Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast
Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast
Expanding Perspectives: Ryan Stardrell's Transformation through Travel and Photography
Have you ever wondered about the transformative power of travel on personal growth and creativity? Our guest today, Ryan Stardrell, achieved remarkable growth in his career as a photographer following his travel experiences. Initially the back-end guy at Photo Studio, focused on editing and retouching, Ryan was inspired to venture into photography by a relative who emphasized the power of storytelling through photographs. His journey from a retouching expert to a storyteller behind the lens is truly inspirational.
Exposure to diverse cultures while living in London and Madrid broadened Ryan's perspective, which manifested in his creative work. Accustomed to understanding and encompassing different viewpoints, he expertly navigates the emotional landscape of his clients. This global exposure also honed his ability to compartmentalize difficulties and adapt to situations, be it dealing with a language barrier, or a bride's wedding day meltdown, with finesse and an empathetic approach.
In the third chapter of our podcast, we delve into Ryan's journey with Orion Photo Group. Ryan's portfolio flourished thanks to the freedom to experiment and learn from his peers. He shares insights on the importance of preserving raw images, his preferred photography gear, and the creative impact of using flash. Join us in this episode to appreciate the beauty of constantly evolving in your craft, as is beautifully exemplified by Ryan's journey. Let's discover together the compelling narratives a photograph can unfold and the life-altering power of travel and cross-cultural experiences.
Howdy, thanks for tuning into Orion Photo Group's exclusive podcast. For each episode, we're going to dive into the lives of OPG's photographers and videographers across the country. We're going to talk shop, hear their stories and listen to any advice they want to offer us up. So grab a tasty beverage and settle in for some fun conversations featuring our little community that's you. Let's go. Welcome to another episode of Success Stories with the Orion Photo Group, and I'm really happy with the guests that we have today. It's for all the people that I haven't gotten to meet everybody in person, and I was happy enough to meet Ryan during one of our happy hours in Cleveland, but I have Ryan Stardrell here today, also known as aka Red is here today with us from Cleveland and thank you for being on the show today. Welcome, absolutely no thanks for welcoming me.
Speaker 2:I feel very welcome.
Speaker 1:Good, good, good. So, speaking of Cleveland, I was watching my Jets play last night in the Hall of. Fame game in Ohio, which actually is not in Cleveland. They were playing the Browns, but they were in Kenton, so anyway, totally off topic.
Speaker 2:Well, as a Clevelander, I actually think that it's a sin to be a Browns fan because of the product they put out in the field.
Speaker 1:You need to remember I'm a Jets fan, so I feel your pain.
Speaker 2:I feel your pain on that yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool, all right. So, ryan, I'm going to ask you some questions about you as a photographer today and kind of get to know you a little bit better. Are you born and bred out of the Cleveland area?
Speaker 2:Kind of. I'm from Northeast Ohio but from Warn I moved around a bunch the various areas surrounding Cleveland, ended up in Cleveland proper for a good while and finished up my four-in-a-year's in the suburbs of Shaker Heights with the school out here, John Carroll. But I've traveled quite a bit so it's hard to feel solely Cleveland. But yeah, that's my life, I am a Clevelander.
Speaker 1:Nice, nice and Cleveland is. I've always had a good time when I'm there. So according to your bio here, it says, yeah, cleveland-based photographer. You began photographing things in homage to a late and great relative who taught me that point of that. The point of pictures is to allow others to live vicariously through you. With a simple click, you tell a story of a person at that moment, singular in time, and you are honored for that privilege of telling a story on behalf of all of my couples. By the way, it's a great bio that you use on your portfolio page. I also have to mention that it's a great bio pic, but I want to get into that in a second.
Speaker 1:But I love that story that you tell there, and I think many of us get involved in photography through somebody else who kind of turns us on to photography. So my first question is tell me a little bit about this late, great relative and kind of how that spark began for you as a photographer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, I think. Can I jump back even further a little bit for having this conversation with my relative? So I actually my first foray into photography is I would use to work at Photo Studio. It was Moto Photo Branch, but they also did a lot of Pro Event Photo was their main stuff until they did school photo, sports and stuff like that, and I worked with them for six years, wow but I never took a single picture. I was a back end guy. I did all the editing, I did all the culling, I did all the sorting, I got really good at Photoshop and also I did a lot of Excel stuff. So I was a guy that like the guy behind making the photo run, but I wasn't a creative One of the creators there and so I never had an interest in pictures. There was no appeal whatsoever at all, it was just a job. It was a no, I liked what I did Okay.
