We were lucky to catch up with Michael Ryno recently and have shared our conversation below.
Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I purchased my first camera in February, 2016 and the following week attended a Lone Tree Photo Club meeting to learn photography, My involvement with various photography clubs and organizations have been extremely beneficial in improving my skills. I was President of Lone Tree Photo Club in 2020, and have been President of Professional Photographers of Colorado from 2022 to present. With photography, it is important to capture creative and unique compositions when the light is optimal.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I became interested in photography as a hobby when I purchased my first camera in 2016 when I had a career as a Corporate Banking Portfolio Manager, I retired from the banking career in 2021 so that I could allocate more time to photography and serve as President of Professional Photographers of Colorado. While most of my photography during the first few years was landscapes, nature and wildlife, I have branched out into photographing people over these past three years following a wonderful family portraiture workshop I attended.
As my portrait photography skills improved while attending several classes, I have become much more confident when photographing clients for headshots, portraits, high school seniors and weddings. I enjoy the challenges of determining the proper lighting and poses when photographing people, while striving to capture their personalities and positive expressions.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a professional photographer is the compliments I receive when they view the images I captured of them. While it is always exciting to win physical awards and recognition at image competitions, the greater satisfaction comes from the positive feedback and excitement shared by clients.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Social media has provided a great platform to share my images and grow my audience. I have been actively posting images to Facebook and Instagram since 2016 when I began my photography journey. I have recently added separate social media accounts for my portrait photography images. Interestingly, my most popular social media post has developed over the past two weeks after I captured a short video of a mountain goat dancing on a Subaru in the mountains of Colorado. The video received over 2.2 million views on Instagram, which allowed me to be featured on news stations locally and throughout the US. I had the opportunity to be interviewed by three of the networks that were interested in “behind the scenes” commentary, which has helped to extend my reach.
Link to the Video: https://www.instagram.com/p/C9SnVi9s78R/
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rynoportraits.squarespace.com https://www.michaelrynophotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mnryno/ https://www.instagram.com/rynoportraits/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michael.ryno.9
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-ryno-baa075b
- Twitter: https://x.com/mnryno34
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWQe0cqQknYVHN-C__q0WHQ
Image Credits
N/A