12 Project - January- "Cold Day"

There's a new trend going around the internet with photographers and people alike.  It's literally just called "Project."  How it works is that you photograph something in your life, something you want to do, places you've gone, etc., etc., and share it with the world.  But you decide the length and/or duration your Project.  You can do a 365 day, 52 week, 12 month, 30 day...whatever you decide.  The only rule you have to follow is that you STICK TO IT.  If you do a 365 Project, you have to document and share your Project everyday for the whole year.

I present to you, my 12 Project.

I had originally heard about this a few years back and thought, "That's kind of cool!"  Well what got me inspired was other photographers on Facebook told the world what they were going to do and have followed through with it.  I originally had no idea what my Project was going to be about.  The things I love?  Ummm...I would never complete it.  What about showing the beauty and awesomeness of our planet?  Not in this economy!  Perhaps photograph the state parks in my native land and write a book about them?  Mi righting N gramer skellz ain't up 2 PaR.  Then, like a lightning bolt from the sky, came the light bulb.

A photographer by the name of Michele Whitacre (Facebook, Website and Blog) out of Phoenix, AZ asked her followers what she should do.  They gave her their ideas and she thanked them politely and went about her day.  Her mother had a good one: "Opposites. Pretty plant vs ugly plant. Someone lounging vs someone exercising, young vs old, modern vs antique, hot vs cold, playing vs working, china vs paper plates etc etc..."  This was a FANTASTIC idea!  So I stole the idea (sorry Michele and mother), but I wanted to put my own twist on it.  Instead of doing literally the COMPLETE opposite of a subject, I wanted to add in an emotion or event, with non-corresponding photos, and with a little bit of poetry.  Now this is where it's going to get confusing people, so listen up.


My Project will consist of two photos, each having their own title and their own poem.  Both photos and poems will be merged into ONE photo to convey one title and one poem.


Whew!  I know, I know...it's a complicated process.  But the reason I wanted to do this is because I feel that we as a society have become too closed minded and we need to view topics with an open mind.  The photos may or may not coincide with their respective title, but I think you'll get the gist of it when you see it.

There we have it folks.  My first photo of my 12 Project.  I left everything as open as I could so that your mind could make it's own decision.  There is no right or wrong opinion, just your own.  I'm curious to know, what's this mean to you?  Someone in prison who is longing to get out?  Perhaps it's an emotion that you're facing now.  Or could it be that you're at a crossroads in your life and hoping to choose the right path?  You decide.  Comment below.  I'd love to hear what you have to say.








Cheers and Allons-y,
Ryon McCamish

GO GO GADGET...DADDY?!?!

That’s right, I said, it. Go go gadget daddy!!!

The ying to my yang, Michelle Knudson, and I are expecting a little shutter bug in the end of May, beginning of June. Expectant date is May 26th, 2012 but we all know that when it’s done, it’ll come out on its own.

We had our first ultrasound on Thursday, October 27th and all I have to say is, I now know what it’s like to experience such a miraculous event of creating a child that every proud soon-to-be and newly made parents go through with their first child.  I’ve had friends and family tell me how cool and amazing it is, but I always just blew it off and thought, “yea…so? It’s just a baby. What did you expect to see or hear? A million bucks?” But you’re not “just” looking at/hearing the baby’s heart beat, you’re seeing life. You’re seeing something transform from two microorganisms to a blob of goo to a fully developed human being. It really is an amazing thing to witness with your own eyes.

I started getting very nervous that I wasn’t gonna be able to hear our child’s heart beat or even seeing the kiddo on the ultrasound because of the “McCamish Curse.” (Basically if it can go wrong, it’ll happen to me.) And with me and Michelle living 2 hours apart and winter coming right around the corner, I did NOT want to miss the two most important things of our first child together. Luckily, the force was strong with me that day. The doctor came in after having blood drawn and all the health questions were answered to get a sound of the babies heart beat. I got even more nervous when all I heard was the sound of a microphone being handed off to another speaker at a Star Trek convention. Then…I heard it…it was Michelle’s heart beat…not the baby’s. @#$*!!!! All of the sudden, I heard these rapid beating sounds as if an over excited cat had finally realized that running around was no longer a healthy option, and the doctor said, “there it is!” I just sat there, frozen, numb, speechless and didn’t know what to think. The unthinkable happened when it finally it hit me that my baby was alive and actually there…I got teary eyed. There I said it! I just about bawled like a blubbering idiot with a beer for my tears in my hand!  Oh well…besides, tough guys wear pink right? But I cannot express at how happy and excited I was to hear this little bundle of joy’s heart beat. It really makes you think about how you were developed in the same way, at the same time frame as a fetus yourself, and what you’re parents were thinking at the same event you are at now.