Speaker 2:The photography part of it didn't interest me Interesting and so, yeah, I got into photography and kind of backwards.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Started on the editing side.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a question about that on the editing, not to cut you off, but like do you feel like that spending that much time editing other people's pictures helped you when you did start taking pictures in the culling part?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'm really good at culling. Yeah, I can do it pretty quickly. Editing I still take too long, because that was one of my problems is that I would spend too much time retouching. They wanted retouching done and, like you know, they wanted just the basics and I was like, no, we need to do this and this and this. You got to make this person pay it for retouching. We got to give them the best retouching they can get and I had a thousand pictures to go through. So every, every 1000 people got the best retouching that I could possibly muster, and so I, like I said, I like what I did. So I always think that kind of ties into how I got to photography. I think when you do something, you need to do it all the way, and so, even though, even though I was just supposed to do basics, I did a lot, but they were lucky to have you then, because I don't think too many school and sports volume studios spend that much time on retouching, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying I was any good, but I had a lot of it.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm sure you got better at it over time. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I got a little better.
Speaker 1:Cool. So tell me a little bit about this relative of yours.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so, I live. I studied abroad a couple of times. I traveled a bit and I lived in London for just a few months I think five months and then I came back and I was heading to Spain to study. I was going to study there for a year and I lived in Madrid for a year. Yeah, that was fun. It was great, great times. Yeah, madrid's a great city.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, oh yeah and yeah, there was a lot of learning I had to do there too, but that's a whole different path. Yes, but I was heading to Madrid and I was talking to my grandmother's cousin. So she's in her late 80s, I think she's a. She's great, she's a wonderful lady. I used to spend a lot of time with her growing up. She was two houses down from my grandmother and I spent all my summers at my grandmother's house.
Speaker 2:But I was talking with her and I mean I've known her my entire life and I was telling her I'm going on this trip to Madrid. It's like, oh, spain, I love Spain. I had no idea she had ever even left the country. Spain was like her favorite country in the entire world to go to. So she was telling me all about it and she says, make sure when you go you take lots of pictures.
Speaker 2:And I was like I mean I usually don't really take pictures. Like, no, you got to take pictures. I want to see what. I want to see your trip when you come back. And I was like, okay, fine, I'll take pictures. And I kept it in my brain. I was like I'll follow through. But I like I don't care.
Speaker 2:I went to. I had already been out of the country, I think three separate times, and pictures were just things that I just thought that were. I don't know. I'm always anti counterculture. I guess I'm always anti what everyone else is doing, and if I see a bunch of people taking selfies and stuff like that, it completely divorce me. I don't want to do that, I don't want to be a cliche, so I didn't really take a lot of pictures because of my my just counterculture brain and but anyways, when I go to Madrid, I actually do research a camera and me and my girlfriend at the time we researched and we actually bought a camera together that we kind of shared. She lived at Austria and I lived at Spain. Wow, we shared this camera.
Speaker 1:But that's a long distance to share a camera.
Speaker 2:I know I was looking at this so that it seemed normal to me at the time. But, yeah, I spent days, I don't know weeks, looking up. I got, I remember it was a Canon Cyber Shot 280HS oh my gosh, okay, and it was a. It was a first camera. It was a really good camera. Yeah, it was a comfortable point and shoot, but it was the first camera that actually had manual settings on it.
Speaker 2:And so I was like, okay, I learned that there's this whole world of technology that I never really knew was a thing, because I saw that there was these dials on here and I saw that you could change. I learned it was called an aperture, it was headset F, you know dash, whatever. I was like what does this mean? And I saw that, you know, I I could figure out the seconds, kind of. I was okay, and so I just tinkered with it, I would click and I'll take a picture in auto mode and then I would see what those settings were and I figure out what it, what I could do to make it, to recreate it on my own.
