January 2012
3 posts
Late to the party, but it’s a good one to...
"20 Seconds of Insane Courage" - A SXSW Story
Anne and I went and saw We Bought a Zoo last night. Now, it was mostly (really) campy, but it was definitely punctuated with moments of absolute brilliance. My favorite stories have always been the ones in which a normal guy, going about his normal life, realizes that doing something big is really just a series of small choices. One of the central themes is the idea that all it takes to really...
"Don't quit your day job…"
It seems that some of the most consistent advice I received when starting down this professional path was often twofold:
/////KEEP A LOW OVERHEAD//////
In other words, you just don’t know how far above or below your baseline you’ll end up when you work for yourself, especially in a creative field. There is an ebb and flow to income, to success, to the work itself. You just have to...
December 2011
2 posts
More blog soundtrack…
You can download...
New York via X100
About six months ago, I picked up a Fuji x100. I’d had my eye on it since it was announced, even selling a camera to get ready for when it came out. In my transition from photography to directing, I’ve come to realize that when I was ever good at photographing, it was on the street. It was in the wandering, in the back alleys, in the interactions with strangers. It was (and is) the best...
June 2011
2 posts
More optional blog soundtrack. Press play and...
StreetPortraits: Comicpalooza Edition
If StreetPortraits was a movie, I’d say it’s a genre film. It’s not a subtle adult drama. It’s more cops and robbers than Kramer vs. Kramer. We’ve become interested in heightened reality, interested in sub-groups, and interested in the activities that tend to inspire these large group gatherings…
After dinner with friends the other night, Anne and I pulled...
May 2011
3 posts
An Evening with Arcade Fire… [an addendum]
The beauty of Arcade Fire’s music in particular (and of art in general), is that often the collateral damage of creating something truthful and honest is that it connects with people across all kinds of demographic and situational lines. A highschooler trapped in the suburbs hears one thing, a near-father living in the middle of the city hears another. Yet, both are mysteriously true.
...
[More blog soundtrack]
In light of An Evening...
An Evening with Arcade Fire
Confession: I haven’t, up to this point, been a huge Arcade Fire fan. I haven’t actively disliked them, not by any stretch. I have all the albums, I’ve loved several of their songs and many have consistently found their way into my mixes. No, it wasn’t that I disliked them, it was that I just didn’t quite get the obsession with them… They are a band that...
February 2011
1 post
“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name...”
– Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises from 1959-1994 (via jeremycowart)
January 2011
2 posts
Story Behind the Still: A Manifesto
*I’ve been sitting on this post for weeks. Not really because I don’t know what to say. That really isn’t a problem on this one. This process has been such an incredibly inspiring and enlightening series of events. In fact, as I’m typing this I should be packing for Sundance. This little short film I made with a couple friends and no money is screening at Sundance for...
More blog soundtrack, if you so choose…
...
December 2010
2 posts
Set Extension, Please...
So, a few weeks ago Cody and I made portraits at the Harry Potter premier. We managed to talk our way into the theater itself and set up right next to the concession stand at the local multiplex. We knew that most likely we wouldn’t be able to set up a full backdrop system, so we just brought in a small bounce card. We planned, from the beginning, to just expand the background in post.
...
*If you’d like, feel free to hear some of...
November 2010
3 posts
Haiti via Rangefinder...
Anyone who spends any time shooting overseas will struggle with the ever-present variations of the “when should I shoot and when should I put the camera down” questions… As our planet shrinks, the ubiquity of digital cameras firmly takes hold, and the volume of visual images reaches saturation point, we’ll all need to weigh the cost/benefit of the images we seek to...
More blog soundtrack…just press play and...
StreetPortraits: Harry Potter Edition
I am a sucker for large scale cultural events. I can’t help it. Parades, national holidays, World Cup, even concerts to some extent. I’m just interested in things that can draw so many disparate people together. Maybe it’s just that there is something that feels so liberating to be standing inside of something that is so clearly bigger than yourself. Nevermind that this...