Me and Michelle couldn’t help but to hold each other’s hand, smile and say “I love you.”

When it came to the ultrasound, it was more like a waiting game. We sat in the waiting room for a good HOUR before our 5 minute ultrasound. I’m not lying to you guys but Michelle was doing her pee-dance and almost exploded from all the water she had to drink. Ok, so I might be fibbing a little, but it makes for a good sense of  emotional presence for you guys. Anyway, Michelle lays down to have  the radiologist find the baby. She found it fairly quick and I started smiling from one edge of the earth to another. The baby started wiggling its little arms, legs and head and I just wanted to go, “oooooohhhhhh! So CUTE!” I mean, *ahem* it was cool to see. Michelle’s eyes lit up too, but mainly after she was able to go pee.

Once we saw the little kiddo moving around in there and just being able to actually SEE our child, we got even more excited about being parents. But I think Michelle was more excited to get food in her stomach after we left the hospital.

Final Thoughts
It’s amazing to see such a miraculous event unfolding in front of your eyes one week at a time. Having this exciting and memorable chapter in my life be written out as it happens is a strong motivation to excel my career, my life and my learning experiences. I don’t see how any of these dead beat parents could abandon or abuse such a beautiful and precious thing that’s in their lives. I know me and Michelle will never do anything to harm our child and will do our best to give our child the life it deserves. I’m beyond excited for this new chapter in my life. Though, for anyone who knows me and my personality, when we found out that we were gonna have a child together, these four questions came to mind, which all are a joke FYI:

1. I’ll send ya the check
2. How do I know it’s mine and not your’s?
3. How did this happen?
4. Air mattresses are evil!




Cheers and Allons-y,
Ryon McCamish

First Year Jitters...

September 17th was my last wedding for the year of 2011.  This was my first year doing wedding/portrait photography, professionally, since I got into photography 5 years ago.  When I first started, I only photographed landscapes, close-up’s, night shots, wild life, weather and dabbled into some sports photography.  While I still do all of those styles of photography and enjoy them, I needed to expand my abilities.  So that’s when I decided to start portrait photography.  I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous, terrified, excited, under confident and ready to accept a new challenge in my photographic career.  I spent countless hours doing research on poses, lighting techniques, required equipment and everything else you could imagine.  When the time came to finally photograph my first couple (Jessica and Sean), I was quite surprised my knee’s weren’t making a clattering sound that was calling a few young bucks that may have been in the area.  When we got done, I went home and immediately uploaded the photos to my computer and surprised myself. A decent handful of photos turned out pretty good, at least my mom said they were good (thanks for the ongoing support in life mom!).

After my shoot with Jessica and Sean, Beth and Kris were next.  This time it was in my hometown.  This was a little challenging because my hometown doesn’t really have any great photographic spots. There’s a lot of “neat” spots that require you to be very critical when composing the shot.  Luckily though, the shots I got turned out better than I thought.  At this point I thought, “All right, I got this!” Then came my shining moment.
I got a phone call from a mother who was finding a photographer for her daughter’s wedding.  I unfortunately could not photograph the wedding, but I offered to do the engagement photos after her daughter and fiancé had a bad experience with the original photographer they had lined up.  The engagement photos were for Kelly and Kraig.  I drove down to Spencer, IA the day before the shoot and drove around for a good hour or so.  The next day, me and my “assistant” AKA “the girlfriend” met up with Kelly and Kraig at the skate park and that’s when it hit me.  I HAD to make these photos the best I’ve ever done.  I took my time, took advice from my girlfriend, took advice from Kelly and hoped and prayed that all that time researching and critiquing my own work would pay off.  What made me know that I was doing what she was expecting was when Kelly said, “I’m really happy about the locations!”.  At that time, my mind was exploding fireworks with loud booms and even louder cheers from my imaginary crowd of spectators.  I got back to the hotel room and I couldn’t boot up my laptop fast enough.  When I looked at those photos and my girlfriend said, “That is a really cute picture of them.  I love it!” that’s when I knew I finally had it.  I had created photos that was worthy of an Oscar, and I say that with as much of an unbiased opinion as I can.  After I did some editing, re-editing and fine tuning each photo individually, they were the absolute best photos I have ever created.  Getting the rave reviews from my critics of friends, numerous random people who joined my Cult of AMP Followers on Facebook and Kelly and her friends and family, it brought me great satisfaction that I had created photos that people were going to “wow” over for years to come.  But, it brought even greater satisfaction knowing that I lived up to, and even exceeding in a short amount of time, the challenge I had set for myself.

