We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ryan Kynard. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ryan below.
Ryan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Learning how to take photos and learning how to be a PHOTOGRAPHER are two very different things. Learning how to take pictures really just involved going on YouTube to figure out to work my camera and a photography class on what all the settings on my camera do. So, learning how to take a picture was a pretty quick and easy process, plus with these new phones it is so easy to take a good picture. Learning to be a photographer was a whole different journey, and the reason for that being that as a photographer you are not always just the person holding the camera. You become a fashion advisor, creative director, teacher, counselor and really just an all-around hustler. To get to that you first need someone who can help you learn, for me it was three main people, Sage, Michelle and Mark are my three mentors. They taught me all the ins and outs of being a photographer and what that means. People who knew more about the craft and that were actually making a living on it are the ones who taught me and that’s how I got to the place I am at now. If I could go back and do it again, I would have asked for help and knowledge sooner. Instead of learning through trial and error those first couple of years. Honestly though I let my ego take over and kept telling myself “You can just figure it out.” That mentality definitely cost me opportunities in my earlier career, so I would definitely reach out to more people for help. The biggest skill was my communication that propelled me forward. This field, a god portion of it is networking so having good and confident communication skills will open many doors. Communication is how I connected with my mentors after all. The only thing that stood in my way really was my ego and fear. The ego came from not wanting to ask for help and thinking I would figure out everything on my own while the fear came from becoming comfortable in my particular style and not trying to evolve.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My photography journey started early 2012-2013, and the only reason I picked up a camera was to take pictures on family vacation. Mind you at the time I had a little point and shoot camera, so I also wanted a little upgrade. So, I get the camera and I have no idea how to work it, I just pick one of the preset portrait modes, set to JPEG and start going. I got quite a few good shots for the first few months, when suddenly a friend of mine asked me to take some pictures of him and he ended up liking them. He and a few others thought my work was cool, plus at the time my eldest sister was also quite handy with the camera, so I enrolled in a basic photography class. In that class and from Sage I learned the importance of shooting “RAW”, basic photoshop and lightroom applications and got started. My focus is aimed at portraits, one of the main things I offer is training for the models I work with. So that means pose coaching, portfolio building, social media management, contracts and just overall conduct when going to various shots. Custom photography sets as well as hair and makeup are provided at my shoots. The most important thing is a fun and encouraging environment that promotes creativity between the models and the team. Soon, there will also be apparel offer, so definitely getting excited for that.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I think that society needs to understand that us as creatives doing what we love does not mean we do not deserve or want compensation. For instance, a doctor who has dedicated years of their life to learn to save lives, loves doing what they do, but society has no problem paying them for what they do. Teachers have to educate other people’s children all day, love what they do, and also expect to get paid. Nobody questions that, yet when it comes to the dancers, photographers, painters, videographers, models, etc…We also dedicate years of our lives to master our craft, we love what we do, we also provide a service and yet for some reason when we send the invoice everyone gets cross-eyed. However, I would like to stress above all society needs to start treating what we do as creatives as a worthy career, just as worthy as all the others out there. Because honestly without some kind of art what does a society have?
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Something that I never considered on my journey was the possibility of starting over. So fun fact, I am actually studying to be a veterinarian and so last year I had to relocate to East Lansing Michigan from California. Big surprise that I had zero clients when I got here, so reestablishing my presence in another state was very challenging. You know the type of clientele you get in Michigan is not the same as Cali, both in style and volume. So, learning different ways to market myself became extremely important. I also had to expand my level of creativity, not to say that my style wasn’t good, but again I had become comfortable, so it limited what I believed myself to be capable of. Once I let those guards down, my business as a whole saw a tremendous increase in interaction and in bookings.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.kynardmedia.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/kynardmedia
- Facebook: kynardmedia
- Twitter: kynardmedia
- Other: Vero: shotbykynard
Image Credits
Rimia Grant : @rimia3_g Thegetoffsession: @_thegetoff_ Cocoa: cocobunnyxo_ cocoslabxo_ July: @julyailyn Jordan: @magicc.jordan Christina: @christina4v_