in general.

Last week I returned to Salmon Creek to photograph the wedding of Rose and Jeremy Norred! On October 11, 2008 – Rose and Jeremy were blessed with absolutely perfect autumn weather complete with royal blue skies and warm, 70-degree weather. Their wedding was held outdoors on the grounds of the Salmon Creek C.C. with the reception being held at the same location.

The early-evening fall light was absolutely picture-perfect! With the sun hanging low in the sky and a lush, green canvas to photograph the formal wedding photographs against, it was truly a wonderful time all around. 🙂

My day began early in the morning, traveling from Rochester to Brockport to photograph wedding preparation photos of the bride. I spent a few hours at Rose’s house, photographing everything from the wedding party getting ready to Rose and her family applying make-up, before riding over in the limo to Salmon Creek. I was especially excited to use a new 85mm, 1.8f lens I purchased a week or so before the wedding, and I couldn’t have been happier with the results.

That new lens affords me the possibility of shooting weddings in very low lighting conditions, such as churches, chapels, and dim wedding reception halls; however, I’m able to maintain a very high shutter speed (resulting in crisper images).

The pre-ceremony and formal wedding photos were my favorite out of the day’s worth of shooting, in which I ended up with over 2,500 photographs between me and my colleague, who was instrumental in helping document such a magnificent wedding day. But, the best part for me is hearing about how satisfied clients are when the see their photographs. That’s worth every second I spend with my camera and my eye behind the lens – when a client writes and tells me just how happy I’ve made them. 🙂

On September 27, I photographed Tami & Joel Hebert’s wedding in Hamlin, NY which is just outside of Rochester. It was a beautiful fall day with the wedding ceremony being held at St. John Lutheran Church and the reception following at the Salmon Creek C.C. After shooting a few wedding formal pictures at the church, we made a quick stop for more formal wedding photographs at the Adams Basin Inn right alongside the Erie Canal.

The Inn is absolutely gorgeous and perfect for outside weddings (for those of you looking for your future wedding). The innkeepers were extremely friendly and very accommodating. 🙂

Salmon Creek C.C. is barely a minute down the road, which made for a quick drive to the reception where the real fun began! 😉

I had an amazing time photographing Tami and Joel’s wedding; Tami’s such a special lady and Joel is a really nice guy too – they truly are a wonderful couple and I’m honored to have been a part of their special day.

October 21, 2008

Niagara-on-the-Lake

I recently celebrated my one-year anniversary with my wife, Keziah, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. The town is beautiful and very well-appointed with exquisite dining, shops, and activities. We stayed at the Pillar and Post and couldn’t have enjoyed our stay more! 🙂

The area is very picturesque, especially in the fall. If I had an opportunity to photograph a wedding in Niagara-on-the-Lake, I would jump at it! There are so many wonderful locations for wedding photography in Niagara-on-the-Lake, in fact, when we arrived there was a wedding photographer taking photos at the Pillar and Post, and we later saw the same wedding photographer taking wedding photos near the “Hall of Trees.” 🙂

Here are some photos from our trip!

August 13, 2008

Drops of Jupiter.

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Well, I missed the Perseids meteor shower which was apparently Tuesday morning at 2am.

But, I did happen to take a couple photographs of Jupiter and the Moon. In the picture below, Jupiter can be seen as the brightest object, other than the Moon itself, in the top-left corner of the photo.

It’s hard to tell, but the planet had an orange-ish glow. It appears more white in the picture though. 🙂

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July 29, 2008

An Overdue Post.

I know it’s been some time since my last post, so I wanted to take a few moments and provide an update on what I’ve been focusing my energies on over the past few weeks.

While excellent, creative photography skills are essential to running a photography business, accurate accounting is also integral to the success of the venture. With that thought in mind, I registered for an accounting course during the summer and I’ve been heavily immersed in learning the roles and functions of accounting with respect to business operations as it relates to running a full service wedding photography business in Rochester, New York and the greater Upstate New York area.

The second area where I have been concentrating my time is researching and acquiring new photographic equipment that will augment the photography equipment I already own and allow me to provide an even higher level of quality wedding photography images to current and future clients.