After Kelly and Kraig, there was Sam and Mike, Heather and Eric, my friends’ dad’s wedding (can’t think of their names for the life of me though) and finally Jennifer and John.  I do have a special shout-out to my friend Richie and his wife Christina.  But I’ll get to that in a little bit.

I know I’m doing more rambling and story telling than anything but here’s what I’m getting at:

THANK YOU!!!!!!  If it wasn’t for all of you couples who trusted in my new venture into wedding/portrait photography, I would not be where I am now.  I knew I had an inclination I was going to at least be “decent” with having very little experience in portrait photography, but I had NO idea it was going to grow so fast and be able to create remarkable, unforgettable and gorgeous photos for all of you to enjoy and share for a lifetime.  All of you took a gamble on me on my first year being a professional photographer and won.

There is one thing I do want to say though on the negative aspect.  I want to personally apologize for any photos that you felt weren’t what you expected and were even remotely disappointed in my work.  I have no legitimate excuse except for the fact that I’m new to this style of photography.  But from what I’ve heard from a lot of you, you were ecstatic when you received them.

Now that I’ve said my thank you’s, I want to mention my most memorable moment’s at each of the weddings.  Here we go!

Jessica and Sean: There’s the obvious one of Sean being sick right up until the wedding, but I won’t mention that.  My favorite moments of their wedding is when Jessica came down the aisle with her dad and she was a watery mess…TWICE!  Was definitely a true sign of love.  The other one was when I was photographing Jessica and her mother right at that pinnacle moment where mom knows that her baby girl has grown into a beautiful woman who has started her own life.  Every time I look at that photo, I always think about how much of a special moment that is in both of their lives.

Beth and Kris: I think in all the year’s I’ve gone to weddings, your’s was probably the most by the book, fairy tale wedding I’ve ever been to.  And I say that in 100% good faith.  But the topper was the car.  I almost quit photographing your wedding and stole, I mean, focused on the car.  And the humor from all of Kris’s guys, my god the humor.  I think MTV needs to be contacted and have everyone contracted for a show.  And by the way, I think the only reason why everyone made you two kiss so much at the reception is because you kept us waiting from eating!

Kelly and Kraig: While I wasn’t able to be part of your wedding, I’m glad I was able to make an appearance at the dance.  All I can say is, I know who to call if I want to party!  I will say this much: I had a fantastic time shooting you guys.
 
Sam and Mike: Despite the fact that the girl’s were running a “little” behind, forgot their flowers, forgot the rings, Mike heading back home to get the rings, the girls already GETTING the rings, Mike’s cell phone dying so no one could TELL him the girl’s got the rings…it was a very nice wedding.

Heather and Eric: I have but only a few words to talk about your special day, and I think you’ll agree.  Redneck…camo…hay ride…crazy party’ers…EPIC!

Jennifer and John: The wedding itself was very traditional and smooth.  I will say though, it was very cool seeing two officiants do the wedding.  But I think the highlight of the whole day/night, started out at Wing’s.  I can’t get the “Freese!” chant out of my head from John’s sister.  And then came the reception and dance.  It just became an organized chaotic mess after that.  Good times.

And last and but never least -
Richie and Christina: There’s a lot I could say, but I’ll keep it short.  I absolutely loved how the wedding was quiet and quaint.  And I loved how you guys turned such a small venue and small wedding into an absolute well planned and fantastically decorated ceremony.  Now comes the special shout out.  I want to thank you guys immensely for not doubting my ability into my dabble of portrait photography.  It may have taken two tries because of rain, but if it wasn’t for you guys being critical about my work and telling me what I did wrong, what you liked and what you would have like to see, it never would have opened my mind that it is 100% completely OK to think outside the box.  So for being friends first and clients second, I thank you for that.  But no matter what anyone says, Richie will always be a cynic (Inside joke.  He’s really not a cynic, just mildly upset because bottled water was introduced.)

Thank you again everyone.  Not only was it an honor you chose me to capture your special day, but it was definitely my favorite year of photography ever.  It truly does mean a lot to me that all of you had enough confidence and faith in my ability as a newly formed professional in portrait photography.  I wish ALL of you the absolute very best in life and I hope to either hear from you again or see you later in life.

Cheers and Allons-y,
Ryon McCamish