October 2010
2 posts
New York, Via Mobile
I’ve just returned from a pretty whirlwind, bi-coastal, three week, holy-crap-is-this-really-my-job kind of trip. I had the privilege of shooting for Jedidiah, a San Diego based clothing company, for the first week. We shot in Los Angeles, in Miami, and finally ended up in New York. It was an amazing few days and I’m sure that as we get closer to the collection release (Fall 2011!),...
More blog soundtrack…(headphones-in,...
July 2010
1 post
Don't Forget Haiti...
Since the day after the earthquake, I have struggled with whether or not I could/should go to Haiti. As the images began to pour in, my overwhelming desire was to go and to go immediately. But then different stories started to trickle in, stories of people just showing up without purpose and I began to feel uneasy. I read of photographers stuck at the airport having no idea where to go. I heard...
June 2010
4 posts
Beyond the Still
I’ve been itching to enter Canon and Vimeo’s Beyond the Still film contest for months now. After I watched my friends Scott Brignac and Cody Bess collaborate on the second chapter, make the top 5, and have a blast, I knew that I had to do it. Now, I have never written/directed/shot/edited anything narrative before and I thought that this contest provided a great opportunity to try it...
5 tags
Airplane Quiet
Now I have been flying pretty regularly on airplanes since I was a little kid. My parents are divorced so all of the major holidays usually meant a couple of trips on an airplane. I have never been uncomfortable or uneasy on planes. But last fall, on a flight home from a shoot in Chicago, the plane I was flying in was struck by lightning as we were in the steepest part of our ascent. I mean, a...
A Silent 2010
It has been quiet here on the blog this year. My last post was a wrap up of 2009 and here we are rounding second base in 2010. An entire half of a year later. I want to apologize for the silence. Not necessarily to you, the readers…I wouldn’t presume to believe that my lack of writing has in any way lessened your 2010. I mostly mean to publicly apologize for not making space for this...
A bit of blog soundtrack to get us rolling…
...
December 2009
3 posts
Paper Route - A Night in Review
In honor of all of the year-end retrospectives floating around, I thought that I would share a few images I made in New York this fall.
I was in town for a few meetings and happened to overlap with the Paper Route guys. They were playing a show at Webster Hall and I managed to make it over to hang out for the evening. It was great to catch up with the guys and hang out a bit in such a great...
Max's Postcards
I have been a big fan of Max Richter’s work for a while now and earlier this year, picked up his “24 Postcards in Full Color.” The music is fantastic. It has been on heavy rotation for me and in fact, this is a collection of short pieces that were intended for use as ringtones. I’ll just let him explain it himself:
Now I am not sure if you caught this specific line,...
Postcard Number One
Postcard One from Ryan Booth on Vimeo.
Remember, you can check out Max’s site here or just go toiTunes.
Feel free to email your comments to ryanwrites[at]gmail[dot]com or just click here.
November 2009
3 posts
The "Serial Box"
Over the past couple of years, I have been meeting with a handful of guys nearly every thursday morning for breakfast. We are all more or less involved in some aspect of media production and, not that infrequently, have each expressed a desire to have some kind of collective studio/production/work space… Well, last week, we finally made that happen. We kind of stumbled onto this great...
Time for more blog soundtrack…just press...
I spent some more time in New York a couple of weeks ago… I had planned on a formal, big lights, full on Street|Portraits set-up, but unfortunately things didn’t quite go according to plan… I wouldn’t say that it was a total and complete disaster because gear issues not withstanding, I did manage to get setup in SoHo to make a few images. During a normal Street|Portrait...
October 2009
2 posts
I came across this RadioDiaries (one of my...
"Go Outside"
It seems that technology, perhaps more than anything, creates issues of scale… Global supply chains and communication networks and flight paths are causing our definitions of “neighbor” to flex to meet the reality of real-time, world-wide interactions. I can talk to someone across the world, instantly. Hell, I can get nearly anywhere on this planet in 24-48 hours. Anywhere....
September 2009
5 posts
Do me a favor? Press play and then read the...