Speaker 2:And yeah, just, I'm a super huge tech head, I love technology, and I was like, okay, this is a, this is a whole world that I don't know and, like I said, when I do something I like to go all in. I was like I'm going to learn everything there is to know about photography. So I did and I took. I don't know how many pictures I took, but thousands of pictures, more pictures I've ever taken my entire life, because I was really excited about this new little toy that I learned. I also had limited time when those things use it, because I was sharing it back and forth with this girl. Oh, and I also remember my promise to my cousin Betty. That was her name. Her name was Betty, and so I'm like so I'm taking lots of pictures, having lots of fun, doing lots of trips, and actually while I'm over there, I get a call one day from my mother and she tells me that my cousin Betty died. So she, she passed while I was still over there in Madrid and I couldn't attend the funeral. But, even more importantly, I was like, oh man, I can't, I can't share my pictures with her. Like I just I yeah, that was.
Speaker 2:I was really looking forward to that moment when I get to get back and I could tell her the stories and I could say hey, hey, betty, I took all these pictures. Look at these pictures and I know just the way she had, just the way she had lit up when I told her I was going to Madrid and she was just so ecstatic for me, that was just that's when it clicked for me. I was like this is something that's bigger than you know, the disco girl taking pictures and selfies. It's bigger than me having this enormous love for tech. It's about people and I learned years ago that's what I want to do. I want to connect with people. That's all right. I studied international business in college. For that reason I was going to be an engineer. Excited. I want to do people. And so, as I realized, cameras about the person. It's not about the picture, it's not about the object, it's not about the settings, it's about a real human being in a moment and sharing that with others.
Speaker 1:And so yeah, that is such a good story. Like I have like chills, like you were telling me that and you know the fact that she inspired you to take the pictures and you were doing it and you're sharing this little point and shoot and with your girlfriend back and forth, and then this person passes away and she's, she's left a legacy with you, even though she never got to see. I like to believe that she sees every one of your pictures, but you never got to show her in person and interact with her and that's really powerful and I think that many of us as photographers, there's a spark that just turns us on to this medium and most of the time, especially for people photographers, it's about making that connection with that person and she put that spark inside of you and you are very easy to talk to and that interaction with people it's one of the reasons why I like taking pictures of people as well is being able to capture that moment and you know our jobs in wedding photography is to capture them in their best moment. Right, they look the best. That's not always our job in all cases, but as an event photographer, we want to make them look as beautiful as possible, but that's such a great story, but I think you know being able to learn.
Speaker 1:I think there's a there's when it comes to this kind of photography. There's a part when I meet a photographer I can tell within a few minutes of them. I, without seeing their pictures, I can tell whether or not they're good shooters right away, based on their personalities, because there is a piece of you that you need to give to someone when you take their picture and you have to interact with them right, and I see that in you, I see that in your smile and I see that you put people at ease, and I think that, as a wedding photographer, that's the first thing you need to do is to just take that guard down and put people at ease, and the most successful ones, when you look at guys like Jerry Guionis or people Sue Bryce, when they take your picture, they immediately pull the guard down and make you feel like you're an important person. I could see you do that as well. But, man, what a great story. I have to say it's one of my favorite stories that I've heard in doing all of these podcasts.
Speaker 2:I'm very glad that you left that with me, yeah.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure she's very proud of you as well. So Madrid is, I mean, what a great place to spark.
Speaker 2:I've only been there.
Speaker 1:once. I taught a workshop there about eight, nine years ago and got to spend like four or five days with other photographers in Madrid and it was just a magical experience and my favorite part was going to the those little places where we got meat and beer after, after I was.
Speaker 2:the food there is unbelievable, yeah yeah, I live in London the year before that. For such a great city, the food is horrible there. London is the cultural hub of everything, so you can find a good curry or good Japanese or something. You're not going to find good English food or good American food either. But yeah, english food is a quiet taste.
Speaker 1:You have to acquire the 30 years of living as an English man if you like, if you like to drink warm beer and good french fries, or chips as they call it, then you're in the right place, but the beer is actually very good there, so there are some great things. I'm cool, well, and do you feel like the traveling and most Americans don't do a lot of traveling abroad, which I think is a shame Do you feel like those, those that travel abroad, really help kind of round you off from a cultural perspective and being a photographer today?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely. Um, you said most Americans don't like to travel and then my wife is in that box travel over, getting ready. I'm getting passers for her and all the kids because of the fact that I'm just traveling. I remember the very first time I traveled somewhere. I went to mexico and high school my family on a cruise and just Very first time I ever had that experience of, well, there's something different. It was it doesn't hit everybody the same way, but still, when it hit me out, it was just, it was overwhelming. I was like, well, there's, there's a lot of cool stuff out here and I never even New. It's like, it's like your brain on locks. Yeah, you know, that's really what I felt and so, yeah, so being able to see new places and experience new things definitely makes me feel More whole and complete, makes me feel more well, more well bodied. But the just the challenges you have to face when you live abroad, especially language barrier yes exactly.
