DWF – Let’s start off with a little bio, tell us a little bit about yourself.
RYAN -I think DWF’ers tend to fall into that strange category of “huge geeks with great people skills,” and I’m no exception. Before I became a photographer, I wanted my tombstone to read: “He really knew how to dance.” Now I want it to read: “He really knew how to dance, and he took some photos, too.”
I shoot quite a lot more than 60 weddings this year, a vast majority of them more than 10 hours and most of them including engagement shoots. Along the way I do corporate and editorial photography, and have been lucky enough to cover subjects ranging from three U.S. presidents and Muhammad Ali to a 110-year-old woman who retired in 1945.
I am also the official photography columnist for Amazon.com at the home of their blog, End User (enduserblog.com)
I’m 30, but people tell me I look younger. This is because they don’t see me before coffee. No one sees me before coffee..
DWF – How did you become a photographer?
RYAN - I started out mostly on the writing side of journalism, as the editor-in-chief of my college paper, and ran an upstate weekly paper shortly after graduating. When you work on a small paper, you tend to do everything, including photography. I was picked to cover President Clinton as the pool photographer for a week, and with far more tenacity and guile than skill I won the paper a statewide photography award. That was about when I figured “I should probably learn how this camera actually works.”
In 2004, I became a photographer and writer for Columbia University Teachers College, which taught me countless valuable skills like how to make people sitting at a table or speaking at a lectern look interesting enough to run in a magazine, or how to get 50 good shots of people at a luncheon without photographing people eating. It was like event photography boot camp.
When I was finally convinced I had the skills to cover weddings without ruining someone’s day, I asked around to local photographers about assisting for a while, and was summarily rejected by each (thanks guys!), so I just started taking my own jobs as a primary. It’s been a whirlwind ever since.
DWF- Who or what inspires you as an artist?
RYAN - On the wedding day, I’m almost never thinking about anyone’s work, although all of the photos I’ve seen flood my unconscious mind. I’m simply out to try to make each wedding the best one I’ve ever shot, which has the interesting effect of guaranteeing my career will only get harder and harder. But there are so many photographers whose work amazes me. I was lucky to have a long, very candid talk with A-list editorial shooter Phil Toledano when I was just starting out in the business, and it has affected my attitude in many ways. Similarly, former LIFE photo editor Tracy Doyle Bales was an early mentor, and I remember that the highest praise she would ever give a photographer is “He’s always working! You can NEVER get that guy on the phone!” This has, no doubt, been one of the causes for my frenetic schedule.
On the wedding side, the first time I saw Ben Chrisman’s work I had the conflicting feelings of wanting to shoot a wedding right then and there and also throw my cameras away. As a geek, I love that I can look at Jeff Newsom’s work and say “How the heck did he do that?” But the list of photographers who have inspired me is impossibly long. You all rock.
DWF- If we needed a photographer today why would we book you? What makes you unique?
RYAN - On the uniqueness front, I guess it helps that I invented (or at least re-invented and systematized) a new photographic trick. It’s complicated, but you can google “Brenizer method” and give it a whirl (For the record, I wasn’t the one who started calling it that until the name already stuck)
But I think David Hobby, (Mr. Strobist), really nailed what makes me tick: He called me a “moment junkie.” That’s it. I love doing creative portraits and always pushing the envelope for myself, but at the end of the day what keeps me going is trying to tell the story of a wedding in a very broad way, to capture moments that don’t just look cool but really reflect the personalities and spirit of the people in them. If I can take photos that make people say “Oh, that’s SO my Dad,” or “that’s SO my crazy uncle,” then I have provided a personal value to the client well beyond the photo’s inherent beauty.
DWF- If you had to pick a favorite “Tool of the Trade” what would it be? and why?
RYAN -I have used my Nikon D3 so much that all of the rubber and most of the paint has come off. It looks kind of like The Terminator.
DWF – Care to share your favorite photographs?
RYAN -
This is an important photo to me for a few reasons. First, the couple are friends of mine. Second, this was actually the bench where they were engaged. Third, I took it with my crazy “Brenizer method,” and I think that enhanced the image.
One of the things I love doing is taking adversity and turning it into opportunity — it makes me feel like MacGyver. This wall was one of the brightest places I had ever seen, sunlight shining everywhere, completely dominating speedlights. So I just went with it.
This one shows my sense of humor. I was showing my portfolio to Lynn Michelle at DWF Phoenix, and someone said over my shoulder “Now THAT’S a funny photo.” I turned to see the interloper & and that’s how I met Jerry Ghionis.
OK, not a wedding photo, but one of the best nights of my life. I was selected to be the ONLY photographer on the floor of the last time Barack Obama and John McCain would meet before the election. I wore a tuxedo and I was still underdressed.
(see the gallery below for larger version)
DWF – How about some final words to live by?
RYAN- I was never one for quotes until I read (frequently quoted at weddings) Kahlil Gibran’s “Work is Love Made Visible.” How perfect is that for what we do? In the obvious sense that we capture moments of love, of course, but also that this is a business you can’t do well unless you love it and, in some way, love the people in front of your lens.
Location – Upper East Side, New York City
Business Name – Ryan Brenizer Photography
Websites - www.ryanbrenizer.com
Blog - www.ryanbrenizer.com/blog
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9 Comments at "NYC Wedding Photographer Blogger Ryan Brenizer"
A friend just came back from a wedding in NY and emailed me the password to the wedding photographs…. WOW! The bride was a dancer with the perfect dress for high kicks and Ryan nailed her essence. There were pics of the couple with a reflection in the window of the taxi, just beautiful. All the images were great, in focus and the picture of my friend… it was her all over. Great work. Very inspiring.
[...] The Digital Wedding Forum has featured my work as a photographer! This is a huge honor for me, as previous subjects have included world-renowned photographers such as Cliff Mautner and Susan Stripling. Very cool! The DWF is a great forum for photographers, and I’m really looking forward to the Nashville convention in January. [...]
[...] Read the original: DWF » Blog Archive » NYC Wedding Photographer Blogger Ryan Brenizer [...]
Thanks for highlighting Ryan’s work, he is one of my top 3 favorite photographers in the world and I really dig the attitude behind what he does as well. A cool guy w/ a great body of work!
We often talk about heroes. Ryan is one of mine. Not the superhero kind, but a guy I like and would like to meet. I’ve heard he walks on water and pwns dancefloors wherever he goes. Who wouldn’t like a guy like that?
Ryan is such a powerhouse (and to boot a great online mentor to many) that I can last a 12 hour wedding shoot just on the vapours of the notion that he’d eat up a handful of such gigs back to back.
These are some cracking photos!
Ryan is a very talented photographer. Now I am intrigued to learn more about his dancing skills.
[...] that I’ve never submitted my work to a single publication — probably what led to the DWF feature on me last month hailing me as a “hidden treasure.” Given that, it’s always exciting when someone [...]
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