Mathieu Ryan Photographers » Blog

Nicolle & Shaun In Love

mathieuryan — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:44:35 +0000

Every once in a while, a couple comes a long that amazes you. This was one such couple.

For the past year, Shaun has been on deployment, so when we did this shoot 3 days after he returned, it was quite possibly the most passionate, emotional engagement session i’ve had the pleasure of shooting. One of my favorite parts of this session was getting to return to the very place in Estes Park where Shaun told Nicolle for the very first time, that he loved her. I could say more about these two, but I think the pictures say it better!

Emily & Martin Married!

mathieuryan — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 00:49:21 +0000

A word comes to mind when thinking of this wedding, ready for it? Traditional… Now take that word, throw it on the ground, kick it a few times and light it on fire. Emily and Martins wedding was classy, creative, unique, and beautiful. This wedding took place at Yale union, an old laundry mat converted to an art gallery. While a first dance is something special to be apart of, watching Emily and Martins first karaoke takes the cake. I loved every second of this wedding as it wasn’t about holding to tradition and going through the paces, but keeping true to themselves and celebrating their love with a hint of Burning Man inspiration.

I had the pleasure of second shooting this wedding with my good friend, RJ Kern, who is an incredible creative talent and inspiration.

This last image was a fun collaboration done with both RJ and I.

Primary Photographer: R.J. Kern

Venue: Yale Union Contemporary Art Center

Music: Karaoke From Hell

Catering: Lamb’s Table Catering

Cara & Brian – Maternity Session

mathieuryan — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:51:00 +0000

I’ve known Cara & Brian for about 5 years now, having Cara as a co-worker, and being class mates with Brian. It’s been such a pleasure seeing their love grow, them getting married and now bringing a wonderful new life into the world. I feel so honored that they asked me to capture such an amazing point in their life! Congrats Cara & Brain! I can’t wait to meet baby Milo!

Snowy Engagement Session Preview

mathieuryan — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 15:50:00 +0000

One frame from my snowy Colorado engagements session in Estes Park yesterday.

The Impossible Dream

mathieuryan — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 03:28:11 +0000

The Idea behind this shoot was to create a series of Impossible Images. We ask ourselves, are we living a dream or are we dreaming our life? It’s fun to ponder these ideas. I feel very fortunate to be living my dream.

As creative people, we thrive on inspiration; creating something new, different, and hopefully inspiring to others. We often forget to keep pushing ourselves and become content in our style while we keep doing the same thing over and over. We become stagnant, and eventually, burnt out. There’s no middle ground in the creative field. We are either constantly getting better or getting worse. When you think you’re plateauing, this is what I call dead man’s land. Here we eventually start falling behind.

Enter, The Impossible Dream.

For this shoot I headed out to Portland, Oregon with my good friend, RJ Kern, who is a constant support and inspiration in my life. There, we meet with some of Oregon’s most talented creatives, Jos and Tree Woodsmith never ceased to amaze me with their ideas, as well as Skot Coatsworth as our videographer (see the complete list of vendors and creative’s at the bottom). We spent the whole day stretching our creative minds and pushing this shoot to create the impossible, to create our dreams, to make a piece of art like none of us have seen before. Working on test shoots with other amazingly talented individuals is so important to our minds and careers. We can discover new techniques, new way’s of thinking, pulling each other out of creative slumps and finding new inspirations, all the while, making new friends with honest and real connections. I would encourage everyone to find people that inspire them and create their dream.

When I originally got into the creative field, I wanted to work as an image editor working with incredible talent to creating amazing images. I started this journey 7 years ago. While walking this path, I went to school for graphic design where I found a deep passion for photography. I lost my way a bit, when I thought that I’d be mostly working with advertising, branding, marketing and page layout. But my dream never died. I continued on, teaching, learning, inspiring to create inspiring images. Now, while I am dead focused on becoming a great photographer, being the Editor on this project help open my door into something that I once saw as my Impossible Dream.

Ask yourself, are you living your dream or dreaming your life. What is your impossible dream? Make that your reality, whether your in the creative field or not.

Our end goal:

To have fun with friends, old and new
To create six gallery quality images we both sign
To share a behind-the-scenes video to inspire and educate

Please check out this behind the scenes video made by Skot Coatsworth and enjoy the images.

The Images

imagination. Stillness and peace creates a sense of serenity, and a space for imagination as the gargoyle protects her in the dream world and the owl offers freedom.

Melody. We wanted to capture the musical surrender between two lovers. Notice how the only clear parts of the image are the couple in love, this symbolizes how music can connect people and block out distractions.

Inception. The idea of inception is people coming together in a dream and sharing their dreams with one another. You might notice the paintings on the left, these represent the dreams that people have had.

Entrance. We find lovers standing at the entrance of a door. We all have things that hold us back, we have temptations, and have barriers. Do we take a chance and walk through the door of opportunity or do we simply turn back. Notice the man walking away. This to me represents the choice.

Enigma. A woman in shadow’s appears before a man representing temptaion and distraction. Does he hold focus a the doorway of love and life, or will he be weakened and give in to his temptation.

Gravity – the image shows the strength of love and how true love can defy the strongest of powers, including gravity

The Impossible Dream from skot coatsworth on Vimeo.