Speaker 2:I'd study spanish for my almost my entire life and so I'm pretty good. I was like I was ranked in america and spanish. I got the spain. I was like not my butt To speak spanish. Oh my goodness, it was coming at me a million miles an hour. Everything is spanish, spanish people really. At least. Back then they really didn't know english, it wasn't common. I could go to germany.
Speaker 2:I could find a lot of people who speak english and spain First of all, but then, also just a lot of people just don't speak english because of cultural pride and so yeah, so definitely, language barrier is a real thing. But also, you know, you got to navigate, you got to get around, you have to get to school, I have to get to my internship. You know I have to figure things out and actually when I first got there, I didn't have a place to live and so I have to find an apartment, apartment or hunting in spanish, as I don't know how many different apartments I went to and toward but I gotta, I gotta, I gotta not get ripped off, right, I gotta find a safe place to live. I gotta do it all in a foreign country, in a different language. So once you go through that kind of a thing, you can pretty much handle anything at that point yeah, you get perspective and not as many things feel hard.
Speaker 2:So, um, when, for example, my last wedding, my bride was having a little bit of a meltdown because her dress got a little dirty, um, and I I can relate. I can understand that she was upset in the moment, but her little freak out wasn't something that's going to rattle me because of the fact that I know that A lot of harder things out there, a lot of harder things, and so when you have that perspective, you can just, you know, you can compartmentalize the difficulties as you experience anything.
Speaker 1:So and that, and that comes from maturity as well. As the years go on when you're shooting, um, you're a lot younger than me, um, but the one thing that I learned was Um, you know how to handle that situation where a bride is just complete, or groom or family member Is melting down, and a lot of times it can be directed at you, um, regardless of whether or not they mean to or not. Um, and one of the things that I learned over the years was to, if you can, especially if it's a bride is to to they. They respect you, um, because you're an outside influence and you know family member can't just go up and be like yo, you just need to chill right, because that bridal just literally bite their head off. But you can go to them and say hey look, I've shot a lot of weddings.
Speaker 1:What you're experiencing is is is difficult. I understand and, um, you know if I can offer any advice and take it for what it's worth. Please take a breath, um, and let's get through this together as a family, and me is, you know, helping you so that you can get the pictures that you've dreamed all of your life. I know it's gonna be really hard, but if, whatever you can do, can you push it aside and try and make this work for you so that we can get some great shots? And nine times out of ten I would find that uh, and it takes a lot of, takes a little out of guts to do that, because I've had brides can't really melt down to me like who the fuck are you?
Speaker 2:like blah blah, blah.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, sorry, everyone who's just letting, like it's happened to me, like it can, it can backfire on you and you just you, just you, just you know retreat and say I tried and you know blah, blah, blah, but it's uh and it and it does take majority. But, like you said, um in in having those experiences and seeing all those different things around you off To understand and help you see the bigger picture as far as that's concerned.
Speaker 2:So You're really good at this, by the way that that's just gave our imaginary bride that was.
Speaker 1:that was like Oscar worthy and like you, I also have had some really great mentors in my life and people who inspired me. I started shooting weddings when I was a high school senior, like my first wedding that I shot.
Speaker 2:Oh, I remember this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was a senior in high school and you know he threw me to the wolves and I did it and he knew I'd been working with him a good year and a half at that point and he says this one, I know you can do it and I didn't shoot the whole wedding. But you know I remember a couple weddings after that, like knocking on the doors of 17, 18 year old kid and be like, hey, I'm your wedding photographer. And they would be like, do you even shave yet? Yeah, and it was really about getting their guard down immediately and finding those ways and he taught me those things. He taught me those ways of you know what, by watching him and watching how he worked and trying to get people to and sometimes it was a little cringy, as my daughter would say. Sometimes it was a little cringy in the way that he did it, but I learned how to do things my way that I felt were less cringy and the clients responded to it.
Speaker 1:So, and I have a very lucky and I also had some very good mentors that taught me how to be a good photographer and via lighting and things like that, and working hard for them and putting in that time with them, which actually leads me to my next question. So you've been shooting with the Orion photo group and are you doing weddings on your own as well?
