It was such a fantastic day. We had 12 wonderful photographers in attendance, we got to work with some of the very best wedding and event vendors in town, and we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect wedding couple to photograph. The gusting wind even decided to stop JUST when we needed it to! It was crazy.

I’m going to stop blabbing so you can have a look at some shots from the day!

Here’s the “Getting Ready” portion of the day. Check out all the incredible details!

Ladybird Bridal provided some mind blowing pieces of jewellery, that cool hand bag, as well as that lovely birdcage vail that Anna is wearing.

Amie and Katrina were kind enough to come and do hair and make up. They did such a fabulous job and we absolutely recommend them to anyone looking for a great stylist/makeup artist duo!

Unbelievable scenery.

As you’ve seen from Anna and Jeremy’s Newly-wed session, they can rock the camera! We immediately called them when looking for our wedding day couple…because awesomeness just comes naturally for them. It’s true, we have proof!

Just look at this tablescape. Perfecto! Julianne from A Modern Proposal blew us away with this incredible creation. Akiko Florals provided the fresh flowers, Pink Polka provided the stationary and Special Event Rentals provided the table and chairs. Add to that the stunning Edmonton river valley and you’ve got literally the best looking tablescape set up that I have ever seen. And we were the ones who got to photograph it! Bonus!

Here’s a quick “family portrait” with all the great workshop attendees! Because you can’t just have two people in a family portrait right? Unfortunately we were behind the lens (as per usual)

As part of the workshop, we’d showed the class how we use onOne’s Perfect Photo Suite to give our images that extra spice. This is a screen shot of the current version of PhotoTools that includes heaps of incredible effects and looks that can take your photos to the next level. Every single photo you’ve ever seen on this blog has graced the steps of this fine house of photo effect goodness!

So naturally we were extremely excited when the folks at onOne sent us a full version of their current Photo Suite AND an upgrade key to the soon-to-be-released Photo Suite 6 (that comes out later this month) to GIVE AWAY to one of our lucky attendees!! A big congratulations to Lex for being the big winner! Here’s a little taste of what the new suite looks like… we can’t wait! Check out the onOne web site to find out more.

Once again, we want to send out a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped make this workshop possible. We couldn’t have done it without you!

If you’d like to keep up to date on posts and future workshop announcements, be sure to subscribe at the top of the page and “Like” us on Facebook!

We can’t wait to meet everyone!

There’s not much that excites us more than sharing what we know with people who want to take their photography to the next level, which is why we put together a Beginner Photography Course. This is a class for people who just moved up from the land of point and shoot cameras and into the magical world of DSLR cameras (the ones that have interchangeable lenses) or any camera that let’s YOU control the shot.

When we put these classes on, our only form of advertising is usually Facebook, word of mouth and of course this blog, but THIS time, GROUPON has decided to feature our class this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Thats means there will be around 600,000 Groupon emails going out to people in the Edmonton area over three days. Crazy. So what does this mean for you?

Well, normally the class costs $350 per person, but because of the large audience that Groupon provides, we’re able to drop the price down to $79! If you’re not signed up with Groupon, nows the time! Click HERE to sign up.

So here’s a little FAQ:

Who is this class for?
This class is for people who want to capture the world around them in a beautiful, striking and creative way using their digital cameras.

What will I learn?
The four key elements of creating great, meaningful photographs
1. being there and being ready
2. seeing the light (how your camera sees it)
3. knowing your gear (which includes learning how to choose the right equipment)
4. post processing like a pro (how to take a good photo and make it incredible!)

The great thing about this class is that what we are teaching will be very useful information to both beginners as well as more advanced shooters. Everything that we are teaching came from our own experience as professional photographers a well as from what we’ve picked up in the classes we’ve attended over the years, hosted by some of the best photographers in the world. So there’s lots to learn for everyone!

We’ll be covering all these topics both in the classroom as well as out in the incredibly photogenic area of Jasper Ave!

What do I need to bring?
- a digital camera that has the ability to be fully controlled by the photographer – This includes all DSLR cameras (the ones with interchangeable lenses) and any digital camera with a full manual control setting.
- your cameras owners manual – this isn’t an absolute necessity, but it may come in handy!
- any lenses or flashes that you’d like to use though out the class
- a note pad and pen (or a laptop if you’re feeling fancy, but keep in mind that we’ll be heading outside for a portion of the class)

Where and when?
We’re REALLY excited about the location we were able to get for this class! It will be held in the lower section of the brand new Transcend Coffee on Jasper Ave (10349 Jasper Avenue Edmonton, AB T5J 1Y5). So when you walk in, just stroll right on through the main seating area(after you grab an INCREDIBLE cup of coffee of course) and go down the set of stairs.

Right now we have two days booked with 3 classes on each day to choose from. If more than 120 people buy the Groupon, we’ll be opening up more dates to accommodate everyone!

