Ryan Phillips Blog

Yes, you read correctly, this is my last blog post! I always thought I would stop blogging one day and it would be some great post with some mind blowing image and pearls of wisdom but at alas it is not. In today’s Social Media driven world I feel that Facebook is a far more effective tool than blogging so to that end I will be updating my Facebook page more regularly. You can follow me at www.facebook/ryanphillipsphotography. I will post more often and you can follow me through my world if you like. From shooting celebrities, to weddings, to commercial shoots I will try my hardest to take you along on the journey and give you something interesting. Please feel free to look at the blog for inspiration (if you are a photographer) and (if you are a potential client) to see more of my work and learn about my approach to shooting. It’s been an amazing 5 years of blogging and thanks to all the people who stuck around and read. I may be back at it one day but for now my focus will be on WeddingPhotography411.com and of course RyanPhillips.com where you can see all my wedding work.

Other places on the web to find me…

If you haven’t checked out WeddingPhotography411.com it is a site for Brides and Grooms to learn about the ins and outs of wedding photography. Check it out and pass it on. If you have specific questions you would love answered, please email us.

www.PurePhoto.com is an amazing place to buy images for your home from artists from across the globe at affordable prices. Skip ZGallerie, Pottery Barn and West Elm and go for authentic original art!

Also stay tuned for our commercial division…rolling out in a few months…..

In case you are not one of the millions who subscribe to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop newsletter you can read all about what guest contributor Maria Brito had to say about how to buy and hang art from sites like PurePhoto. Maria is one of NYC’s top Interior Designers who specializes in Contemporary Art. You can follow Maria and learn more about her at Maria Brito.com.

Also featured in the newsletter are Gwyneth’s 2 favorite photos that she owns from PurePhoto…

Thomas Birke’s Paris #21

and Jessica Sara Wilson’s Pink Car

From Maria Brito:

“I love creating rooms that are aesthetically compelling, some of them with an edge, some of them a bit more traditional, most of them with color (either a lot or with a good amount of accents) but all of them with some form of contemporary art (roughly anything created between 1947 and today.)

Contemporary art is the art of our times and the art that reflects who we are individually and as a society. It engages the eye and the mind and can open doors and windows to places as remote as Kyoto or as close as Brooklyn. It should not be difficult to live with such an engaging and interesting form of expression, and yet, as an interior designer and a collector myself, I see that not enough people are enjoying the opportunity to live with art.

It’s my mission to demystify the world of contemporary art and interior design and marry them both in a way that is attainable (and irresistible).”

Get your PurePhoto discount to the upcoming Dwell On Design conference in Los Angeles from June 24-26th.

The LA Convention Center is going to be buzzing with over 25,000 attendees and hundreds of exhibitors with awesome modern design products. The best, of course, will be all the PurePhoto art for sale! We’ll be offering discounts to show attendees and would love for any members or fans to stop by and say hello to the team.

Just go to http://dod.dwell.com/tickets and use the discount code DWELL28A. This will get you $15 off the Conference Plus (list price $45) or $15 off Exhibition Plus (list price $30) tickets. If you’re a member of the design trade and use this code, you can get in FREE on Friday, which is the designated day for industry professionals.

It will be a whole weekend of modern design goodness including home tours and discounts on cool products and beautiful art while you hang with the PurePhoto team.

Really…can you pass this up? No way. We hope to see you there!

Japanese artist SASAKI will perform his Heartbeat Drawing Project to benefit tsunami victims in Japan. Watch him as he listens to and draws audience members' heartbeats in an effort to raise money for Architecture for Humanity's relief and rebuilding efforts.

Featured Home Tours

Like the Where’s Waldo books? Enjoy puzzles? Want to warm up for your Easter egg hunt?

Hidden somewhere in PurePhoto is an image that has “MMA 4897.” Be the first to find it and leave a comment under the image that reads, “I found it first!” and you win a $150 credit to purchase amazing art on PurePhoto. If you invite others to play along on Facebook or Twitter then your prize doubles to a $300 credit!

Don’t worry if you are not the first to respond. Anyone who also leaves a comment after the first reply that reads “I found it too” will be eligible to win one of 3 runner-up prizes of a $50 credit on PurePhoto. The runner-up winners will be drawn on Easter Sunday, April 24th at 12.pm P.S.T.

• To invite your friends on Twitter, copy and paste this post: Help me look for treasure on #PurePhoto and we both win great #art! http://bit.ly/hsBc2u Please RT! #treasurehunt
• To invite your friends on Facebook, copy and paste this post: Help me look for treasure on PurePhoto and we both win great art! http://blog.purephoto.com/?p=2435

Remember that PurePhoto only allows you to comment if you are a member, so make sure you grab a FREE account before you start searching.

Happy Hunting!

The PurePhoto Team

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Clues To Help Your Hunting

Clue #1: MMA and 4897 are in the image but the numbers are more visible.

Clue #2: It was a humid summer night when this photo was taken.