Speaker 2:No, actually this year, well, actually really since doing Orion, let me think I think since I started second shooting with Orion a few years ago, I actually just kind of put my own things on pause because I still work full-time and I've got I've got three little kiddos now and so that's right. Yeah, so I actually I shoot with Orion and I get to get my fulfillment of connecting with people and get a little bit of pay from it, and then I kind of like, okay, that's enough. Oh, this is mostly a mostly a part-time part for me, but it's a part time that I really get to enjoy, and I get to enjoy it that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and many of the photographers that shoot for OPG are people who work a full-time job and have kids but still really like to do weddings. And they do that or they're working towards building their own studio, building their own portfolio. So my question is kind of like how do you feel like, as you're doing more and more weddings with them and doing it with OPG? How has that helped you build your portfolio? And you know, are there lessons that you've learned because you're working with? You know different associates every week, or what when you are you know? How is that helping you? I'm still here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, so really working with Orion.
Speaker 2:First of all, I started second shooting and I had a small portfolio that's right when I started with them, mostly because I'm really really and still I'm really bad at sorting not sorting I'm really good at sorting. I'm bad at collecting all my pictures that I like and putting them somewhere. You're really proud of that effect and so getting my pictures out somewhere on there on a portfolio just, and so I've had a small, small portfolio. I hadn't shot a lot of weddings to really have a large one anyway, but shooting with Orion especially when I started second I it was great getting an opportunity to just connect with so many different people, take so many different shots, different. When I was still an associate I would just connect with a lot of different leads and so I got to see you know different styles shooting.
Speaker 2:The connection, the connecting with people part, I think I already. I think I already had that pretty dialed. I think there's obviously growth, but I think I had that one pretty figured out. But seeing the different ways that you could shoot and different pictures you could capture, that was that was great. I'm just really eye-opening. I remember there's just this I think the first great picture that I actually really like I was shocked that I took was shooting with Conrad. He's a lead with you guys and he just he just worked the bride groom into a certain position that he then let me shoot from and let me shoot with, and also he's really good at letting me jump in and out. We, we would work pretty well together.
Speaker 2:He's a good guy and so I no, actually I take that back that picture scratch that there are lots of people that took great with Conrad because of him, because of those moments. The first one I remember taking was the bride I had. He, he was somewhere else, he was shooting with the grooms and he said, hey, I want to go over to the bridal suite, just just, you know, keep them entertained to make sure you get good pictures. And so you, let me have whatever.
Speaker 2:Whatever I wanted to do with the brides, because I never really get to shoot the brides right as an associate anyways, as an associate, never get to really shoot the brides and so, yeah, he gave me a lot of free reign to try it out, and because he had already gotten his pictures and or he was coming later, I don't remember how exactly it works, but anyways, I, because of all the times that I shot with him, I was able to direct the bride into a pose where you know she's just absolutely gorgeous. It was just it was, it was. It was my favorite picture I had taken up to that point and she was so gorgeous. But it was because of something that I learned just with she doing Conrad, just seeing how he would talk to people and how he would get people in certain spots. That's one of the great things I think I learned as a second. Who's just great photographers? Get people into the right positions, because that's something that you only get with practice. You can watch videos.
Speaker 1:I watched so many videos watch, so you can watch all the youtube videos you want, but until you're out there doing it in person, yeah, it is, and thanks to Conrad for being, you know, so awesome.
Speaker 1:And in those situations it's like Mike, myself or many other people who were, who are learning how to shoot. In those situations it's like you're shooting with a net right because you have the photographer right there who, if you stumble or you're just not getting, you're just not getting what you want he can be there to help you real quick and step in. You know brides don't want to be, you know, guinea pigs, but at the same time, they are happy to see you learn with them and it doesn't, it does help. So that's that. That's that's awesome, and I love to hear stories like that and I love you're one of the few people that I've interviewed who's gone from an associate to a lead, and I think that experience is is is really important and now you can take everything that you've learned and now you know you got to pay it forward with the associates yourself, but also you know can continue to learn. You never stop learning. Every shoot that you do, I feel like you're learning something different and when you stop learning.
