portraits Archives - Page 2 of 2 - New Jersey, Philadelphia, NYC Personal Branding, Commercial and Editorial Photographer

Studio Portraits Of My Friend Roseanne

March 7, 2016/2 Comments/in Editorial, Headshots, personal, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan

My dear friend Roseanne has just opened her Pilates Fusion and Barre Fitness Studio here in Bordentown, NJ and I couldn’t be more proud of her! This tiny powerhouse, former ballerina, mother of three beautiful girls, juggles a full time job, teaches Pilates both as a group class and in private homes, and is a weightlifter who holds the record for bench press at 105 lbs! She won the First Place trophy for the World Natural Powerlifting Federation(WNPF). But something tells me that she can do much more than that 😉

The above and below images are used with the permission of Rosanne Joy.

So I asked if she could help me test out some lighting that I wanted to try out and she said sure! Her youngest came along, and it was perfect because my 9 year old and she could play upstairs together. We had such a good time, just the two of us, and the images of her turned out beautiful! But of course that’s mainly because she’s in them 🙂

Thank you so much to my beautiful friend! These were what I was looking for and more! I can’t wait for our next project together! Congratulations on your studio!

And thanks to my loving husband, David, who took this image after we shooed him away. As you can see, space is tight in our basement. It’s our family room, my office, and our daughter’s play area. I used one Dynalite strobe with a 46″ Photek Softlighter II Umbrella on it with a double sided 5’x7′ Savage popup black/white background. I also had a Savage 5 in 1 Reflector out to help modify the light a bit, that’s what the extra empty stand with the reflector clamps is there for. I tethered my Canon Mark 5D III to my Macbook Pro and used the Canon EF 85mm f1.8 lens.

A Printed Portrait Speaks Volumes To Those In Need

December 8, 2015/0 Comments/in Families and Children, personal, Portraits, Volunteering /by Deirdre Ryan

Over the weekend I had the honor to volunteer at Chosen 300, at their soup kitchen on Spring Garden in Center City Philadelphia, PA. The event was for Help-Portrait, is about giving people who otherwise couldn’t afford photography a portrait, a print to take home with them. This event happens once a year in December, a global event, put together by photographers, makeup artists, hair stylists, and countless volunteers and donations. I had heard about this a while ago and I could finally make it this year.

My husband was able to join me, so we drove into the city from NJ. We met in Center City and lived on 15th and Locust, so coming into Philly is like home to us.

When we first arrived, we cleared out the tables and chairs to set up our photo stations. People donated their photo printers, snacks for us to eat, and many of us(myself included) brought in frames to put the printed images into. Then once we set up, we all tested our lights on each other.

Photo by Kristina White.

This is me being shot by Jaleel King, photo by Kristina White.

This gentleman was my first client, and he was a HUGE Cowboys football fan in Eagles country!

We had to have some fun by putting some Eagles in the photo, and of course, The Eagles won the very next day!

Here he is with the photograph in the frame that I took and he chose. Looks great! Photo by Kristina White.

This gentleman had never had a portrait of himself wearing a suit other than the uniform he wore when he was shipped out to Vietnam.

Photo by Kristina White.

This is me with my client with the image he chose in a frame. Photo by David W. Ryan.

In between clients, I got some quick shots of some behind the scenes.

This is Jaleel King showing his client the portrait he just took on the back of his camera.

Makeup artist Niki Brennan making a mother of two feel very pretty.

Cathie Berrey-Green of BG Productions working her fun station to making the kids and mom have great portraits.

When Carrie showed the mother the printed portraits, she cried, because she loved them so much. We all were crying, it was very emotional, that is why we do this.

This spunky little 3 year old young lady was such a treat! She was a little shy at first, but I got her to warm up to me.

Especially after asking if I had stinky feet, and she said yes! Then I asked if her grandmother had stinky feet, and she said, yes! I got her giggling lol

This young man was quite and reserved, but I could tell that he loved to be outgoing and friendly.

He was 6’7 and I’m 5’0, I tried a few with him standing but I preferred the ones I showed here. Photo by Kristina White.

This gentleman was also 6’7, so I had him sitting down too. He lost everything he had to a house fire, including family pictures.

I had a quick moment so I shot this portrait of one of the photographers who was there.

At the end of the day, we all got together to take a group photo. Photo by Kevin High. I am so happy that I could participate for this worthy cause to give back, make new friends, and meet new people. Plus, we were able to get back home in time to see our little girl play in her first basketball game of the season, and her team WON!

Thank you everyone!!!!

Graceful Beauty

November 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Fashion Photography, personal, Portraits /by Deirdre Ryan Commercial Photography

I had a former ballerina model for me in Los Angeles and what you can’t see is the fun we had with a hair and makeup artist. Laughing between takes, she was a natural, with a few directions from me. What transpired is what you see below, beautiful, black and white photographs.