The dates and times are:

Saturday May 21st 2011
1st class > 9:30am – 11:30am ***FULLY BOOKED***
2nd class > 12:00pm – 2:00pm ***2 Spots left***
3rd class > 2:30pm – 4:30pm ***3 Spots left***

Saturday May 28th, 2011
1st class >  9:30am – 11:30am ***FULLY BOOKED***
2nd class > 12:00pm – 2:00pm *** FULLY BOOKED***
3rd class > 2:30pm – 4:30pm *** FULLY BOOKED***

NEW DATE JUST ADDED
Saturday June 4th, 2011
1st class > 9:30am – 11:30am ***One Spot left***
2nd class > 12:00pm – 2:00pm
3rd class > 2:30pm – 4:30pm

Okay, so this all sounds great! How do we sign up?

1. Sign up with Groupon (Click HERE) to receive an email with our featured photography class “deal of the day”. You’ll want to sign up today so that you’ll get access to the deal ASAP! It costs nothing to sign up and it’s an awesome service that puts a new great deal like this one in your inbox everyday! We use Groupon ALL the time.

2. Purchase the photography class deal

3. Send us an email using our contact form (above) or give us a call to reserve your spot!

That’s it, you’re in!

If you have any questions at all, feel free to use our contact form and we’ll get right back to you.

We’re looking forward to seeing all of you there!

Ryan + Beth

2010. If there was one word I would use to describe the previous year that so quickly rushed past, it would be…

Clarity

I’ll explain in a minute.

Here’s a little “Best-Of” slideshow from some of the incredible weddings we shot in the last 12 months. We tried to keep it small but… you might want to grab some popcorn (104 images). It kind of follows the order of a wedding, starting with some cool detail shots, photos of some spectacular brides on one of the biggest days of their lives, followed by the guys, ceremony, formals and into some sweet reception details, dancing and fun!

There you have it! If you made it all the way though, I give you a big virtual pat on the back

So why a word like “clarity”? What was so crystal clear about 2010?

Well, you know those moments in your life when you decided to start a journey, one where you had no idea what the outcome might be? A journey that you knew would require a massive amount of hard work and yet still may not yield the fruits of your labor ( I never thought I’d have the chance to use “fruits of your labor” in a sentence on this blog! Or anywhere…). Well that was the kind of journey Beth and I embarked on two and a half years ago when we said ciao to our “pay-the-bills day jobs” and took our photography studio on as our full time occupations (with a newborn baby and lots of bills to pay).

We started the business because we really enjoy photography (that’s a given), we’re driven to be creative, and we love a challenge. But there was never that feeling of knowing exactly why we went down the road we did, no solid purpose that would tie everything together had presented itself until a few months back.

I think we’re all well aware that there’s a lot of people on this planet who could use a helping hand. Whether the need is for clean drinking water, for school supplies (or just having a school at all) or for people to step up and fight human trafficking. The urgent need for assistance and relief has never been greater. We want to get involved.

To try and make this long story as short as possible, Beth and myself have always felt as though international relief work was somewhat of a calling for us, and now we see that becoming professional photographers has not only equipped us to effectively and artistically tell the stories of people here in North America, but to hopefully use those same skills to bring awareness to needs around the globe. We want to show people just what these awesome relief organizations are doing out in the field.

Without some kind of visual feedback for an extremely media centred society like North America (visual media centred especially), it can be difficult to connect the dots between giving $50 and saving lives. We want to connect the people in need with the people who want to help. That’s the idea anyway and we would love to see it happen.

Where will all this lead our little family of four? Who knows. The start of this new trail has become crystal clear, but the rest of the path is still pretty foggy. I think we’re getting used to that though

—————-

We are really looking forward to 2011 and all the exciting things it’s sure to bring! We’ll be sharing all the weddings, portrait shoots and photographer tips right here on this blog site, so stay tuned.

Here’s to 2011!

After many months of waiting and a couple of false alarms, Tom Kelly was born in the wee hours of the morning on December 12th 2010. It was an incredible journey for all of us and we’re so thankful everything went as smoothly as it did! The last 3 weeks have been great (despite the lack of sleep…but that was to be expected haha) and we’ve had a huge amount of support from our family. Casey has been an awesome big brother and he loves helping out with everything he possibly can, which for a 2 year old is pretty sweet. I know there’s a lot of people waiting to finally see some photos of the little guy, so I put together a quick video with some stills added into the mix. Enjoy!

Tom’s Big Day from Ryan + Beth Photographers on Vimeo.

Well, it’s November 1st and the official start date for Movember! What’s Movember you ask? Well Movember is a month long fund raising and dialog spreading event geared towards putting a stop to prostate cancer. While most organizations have a coloured ribbon as the symbol of their cause, Movembers symbol is a moustache…. a moustache that has to be grown, not pinned on. “Mo Bro’s”  all over the world are now growing a moustache and garnering the encouragement and donations of awesome sponsors (like you!), sponsors who will help rid the world of prostate cancer. One out of every six guys on the planet will have to fight prostate cancer in their lifetime, which is a pretty scary thought.