Speaker 1:Even today, I was out doing my kids, my, my team, uh, my, my, my, uh my daughter's cheer photo shoot. We shot the cheer team and we're out there and I, you know, I went out there with, with a goal to do something different and, um, you know, some of the shots came out great and I learned a little bit while I was there and even after 30 years, you can still learn, so it's always a learning process for you. But I want to go back to you know, maybe offering some advice to you as far as and this is for everybody out there as far as the portfolio and culling and and putting things together. So, um, you know, I'm looking at your portfolio and, um, you know, the first thing that I notice is that the most, one of the most important things is a great bio photo, which a lot of photographers just don't have. You look, and there's a couple things that you want to have in those images is you want to look approachable, you want to look friendly and is would this person be somebody? At one of my wedding? That's the things that the bride's going to be asking when she looks at your bio photo and you check all of those boxes in that image and and and, coupled with the great bio photo write up which most don't read, but when they do, it should be good. And then you know I can see in your images to that you know they're relaxed some great getting ready pictures, and you know you have lots of of. You know different types of photos and they're including A few engaging photos, which is you know what, what you want in a decent portfolio. Now, as far as like when you go out and shoot other weddings, here's my advice to you that I can, that I can offer.
Speaker 1:As far as calling those images, you should try and gather those images before you upload to OPG, gather them in one spot and spend one hour that's all I ask calling and looking at those images. And when you're looking at those images, you're thinking of just for yourself, it's not for your, for your portfolio. You're thinking to yourself it's a yes, no. So you, whatever, whatever, whether using bridge or light room or Whatever, whatever calling software you want to use to look at the images, photo mechanic is good to, it's yes or no. So you're looking at the images in your arrow button right, our button, our button, our button. Yes, yes, yes, it's that immediate reaction.
Speaker 1:Is this a good picture? Yes, great, I'm gonna keep that image and maybe you flag it with a, with a color code or whatever it is, but be brutal with it. You can go through a thousand pictures and only pick three. It's totally fine, right? What you're looking for in that first pass is the best photos that you took the entire day. And take those images. Don't even worry about retouching them. Take those images and put them on a folder someplace. Just call your favorites and what not. And even if you don't get to it as you're shooting through the wedding season, if you make three photos, five photos, ten photos from each one of your weddings, it's fresh in your mind and those will be your best photos every day of the week.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah and then, when you're ready to start, when you need to go back and you want to update your portfolio, it's really easy to do it because the images are already there. You don't have to go through a bunch of weddings and call through them and stuff like that, and that should be the way you you know kind of tackle everything is is you Just gather the images one at a time and then you can worry about them later.
Speaker 1:And I also like to keep them in raw files, so, like your raw files if you shoot JPEG, raw JPEGs, keep them in raw files because you're editing style changes over the years so you may edit that image and then and then you know, use it in your portfolio. But my, I evolve in the way I process my images and that that's. It would be great way to come back to an image later and reprocess it for you know a newer style, a new preset or this and that and this way you can stay current. So that's my advice on that. All right, one more question, word thirty two minutes what gear we shoot with what's? What's my gear, kid, look which you're looking like Was it tech.
Speaker 2:Yet I could. I could talk tech. I could talk gear all day long. So I shoot with the Sony A9.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:It's from 2017, but I still I think one of the cameras. Yeah, it's great. I got it used a couple years ago at a super great deal. Buy your stuff use.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Oh man I'm. So I shoot the Sony A9 and then I've got my lens. Kid has kind of changed. I would use a lot of primes originally, but since shooting weddings now I use zooms a lot more often. I think there are a lot of photographers out there who can use primes and just primes on the way. I don't think I'm that good to do that. So I use zooms. But so I have. I do have a 35. I see on my camera right now I'm looking at it has 35, 1.8. On my other camera I have a Sony a7. Three is my backup. Ok, 85 1.8. Ok, and then I've got a 50 that I don't use anymore. I haven't used it in a lot in a while. I used to use it all the time for my weddings. Haven't used it at all this wedding season, or even I think I stopped using it in the last wedding season.
Speaker 1:But I've got a 50.
Speaker 2:Ok, and I've got a. I actually have a 35 to 150, f2 to 2.8. So Tamron released one last year, yeah, and it's like two grand. Sam Yang released one this year and I pre-ordered it. I got it as one of the first people to get it and it was like that's 1200 bucks, so it's $800 less and it's been fantastic 35 to 150. So you get that whole huge range.
Speaker 1:That's a huge zoom yeah.
Speaker 2:You know exactly, and it's starts off at 2 and goes up to 2, all the way up to 50 millimeters, and then it's 2.8 the rest of it.