While I believe it is the photographer and not the photographer’s equipment that is most paramount when selecting a wedding photographer – or any photographer for that matter, I also can’t ignore the importance of ensuring I’m using the best and highest quality equipment when capturing countless wedding memories for clients.

By investing in the best photographic equipment, I free myself to really focus on my main objective at every wedding I’m hired to photograph: create truly original and breath-taking fine art wedding photographs that are timeless.

Nothing stands still while photographing a wedding. And, there are no forgiving moments to change the batteries in a flash or wait for the flash to recycle. Understanding this, I recently invested in a rechargeable battery pack that offers an unparalleled 1-sec recycle time and is also in line with my company’s socially responsible “Green” philosophy of minimizing environment impact.

The battery’s ability to power over 1,000 full-power flashes and the elimination of battery waste from landfills is something wedding clients and the Company can both be happy about.

Finally, much of my time has been invested in assisting with the coordination of a fundraiser event to benefit the Lindsay Graygo Empowerment Scholarship, a scholarship established in the honour of former classmate Lindsay Graygo who passed away much too early this past February. The event date of August 13 is rapidly approaching and with it a need to finalize remaining details to ensure its success.

I’d encourage anyone interested in learning more about this very positive approach to an otherwise tragic event to read more at http://LindsayGraygoEmpowermentScholarship.org.

Within the next month I’m going to be focusing my energies on some really exciting developments that will be extremely beneficial to wedding clients in need of wedding photography!

I can’t speak about it at length right now, but I will give an update in the very near future. What I can tell you is this: I’ve never been excited about an upcoming development more than I am about this current one! 🙂

Until then, I continue to offer exceptional wedding and event photography to clients in the Rochester and Upstate New York areas. I have booked about a half dozen wedding photography shoots for 2009 already; so, if you’re considering a wedding photographer for your wedding in 2009 feel free to contact me to verify my availability and how we can collaborate on making your wedding photographs truly unique and amazing! 🙂

I’m always easy to get a hold of: 585.217.7510 or via e-mail ryan@ryantcollier.com.

🙂

July 5, 2008

A Fantastic Family Portrait Session!

I had both the honour and priviledge of photographing the Buttarazzi family’s portraits today in Webster. The two hour photo session went by really fast, and all the children were execptionally well-behaved! (The adults were pretty attentive as well. :))

It was great to spend part of my afternoon with such a great group of individuals and a very loving family. Mr. and Mrs. Buttarazzi were so friendly and a real pleasure to work with and photograph.

I’m anxious to start post-producing the photographs! We ended up shooting photos at a few different locations on the grounds of the Webster Arboretum in Webster, NY.

Thanks to John, Katie, Mr. and Mrs. Buttarazzi and the entire Buttarazzi family for a great family portrait session today! 😉

July 3, 2008

Some New Friends and Some New Gear.

I met with my latest wedding couple, Kevin and Brittany, today at Starbucks to meet Brittany for the first time and to go over some great ideas that they both had for their wedding in June of 2009.

I can tell already their wedding will be fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to photographing their wedding next year!

Earlier today, I took delivery of some new photography gear that I will use immediately this upcoming weekend for my family portrait photography shoot in Webster. I purchased a new polarizing filter, UV filter, and some nifty cinch straps that will allow me to attach my tripod to my gear bag. I also picked up a new petal-style lens hood for my 17-85mm lens.

The lens filters were made by an Italian company, Hoya, and they are all multi-coated to reduce reflection, light scatter, and flare. 🙂 The only downside is they’re about twice as expense as non-multi-coated photographic lens filters. 🙁

But, you can’t compensate for a fine piece of glass. 😉

I took a few snapshots of before and after pictures with the polarizer, the difference is remarkable!

June 19, 2008

Occupation: Learner.

I worked mainly on preparing my NY sales tax return for the 1Q08 today.

Random thought, but if it’s one thing I’ve learned about me, it’s that when I get bored, I check out mentally. I need intellectual stimulation to survive. Not so much stuff to do, but I need stuff to learn. I crave knowledge!