Now’s your chance to do something about it!

So today I’m starting off my month long journey to true moustache manhood (does that sound weird??) and hopefully by the end of the month I’ll be giving the Super Troopers moustaches a run for their money!

We want you all to donate to this worthwhile cause, so we’re going to do something a little extra for you

For every $10 you donate towards fighting prostate cancer, you’ll get one entry in a draw for a portrait session with Beth and myself! So let’s say you donate $50, that gets you FIVE chances to win a portrait session package worth over $400!!!

The package includes a super fun portrait session at a location of your choice in the Edmonton area, a disc of high resolution and low resolution photos on DVD, an incredible viewing and print ordering website for your family and friends, and an $80 print credit!

Pretty sweet deal hey? Support a good cause, laugh at me ..err with me, while I attempt to grow a moustache AND have a really good chance to win a $400 portrait session! Not bad

Click HERE to donate now!

We’ll make the draw for the winner on December 2nd. We’ll keep you updated on my um, progress through out the month!

If the hyperlink above doesn’t work for some reason, here’s the URL to make your donation

http://ca.movember.com/mospace/830864/

Thanks so much everyone!

Here’s photo number one of the month! No sign of Mo yet.

If you’d like to be an official Mo Bro or if you’d like to learn more about Movember and the fight against prostate cancer, visit http://ca.movember.com/

So incase you were wondering about the moustaches, Movember’s thing is to encourage all the guys out there to grow big luscious moustaches (or Mo’s) for the month of November and get sponsors to donate money towards prostate cancer research. You better look out because yours truly (as in Ryan…not Beth) will be growing what I hope will resemble a moustache in support of this cause!

For those who were there (heck even if you weren’t) you can click HERE to view and order all the photo’s from the night! 100% of the proceeds will go towards prostate cancer research.

See you there!

Here’s the link for the Expo website http://www.lovestoryexpo.com/

Sitting at my Grandparents house, I used to love looking through all the old photos and albums. My family history was right there in front of me, in the photo albums and on the walls, proudly displayed. I’m so looking forward to showing our son Casey these family heirlooms along with our own family story. I wonder though, when Casey grows up and has a family someday, will he be able to do the same? I hope so. Beth and I have made it a huge priority for our family and the couples that we work with to create new family heirlooms that will last for generations. This incredible album from Leather Craftsmen is a great example of that.

This photo puts a smile on my face EVERY time! This album is so perfect.

On this inside front and back covers it’s lined with stunning “Teal Cork” and the Ryan + Beth stamp of approval.

These albums have a lifetime craftsmanship guarantee.

Being two years old…right now Casey is just happy with the bubble wrap

Here’s the specs for the album: 12″x12″, 66 pages, “Thin White Pages”, covered with Marine Japanese Book Cloth, Teal Cork end sheets, a 4″x6″ inset cover photo, and black “Modern” imprinting on the cover and spine. Whew! Leather Craftsmen was so great through the entire ordering process and we can’t thank them enough for all their hard work and attention to detail.

If you’d like to see this or any other of our albums just let us know, we’d love to show you!

“Keep the main thing the main thing”

So what the heck does that mean? What is the “main thing”? It’s different for everybody. Basically it’s the reason you do what you do, and for me it’s Beth and Casey. Somedays I just can’t believe how incredibly blessed I am to have them in my life.
On January 2, 2009 when we decided to take on our photography business full time, we entered into a world where Beth and I worked and lived side by side  24 hours a day, 7 days a week. If you ever wanted a way to test your marriages strength, this would be the way to do it! I’m glad to say we made it out on the other side of this past year with our marriage fully intact and better then ever. It wasn’t without it’s challenges of course, but by working through them together, it’s fortified our commitment and love for each other, and I’m so grateful for that.

Beth astounds and inspires me to no end. Taking on the roll of a full time mother, a full time wife, a full time photographer and a full time business woman all within the last two years. She’s incredible. And Casey…what can I say about Casey That little guy has taught me more about life(and about myself) then I ever thought possible. They’re the two most important people in my life and I’d do anything for them. So why would “Keep the main thing the main thing” hit me with such strength when it should be a no-brainer? I guess it comes down to “life” getting in the way, getting caught up in things not worth getting caught up in. Starting this new year I’m so excited to see what it will hold in store, but whether good or bad I’m going try my hardest to keep my main thing my main thing.

I thought I’d post this little video I made last summer of Beth and Casey. It was my first go at making a video with our 5D Mark II and I had no intention at the time of posting it on our blog, but I thought it was perfect for this post.

The Main Thing: Beth and Casey from Ryan + Beth Photographers on Vimeo.