I spent some time in New York this week and was reminded, as I always am when in the city, how palpable the energy is… I love the speed with which everything moves, the way that people carry themselves. It is incredibly stimulating. I can only imagine the space one would need to carve out to find some quiet when it all becomes over-stimulating.
It was a whirlwind trip (as it always seems...
Street|Portraits in the park...
To this point, I have been setting up for these StreetPortrait sessions in pretty high traffic, high activity intersections. People are going somewhere. It seems that the real skill is trying to convince someone to take the time (no matter how little) to have a portrait made. Interestingly, it tends to exclude the “busy” people. So I thought that I would change it up. For this...
(This is a little Post-Script post from...
Gear Geek-out
Ok, a brief gear geek-out. When I am heading out and I think that I might need/want photo gear, or I am heading out on a street/night type of shoot, I will bring the following:
5DMK2 | 24-70L 2.8 | 85 1.8 | Pocket Wizards | SB-800 FLASH | MAUDIO MicroTrack Recorder (record audio separately!) | AT Stereo Mic | Hot Shoe Adapter | Gel Sampler Pack (perfect size for small flashes) | Sync...
August 2009
9 posts
Now, I know that this isn’t a polished...
Analog(ging) Lists
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but all those iPhone productivity apps and desktop organizers and essentially every digital tool that exists to make and manage to do lists are completely lost on me. They are nice and sleek and sound like such a great idea, but it seems that I inevitably end up needing an analog to do list to keep up with my digital to do list. So, why add the extra step?...
PAPER ROUTE REDUX
I realized that I ended up skipping right on over my PaperRoute blog post that I wrote a few months ago. I think they are coming back in town soon, so, in honor of an upcoming Paper Route show, my original blog post:
Ok, full disclosure. I knew these guys from my Nashville days… We ran in overlapping circles and would end up at the same party or cookout or concerts from time to time. In...
Will you do me a favor? Just press play and...
Main Street Portraits
I got a call from a photographer and now friend here in town named Cody Bess… Seems Cody and a few other local guys had been thinking about trying out a StreetPortrait setup of their own. Cody scoped out a location, got some gear together, and asked if I wanted to come out so we could all shoot together. Well, of course I would love to…
It was really great to do a StreetPortrait...
RadioLab - Moments
I am constantly astounded at both the quantity and quality of information that is available in the form of podcasts. Trust me, Radio is back and in a major kind of way. It exists in this sweet spot between Film and Literature. It is linear and conversational and when done well, can be quite captivating. It is often a little meatier than a film in that it requires you to actively participate in...
The Hassy
On several of my recent promo shoots I have consulted Houston’s resident film expert, Marc Brubaker, and he has either generously loaned me some of his excellent vintage camera gear or acted as my (actual) assistant on the shoot (loading film, changing backs, generally knowing more than the photographer). Now, I started out shooting film. My first band shoot was on a Canon AE-1. I shot...
I am getting really excited about the fall… I have several video projects that are coming together and if everything continues in current fashion, will have shot at least one project on a RED camera by the end of the year… Folks, I am serious. I love shooting moving images…
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to post much of my paid video work until it is released by clients,...
Babys by Bon Iver
I cannot get this song out of...
July 2009
9 posts
"STREET STUDIO" as Inspiration
Ok, I have already received several emails regarding the previous post about the free photographic omnibus. It seems that seeing some sources of “street portrait” inspiration strikes a cord…
Einstein said, “the secret to creativity is hiding your sources…” so maybe I am blowing it by showing you some of my sources of inspiration. But honestly, I don’t...
Free Photographic Omnibus
Just in case you need some proof that “street studios” have been around for a long, long time, then take a few minutes to watch this video. (sorry, can’t embed it)
If you don’t feel like watching the video, then at least glance at these images:
A photographer named Daniel Meadows spent a lot of time criss-crossing Britain in his “omnibus”, stopping whenever...
“the book of love
is long and boring
no one can lift the damn thing
its full...”
– The Magnetic Fields (via Peter Gabriel)