I’ve often said that if I were ever to come into a large windfall of cash, that I would consider becoming a full-time student. Think about that – learning, full-time. And, always learning something completely new and different. I know that’s not a dream job to some, but to me it would be fantastic! How could one ever become bored with an infinite amount of knowledge to attain? If I got tired of learning one subject, I’d invest my time in another!

That’s when I know it’s time for me to move on from one thing to the next, when it become routine. I’m not saying that I don’t like routine, I just don’t like feeling as though my mind is being subjected to repetitive tasks. That is one of the main reasons that many of my friends have said I would make a good lawyer – there is always something to be researched or learned or discovered. 🙂

Tomorrow, I’m meeting my friend Craig for breakfast at Bruegger’s, it’s great that we’ve gotten back in the habit of getting together for breakfast at least once a week to solve the world’s problems. 🙂 It’s really a great way to not only start the day, but to also kick start the weekend. I’ve completed not only my personal journal, but also 2 out of my 3 relaxation technique lab reports, leaving just my final report for the weekend. I feel very on top of things and as though I can take on anything!! 🙂

If it’s nice this weekend, I’d like to devote some time to researching some cutting edge wedding photography techniques – something that’s really new and exciting and different! That’s one way I try and set myself apart from the other Rochester, New York wedding photographers – I’m always learning and trying new ways of photographing weddings in the Rochester area!

June 16, 2008

Flooded.

While I was at Panera Bread with a friend of mine, a pretty hefty storm blew through and completely flooded the parking lot! The power of water is an amazing thing. In about 15 minutes there was probably 8-10 inches of rain water flooding the huge parking lot! I started to think about an old schoolmate, Jamie, in Iowa who has had to deal with much larger flood waters. I can’t imagine what that is like – to be in a flood plain with water as deep as 7 feet. Crazy.

After about 30 minutes, the skies had cleared and the sun was beaming down. Craig and I watched as all that water disappeared into the storm drains – which was pretty neat because the water made a little tornado-esque vortex as it drained. Neat-oh!

Later tonight, when I got home, I decided to tackle my first relaxation technique for this week – meditation! It was a little weird at first, and took me a while to get settled in, but once I did it felt really good. I have to write a small lab report about it, so I’m not going to repeat information. But, it felt good – not only to cross it off my list of things to do, but physically, it was rejuvenating. 🙂

I think after photographing an engagement session or taking wedding photos, I might implement a little meditation time afterward to refresh and rejuvenate my mind! The next time I’m hired as a wedding photographer, I’m going to try and work in some meditation time. Shooting weddings is very much a non-stop job – I concentrate on delivering the best and most creative wedding photos possible, that it’s simply difficult for me to slow down. 🙂

June 14, 2008

Mobile Rochester Wedding Photographs.

I had to get up early this morning and participate in the community walk around for the home owner’s association that I’m a board member of. Basically, we had to walk around for 3 hours and make sure owner’s were taking care of their homes. After we completed the walk around, it started raining. And, it rained pretty much the rest of the day – washing out any chance of outside yard work. 🙁

I ended up puttering around the house, not really focused on any one thing. I was pretty drained both mentally and physically from the 3 hour walk around. I don’t like feeling that way because it is as though I’m being unproductive.

It was an early night for me, ending up going to sleep around 10pm – falling asleep to “Who Killed the Electric Car.” I think I got about 33 seconds into the film before waking up the next morning. 🙂 I watched part of it at work on Friday, which led me to purchase the movie on iTunes Saturday afternoon.

Man, I love my iPhone. I was able to download the movie for $10, transfer it to my phone, and watch the movie on my TV via my phone. That – is pretty cool. 🙂

I also keep a selection of my most recent wedding photographs on my iPhone so I always have them to show whenever people are interested in hiring me as their wedding photographer. People in Rochester, NY and Upstate, New York are really nice to work with, and photographing weddings in Rochester is a lot of fun too! I really enjoy meeting with new people and photographing their weddings! 🙂