Speaker 1:OK.
Speaker 2:So 2.8 constant zooms throughout the whole aperture I'm throughout the whole zoom range, so I use that a lot too. So actually, if I'm using two bodies, I will now typically use that and then my 35, just so that way I have a wide angle up ready to go real quick so I can flip that back up. I usually don't shoot super wide. I actually never, I've never owned anything wider than 35. I like I like telephoto looks more personal taste, so I used to always use an 85 is what my common prime was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a tough that's a tough time to do weddings with For portraits.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's a great lens for portraits.
Speaker 2:And is the A9.
Speaker 1:Is that a full frame or is that a crop sensor frame?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I started off years ago shooting with an A6000, which was a crop sensor, and I would use a 50 on that, so that's equivalent to like a 75. Oh, and I do have a Tamron 70 to 180 2.8. That was my long zoom before I added the 35 to 150. But right now, usually most weddings, I'm using the 35 to 150, 85 for portraits, okay, and then the 35. And then I've got a lot of flash gears. I'm going to get all my mag mod kits. I've got some 82, 80, 200 pro speed light, that camera with a number of right now. So go dot, speed light, yeah. But yeah, lights are super, super crucial.
Speaker 2:I remember Anthony. He started shooting with OPG earlier this year I mean the friend of mine and he never used lights. They got any lights. I was like at a wedding, you're going to need them at some point. If you're going to shoot and you're going to really shoot, you're going to need them. And so, yeah, then he finally discovered the. Yeah, you need lights. It's not crucial for everything, but you know dark receptions and it can just change you creatively.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm a big flash guy. Yeah, that's again, it's a Ginnis Bucura record behind me for the most camera flashes ever used to make a photograph so.
Speaker 1:I'm the flash guy and I do think that, like, unless you live in a place like Mexico or California where most of the weddings are going to be outside like you know in Cleveland, in the Midwest, like in pretty much almost everywhere at some point you know you're gonna go inside and you can have a reception needs, you need to know how to use a flash on it, on your camera, off your camera and it. I'm a big believer in using flash all the time, so I think that it does add a lot of spark to it and it definitely makes you separate you from the other.
Speaker 1:I phone pictures in general but that's interesting about the zoom lenses. I was a zoom guy for a long time and now I'm pretty much just a prime shooter. I was at the end of my career, but I think you know what's that?
Speaker 2:Are you at the end of your career, your?
Speaker 1:career and my wedding career. I haven't shot a wedding in almost 10 years now, so I can't say that I shot my last wedding who knows when I'll get pulled back in again but the end of my wedding career. I was just shooting with primes and I did everything with a 2450 and 85.
Speaker 1:But, I was able to do that because I always had a second shooter and an assistant who also shot a lot as well. So I made with you a different lenses as well. So you know, it's easy to say you can just shoot with primes, because I was really just looking for the money shot all the time, but if you're a solo shooter, you're just coming with an associate that you don't know that well, zoom lenses are a good way to go. So Right, but thank you for sharing your stories with us, and we're going to dedicate this episode to Betty. Yes, because thank you, betty, for inspiring Ryan and being a person who you know I love people that put that spark in people like that. And so this episode for Betty, and thank you so much for being on this week's episode. Thank you for sharing your stories with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no. Thanks for having me. It was certainly a pleasure. Thanks for listening to me. Thanks for dedicating to Betty. She was awesome, so I'm glad that Her memory gets to live on in this podcast. Yeah, that's awesome, cool.
Speaker 1:Well, that's another episode of success stories. If you'd like to be on an episode of success stories, tell your story. Like Ryan, and I love to hear him. I love all of these stories and I love to get to know Photographers and videographers who work for OBG. Come on the show and you get a twenty five dollar B&H gift card which Ryan will receive after we get off today, and we'll see you on next week's episode of success stories. Take care, everyone bye.
Speaker 2:Bye.
Speaker 1:All right, that'll do it for this episode featuring OBG's best of the best. Would you like to be featured in an upcoming episode or do you have a suggestion for somebody you'd like to hear from in our community? Please email me. Jake group with two P's and a Ryan photo group dot com. That's Jake group and a Ryan photo group dot com. I look forward to hearing from you and hearing your suggestions. We hope that you enjoyed this episode and I look forward to hearing from you and your story. That's it for now. We'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day.
