Flickr: Ryan Watkins Photography

Biography

I’m an eighteen year old up and coming photographer and high school senior from the small town of Clare, Michigan. I’ve been published in Shutterbug Magazine, Nature’s Best Photography Magazine, Audubon Magazine, Digital Photo Magazine, and The World of Photography Bookazine Volumes One and Two all prior to turning eighteen years old. I’ve been featured in Clare, Michigan’s professional student run 515 Art Gallery twice. I’m also a writer for the Nature’s Best Photography Students blog and have been featured as one of phototechmag.com’s Underexposed Emerging Photographers.

My love of photography began when I started experimenting in Adobe Photoshop and taking mediocre images with my mom’s Kodak Easyshare camera in eighth grade. I loved attempting to create stunning imagery and started entering online photography contests while saving up for better photographic equipment. I eventually purchased a Nikon D40, attended a workshop form a local photographer, and started taking images for various programs at my church during my freshman year of high school which helped be grow in knowledge of the art form. I started to shoot almost exclusively in all manual settings (focus, exposure, etc…) usually with a fixed focal length lens to teach myself the technical side of photography. I also started reading photography magazines and books relentlessly. I knew photography was what I wanted to due for a career after taking what I consider to be my first “good image” of a baby raccoon at Dow Gardens in late July 2009. Since then I’ve continued to shoot a wide variety of subjects including weddings, events, wildlife, landscapes, and portraits. In my junior year of high school I would achieve my first five magazine publications and my first cover. I’m a devoted Christian and many of my published images have been ones I’ve originally shot for my church. I feel as if this is what the Lord put me on earth to do, but I have yet to fulfill my duties.

Starting in September 2012 I’m going to attend The Hallmark Institute of Photography – one of the best and most prestigious photography schools in the country – which is located in Turner’s Falls, Massachusetts. I hope to eventually start a portrait studio in Calgary, Alberta, Canada so I can shoot the subject I most passionate about: the mountains.

Besides photography I also enjoy eating incredibly spicy food and listening to progressive rock and metal music from bands like Dream Theater, Yes, Opeth, Rush, Queensryche, and Pink Floyd.

CV

November 2011 – Images featured in the British Bookazine The World of Photography: Volume Two

May 2011 – Image featured in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Nature’s Best Photography Magazine.

May 2011 – Image Parallels of Pandemonium featured in 515 Gallery’s “Students to Watch Show.”

March 2011 – Image featured in the March/April Issue of Digital Photo Magazine.

February 2011: Featured in the professional 515 Art Gallery amongst outstanding local artists including Armin Mersmann, Larry Butcher, Kathleen Sulivan, Rodger Chase, and others. For more information on the 515 Gallery and our current show visit 515gallery.org

February 2011: Shutterbug Magazine Cover included in Fox 32 News story about the 515 Gallery (View Video).

February 2011: Featured on the Cover of Shutterbug Magazine (Contact Shutterbug Here to Order Back Issue of Magazine).

January 2011: Received 2nd Place in Audubon Birds in Focus Youth Photography Contest; also had 2nd place image featured in the January/February issue of Audubon Magazine (View Article Here).

November 2010: Six images featured in the British Bookazine The World of Photography: Volume One.

October 2010: Featured on phototechmag.com as one of their Underexposed: Emerging Photographers (View Webpage).