Photography, Lighting, Technicals

Jos Smith :: JOS photographers
RJ Kern :: Kern-Photo

Cinematography / Editing
Skot Coatsworth

Venue
Julie Olson :: julesmorocco@yahoo.com

Graphic Artist // Post-production
Matt Steaffens :: Mathieu Ryan Photographers

Boom Operator
Marie Baker
Giovani Knox

Dress Design, Headpieces, and Jewelry
Sonia Kasparian :: Urchin Redesign

Men’s Suits
Michael Allen Clothier

Styling / Accessories
Tree Marie :: Love and Sass

Hair & Makeup
Nicole Wagner / Powder, Inc :: nicolewagnermakeup.com

Model Couples
Emily Mantel & Martin Wilson
Leonie North & Karim Alarddine

Models
Alexandria Scott
Danyel Scott
Scotty Wilson

Julia & Steve – Just One Frame

mathieuryan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 04:20:32 +0000

Just one frame from this weekends wedding!

Julia & Steven In Love

mathieuryan — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 01:24:34 +0000

It’s a rarity to find a love and connection as beautiful as Julia and Steven share. I had the privilege to experience their connection first hand on their Downtown Denver Engagement session and WOW, did it bring a never ending smile to my face. I truly feel blessed to capture their Wedding the end of the month.

And a huge thanks to my friend Daylene Wilson for bringing your creative energy to this shoot!

Shaelyn Suites – Commercial Shoot

mathieuryan — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:38:41 +0000

As a creative individual, one of our biggest ongoing struggles is keeping our creativity and inspiration flowing. This process can be daunting at times, especially near the end of wedding season where the inevitable burn-out starts to set in. Some photographers will just accept it and roll with the process, but others will find ways to cure it. I prefer the latter. One of the absolute best ways I’ve found to over come this has been starting personal projects and taking chances on jobs that may not necessarily be your speciality. Pulling yourself out of your comfort zone and taking chances forces you to evolve creatively. Yes, the biggest part about taking chances, especially with paying clients, is the chance of failure. Being up front with your client, setting expectations, doing your research, and being prepared are must haves in a new situation like this. While failure is always a possibility, the reward of success often out weighs the chance of failure, such as finding new creative ways to think on your feet, improvise, or evening finding new styles or ways of shooting. You may discover things that you may not have thought of before.

I recently took one of these chances. My good friend Shae had asked me to capture some images for her company, Shaelyn Suites. A cold, borderline rainy evening, and rapidly fading light, which really made me think outside of the box. Changing how I would normally approach a shoot and has pushed me to think of ways to creatively shoot with no available natural light in my final frames shot. We had an awesome time creating these images! A huge shout out goes to the beautiful models Laura, Abbey, and Sarah.

Ladies, if your looking for an incredible stylist for your big day, check Shae out, you won’t be disappointed.

Nisa + Bernie Married – Morrison Colorado

mathieuryan — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 02:27:41 +0000

To pursue passion and happiness. Yes, that has been the theme of my life lately. What a road it has been so far; what a beautiful road full of twists and turns, ups and downs I see in front of me.

About two years ago I took a scary risk. I split off from something comfortable; a nice country road that seems to have a very foreseeable future. I split off of a previous business with my old partner. One thing I knew I was passionate about was photography. But I asked myself, was this MY passion or was it a skeleton I was carrying with me from the past. I needed to take a step back and truly find what it was I loved to do with photography and with life. Finishing out my contracts with my previous business during that first year was very bittersweet. I was doing something I loved, but in a way that I had to still hold onto something from the past, still working with a ghost, still trying to break free. I was in need of understanding where this was going and where I wanted to be. So I set a series of goals. My biggest goal was to focus on personal development. Yes, it’s great to book weddings, but to do so without fully understanding who you are as a person, a photographer, and an artist is doing your clients a disservice. I wanted to do this right. My only goal for my first year was to second shoot… a lot… focus on engagements, couples in love, families in love and the occasional personal side projects. What a year it turned out to be. Traveling to New Orleans for the Foundation Conference (technically 2011 but I’m still counting it!). Traveling to some amazing places to second shoot for some incredible talent, like Hawaii and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with RJ Kern. To Utah with Scott Stebner for a beautiful wedding and a very sketchy hike at Arches National Park at 4am to catch sunrise at the furthest arch out. In this moment I feel truly blessed. I feel blessed for having the pleasure of shooting with talented photographers like Heidi Leigh Photography, Usagani Photography, Stebner Photography, Daylene Wilson Photographic and Kern-Photo. Thinking back on these experiences, I feel happy. I feel passionate. I am inspired. Earlier today, I was talking with my Dad, and he made an observation that earlier this week, he heard for the first time that I said “This is what I want to do with my life”. Thinking back, yes, it was a passion, it was something I love, but there was always a roundabout way of saying it.

Today I’m committing myself to this, not in the way that I feel I will be committed to a ball and chain, but in a way that passion and happiness are flowing through my veins, with a sense of freedom and drive.

Bernie and Nisa was my first official wedding under my new business with me as a primary, and wow, was it amazing! A huge thank you goes out to you two and your love and passion for one another, and for taking a chance on the new guy!

Thank you to Daylene Wilson for the wonderful energy and second shooting at this wedding!

Kerry + Gavin Married! ~ Lower Lake Ranch – Conifer, CO

mathieuryan — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 23:15:38 +0000

“To feel the love of people whom we love is a fire that feeds our life.”
― Pablo Neruda

Primary Photographer – Scott Stebenr – Stebner Photography

Venue: Lower Lake Ranch in Conifer, CO