Clue #3: The sum of the numbers is 28. There are at least this many people in the photo, but you can’t see them.

Clue #4: The Emperor would like the title of this image.

For more daily clues, follow @PurePhoto on twitter or Facebook or check out the PurePhoto blog for clue updates.

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Official Contest Rules

A free account is required to enter and no purchase is necessary to win.

Eligibility: Any individual who enters the Contest must be at least eighteen (18) years of age. The Contest is subject to all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations, and is void where prohibited by law. Employees of Sponsors and their immediate families (spouse, parent, sibling, child, and spouse of any of the foregoing) and those living in their immediate households, whether or not related, are not eligible to enter the Contest or to win the prize.

Winner Selection and Announcement: The potential winners will be notified by PurePhoto via e-mail between Monday, April 25, 2011 and Friday, April 29, 2011. The winners will be announced on PurePhoto’s blog no later than five (5) days after the winners are selected.

Additional Prize Conditions: The prize is not transferable, assignable, or redeemable for cash. No cash redemption and no prize substitution are permitted, except by PurePhoto who reserves the right to change or replace the prize with a prize of comparable or greater value at any time.

Taxes and Documentation: All federal, state, and local taxes on the monetary value of the prizes are the sole responsibility of the winners. If necessary, PurePhoto will file a 1099 tax statement with the IRS.

This is a post from one of my favorite blogs, My Modern Met. This is an amazing body of work from Julio Bittencourt. The piece as a whole is stunning and truly reveals itself when you really look closely at each frame. iThe images show every facet of the human condition. In some windows you see love, life and birth and in others you see utter dispair and hopelessness. My favorite is of a small boy looking out the window, full of hope.

I look at thousands of images a week from my own personal research to submissions on PurePhoto. The images that strike me the most have a raw feeling and whether there are people or not, they must evoke a strong primal emotion for me. I am always drawn to images on the outskirts of where human life meets the powerful forces of nature.

911 Prestes Maia, a 22-story tower block in central São Paulo, Brazil, is thought to have been the largest squat in the world. In 2006, the abandoned building was home to an estimated 1,630 people, including 468 families with 315 children.

In 2002, the ‘Movement for the Homeless’ transplanted hundreds of homeless families into the empty building and made the place habitable, even going so far as providing a library, cinema, and workshops. The new residents drove out vermin and drug dealers, all the while cleaning up the place. Then, suddenly in March of 2006, the inhabitants learned that within a month they were going to be evicted.

Julio Bittencourt photographed the diverse occupants at their windows, from which they communicated with one other, recording the happiness and dignity in coexistence with decay and neglect. Since Bittencourt was raised in São Paulo, he became accustomed to people communicating across windows, as family and friends lived on top of and next to each other.

“I think that by choosing windows, and only them, I created a rigorous game that I proposed to myself – to look at windows, from windows,” says Bittencourt. “My intention was to show a symbolic and a physical barrier, the decay of the materials, the dignity of the people who survive behind them, and the decay of a system that doesn’t integrate its inhabitants into society.”

SEE THE MORE OF THE AMAZING IMAGES HERE…

I’d like to introduce you to one of our new artists, Martin Stranka. Martin’s work is stunning by itself and even more so when grouped together as sets. All his work comes in square format so you can build it out for any space. From side by side, to 2-up 2-down, to lining a hallway, there seems to be a flow and nautral energy  that is carried throughout all his work that makes it perfect for any room in the house and any configuration. Pieter Wisse of 500 Photographers had this to say about Martin’s work “The images he makes are poetic and mysterious. They remind us of dark fairy tales or our own personal dreams”

Martin is a self taught photographer from the Czech Republic and has been producing Fine Art for about 6 years now, at age 26 he shows great promise and has already developed a prolific body of work. His work has been shipped to all corners of the earth but has found great success in the US market. His work will spark conversation in any room in the house. Dig deeper into is his work and you will find stories of loss, hope and rebirth. He states that they stem from a dark place in his past but are actually about hope, re-invention and the future. You can see all of his work in his full PurePhoto Collection and purchase prints in 20×20 / 32×32 / 40×40 sizes. If you need custom sizes or need help with grouping pieces together, please contact us for additional information.

Click here for the full story:

I was working on a project with John the other day and while not looking at his screen he started talking about these shots he found that someone took of Van Gogh’s work with a tilt-shift lens. I mentally pictured the horror and dismissed it without even turning my head towards his computer. Finally his excitement got the better of me and in a “Fine, I’ll look at some crappy bastardization of Van Gogh’s work” manner, I looked…and was amazed!

The images really show the depth of Van Gogh’s work. The photographer used a tilt-shift lens to draw the viewers eye to the important parts of the scene. What is really fascinating is the 3-D effect that is created. It feels as though you are standing at the edge of the scene next to Van Gogh as he paints.  I feel that it brings more understanding of his work as well as a new emotional connection to the subjects.

See all of them here: